The Summer Wedding (Married in Malibu, Book 2)
Page 1
The Summer Wedding
Married in Malibu
Book 2
Lucy Kevin
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
About the Book
Note from Lucy
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Epilogue
Lucy Kevin Booklist
About the Author
THE SUMMER WEDDING
Married in Malibu, Book #2
© 2017 Lucy Kevin
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www.LucyKevin.com
Jenn Fairhurst wants the Married in Malibu wedding cakes to be legendary. Her job baking sweet treats at the boutique Southern California wedding venue means everything to her. Even if she’s not sure that she’ll ever be able to love—or trust—a man again after going through a terrible divorce.
Daniel Brooker is an award-winning photojournalist who gave up his globetrotting career to become a wedding photographer after his wife passed away, leaving him as the sole parent to his son and daughter. After such a tragic loss, he never thought he’d be able to love again. Until he met Jenn.
Soon, Daniel is falling head over heels for Jenn and wants to show her what true love really is. But just when it looks like she might finally be ready to give love another try, her past comes back to haunt her. Will she be able to risk her heart again?
Note from Lucy
I absolutely love stories of second chances. Jenn and Daniel both have so much love to give—they’ve simply been waiting for the right person to give it to. This is something neither of them truly believed would happen…
But then, they met each other.
I hope you fall head over heels for their romantic and emotional story. I’m having so much fun writing this spinoff series from my Four Weddings and a Fiasco series, and I hope you love everyone at Married in Malibu as much as I do!
Please sign up for my New Release Newsletter at www.LucyKevin.com/Newsletter so that I can let you know when the next story in this fun and romantic new series is released.
Happy reading,
Lucy Kevin
Chapter One
The sun was starting to dip behind the ocean as Jenn Fairhurst put the last of the cakes into the oven to bake, then grabbed a piping bag to apply tiny rosettes of frosting to a lemon and raspberry cake. She’d been inside Married in Malibu’s kitchen since dawn, and her T-shirt was dusted with flour, her jeans smudged with streaks of chocolate.
“Everything is looking—and smelling—really good in here,” Daniel Brooker, Married in Malibu’s photographer, said from the doorway. “Greta Sanserre is going to be blown away tomorrow when she comes to check us out for her wedding.”
“I sure hope so,” Jenn said with a smile. With a Golden Globe award and several recent blockbuster movies, Greta Sanserre was a very big deal. It would be a huge coup to book her wedding.
Jenn had always loved baking, but it had only been a hobby until she’d taken the job at the boutique wedding venue a month ago. She owed Rose and RJ, the owners, and her boss, Liz, everything for taking a chance on her. The very last thing she wanted to do was disappoint anyone here—she’d work until the sun came up again to prepare for tomorrow’s meeting if that’s what it took to create wedding cake magic.
“Is it all right if I take some shots of your cakes for the website and brochures?” Daniel asked.
“They’re only test cakes.” If she had been baking professionally for more than just the past few years, maybe she wouldn’t be so nervous about the quality of her cakes. “And I’m not done decorating them yet.”
“Actually,” he said in his deep, steady voice that always made her feel warm and comforted, “it would be even better if I could get some shots of you in action putting on the finishing touches. Will that work?”
Though her heart beat faster at the mere thought of Daniel watching her through his lens, she said, “Okay. Just as long as you don’t leave any fingerprints in the frosting. Otherwise,” she teased, “there will be no more cupcakes for you.”
Daniel often stopped by the kitchen throughout the workday, and she’d quickly learned that he had a particular fondness for her chocolate cupcakes. The time he spent hanging out in her kitchen made her feel like she was a part of the group, rather than shut away in her own little domain.
He moved into the kitchen with his cameras, flashgun, light meter, and tripod, promising, “You’ll hardly know I’m here.”
Jenn wasn’t sure that was possible, given that whenever Daniel was nearby, she found it hard not to notice his presence. He was far too alive and animated to simply fade into the background, his eyes bright and intelligent as he looked at the world in ways other people couldn’t.
He was at least six feet tall with rangy muscles beneath his clothes, and though he shot weddings for a living now, he still dressed like a photojournalist in shirts and pants that had plenty of pockets for spare camera equipment. He also had two really cute kids. Jenn had met them only briefly after Liz and Jason’s wedding on the beach, but from what she could see, Kayla and Adam seemed like happy, well-brought-up children. It didn’t hurt that, just like their father, they both loved her cupcakes.
Tonight, though Jenn was intent on making her cakes as perfect as she possibly could, it was nice to have a friend share her space. And as she moved from the refrigerator to the workbenches to the ovens, while he grabbed shots from every angle, it almost felt as though they were doing a special dance together.
Normally, she would have been working alone by this hour. Just her and the last batch of frosting. Actually, if she was already at that stage…
She looked around the kitchen, surprised to see how close she was to being done.
“Looks like you’re not far off,” Daniel said, echoing her thoughts. He held out his camera. “Take a look.”
Jenn knew how much it meant that he was allowing her to look at his work in its raw, pre-edited form. She would have been worried about letting anyone taste her cakes before they were ready. After brushing the flour off of her hands so that she wouldn’t damage his expensive digital camera, she took it from him to look at the photos.
“Wow.” Her cakes seemed to shine and shimmer on the screen. She’d never thought anything she made could look that good. It had struck her more than once during the past month that Daniel took pictures as naturally as breathing, effortlessly documenting beautiful moments so that people could pin their happy memories in place forever. “You’ve made my cakes look like they’re something out of a fairy tale,” she said as she gave the camera back.
“You’re the one who’s done that, actually.”
She was staring into his deep-blue eyes—and he was staring right back—when the oven timer went off. Working to act like her flushed cheeks were simply a result of working in a hot kitchen, she hurried to take the cake out and place it on a cooling rack on the counter. This last cake was about simplicity and elegance, a short culinary sprint to the finish line. She washed her bowls and pans while it cooled, then applied a layer of marzipan and a few smooth sweeps of frosting.
“I’m done,” she said at last.
Suddenly exhauste
d, she sat down at the counter. Daniel sat beside her, offering her a bag of trail mix, which she munched gratefully. She hadn’t realized how hungry she was until now. When she looked at her cakes laid out across the stainless-steel counters, relief swept over her.
“I can’t believe they turned out so well.”
“Why not? Your cakes are always beautiful.” Daniel got up to take another few shots. “Although I have to admit that this time you’ve gone above and beyond. All this, and it’s not even for the actual wedding, just the first meeting before she’s even booked with us. You must be a big Greta Sanserre fan.”
“Who isn’t?”
It was so easy to feel comfortable around Daniel. Yet at the same time, comfortable wasn’t really the right word for it. She could have sworn there had been sparks flying between them when she’d been staring into his eyes and he’d been looking back at her like he wanted to kiss—
No. She couldn’t think like that. She and Daniel were simply co-workers and friends. Nothing more than that.
They couldn’t be.
“What is it that’s made you such a fan?” Daniel asked.
It took her a moment to realize that he was talking about Greta Sanserre, not about her feelings for him. Another time, she might have said something about how much she enjoyed Greta’s movies or the causes the actress was involved in. Tonight, however, Jenn didn’t want to hold back the truth. Maybe it was because she was tired from a long day. Or maybe it was simply because he was quickly becoming a good friend.
“You heard about her first marriage, didn’t you? How her husband cheated on her?”
“I’m pretty sure I read something about it in the papers.”
“Well, after what happened with my ex-husband…”
Oliver had told Jenn he’d cheated only once, but for all she knew, it could have happened a dozen times with a dozen different women. Not that it mattered either way. All that mattered was that she’d come home to find her husband in bed with another woman, at which point she’d walked out of the house and begun divorce proceedings immediately. She knew how much an affair hurt—and how much effort it took to get over it.
Which was why she still hadn’t managed it.
“I’m sorry he hurt you, Jenn.”
She swallowed hard as Daniel’s gentle words landed right in the center of her chest. “I just think it’s really great that Greta has managed to find love again with someone else.”
For a few long moments, Daniel simply held her gaze, his own unreadable. Finally, he said, “I agree. A second chance at love is definitely something worth making an effort for.”
Chapter Two
Second chances.
After Daniel lost his wife, Victoria, to a car accident, he’d been convinced there would never be anyone else. There were women who were interested in him, but he never felt the same way. Never felt any real, lasting emotions for them. What’s more, he couldn’t bring just anyone into his kids’ lives. Daniel not only wasn’t sure how a woman would feel about stepping into a ready-made family, but he also wasn’t sure how his kids would react to having someone new around.
But then he met Jenn…and everything changed. Changed so much that he started to wonder if he really could have a second chance at love.
The first moment he set eyes on her, a spark lit inside him. And as soon as they talked? He started falling head over heels for the sweet, intelligent, talented baker. The time they’d spent together since then continued to strengthen that initial flare of awareness and connection. Tonight, he’d been hard-pressed to concentrate on taking pictures when all he really wanted to do was kiss her. Unfortunately, she had been hurt so badly by her cheating ex that Daniel knew it might be impossible for her to trust someone again.
Every day for the past few weeks, the urge to tell her about his feelings grew stronger and stronger. But if she wasn’t ready to hear it, wouldn’t it make it difficult for them to work together day in and day out at Married in Malibu? Worse, could it ruin the friendship they’d built over the past month?
The buzzing of his cell phone in his pocket broke into his conflicted thoughts.
Dad, don’t forget about the cupcakes for the fundraiser. They have to be homemade.
Love you, K
“What’s wrong?” Jenn asked, obviously having caught Daniel’s look of sudden dismay. “Are your kids okay?” She looked up at the clock on the wall in alarm. “I didn’t mean to keep you at work so late.”
“Don’t worry, Mrs. Henderson from down the street looks after them when I’m not there. She’s in her sixties, but she loves spending time with the kids. She’s really helped a lot, and Kayla and Adam have grown close to her.” He picked up his phone again, wondering how to break the news to his daughter that he’d completely dropped the cupcake ball. “Kayla was reminding me that we need to make homemade cupcakes tomorrow afternoon for a school fundraiser.”
“When we were at Liz and Jason’s wedding, Kayla asked me if I could come over sometime to show her how to do fancy frosting decorations on cupcakes.” Jenn smiled. “I told her that I’d love to.”
In Daniel’s experience, people usually weren’t interested in other people’s kids. One of his former editors had gone even further, saying that he’d be a better photojournalist without kids holding him back, as though he expected Daniel to just abandon them. He’d quit the paper the next day.
“Does she have everything she needs for the cupcakes?” Jenn asked.
“In the whirl of weddings, school runs, and soccer practices, I completely forgot about the school fundraiser. So no, we don’t have anything ready yet.” And there was nothing Daniel hated more than letting his kids down.
“How many do you need to make?”
“A hundred,” he said, suddenly feeling every pound of the weight of single-parenting on his shoulders. “I’ll swing by the twenty-four-hour grocery store on the way home and pick up a bunch of boxes of cake mix.”
“You don’t need to use a mix. I’ll help Kayla make the cupcakes tomorrow afternoon.” Jenn smiled. “It will be fun.”
“But you’ve spent all of today in the kitchen, and you’re meeting with Greta tomorrow morning.”
“I was planning to take tomorrow afternoon off after the meeting, but making cupcakes sounds way more fun. We’ll need flour, and baking soda, and—”
“Jenn, you really don’t have to do this.”
“—at least three different flavorings for that many cupcakes.”
She was as animated now making plans to bake cupcakes with Daniel’s daughter as she had been preparing sample wedding cakes for a world-famous actress. Still, he knew he should try again to let her off the hook, even if that was the very last thing he wanted.
“You should be relaxing on your afternoon off, not baking a hundred cupcakes with my daughter.”
“For me, a day spent baking is relaxing. And I want to help.”
Daniel gave in with a grateful smile. “Thank you. I know Kayla will be happy to have you there.”
And so will I.
“Tell me more about your kids.” She grabbed a sponge to wipe down the counters. “They seem great.”
“They are,” Daniel said with a smile as he quickly sent his daughter a text with the good news that Jenn was on board to help with cupcakes, then began to pack up his camera equipment. “Kayla takes after her mom, always leading Adam around like a pint-sized adult, even though she’s only nine. Sometimes I find her giving me these serious looks that I would expect from a kid twice her age. Adam’s more like me, running around looking for adventure, but mostly just getting into trouble.”
Jenn cocked her head. “I have a hard time imagining you getting into trouble.”
“Ever since the kids came, I’ve tried to be a stable presence. But back when I was a photojournalist, things could get pretty nuts. I used to think that it wasn’t a good story unless someone was chasing me away for trying to tell it.”
“And now?”
“
Now I feel like the best stories are the happy ones about people coming together and staying together.”
“I agree. But do you ever miss your old job and the excitement of it all?”
“When I first left, I thought I might. But it turns out putting on weddings can be pretty exciting. And it’s been great getting to watch my kids grow up in a nice neighborhood not far from their school, with friends and family close by. Plus,” he added with a grin, “I don’t get chased nearly as much anymore.”
“Except by soccer moms,” Jenn said in a low voice. When he looked at her in surprise, she blushed. “Did I just say that out loud?”
He grinned. Maybe she wasn’t as immune to him as it seemed.
Jenn waved her sponge-holding hand as if to wipe away what she’d just said, then refilled the spot with, “Kayla and Adam must keep you busy.”
“They do, but it’s the best kind of busy. Working at Married in Malibu instead of as a traveling photojournalist means I’m there to tuck them in for bedtime as often as I can. My family will always come first.”
“Of course they do,” she said in a soft voice. “Oliver and I were talking about having a family before—” Her face flushed with a combination of embarrassment and anger. “Before it all went wrong.”
Just thinking about what her ex had done was enough to make Daniel’s fists clench. He wanted to drag the guy in front of Jenn and force him to apologize to her. At the same time, Daniel wanted to make sure her ex never bothered her again.
“Sorry,” she said with a shake of her head. “I don’t mean to keep bringing it up. I guess working on Greta’s sample cakes today got me thinking about how similar our situations were.” Clearly wanting to change the subject, she added, “I really hope she likes the samples.”
“As soon as she sees your cakes, she’s going to want to book her wedding with us. And once she tastes one? She’s going to beg us to work with her.”