But he couldn’t take his eyes off her.
“The official announcement was in the Bliss Times this morning,” Marilyn said.
Natalie’s shoulders squared tighter, her color came all the way back, and she faced the Queen General straight on. “That’s kind of you to offer, but we wouldn’t want Bliss’s most celebrated couple to be linked to that divorced woman on The Aisle, now would we?”
Marilyn made a noise that would’ve been a pfft coming from any other woman. “Bliss’s most celebrated couple will be lauded for their charity work.”
“Charity,” Natalie echoed.
The frozen steel in her voice gave CJ the chills. Made him a little hot under the collar too.
This could get interesting. Dangerous, even. CJ suspected Natalie had just stomped the shit out of that line she’d mentioned the other night, and she was about to start flinging flaming justice out of her fingertips.
Natalie’s eyes subtly shifted toward CJ, commanding his full attention.
He gulped.
He’d wanted adventure in Bliss. He was about to get it.
“Mr. Exalted Widower,” she said in another of those female tones, this one loaded with the power and danger of the mother of all nuclear weapons, “are you sure you’re up to the task of taking on my son as a charity project?”
Something’s burning was the right and wrong answer. He was physically incapable of putting Natalie and char—chari—He couldn’t do it. Charity deserved its own sentence. Far, far away from any thought of what Natalie needed.
On the one hand, he couldn’t tell her no. Couldn’t refuse a challenge.
That would make him seem like a chicken.
But when staring at Mama Bear Natalie, who was wearing a touch of Pissed Off Lover Natalie beneath the Mama Bear thing, being a chicken might’ve been CJ’s wisest option.
Of course, if he refused the Queen General’s suggestion, he’d be screwed in an entirely different way.
Kimmie took one of those about-to-launch-into-a-story breaths. The back door of Bliss Bridal opened, and Noah stuck his head out.
His head that was still sporting CJ’s Falcons hat. “Mommy?”
Natalie beckoned him with one hand, still glaring at CJ. She slipped an arm around Noah’s shoulder. The little boy curled into her.
Despite this being a highly appropriate time to remember how she’d felt with her legs wrapped around him against his car Saturday night, he had plenty of brain cells—among other body parts—dedicated solely to the task of wondering what it would take to get them there again.
The combination of royally pissed and motherly was hot.
He clearly needed to talk to a professional about this.
“Well?” Natalie said to CJ.
“Of course they’ll do it.” Marilyn dusted her hands. “Problem solved.”
“You don’t get to solve my problems,” Natalie said.
“Miss Castellano, I already have.” Marilyn consulted her elegant wristwatch, then pinned CJ and Kimmie collectively with an I-will-be-obeyed look. “It would behoove the two of you to experience parenthood. For the sake of your relationship. You have my blessing to babysit.”
She turned on her heel and strode to her car, apparently oblivious to the animal she’d just unleashed in Natalie.
“Excuse me,” Natalie said to Kimmie. “I have work to do.”
The QG’s engine purred to life. Kimmie stepped forward before Natalie could disappear back into the shop. “Nat, I know you don’t like it since my mom suggested it, but I—erm, we would love to help you with Noah. CJ mostly works nights, and we could use the practice pretending to be parents if we’re going to pull this thing off at the Husband Games, so…win-win, right?” She glanced back at her mother’s retreating car, then gave CJ a questioning glance. “I don’t think Mom will interfere more. And Noah’s not short enough to be an elf. Technically. So we can do this, right?”
Natalie leveled a flat stare at CJ that a lifetime of living with too many women had fully prepared him to interpret. She wanted him to say no.
But despite the danger rolling off Natalie in heavy waves, he still had full possession of his balls, and truth was, her kid was adorable.
CJ squatted down to Noah’s level and tipped the hat back so he could see the boy’s face. “You wanna see the Bachelors practice, little dude?”
“Can Baby Dinosaur come?”
“You bet. You, me, and Baby Dinosaur will do all kinds of man things.”
“Awesome!” He yanked on Natalie’s hand and jumped. “Mom, isn’t that awesome?”
“Sweetie, I know you don’t understand,” Nat said, “but this is complicated—”
“The hell it is,” CJ said softly.
Natalie’s glare went so icy he wished he had a jacket.
But more, he wished he had the right to kiss the ice out of her. To melt her frozen heart. To heat her from the inside out until she couldn’t find her frost.
He wanted another night. A week. A month.
Her hostility wavered. She stepped back, her pulse fluttering in her throat.
As if she’d read his thoughts.
“And you know I love Noah,” Kimmie said.
“Terms of payment?” she said crisply.
“Oh, no,” Kimmie said. “We couldn’t take your money. You’re doing us a favor.”
A ghost of a smile teased Natalie’s lips. The haunted kind of ghost, not the friendly kind, but seeing the corners of her mouth lift gave CJ an unexpected sense of relief that her muscles were still capable of bending that way.
The boutique door opened again, and one of the shop girls stuck her head out. “Natalie? You’ve got a phone call.”
Natalie looked at Kimmie. “If you’re sure you have time—”
“Completely sure,” CJ said.
Kimmie nodded. “It’ll be fun. Nat, he’s such a good kid, and you deserve some peace of mind on something. This is what friends are for, right?”
“Go ahead, Noah,” Natalie said on a shuddery sigh. “Go play. Be good. I’ll call and check on you, okay? And I’ll find you a real babysitter so we can get back to normal soon. I promise.”
Back to normal. CJ got the message. Loud and clear. He wasn’t their normal.
He was temporary. Because that was his life. His choice.
Shouldn’t have pissed him off, but it did.
“Love you, Mom!” Noah darted away from her to launch himself at CJ. “We’re gonna be men today, huh?”
Probably not.
But they would at least try.
Chapter Fourteen
CHARITY.
Marilyn Elias thought Natalie was a charity case.
Fuck that.
As soon as Noah danced out the back door—danced—to go have a man day with CJ, Natalie gave her heart a whipstitch patch-job, then pillaged the locked bottom desk drawer.
There wasn’t enough petty cash to cover the purchase Nat was about to make, so she grabbed her personal credit card too. She stalked out to the floor where Pepper was still waiting, none the wiser that her brother had just danced off with the best thing in Natalie’s life.
“You have experience with brides?” Natalie asked without preamble.
An achingly familiar spark lit Pepper’s green eyes, exactly as Nat had hoped and feared.
Pepper liked a challenge as much as her brother.
“Eight years,” Pepper said.
“We’re short-staffed. You’re hired.” Natalie signaled Amanda. “Back in five.”
She marched out the front door, turned left, and stormed the bakery.
One of the bakery girls looked up from the pristine white desk where she was assisting a customer. Her eyes flared wide. Natalie stalked past, straight to the checkout counter. “Kimmie?” she called.
The half-door to the kitchen swung open. Kimmie darted out, a smear of purple frosting on her nose. “Did they forget something?”
Natalie slapped the cash and her credit card on the coun
ter. “I want all your cupcakes.”
Kimmie gawked at her.
“All of them,” Natalie said.
“Um, Nat, that’s like, three hundred cupcakes.”
In all of the last five years, Natalie had never felt herself smile so ugly. “Perfect.”
Kimmie visibly swallowed. “Are you going to cupcake my mom’s house?” she whispered. “She only went for a short Knot Fest meeting. She’ll be back in half an hour.”
“Worse.” Natalie’s smile grew until the very act of smiling almost made her feel happy. “Much, much worse.”
Kimmie eyed her with a healthy mixture of fear and respect. She slowly reached across the counter to take the cash and the credit card. “Mom’s gonna bake our Alaska,” she breathed.
“Let her try.”
Let her bring all she had. Because Natalie was done.
Done being that divorced woman. Done being the pimple on the face of The Aisle. Done being a second-class citizen.
She’d planned most of the Golden Husband Games. She’d done every task asked of her for the janitorial committee. She’d kept Bliss Bridal in the black. Barely, but still in the black.
She was better than Marilyn Elias could ever be, and she was done taking that woman’s shit.
“So I’m ringing these up in your dad’s name,” Kimmie said.
“Use mine.”
Kimmie winced. “Nat—”
“Use. Mine.”
This time, Kimmie didn’t argue.
Fifteen minutes later, the kitchenette and the office at Bliss Bridal overflowed with Heaven’s Bakery cupcakes. Strawberry shortcake cupcakes, Key lime pie cupcakes, lemon blueberry cupcakes, blackberry fudge cupcakes and piña colada cupcakes covered every surface. Kimmie and two of the shop assistants at Heaven’s Bakery had boxed and delivered Natalie’s purchase. As soon as they scrambled out the back door, Nat locked it and jammed a chair under the door knob.
She knew better than to underestimate the QG’s powers against a door lock.
Downstairs in storage, she located the easel her mom had kept on hand to advertise summer specials and trunk shows, which Natalie had been unsuccessful in booking since her mom died.
But Nat didn’t need anything more than chalk and her own determination to accomplish this mission. The bridal consultants and Amanda and Pepper had all looked curiously at her when she dragged it up, but after seeing what she’d written on it, every last one of them—even Pepper—stared at her as though she’d stabbed the wrong pincushion.
Free Heaven’s Bakery Cupcakes for All Bliss Bridal Customers and Parties Today! No Appointment Necessary!
“You know ninety percent of our brides are on diets, right?” Amanda said.
“And one hundred percent of them walking by today will think Heaven’s Bakery endorses Bliss Bridal as the best place in town to get a gown.” Natalie’s heart thrummed like her sewing machine on a power surge. “So will all the other shop owners on The Aisle.”
A chorus of gasps trickled through the group.
“She’ll kill you,” Amanda said.
Or up her game to outbid Pepper for the shop, but if Dad could fight Marilyn there, Natalie would too. “Let her try.”
Natalie put the easel outside, then posted notices on Twitter and Facebook to the same effect. The first hour was slow. Two brides stopped in, each with only their mothers. Lunchtime came and passed, and four bridal parties came in to check things out.
But then—then Natalie got a text from Luke Hart down at the chocolate shop.
LMAO. Sending some people your way.
Natalie wouldn’t have minded laughing her ass off right along with Luke, but she hadn’t had enough takers on the cupcakes yet to work up even a smile.
Claudia Sweeney walked past, saw the sign, and did a double take just outside the front window. She looked back toward Heaven’s Bakery, then grinned big and gave Nat a thumbs-up before scurrying down the street.
Twenty minutes later, Bliss Bridal was more packed than the foyer of St. Valentine’s had been when CJ’s sister got married.
Brides logged in on their phones and tablets, right there in the store, and followed Bliss Bridal’s Pinterest boards and liked its Facebook page. They browsed the gowns, both for themselves and for their bridesmaids. They took impromptu tours of the alterations room upstairs and splurged on tiaras and clutch purses.
And they booked appointments.
They booked appointments until Bliss Bridal’s calendar was full for the next three weeks, with other brides fighting over their places on the waiting list.
And when the inevitable finally happened—when Marilyn Elias herself marched through the door a while later, horrified disbelief marring her normally unflappable demeanor— Natalie smiled even bigger. “Ladies,” she called over the din, “meet Mrs. Elias, proprietor of Heaven’s Bakery. Aren’t these cupcakes wonderful?”
God bless them, every last member of every single bridal party stopped to clap.
The General portion of Marilyn’s personality roared to life. Her eyebrows slammed together, her lips thinned, and Natalie could see the I will end you threat coming.
Right there.
In the midst of all the applause.
The QG was going to totally lose her shit in front of dozens of women.
Nat snagged a cupcake and raised it in a mock toast. “My dad says thanks for your generosity,” she said over the applause.
Marilyn’s eyes flared. She blinked around at the brides complimenting her, and her queenly side came back in full force. The regal smile, the hand flutter over her chest, the head tilt to make her diamond earrings sparkle, all the while moving back to the door. She made her gracious excuses about getting back to the bakery, and wished all the brides a wonderful day in Bliss.
And then, with one last This is not the end glare at Natalie, she disappeared out the door.
“That woman is scary as hell,” Pepper whispered. “She looks like she wanted to kill you.”
“Or something worse, no doubt.” Natalie surveyed the room again, took in all the happy, glowing women chatting and shopping and enjoying themselves. It was a sight that would’ve made her mother proud. “But I would do it again in a heartbeat.”
TURNED OUT four-year-old boys and women had something in common. They both had the same air intake valves that kept their mouths running while their ears were shut off. Difference was, the four-year-old just wanted to talk. No subtext, no secret agendas, no land mines.
And he was the funniest character CJ had ever met.
CJ had taken the assignment to prove he wasn’t a chicken—and also because Natalie needed the help—but Noah didn’t understand any of that.
He simply understood that the guy who saved Cindy the Baby Dinosaur Stegosaurus wanted to hang with him for a few days.
The whole ride to Willow Glen, Noah jabbered away from his booster seat in the back of Kimmie’s Outback, which she’d insisted CJ borrow for the day after she saw his old car. So he didn’t break down with a four-year-old in tow, Kimmie said.
Noah told CJ all about the Cubs, his dinosaur, things his mom said, what Mrs. Tanner could bake, places his grandpa had taken him, anything and everything that crossed his mind. When CJ pulled up in front of Bob and Fiona’s house, Noah gave CJ an earful about his grandma’s flower beds. On the way up the walk, he explained the difference between lace and tulle. But when Fiona opened the door, he went so still and quiet, a part of CJ’s world seemed to disappear.
“And who is this?” Fiona asked.
CJ opened his mouth, but Noah sprang back to life and stuck his hand out. “I’m Noah. How are you today?”
CJ understood Fiona’s rapid blinking and softening expression all too well. He’d felt the same near-grief over the grandkids she’d never have more than once over the years. But as he expected, she steeled herself and squatted down to Noah’s level. “I’m very well, thank you. And you?”
“Yeah, it’s been a kind of a day,” Noah said w
ith an overly adult nod.
“His mom’s having some day care issues,” CJ said.
“What’s your mommy do, Noah?” Fiona asked.
“She sells pretty dresses and keeps all those crazy couples in line at Knot Fest meetings, and when I grow up I’m going to wear a pretty dress and kiss a girl and get married and we’re going to play in the Husband Games like CJ.”
“And your daddy?” she said.
“I don’t have one of those.” Noah nodded gravely, as if confirming Fiona’s worst fears. “It’s hard enough to manage one parent.”
How could anyone resist this kid?
Fiona melted into a puddle of grandmotherly adoration at his feet. “Has anyone ever told you you’re adorable?”
“Oh, yeah. My grandma used to all the time. She’s in heaven now, you know. Is your grandma in heaven?”
“She is,” Fiona said.
“Do you think they’re having a tea party together?”
“I certainly hope so.”
The scent of nostalgia and heartache made breathing difficult. “Bob tape the Cubs game yesterday?” CJ asked. “Noah here’s a big fan.”
“So’s Baby Dinosaur,” Noah said. “And CJ’s taking us to see the Bachelors practice tomorrow.”
Fiona straightened. “He usually does. Come on in.”
Noah and Bob hit it off instantly. Bob seemed to be having a good day. Fiona made them mid-morning popcorn, and they sat in the living room like long-lost buddies, discussing how far into the season the Cubs would make it before they choked. CJ left them to their baseball and headed to the garage to tackle the door opener that had fried itself out.
“So you’re dating his mother?” Fiona said from the doorway into the house. She huddled in it as though she were cold, though he suspected the pleasant spring temperature was the last thing on her mind.
“Not dating anyone right now,” CJ said. He moved to the fuse box and looked for the right switch. “Just helping out. Noah’s a good kid.”
“And his mom is your partner in the Games?”
He’d called yesterday to tell them he’d picked a partner. “Ah, no. Kimmie’s another friend. Not his mom.”
A crease almost as deep as her frown appeared on the bridge of Fiona’s nose.
Blissed (Misfit Brides #1) Page 21
