With This Cake: A Meet Me At The Altar Novel Page 5

  “Actually, I heard the argument,” she corrected as she began making up her lunch plate.

  “Fine. You heard it. Now everyone’s mad at me–even though I technically didn’t do anything wrong…”

  “You mocked this party, Brody. It insulted both your brother and Charlene. So technically, you did do something wrong.” Her tone was even–almost pleasant–and she never once looked at him. With her focus fully on her food, she added, “I don’t see why you couldn’t just keep your opinion to yourself. That’s what I did.”

  “Seriously? You did? So you think this is crazy too?”

  Now she did look at him. “Charlene is my cousin and we’re not super close, so I had no reason to get into it with her about any of this. Personally, I would have been fine just being hired to make the desserts and not be involved as a guest and I even contemplated telling her I wasn’t free for the weekend.”

  And for some reason, this pleased him to no end. He felt himself smiling. “Because you’re a logical woman and you know that there’s no reason for them to be this over-the-top!”

  She shrugged and took a forkful of potato salad before she responded.

  “I deal with brides for a living so I feel like I’ve seen it all and trust me, this isn’t even the craziest thing I’ve experienced. Not even in the top ten.” She looked at him and then at the food. “Aren’t you going to eat?”

  With a shrug of his own, he grabbed a sandwich and some fruit salad. “What’s the craziest event you’ve ever been to?”

  “Hmm…we did a wedding last year where the focus was solely on the bride. I felt a little bad for the groom. Every aspect of the ceremony and reception had to keep the focus on her. She even had this…this crazy stage at the reception where she rose up out of the floor and then came down this massive staircase alone! The poor groom had to stand there and wait for her!”

  “Yikes.”

  “Exactly! They had a guest list of two hundred people and I had to make two hundred individually decorated cupcakes.”

  “But…” he glanced at the tray of cupcakes she was working on. “Aren’t all cupcakes individually decorated?”

  She shook her head. “No, I mean each one had to be unique.”

  “No!”

  “Oh, yeah. She even told me what she wanted on each one. It was exhausting! Then, at the reception, she called each person up to the dessert table to hand it to them and thank them for coming. And she had four different gowns. Four!”

  “Why? Why did she need four of them?”

  “Well, she heard the royal family–you know, the princesses–usually have two gowns, one for the ceremony and one for the reception. So, she had to do them one better. One was for the ceremony, then she wore one for her grand entrance thing, another for the main part of the reception, and a final one for the whole cupcake ceremony.”

  He shuddered just thinking of it. “I wonder if they’re still married.”

  “No idea. All I know is that weddings tend to make people act a little irrationally.” She paused. “I mean, not all brides do, but there is at least a baseline of craziness.”

  “That’s what I’m learning.” He took a bite of his sandwich. “My other sister-in-law is very low-key. Their wedding was a cakewalk compared to this.”

  “I guess that means yours will be somewhere in between, huh?” she asked with a grin.

  “Uh…no,” he said around another bite of his lunch.

  “No? You think yours will be more low-key than the low-key brother?”

  He shook his head and grabbed a napkin. “I mean no as in I don’t plan on getting married. I don’t have the time.”

  Her brown eyes went wide. “Don’t have time? Seriously?”

  “Yeah. Seriously.” He took another bite of food.

  “Who lives like that?” she asked, sounding incredulous.

  “I do and I happen to enjoy it.”

  “Obviously,” she mumbled, returning her attention to her own meal, and they finished their lunch in silence.

  When Leanna was done, she cleared her plate and put it in the basket, walked back over to the tray of cupcakes, and immediately began decorating them. It was on the tip of his tongue to ask her about what she was doing, but he was far too fascinated by watching her. He stood and moved closer and was almost mesmerized by the way she just seemed to move with ease and made each cupcake look identical and perfect.

  She never looked up; she just kept a steady pace, squeezing the bag and creating one perfect cupcake after another. At one point, she refilled the bag and then just kept going and before he knew it, she finished decorating the entire tray.

  “Can I help you move that?” he asked.

  “I’ve got it,” she replied, still not looking at him. Silently, she put the tray in the big walk-in refrigerator and came out with another one. Once it was on the counter, she did look at him. “I can’t work with you staring at me all day so…can you please go find something to do?”

  “That’s what I was trying to tell you. Staying here is what I’m supposed to do. And as you can see, there’s not a whole lot of places for me to go, so…”

  “So you’re telling me I have to be punished because you were a jerk to your family? How is that fair?”

  “I wouldn’t say you were being punished, per se.”

  “Brody, I have my staff coming in a little while. There’s going to be even more people in here. I can’t have you hanging around in the way!”

  Did she truly believe this was ideal for him? There were a million other things he’d rather be doing!

  “Look, let’s make a deal, okay?” he began, hesitantly.

  She eyed him suspiciously. “What kind of deal?”

  “I will do all the grunt work for you today–anything you need. And in return…” He paused and tried to think of the best way to propose what he was going to propose.

  “And in return…?”

  Swallowing hard, he said, “You’ll be my plus-one for the weekend.”

  There were several reactions he was expecting–shock, disbelief, anger, laughter–but what he didn’t expect was for Leanna to simply continue icing the damn cupcakes as if he hadn’t just said something important.

  “Leanna?”

  She put the finishing touches on the last row of cupcakes and put the piping bag down before looking at him. “So basically, you want to stay here and be in my way and then I’ll have to hang out with you at all the parties too. Do I have that right?”

  And yeah, she did not sound the slightest bit interested.

  “Well, when you put it like that it sounds like I’m the only one benefiting from this.”

  “That’s because it’s exactly how it sounds.”

  Groaning, he began to pace.

  He was the master of negotiating deals for King Hospitality. How was it that he was practically tripping over his own tongue just to convince one woman to hang out with him? It shouldn’t be this hard, dammit!

  When he was standing beside her again, he waited until she looked at him. And just when he was about to plead his case again, he noted the slight twitch of her lips and started to relax.

  “So will you, Leanna? Please?”

  The dramatic sigh was her first response, but then she laughed. “Under one condition?”

  He was ready to hug her. “Anything!”

  Turning, she grabbed a cupcake and handed it to him. “You have to eat one.”

  “But…I don’t do sweets.”

  “Are you allergic to them?”

  “No.”

  “Do they make you physically ill?”

  “Um, no.”

  She gave him a sweet smile. “It would make me really happy if you would at least try it. Just one bite and then we can get started with grunt work for you and more decorating for me. What do you say?”

  It was the most ridiculous negotiation he’d ever experienced, but there was no way one little cupcake was going to stop him from getting what he wanted. With a huff, he sna
tched it from her hand. “Fine.”

  “Yay!” And as she clapped her hands giddily, Brody tore the paper from the confection and took a bite.

  Holy. Hell.

  If he had ever in his life tasted anything this good, he never would have sworn off cake years ago. This…this was amazing–decadent–almost sinful. And when he glanced at Leanna, he saw a look of pure delight on her face. And as much as he hated to admit defeat, in this one instance it didn’t seem like such a bad thing.

  But there was no way it was ever going to happen again.

  Chapter 4

  Live, love, bake.

  Right now, all Lea wanted was to soak in a hot bath and then take a nap. The thought of going to this big barbecue shindig was beyond unappealing.

  Her suite in the massive house was almost better than her apartment, and the bathroom was so luxurious that she was tempted to skip dinner and just stay in.

  But unfortunately, Brody was due to get her in an hour.

  Moaning, she stripped out of her work clothes and stepped into the massive shower as she gazed longingly at the tub. “Later,” she murmured. “Maybe I can leave the party early and come back here and soak before bed.” With that plan in place, she let herself relax under the hot spray.

  And it felt glorious.

  “I could totally just live here like this forever.”

  The shower was the size of her entire bathroom at home and she had a feeling come Sunday morning, someone might have to forcibly remove her from it.

  When she finally turned the water off, she grabbed a warm towel off the heated bar and sighed happily as she wrapped it around her. “I’m definitely getting spoiled.”

  Pulling out her toiletry case, Leanna put on some moisturizer and then brushed her teeth before pulling her robe on. With forty minutes to go before she had to head down to the barbecue, she figured she had time for a quick call to the girls to make sure everything was okay at the office.

  “Hey, Skye!” she said when her friend answered. “How’s everything going there today?”

  “Well, let’s see…the Marcus wedding finally confirmed their date and brought in their deposit, the Kleins finalized their menu, and Josie had a meltdown because there are no good men on dating apps. Her words, not mine.”

  “Okay, wow. That sounds like a full day.”

  “You have no idea,” Skye said wearily. “How about you? How’s the big engagement hoopla going?”

  Leanna told her about her setup and how Brody ran into her and ruined a tray of cupcakes and ultimately their agreement for the weekend.

  “So you’ve had an eventful day already too!”

  “I know, and it’s only the first day. I have a feeling by Sunday I’m going to need a week’s vacation.”

  “I don’t think we can swing a week, but you should definitely take Monday and Tuesday off. Josie and I can handle things here.”

  “Let’s see how everything goes and I’ll let you know if I need it. And thanks.”

  “You know…I think this whole Brody deal is going to be a good thing for you.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “For starters, you’ve got someone to do some of the heavy lifting so you don’t have to.”

  “It would have been great if he ran into me a little sooner. By the time that happened I only had two trays left,” she said with a laugh. Taking the towel off her head, she gently began drying her hair.

  “But I think he will also come in handy when your folks get there tomorrow. You’ll have a date and they won’t be able to harp on you about why you’re alone.”

  “Oh, I know,” Leanna replied. “I already thought of that but I didn’t tell Brody.”

  “Why not?”

  “Well…I really needed the help today–even though I didn’t want to admit it. He was a lifesaver as we tried to orchestrate all the transport between my trailer and tent and the party tent. Driving that golf cart thing was a little too nerve-racking for me. Fortunately, he didn’t mind loading everything up and then driving it over.”

  “Oh, well that was nice of him. But why aren’t you telling him about your parents?”

  “I’m going to. Tomorrow. I guess I wanted to have the upper hand for today and then we’ll see how things go. If he’s a total jerk then I’m certainly not going to play along with this silly plus-one thing. I can always blow him off and keep having cake emergencies.”

  “Is he a jerk?”

  Good question.

  “The jury’s still out,” she said honestly. “I already learned a lot about him before we formally met so I have that first impression in my head and it’s not great. Then he ruined my cupcakes and was a little condescending about the whole situation.” She paused and thought about how he was basically forced on her by his mother.

  “Hmm…it is hard to forget a bad first impression.”

  “Exactly. But then I saw a side of him that really didn’t want to disappoint his mother. That’s a good thing, right? Shows some decency.”

  “Mmm-hmm…”

  “As the day went on, I saw a man who seemed genuinely nice,” Lea mused. “He’s a little bossy and he tried telling me how I wasn’t efficiently using my time or the time of my staff…”

  “Uh-oh…”

  “Yeah, I shut that down real fast. I don’t know exactly what he does for a living, but he’s certainly not a baker. Oh, and get this–he doesn’t like cake!” She huffed with annoyance. “I mean, who doesn’t like cake?”

  “Does he have an allergy or something? Does he try to stay away from gluten?”

  “Nope, just a guy who doesn’t enjoy cake. I mean…for that one fact alone I don’t know how I can hang out with him! No one would believe for a second that I’d be interested in a man who makes a face when presented with a cupcake.”

  “If you do introduce him to your folks, don’t do it around dessert,” Skye suggested. “They’ll get suspicious immediately if he refuses to eat dessert.”

  “Oh, I’m sure they’re going to be suspicious anyway. I mean, last weekend I said I wasn’t seeing anyone and suddenly I’m walking around the place with the brother of the groom. Huge red flags are going to be waving if the smoke coming off my pants don’t clue them in sooner.”

  Laughing, Skye tried to reassure her. “No one is going to know your pants are on fire.”

  “Yes, they will. I’m a terrible liar.”

  “Is he good-looking?”

  “Ugh…so good-looking it should be illegal,” she sighed. “When I was blacking out after I fell down, I thought I felt dizzy because he was so darn attractive.”

  “Wow, that would be something if just the sight of him made you faint.”

  “I know. Although if this were Victorian times, swooning would have been perfectly acceptable.”

  “Ooh…swooning! Now that’s something I never would have thought of.”

  “Yeah, well…” Pausing, she began to worry about being seen with him tonight. “I have a feeling his family is going to see through it too.”

  “Why would you even think that?”

  “Because I’m me and…he’s him and together we’re going to look ridiculous!”

  Skye was silent so Lea went on.

  “This family is uber-rich, Skye. This house is ginormous. The suite I’m staying in? It’s bigger than my apartment! I mean, I’m just a baker from a small town and I live a quiet life and Brody’s…okay, for lack of a better word, he’s crazy rich! He probably dates heiresses and supermodels, not chubby wedding cake bakers.” She fell back against the pillows on the bed and groaned. “This is all a mistake. I should just thank him for helping me today and back out of our deal. I’m sure he could have a backup date here before the barbecue even starts.”

  On the other end of the phone, she heard Skye let out a long breath. “Are you done now?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe?”

  “Let me start by saying that it really upsets me when you don’t realize how amazing you are.”


  “Yeah, but…”

  Skye wasn’t listening. “Who cares if this guy has all the money in the world? That has nothing to do with anything, Lea! The fact is that you are a beautiful, loving, sweet, and intelligent woman. You’re one of the best people I know and to hear you talk about yourself like you’re not worthy of some guy’s attention isn’t right!”

  “Okay, but…”

  “No! No buts! It doesn’t matter that Brody is rich or what kind of woman he usually dates because there is no one better than you, do you understand me? If you ask me, he isn’t worthy of you!”

  “That’s just crazy. If you saw him…”

  “I don’t need to,” Skye interrupted. “It’s a fact. You, my friend, are the total package and you need to go out there and make him feel you’re doing him a favor by being seen with him!”

  “I am doing him a favor by being seen with him. Remember? We’re doing this to try to win points with his family.”

  “Oh. Right. Sorry.” She sighed. “Are you going to be okay? Do I need to drive over and cheer for you from the bushes? Because I totally would. And so would Josie.”

  The image made her smile. “No, but thanks. I’ll be fine.” She glanced at the clock on the bedside table. “But I do need to finish getting ready. Tonight’s sort of casual but that still means a sundress and having to do something with my hair.”

  “And I’m sure you’re going to look fabulous,” Skye said. “I love you. Go have fun!”

  “I love you too and I’ll talk to you tomorrow.” When she hung up, she looked around the room and tried to feel confident, but…she was seriously out of her league here. Standing, she mentally reminded herself that it was okay. It was only for the weekend and even if she did end up going through with being Brody’s plus-one the entire time, it really wasn’t a big deal. It didn’t mean they had to be in each other’s pockets. He had friends and family to mingle with and she had family of her own to visit with, so…it was all good.

  Feeling like she had worked it all out, Leanna walked over to the big closet where she had unpacked earlier and looked at the dress she picked for tonight. It was a simple blue sundress with spaghetti straps–completely understated. She paired it with big silver hoop earrings, chunky silver bangles, and a cute pair of sandals. The urge to wear her hair up in her usual messy bun was extremely tempting, but she figured it wouldn’t hurt to blow out the long tresses.