Baking Love Read online

  Mark chuckled. “That was a long time ago.”

  “Don’t believe his modesty,” Jess warned. “He’s still really good.”

  “In that case, I suggest we play women against men,” Eric piped up.

  “Let’s do it,” Jess said. “Come on, Kate. We’ll go get our balls.”

  Kate finished tying her shoes, then walked with Jess over to a wall lined with shelves of bowling balls. “How’s it going with Eric?” Jess asked.

  “It’s not as easy as I thought it’d be.”

  “Hang in there. The night will be over soon enough.”

  “I hope so.”

  They selected their balls and returned to the lanes, where Mark now sat at the computer. “Alright,” he said. “Eric and I are on lane fifteen, and the ladies are on lane sixteen.” He pressed a button. “Kate, when you’re ready, you’re first.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Good luck!” Jess told her.

  he summer after his freshman year of college, when hereo Kate walked up to the lane and bowled her first turn. “Yes! Six maples!”

  “Nice start,” Eric called out. “Wonder if you can keep it up.”

  Damn straight I can. “I hope so.” Once Kate’s ball had returned to the rack, she walked back to the lane and bowled again. Her ball struck three pins and skirted the fourth. So close.

  “Almost!” Jess called out.

  Kate returned to the seating area. “You’re up, Eric,” Mark said.

  Eric smiled at the women. “Watch and learn.” He took his ball from the rack and bowled his first turn. The ball hit two pins.

  “What’s the lesson there?” Jess asked him, leaving Kate to stifle laughter.

  “I’m just warming up,” Eric told her while waiting for his ball to return. Once it was back, he bowled the second half of his frame.

  “A whole pin,” Kate muttered under her breath. “Guess you’re not very warm yet.”

  Jess snickered.

  “Your turn, Jess,” Mark said.

  Jess picked up her ball. “Here we go!” She walked to the lane and bowled.

  “Five!” Kate clapped.

  Jess came back and waited for her ball to arrive before bowling again. “Yes! A spare!” She ran to Kate, and they exchanged a high-five.

  “Way to go!” Kate exclaimed.

  Eric put his hand on Mark’s shoulder. “Time for you to clean up, man”

  Mark chuckled. “We’ll see.” He picked up his ball from the rack and bowled it down the lane.

  “Oh, yeah!” Eric pumped his arms in the air. “A strike!”

  Mark shuffled back to the seating area. “Woo!” He and Eric exchanged a high-five.

  “You’re the man!” Eric told him.

  Jess scoffed. “Kate, wipe the floor with these boys.”

  “Gladly.” Kate picked up her ball and stepped to the line. As she looked down the lane, she could hear Eric’s voice in the seating area, but couldn’t make out what he was saying. She turned around. “Are you talking to me?”

  “Nope,” he smiled mischievously.

  Kate turned back around and repositioned herself. Just as she was about to bowl, Eric came around her from behind. He ran to the top of her lane and released his bowling ball.

  It went straight into the gutter.

  Kate blinked. What the hell?

  Eric backed up to the line where she stood. “Uh, why’d you do that?” she frowned. hundred?” the auctioneer repeated.inC

  “You were taking a long time, so I thought maybe you needed some help.”

  Maybe I should go back to treating him the way I always have, just so we can have cohesive conversations. Kate hesitated. Should I?

  Eric’s bowling ball clapped against another as it returned to the rack.

  Yep. She met his gaze. “Did you aim for the gutter just now, or was that actually your best shot?”

  “Ouch!” he laughed.

  Kate smiled smugly. “You didn’t mean to bowl it in there, did you?”

  “Of course I did!” Eric pointed to the gutter. “That’s exactly where I wanted the ball to go.”

  “Oh, so you’re trying to bring my team down the way you’re bringing yours down, is that it?”

  “What do you mean? I’m an excellent bowler.”

  Kate scoffed. “You wish.”

  Eric nodded in the direction of the lane. “Aren’t you going to bowl your second turn?”

  “Only if you promise to stay out of my way.”

  He tossed up his hands in a surrendering motion. Kate positioned herself, then walked forward and released the ball. Nine. She turned around and narrowed her eyes at Eric. “Sure would be nice to have the turn you wasted so I could try and knock down that last pin.”

  “Maybe next time, you’ll get all ten on the first try.”

  “Punk.” They walked back to the seating area, where Kate was quick to meet Eric’s gaze again. “Sorry, Jess,” she said, without taking her eyes off him. “Eric ruined our chances of scoring a spare.” It’s so much fun to mess with this man.

  “You ruined your own chances,” he retorted. “You could’ve knocked down all ten pins with one roll, but you didn’t.”

  “Next time, wait your turn to bowl.”

  “Next time, bowl your turn faster.”

  “Y’all sound like an old married couple,” Mark laughed. “Eric, do you and Cecilia rant and carry on the way you and Kate do?”

  Eric’s brows flinched. “No.”

  “Oh.”

  Their seating area fell silent.

  “Eric,” Jess quickly said. “What are your and Cecilia’s plans for after graduation?”

  Thank you, Jess.

  “Cecilia is going to work for her dad,” Eric answered. “Once we find out what city we’ll be in, I’ll apply for jobs.”

  _ffe “You mean it could be somewhere other than New York?”

  “There are offices around the country, so it’s possible.”

  “Why can’t Walter go ahead and tell you where she’ll be working?” Kate asked. “Graduation is only a couple of months away.”

  “Things are volatile within the company at the moment, so he can’t say for sure until they settle out.”

  “Ah.”

  Eric crossed his arms over his chest. “What about you, Kate? How’s business at the bakery these days?”

  “It got a big boost when Cecilia walked through the door.”

  “Is that right?”

  “Yeah. She ordered an eight-tiered wedding cake.” Kate frowned. “You saw the sketch.”

  “I saw it, but I didn’t count the layers.”

  “Tiers.”

  “Right—I didn’t count them.”

  “Why not?”

  “When I looked at that cake, I saw ‘nice’ and ‘tall’.”

  “Sounds about right,” Jess muttered.

  “Besides, the cake has to be big,” Eric added. “We sent out six hundred invitations.”

  “Six hundred?” Kate and Jess exclaimed in unison.

  “Yeah.”

  “You know six hundred people?” Jess asked him.

  “Not really. The majority of the invitations went to Walter’s business associates. Loraine and my parents invited a bunch of their friends, too.”

  “Did you and Cecilia invite anyone?” Kate asked. “You know, since it’s your wedding.”

  “Yeah, we did. Plus, a lot of our friends are in the wedding.” He glanced up at the monitor. “Hey, it’s my turn.”

  Eric went to bowl, and Kate turned to Jess. “I can’t believe they invited six hundred people.”

  “That certainly does explain the cake.”

  “Mark, did you get an invitation?” Kate asked.

  “I hope so,” he said. “I’m a groomsman.”

  Kate and Jess exchanged confused glances, then Jess looked at Mark. “You’re a groomsman? Since when?”

  “Since Eric asked me this afternoon.” Mark smiled sheepishly at Jess. “Sorry I didn’t t
ell you before now.”

  “Isn’t it late in the game to be adding groomsmen?” Kate asked.

  “He didn’t add,” Mark clarified. “He replaced.”

  “Who’d he replace?” Jess asked.

  “Matt.”

  Kate froze. Matt is the guy from the tavern. Surely my incident with him didn’t have anything to do with this sudden reshuffling of groomsmen. She forced a casual note to her voice. “Did Eric say why he replaced Matt?”

  “Yes,” Mark replied. “I’m just not sure I’m supposed to tell you.”

  Eric came back to the ball rack. “We should’ve gone to see a movie instead of going bowling.”

  Mark glanced up at the monitor. “Three, huh?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Don’t sweat it, man.”

  Eric retrieved his ball and returned to the lane.

  “Out with it,” Jess hissed at Mark.

  “I don’t think I should say anything.”

  “Oh, I think you should—and hurry up. Eric will be back in a minute.”

  Mark sighed. “Fine, but don’t tell him I told you this part.”

  “Fine.”

  Mark met Kate’s gaze. “Eric kicked Matt out of his wedding because Matt harassed you at the Wynnfield Tavern. Eric told him their friendship was over.”

  “Whoa,” Jess whispered.

  Kate stared at Mark, unseeing. Eric did that for me? Why? I could understand if Matt had harassed Cecilia, his fiancée—but me? I’m just his friend.

  “Keep this on the down-low,” Mark quickly added.

  Eric took his seat. “What are you guys talking about?”

  As Kate waited for someone to answer, a new thought popped into her head. If Mark is attending to Eric on his wedding day, how will he also be attending to Eric’s wedding cake? “Wait a minute,” she said. “Mark, if you’re going to be Eric’s groomsman, how are you also going to help me and Jess with his wedding cake?”

  Surprised filled Eric’s face. “How’d you know Mark is going to be my groomsman?”

  “He just told us,” Jess replied flippantly. “Yeah, Kate, how is that going to work?”

  Eric glared at Mark. “Did you tell them anything else?”

  “Uh,” Mark stuttered.

  “Eric,” Kate interrupted. “What time do you need Mark on your wedding day?”

  Eric met her gaze and stared blankly. dress number one thirty-nine,6Po “What? I have no idea.”

  “Well, what time does your wedding start?”

  “I don’t know, Kate.”

  He’s getting frustrated, which makes two of us. “You don’t know what time your own wedding starts?” she asked in disbelief.

  “Why don’t you know?” Eric snapped. “I mean, how are you planning to deliver the wedding cake to the reception site if you do know what time the wedding starts?”

  Damn, you’ve got me there. “No one gave me a time when we met at the bakery, and I haven’t had a chance to ask Loraine since then.”

  “Why not? You were both at the pre-rehearsal.”

  “I saw her twice, and both times, I got distracted.”

  “How in the world did Loraine Prescott distract you?”

  Stop putting me on the defense. “Not that it’s any of your concern, but the first time I saw Loraine, she was showing me how ridiculously far the cake table will be from our van—from your wedding cake. The second time I saw her, she was appointing me to stand in for Cecilia as your bride. So let’s just say the opportunity never presented itself.”

  “Ah.”

  “What’s your excuse?” Kate crossed her arms over her chest. “Why don’t you know what time your own wedding starts?”

  “I don’t need to know until the day of, or maybe the day before.” Eric paused. “What’s wrong with the placement of the cake table? You can’t carry a cake that far?”

  “It’s nothing I can’t handle.”

  “Then why did you mention it?”

  “Because it’s the truth.”

  “Hope you don’t drop anything.”

  Kate’s arms flinched. No, I can’t kiss him—and I can’t strangle him, either, so I’d better leave him alone. She took a deep breath. “Would you please try and remember if you’ve heard anyone say what time your wedding starts?”

  Eric sighed. “I don’t know. Maybe five o’clock.”

  “Five o’clock,” Kate repeated. “We’ll go with that. Thank you.”

  Jess turned to Kate. “Mark should have enough time to help us with the wedding cake beforehand.”

  “Yeah. We should be fine.”

  “Nowhe summer after his freshman year of college, when hereo that I think about it, I remember something else,” Eric piped up.

  “Do we want to hear this?” Kate muttered.

  “We’re taking photos before the wedding.”

  You’ve got to be kidding. “You’re doing what?”

  “Isn’t it bad luck for the groom to see the bride before the wedding?” Jess asked.

  “If we take photos ahead of time, people won’t have to wait as long for the reception to start once the wedding is over,” Eric explained.

  Bet that selfless idea didn’t come from Cecilia.

  “Can I bowl your turn, Kate?” Mark asked.

  “It’s my turn again?”

  “Yeah. I’ve already bowled Jess’s turn and my own.”

  “You have?” Jess asked him.

  “Yeah.”

  “I didn’t even see you get up.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Eric,” Kate said, trying to get back on track. “What time are photos?”

  He stared at her.

  “Right, you don’t know.”

  “Why does it matter?” he frowned.

  “I want to make sure there’ll be enough time for Mark to help me and Jess before he has to help you on the day of your wedding.”

  “Fine. I’ll let you know about photos next week.”

  “No, this is too important to wait. We need to find out tonight.”

  “How am I supposed to find out tonight? Cecilia’s in Paris.”

  Kate smiled sweetly. “Her mother’s not.”

  “What?” Eric popped up out of his chair. “You want me to call Loraine just to ask her about photos?”

  “I’m happy to ask her if you don’t want to. Pull up her number in your phone, and I’ll take care of the rest.”

  “This is absurd! Why do you even need Mark’s help with the wedding cake?”

  Anger gripped Kate, and she flew out of her own chair. “You of all people should know the answer to that question! Hell, you helped me and my grandma transport and assemble dozens of wedding cakes the summer you were home from college.”

  Eric leaned toward her, leaving their faces only inches apart. He grinned. “That was a good summer.”

  Kate bit her lip to keep from smiling. Yes, it was. Eric might’ve just gained the upper hand in this argument by ass the Manhattan Convention CenterSuaging her anger, but she wasn’t about to let him know it. “Look,” she pleaded. “Your wedding cake is a big deal because of the people involved and because it’s the largest cake Jess and I have ever made. We want to do everything we can to improve our odds for success. That includes bringing Mark with us, even if it turns out to be overkill.”

  Eric’s expression softened. “I see.”

  Kate looked away. “A lot could go wrong, and I’m afraid something will,” she quietly confessed.

  “Kate.”

  With hesitation, she shifted her gaze back to Eric. His eyes were warm. “Nothing’s going to go wrong.”

  “How do you know?”

  He smiled. “Because you’re the best.”

  So are you. I should’ve told you I loved you when I had the chance. Eric’s smile slowly faded as they held each other’s gaze in silence.

  Please don’t marry Cecilia.

  “I’ll call Loraine for you.”

  Kate blinked back tears. “Thanks.”

&nb
sp; While Eric made the call, Kate sat back down beside Jess. She calmed herself, then replayed her conversation with Eric in her mind. She cringed. I should’ve stuck to my plan. She leaned toward Jess. “I probably shouldn’t have told Eric his cake table will be ridiculously far from our van.”

  Jess clicked her tongue. “Probably not.”

  Chapter Nine

  Saturday, March 17

  Kate and Jess sat at the work table, staring at each other. “I can’t believe I didn’t realize this before now.”

  “Don’t feel bad. I didn’t realize it, either.”

  Kate looked down at the piece of paper in front of her, which contained the timeline she and Jess had just laid out for making Cecilia and Eric’s cakes. “So up until today, we were planning to carry the wedding cake tiers from the vad a smile. &ld

  Chapter Ten

  Wednesday, May 2

  Kate entered the kitchen and headed straight for the coffee machine. “Morning, Jess.”

  “Good morning. How are you?”

  “Freezing. I can’t believe how cold it is outside.” She could hear the bakery’s old heater grinding as she poured herself a cup of coffee. “Thanks for turning up the heat.”

  “I knew shivering hands wouldn’t make for impressive piping work.”

  Kate laughed. “Good point.”

  Jess filled her own cup with coff dress number one thirty-nine,thy6Pee, then turned to Kate and smiled. “I’m going shopping for my wedding dress this weekend!”

  “You are?” Kate exclaimed. “That’s so exciting!”

  “It is exciting. I can’t wait.”

  “Where are you going? Jan’s Bridal?”

  “No, farther north than Jan’s.”

  “Sutton’s Formal Wear?”

  “Farther north.”

  “Camden’s Bridal Designs?”

  “Still farther north.”

  Kate frowned. “Those are the only bridal boutiques in Hillsborough.”

  “Actually, I’m not buying my dress in Hillsborough.”

  “Where are you buying it?”

  Jess smiled again. “New York.”

  “New York?” Kate echoed in surprise. “What’s in New York?”

  “The Bridal Gown Auctions. It’s an all-day event where designer wedding dresses are sold through auction. The event is held every year at the Manhattan Convention Center.”

  “How’d you find out about it?”