Bridesmaid For Hire (Matchmaking Mamas Book 23) Read online

  There it was again, Gina thought, that wave of guilt that threatened to all but drown her. “Shane, I can’t tell you how much—”

  Shane upbraided himself for dropping his guard and allowing this to get personal. Aware of his error, Shane waved away what he could tell was going to be another apology. He didn’t want to hear it. The damage had long since been done and they had both moved on.

  As possibly a direct result of her rejection, he had forged a better version of himself and had gone on to create a career out of the ashes that was far more satisfying to him than the path he had been set to follow when she’d suddenly stomped on his heart.

  “Never mind all that now,” Shane told her rather formally. “This cake you’re trying to order, it isn’t for you?” he asked, wanting to be totally sure before continuing.

  “No, it’s not. And Sylvie really does seem to have her heart set on you being the one making this cake for her.” And then she added what she hoped would be the argument that would tip the scales in Sylvie’s favor. “If you won’t make the cake, it’s almost as if the rest of her wedding is doomed.”

  Shane laughed shortly at the absurdity of what she’d just said. “That’s a little dramatic and over-the-top, don’t you think?” he asked.

  For the first time, Gina laughed in response. He found the sound disturbing in a way he definitely didn’t want to be disturbed.

  “You’d be surprised what some of these brides are like and what they say when they feel stressed,” Gina told him, extrapolating on this momentary temporary truce that they had struck. “The term bridezilla is not just some whimsical, weird name that someone dreamed up. It’s actually rather an accurate description of the transformation that some of these perfectly sane women undergo when dealing with the one hundred–plus miscellaneous details that comprise pulling off the perfect wedding,” she told him.

  “Just as an example,” Gina went on to say, “suddenly the size and color of the table napkins take on a whole new meaning. Weddings put enormous pressure on the bride and on the people around the bride who are trying to emotionally support her.”

  He supposed, although he hadn’t given it much thought, he could see that happening. “If that’s the case, why not just go to a wedding planner?” he asked.

  “Some do,” Gina agreed. “But I’m actually less expensive and in many cases, a lot friendlier. I’m more like a paid best friend, there to listen and to hold the bride’s hand for the duration ranging from just before the wedding to the three or four weeks leading up to the big day, depending on when I’m called in.”

  He thought about her description, even though he had never heard of what she did being a profession before. “So this is really on the level?” Shane asked her again as he began to come around.

  Gina didn’t hesitate for a second. “Absolutely,” she assured him.

  “Exactly how many of you ‘professional bridesmaids’ are there out there?” he asked.

  She had to admit that she didn’t know of anyone who did what she did. She had come up with this on her own while brainstorming one afternoon, going over all the different skills she had developed. Being a bridesmaid all those different times had stood out head and shoulders above the rest.

  “As far as I know, there’s just me,” Gina replied. She saw the skeptical look on Shane’s face. “Oh, since there’s really nothing new under the sun, I’m sure there might be some other professional bridesmaids out there. But for now, I’m the only one I know of doing this sort of thing. At least in this state.” That much she had researched recently. “Anything else you’d like to know?” she asked Shane.

  More things than you could possibly begin to answer in the space of time we have today, Shane thought as he tried not to stare at her.

  Old memories kept trying to break through and he blocked them.

  “No,” he replied. “That answers my questions. For now.”

  An ominous feeling swept over Gina, but she fiercely pushed it away. She couldn’t afford to get caught up in anything right now. She needed to focus on the immediate business at hand.

  And Shane still hadn’t given her the answer she needed. “So, will you do it?” she asked. “Will ‘Cassidy’ create one of his much sought-after cakes for Sylvie, thereby making her an extremely happy, albeit still anxious bride?” Gina asked, never taking her eyes off Shane’s face.

  He didn’t answer right away. As a matter of fact, he was silent for so long, Gina was beginning to think that maybe she hadn’t won him over.

  If she were to guess what was happening, she would have said that Shane was relishing having to turn her down.

  But just as she had resigned herself to the inevitable, he flashed a small smile at her and said, “I’ll do it. On one condition.”

  Gina braced herself. This was going to be something that had to do with her. Shane was going to exact some sort of an act of contrition from her for having turned him down a decade ago. Okay, as long as it wasn’t anything incredibly humiliating, she was willing to go through with whatever he came up with, jumping through any hoops he cited.

  She owed it to him—and to her client.

  “Name it,” she said, holding her breath.

  “I need to meet with the bride and groom,” Shane told her in no uncertain terms. “Or at least with the bride. Both would be preferable, but meeting with the one is nonnegotiable.”

  Gina expected a wave of relief to engulf her when she heard Shane’s terms. But the relief she would have expected to experience at being taken off the hook like this didn’t quite materialize and she had no idea why. Somehow, given all this, she felt as if she’d just been shoved into limbo with the proverbial door being slammed shut on her.

  Maybe all this guilt she’d been carrying around in her mind had no real reason to exist after all. It was a possibility, she told herself.

  “You want to meet with the bride,” she repeated just to be certain she understood what Shane was asking for and there were no unspoken, hidden terms that she wasn’t getting.

  “Yes, I want to meet with the bride.” With a sigh, he explained his reasons behind the term. “I don’t just ‘bake’ a wedding cake. I create it. And creating a wedding cake for a couple is a very personal thing. To do it effectively, to give the couple their proper due, I need to meet with at least the bride to make sure I get it right and capture the essence of the two people getting married.”

  She wanted to point out that the ingredients would wind up being the same no matter how the couple struck him or what he thought of them. But to avoid any arguments, she kept that to herself. She’d just scored a huge win here in getting him to agree to make the wedding cake at all. She knew she couldn’t risk doing something to turn him off and make him change his mind about making this cake for Sylvie.

  “Sure,” Gina agreed readily. “Just tell me when it’s convenient for you and I’ll arrange for Sylvie to come to your shop to meet with you.” She paused for a second and then, knowing she was going out on a limb here, she added, “And with any luck, her future husband, too.”

  There was still part of Shane that thought this was all a creative hoax on her part. That she had made it all up. That meant that there was no “Sylvie,” no wedding and definitely not that ridiculous position she had just told him about: a professional bridesmaid.

  But he had never been a conceited man and to actually believe Gina had gone to all this trouble just to worm back into his life would be just that, conceited.

  No, as absurd as this sounded to him, Shane thought, this had to be on the level. And, if he was being honest, he supposed that her job was no more unusual than what he did—creating extremely unique cakes for people to celebrate all different occasions.

  “Wait right here,” he told her. “Let me check my calendar.”

  The next moment, he turned and walked into the back room he had initially been in wh
en she had entered his shop.

  Gina watched the door close. She couldn’t help wondering if he was stepping out of her life again, just as he had the last time he had walked out and closed the door on her.

  She knew that sounded paranoid, but given their history, she couldn’t help the thoughts that were rearing their heads in her mind.

  When the door opened again a couple of minutes later, Gina almost blew out an audible sigh of relief.

  He saw the look on her face before she managed to sublimate it. “You didn’t think I was coming back, did you?” he asked.

  “No,” she denied. “I was just wondering what was taking you so long.” She could feel his eyes looking at her knowingly. “Most people have their calendars on their smartphones, not somewhere in the back room,” she explained, saying the first thing that came to her head.

  His shrug was offhanded and casual. “I guess I’m not like most people,” he told her.

  She thought of the way he had been all those years ago and the unusual path his life had taken now. “No,” she agreed. “That you definitely are not.”

  Damn it, why was her heart pounding like this? She needed to get a grip on herself before she said or did something to make a complete fool of herself.

  Clearing her throat, Gina forced herself to think strictly about the wedding she was now responsible for and only that.

  “So, did you find a date that’s good for you?” she asked him cheerfully. “To meet with Sylvie,” she added when he didn’t respond.

  “Well, as I said, my schedule is crowded.” As if to prove it, he glanced at his watch and unconsciously took a step toward the back door again. “I’ve got a cake I need to get started creating even now.”

  “Then I won’t keep you,” Gina promised. “Just give me a date and I’ll get out of your hair just like that.” She snapped her fingers.

  I did give you a date. And you didn’t want it.

  The thought suddenly popped up in his mind, totally unbidden.

  This was a mistake, Shane told himself. He should have just referred her to another baker right from the beginning. But he had painted himself into a corner and now he was going to have to live with the consequences.

  With any luck, he consoled himself, once this cake was made and delivered, he would never have to see Gina again.

  That was what he wanted, right? What they both wanted. Right?

  Shane realized she was looking at him, waiting for him to say something. Oh right, she was waiting for him to come up with a date.

  “Wednesday at ten work for you?” he asked.

  She had no idea what Sylvie’s schedule was like because she hadn’t even met with the woman yet. It didn’t matter. Whatever Sylvie had to do could be moved around and dealt with. The bride had implied that this cake was all-important to her and meeting Shane was what it was going to take to make it a reality.

  “I’ll make it work,” Gina told him.

  And then she finally fled the shop the way she’d been wanting to from the moment she had seen that Shane and Cassidy were one and the same.

  Chapter Five

  It wasn’t until Gina sat down behind the wheel of her car and closed the driver’s side door that it finally hit her. When it did, she felt as if she was experiencing the effects of a ten-megaton bomb going off, catching her dead center.

  Shane Callaghan.

  Wow. After all these years of wondering what had happened to him, after having him haunt her dreams for at least a year of that time, their paths had finally crossed.

  Well, at least he hadn’t wasted away in some lonely, one-room hunting cabin, pining for her. That had been one of the concerns that had bothered her over the years when she couldn’t locate him.

  She had really tried to find out what happened to Shane after she had turned him down and he had totally disappeared. But at the time finding someone to ask about him had been impossible. The friends he’d sometimes spent time with had all moved away after graduation to start their new lives. Shane’s parents were both dead. She knew he had an older brother, a doctor, but he was working somewhere on the other side of the world. Shane had said something about his brother being part of Doctors Without Borders. Other than the fact that he was proud of him and that his brother’s name was Alan, she had no other details.

  And now, without any warning, she had found Shane just like that. And she had absolutely no idea how she was supposed to act toward him.

  It was almost as if she would have been better off left in the dark.

  Stop it, Gina silently ordered. You’re acting as if time just stood still and you’re the same two people you were back in college. Shane Callaghan is a totally different person than the boy you were in love with ten years ago. And so are you.

  Gina pushed her car key into the ignition and turned it on. The car rumbled to life as she put her foot on the gas. But it went nowhere. Belatedly, she remembered to release the brake and put the car into Reverse. She backed out of the parking space and within seconds, she was on the road.

  For all you know, Shane’s got a wife and six kids, she told herself. He certainly didn’t act as if he was still in love with you. You’re the one with the problem, not him. C’mon, get over yourself.

  She let out a deep breath as she headed for Sylvie Stevens’s apartment to share the news about the wedding cake.

  This whole ordeal surrounding the creation of the cake might be a little uncomfortable, but it was certainly doable. She would wind up seeing Shane—what? One, maybe two more times and then, presumably, that would be that. No reason to suppose she would have any more contact with him than that.

  She didn’t want any more contact—did she? Gina silently asked herself as she flew through a yellow light. No, she silently insisted the next moment, she didn’t. Definitely not.

  And yet...

  There was no “yet,” she staunchly maintained. She turned the radio up full blast, leaving no room for a miscellaneous thought to push its way forward. She didn’t want to think anymore.

  * * *

  Sylvie had made no secret of the fact that she was thrilled and relieved when her new bridesmaid had announced that she had been able to secure Cassidy and that he would indeed be creating the “wedding cake to end all wedding cakes” for Sylvie’s big day.

  “But he does have one condition before he can get started creating your wedding cake,” Gina said before Sylvie could get too carried away heaping a profusion of grateful words on her.

  “Anything short of my firstborn is fine with me,” Sylvie said enthusiastically. “And even that’s negotiable,” she added with a laugh.

  It never ceased to amaze Gina how obsessed some people could become about something they had essentially talked themselves into thinking that they wanted.

  “Nothing that drastic,” Gina assured her client. “Sh—Cassidy wants to meet you,” she said, correcting herself at the last moment. “He mentioned something about creating a wedding cake being a highly personal process and he needs to get a sense of you before he can even begin the process.”

  Sylvie seemed to find nothing unusual about that. The young woman was beaming as she said, “That sounds wonderful. Did you get an appointment for us?”

  “Us,” Gina repeated. “Then your fiancé is coming with you?” she asked hopefully. This was good, Gina thought. Shane had said that he preferred meeting with both parties. This would at least give him less to complain about.

  Sylvie’s answer unfortunately shot her down. “No,” the bride-to-be answered, slightly confused as to how Gina had reached that conclusion. “You are.”

  “Me?” Gina asked, surprised that the woman had inserted her in her husband’s place.

  “Of course,” Sylvie answered as if this was a no-brainer. “You’re the one who was able to talk Cassidy into doing this. Between you and me,” Sylvie said, lo
wering her voice as if she was trying to avoid eavesdroppers, “I’ve heard he can be temperamental, and I didn’t think I had a prayer of his agreeing. But you obviously found a way to get him to agree.”

  Gina tried one more time to get her client to change her mind. “But wouldn’t you rather have your fiancé with you?”

  Sylvie laughed lightly. “Jeffery said I could have any kind of wedding I wanted no matter how over-the-top it was. He said I could spend anything I wanted on it. His only condition was that he didn’t have to be involved in it beyond showing up on the big day. He said he trusts me,” Sylvie declared happily.

  This Jeffery sounded almost too good to be true, Gina thought. Either that, or totally uninterested in the proceedings. For Sylvie’s sake, she decided to compromise in her thinking. “You’re lucky to have someone so easygoing.”

  “Oh, I know, I know,” Sylvie enthused. “So when do we go see the wizard?” she asked.

  Gina couldn’t help thinking that Sylvie sounded as eager as a young child anticipating her first visit to see the legendary Santa Claus.

  She only wished that she felt half as excited as Sylvie was. But then, this wasn’t her wedding, it was Sylvie’s. Besides, it was hard to be excited when your stomach was tied up in the kind of knots that would have made any Boy Scout proud.

  Gina forced a smile to her lips. Hard as it was to project an air of happiness, she had no intention of raining on Sylvie’s parade.

  “There’s a meeting set up for us for ten Wednesday morning,” she told the future bride.

  “You’ll come by and pick me up?” Sylvie asked her, then added as an afterthought, “Seeing as how you know how to get to his shop and all and I don’t.”

  In this day and age, with GPS available on practically every electronic device except for the kitchen stove, that was not really an excuse. The way she saw it, Sylvie was asking her to drive because she just wanted someone to hold her hand before she met the heralded “Cassidy.”