I grinned. “Oh, really? When do I get it?”
He chuckled. “Soon, I swear. By the way, my uncle Chris wanted to know if we’d head to their place this Saturday. They’re bringing in two new race horses.”
Emmit’s brother, Chris, was obsessed with breeding race horses and had a ranch out toward Hamilton, Texas. Chris knew how much I loved horses, so when he had new studs or mares come in he always asked if we wanted to see them.
“I can’t Saturday, I’ve got a wedding. Oh, and by the way, there’s this new bakery in Waco that opened, and I’m dying to check it out. I figured I might get a better idea of how they work with engaged couples if we go and pretend to be interested in their cakes.”
Landon frowned. “What do you mean?”
“Well, couples always go to cake tasting appointments. I usually refer them to certain bakeries, and I’ve heard good things about the cakes at this one. But they’re so new that they haven’t worked with any of my couples, and I thought it might be nice to go visit them as a bride instead of a wedding planner. I made an appointment on Friday at six to go for a cake tasting. Plus, I can document it for Instagram. I’ll be killing two birds with one stone. Checking out a bakery under the pretense of our fake engagement and getting some social media posts out of it.”
“And I get to eat cake?” Landon asked with a hopeful smile.
“You do!”
“Hell, that sounds like a win-win in my book.”
I reached across the table and took his hand in mine. “Are you sure about this? It won’t be weird for you, pretending?” I asked in a hushed voice.
“Nah, I’m not worried about.”
He kissed my wrist and then winked at me. “I’ve got to get back to the shop. What time should I be at your place tonight?”
We both stood, and Landon walked around the table and took my hand in his. “Is six okay?” I asked.
“That works for me,” he said. We started to walk out of the coffee shop, and when we got outside, Landon paused and looked down at me, his eyes dancing with happiness. My stomach flipped with the anticipation of finally being alone with him tonight.
“You want me to walk you to your car?” Landon asked.
I shook my head. His shop was only two blocks away from the coffee shop, a place we often met up at. He’d usually walk over and I would drive and meet him here. “No, thank you, though. I’ll see you later?”
He leaned down, pressed his mouth to mine, and gave me a sweet kiss laced with just enough sexual tension that it left me a little wobbly. Lord, this man knew how to pour his emotions into a kiss. When he pulled back, he rested his forehead to mine. “See you later.”
I watched as he started to walk down the street, not taking my eyes off of him until he turned the corner.
“That was some kiss,” a voice said from behind me. I spun around to find a man about my age wearing a Baylor baseball cap and dressed in jeans and a black T-shirt standing there.
All I could do was smile as I said, “Well, a couple in love and all that.” Just in case it was a reporter snooping around.
When I got to my car, I turned and looked back to see the man was making his way into the coffee shop. I shook my head and laughed to myself.
“Since when did you become so paranoid, Emmerson?” I slipped into my car and headed to Reed’s Flowers to check on the orders for Saturday’s wedding.
A knock on my front door gave me a much-needed break from work. I had three weddings on my schedule this month, and all three had very demanding brides—and one had an over-the-top mother of the bride. If she sent me one more idea from Pinterest I was going to scream.
When I looked through the peephole, I did scream and then scrambled to unlock my door.
“Aunt Autumn, what are you doing here?”
Screaming back at me, Autumn threw her arms around my waist, nearly knocking me to the ground as she squeezed until I was almost out of air. Then she pushed me back at arm’s length and gave me a once-over. Her smile got even wider.
“I call bullshit!”
I felt my face screw up in confusion. “What are you talking about?”
She laughed and shook her head. “Nothing, never mind me. What is this I hear about an engagement? As soon as I saw the news, I called your daddy and demanded to know why no one had told me, only to find out it’s a…fake…engagement?”
I rolled my eyes. “Lord, it’s a long story, Aunt Autumn.”
“Well, luckily for you, I’ve got all the time in the world.”
“Wait, I thought you and Uncle Jack were in Vermont with Sophie?”
“We were, but then we decided to take a little trip to Europe, just the two of us.”
I smiled. Autumn was my father’s sister, and she and Jack had been separated for a few years when their daughter, Sophie, was younger. Then they found each other again, and they made sure to get away at least once a year. No work, no phones, no social media. Just the two of them. I had always loved their story. It was a typical second-chance romance, but nothing about their love was a cliché.
Sophie was nearly eight years older than me and lived in Vermont with her husband and three kids. They owned a bed and breakfast up there, and my family and I used to go and stay at least once a year, before life just got too busy. It had been at least three years since we had gone up to visit them.
“Europe, huh? How romantic!” I said as I laced my arm through hers and walked her farther into my house. Lady came barreling toward Autumn and damn near swept her feet out from under her.
“Goodness, who do we have here?” Autumn asked, dropping down to let Lady give her all the licks she possibly could.
“This young lady is Lady.”
Autumn laughed, trying to keep her mouth away from my dog’s crazy-long tongue.
“From Lady and the Tramp?” Autumn asked with a knowing smile. It wasn’t a secret that it was one of my favorite Disney movies, second only to Brother Bear.
“Yep. I just need to find a Tramp.”
With another laugh, Autumn stood and brushed little bits of Lady’s white hair off of her jeans. “Now, back to you. When Jack and I landed in Atlanta and I saw your picture on a rag magazine with the word ‘Engaged’ across the front, I pulled my phone out and called Malcolm. He gave me the lowdown on what happened and said you were both going along with this crazy thing. Why?”
“Trust me, I’ve been asking myself that very question. But both Landon and I would have looked like fools if we had said we weren’t engaged at that point, and I only said it to my ex in the first place because I was having some weird meltdown at the time.”
She lifted her chin and said, “Ahhh. So you’re saving face by lying.”
I groaned and buried my face in my hands before I laughed. “I know. I know. It’s all so crazy. I just…I don’t need negative press right now. Neither does Landon.”
I told her our reasons for the fake engagement and she stared at me with an assessing look.
“It’s not that big of a deal. It’s going to give me a chance to see what my job is like from the other side.”
She nodded. “Right. Or do you think maybe you secretly want to be engaged, and that being engaged to your best friend isn’t such a bad thing?”