Falling in Love on Willow Creek by Debbie Mason
Chapter Four
Sadie stifled another jaw-cracking yawn while she waited with Mallory for Bliss, the owner of Bites of Bliss on Main Street, to get organized for today’s cake tasting at the bakery.
“That’s your third yawn in the last five minutes. It’s either my company or Chase must have really loved his welcome home surprise from Blushing Bridal,” Mallory said with a teasing grin.
Sadie lowered her voice. The bakery was long and narrow and already crowded with people wanting to take part in the Say Yea or Nay to the Wedding Cake segment for Abby’s YouTube channel. “It’s not you, and my welcome home surprise didn’t go according to plan. I mean, Chase liked what he saw of the lingerie in the bag but I didn’t get a chance to model it for him. He got called into work on his way to the inn to drop off his grandfather, and I stayed up half the night cleaning the cottage while I waited for him to come home.”
Binge-watching the latest British crime drama on Netflix was typically her stress-busting activity of choice but dinner with the judge had left her feeling inadequate, like she and Chase weren’t as compatible as she thought. Certainly not as compatible as he was with Gwen.
She must have made a face at the thought of the other woman because Mallory said, “I’m taking it dinner with his grandfather didn’t go well.”
Sadie was a private person. Even with her closest friends, she wasn’t as forthcoming as they were. But in this instance, she really wanted a second opinion, so she shared the judge’s bombshell about Chase’s ex-fiancée with Mallory. Sadie was probably worried about nothing, but if anyone could alleviate her fears, it would be Mallory.
“What did Chase say? Did he tell you why he’s never mentioned Gwen? You’d think she’d have come up before now, especially since they’d obviously been working together in Washington this summer.”
Okay, so maybe sharing was overrated. Mallory seemed as concerned about Chase’s relationship with Gwen as Sadie was. “We didn’t have a lot of time to talk about it. I was asleep when he got home, and he had to go into work early this morning. But it probably wouldn’t matter if we’d had the entire morning to talk. When I brought it up, he got the same look on his face that he does when Granny talks to him about unicorns and fairies or when I try to explain why Darcey still has feelings for Tom on 90 Day Fiancé. Chase honestly doesn’t understand what I’m concerned about. He says he loves me, and that’s all that matters.”
“He does have a point. It’s obvious to everyone how much he loves you.”
The tension in Sadie’s shoulders released. Maybe sharing wasn’t overrated after all. Or so she thought until Mallory added, “But now that his grandfather knows Chase kept his relationship with Gwen a secret from you, he’ll bring her up at every opportunity in hopes of driving a wedge between you.”
“I said the same thing to Chase but he just doesn’t get it. He said the only way the judge could drive a wedge between us is if we didn’t trust or love each other as much as we do. To his way of thinking, Gwen is about as much a nonissue as Drew.” Drew was Sadie’s ex and Michaela’s biological father.
“I guess I can see where he’s coming from. I mean, you, me, and Abby didn’t exactly go into our relationships without some baggage. For that matter, neither did Gabe, Hunter, or, obviously, Chase.”
“You’re right, and maybe I’m just imagining Gwen was Chase’s perfect match because of what his grandfather said.”
Sadie smiled at Bliss, moving aside so she and her other baker could get by with the tray of cake slices. Abby’s wedding cake choices had come down to the top three vote getters: chocolate with salted caramel frosting, ginger carrot with buttercream frosting, and spiced pear with honey-caramel frosting. The winning design had already been chosen by Abby’s social media followers, and Bliss had assured Abby she could make the design work for any of the flavors. It would be a three-tier cake decorated with ruffled frosting, muted flowers, and wispy grasses.
“I swear I could eat that entire tray of cake by myself.” Mallory rubbed her baby bump and smiled. “Good thing I have an excuse.” She gave Sadie’s shoulder a comforting squeeze. “Now put Chase’s grandfather and Gwen out of your mind and enjoy—”
“Who’s Gwen?” Abby asked as she left a group of women to join them.
Before Sadie could get the words “nobody important” out of her mouth, Mallory said, “Chase’s ex-fiancée.”
Her eyes going wide, Abby looked from Mallory to Sadie. “I didn’t know Chase had an ex-fiancée.”
“It’s not im—” Sadie began before Mallory chimed in.
“Neither did Sadie. Chase’s grandfather brought her up last night after asking Sadie and Chase when they were getting married. He thinks Gwen is the reason they haven’t set a date.”
Sadie stared at Mallory. “That’s not what I said.” She felt like she was in a game of telephone where everything got mixed up and blown out of proportion. “Anyway, we have an episode to film. We can talk about this later.”
She nudged Abby toward the table at the front of the room where they’d set up a laptop for the twelve lucky subscribers from Abby DoesHighland Falls to join in on Zoom for the tasting. They’d shipped their boxes of cake to them a couple days before.
Abby dug in her heels. “Hang on a minute. This is too important.”
“Trust me, it’s not. But your wedding is, and so is this episode. You don’t want to disappoint your fans, do you?” Sadie shot Mallory a nowlook what you’ve done glance. They’d talked about Abby’s lack of enthusiasm for her own wedding just yesterday. Their best friend was looking for any excuse to get out of finalizing her wedding plans.
Abby blinked and then got a smile on her face that made Sadie nervous. “I know exactly how you can shut down Chase’s grandfather’s plot to break you guys up. Set a wedding date.”
“Sure. We’ll get right on that. Tonight, in fact,” Sadie said, knowing that Abby wouldn’t be satisfied with half measures or open-ended promises.
At the sudden gleam in Abby’s green eyes, Sadie braced herself for whatever her friend had come up with. Because that was definitely an I’ve got the best idea ever look in her eyes. Sadie should know; she’d seen it many times before. “How about October twenty-third?” Abby grinned.
“Sounds perfect. I won’t have to think of anything. I’ll just borrow all your ideas and decorations. But it won’t be October twenty-third next year, it’ll be October twenty-second.”
“I wasn’t talking about next year, silly. I was talking about this year.” Abby grabbed Sadie’s hands. “Say yes, please say yes. It’ll be perfect.”
Say no, say a hard no, Sadie told herself. She had problems saying no, especially to Abby. “Abs, I love that you want us to have a double wedding.” After what her psychic cousin had said, Sadie hoped something hadn’t gotten lost in translation and that Abby wasn’t planning a bride switcheroo. “Maybe if it was, say, eight months away,” Sadie continued, “I’d think about it. But it’s in a few weeks’ time.”
When the excitement in Abby’s eyes faded and she got a dejected look on her face, Sadie blurted, “I’ll talk to Chase,” kicking herself as soon as the words came out of her mouth. She couldn’t help it. Abby had to look like the happy bride-to-be that her subscribers, not to mention half the town, expected. Sadie would find a way to let her down gently later. They had a week before they filmed the Say Yea or Nay to the Wedding Menu segment.
Abby’s face lit up. “Really?”
“Yes, really. Now go before Bliss bites her fingernails to the quick.” Sadie nodded at the bakery’s owner, who stood behind the comfy, white high-back chair they’d brought in for the occasion. It went perfectly with the bakery’s robin’s-egg-blue decor.
Abby gave Sadie and Mallory exuberant hugs before winding her way through the tables, greeting the audience effusively.
“Someone is in a much happier mood than they were yesterday,” Mallory observed as they made their way to the table to the right of Abby’s. Sadie stopped at the tripod first to check the angle of the camera, which she could pause and start with a remote control. That way she could enjoy the tasting too.
She waited until they got settled at their table to share her concerns with Mallory. “You don’t think that was a play by Abby to get out of her wedding by making me the bride-to-be, do you?”
Mallory frowned, turning in her chair to look at Abby, who was welcoming everyone to the cake tasting. “No, I don’t think so. I mean, she hasn’t exactly been acting like the Abby we know and love, but I’m sure she’s just nervous. A lot of brides get pre-wedding jitters.”
“Did you?”
Mallory smiled. “No. But our wedding was spur of the moment. It was just me, Gabe, the boys, and a couple of witnesses on the beach.” Gabe had proposed when they were on vacation with their sons at spring break. “Abby’s basically having a wedding with millions of people attending, even if the majority of them will be online. That would make me nervous too.”
“Because you don’t like to be the center of attention. But Abby thrives on it.”
At that moment, Abby turned the laptop, introducing everyone in the bakery to twelve of her super-fans, who’d won the chance to take part in the cake tasting. Concerned that the angle of the camera might not capture the fans’ faces, Sadie got up from the chair and hurried over to the tripod, apologizing to the women sitting at the surrounding tables as she did so.
Abby smiled. “Hey guys, let’s put our hands together for Sadie. She’s the one who makes the magic happen behind the scenes.”
Everyone in the bakery and on-screen clapped, and Abby led them in a cheer for her. Sadie smiled her thanks and gave a little wave. When the clapping and cheering died down, Abby grinned and said, “I have some super exciting breaking news for you guys, but I might need some help from you to make it happen.”
Abby’s announcement was met with shouts of “What is it? What do we need to do?”
Sadie glanced up from the viewfinder to find Abby looking at her with her eyebrows raised. No, Sadie mouthed, shaking her head, only to find that the audience’s attention was now on her too.
Babs Sutherland waved a hand. “I know, I know. Sadie set a wedding date!”
“No. Sadie has not set a wedding date,” Sadie said, thinking she was going to kill her best friend when the audience began shouting their suggestions on the best time of year for her to get married.
Abby put her fingers between her lips and whistled loudly. The room went quiet. “Okay, so as you can see, my bestie isn’t totally on board with sharing our news just yet. So it’s up to us to convince her that October twenty-third would be the absolute perfect day for her to get married.”
“We’re going to have a double wedding!” several older women cried, including Babs.
Sadie bowed her head. It felt like she was on a runaway train that she had no chance of stopping. She looked up to have her worst fears confirmed. Babs’s fingers were flying on her phone. By now, the owner of Spill the Tea had no doubt texted the news to anyone who wasn’t at the bakery. Which meant that the news would spread throughout the entire town of Highland Falls and beyond by tonight.
Abby must have picked up on Sadie’s panic because she once again whistled for quiet. “Let’s not put the cart before the horse. Sadie needs to talk to her fiancé first. Although why he wouldn’t want to marry this incredible woman as soon as possible is beyond me.”
Sadie could say the same about Abby, who’d been dragging her heels about setting a wedding date with Hunter, who was an amazing man. In the end, it had been Hunter’s aunt, Elsa, who’d forced the issue, setting the date for the couple. Sort of like Abby was doing for Sadie.
At that moment, she had a better understanding of how Abby must have felt. Just like Elsa, Abby probably thought her wedding-date intervention was in Sadie’s best interest. If it served to shut down the judge’s plot to break them up, she supposed there might be merit to the plan.
It wasn’t like Sadie didn’t want to marry Chase or hadn’t given it some thought over the past few months. An image of her walking down the aisle toward Chase appeared before her eyes, and Sadie found herself smiling.
“Do you see that? I think we might be winning her over, guys,” Abby said.
Damn it.“No, I just—”
“Okay, no pressure, sweetie. Well, maybe a little pressure. But just in case you’re doing this, you need to pick a cake too so get over here.”
Sadie narrowed her eyes as she made her way to Abby’s side. “You said ‘in case you’re doing this,’ not ‘in case we’re doing this.’ This would be a double wedding, wouldn’t it?”
Abby waved her off. “Of course, of course,” but she wouldn’t meet Sadie’s gaze.
“Abby—” Sadie began, only to have Abby ignore her and turn a radiant smile on Bliss. “Let’s give a big round of applause to Bliss for hosting the sampling and making the cakes.” Abby clapped and cheered along with the audience. “You’ll all be happy to know that Bliss has each of the cakes available for sale and to order,” Abby said once the appreciative noise had died down. “So let’s show her our thanks and support by buying everything she has in stock. Now, everyone ready? Forks up. Let the sampling begin!”
In between sampling the cakes, Sadie lifted her phone to film the audience. She blinked at the number of text messages on her cell. She’d asked everyone to turn off the sound when they’d first arrived, and she’d done the same. If her grandmother needed her, she would send someone to get her. They were only a couple stores away.
She took a few minutes to film the live and online audiences’ enthusiastic responses to the cakes and went back to finishing up her own. All three were amazing, but it was the chocolate cake with salted caramel that won Sadie over. So much so that she was tempted to lick the plate.
She leaned back in her chair and whispered to Bliss, “Can you reserve one of these for me?” She pointed to her empty cake plate.
Beside her, Abby laughed. “It looks like Sadie’s made her pick. Let’s see if you guys agreed with her. Which cake did you pick for Sadie?” The majority of people held up the number one.
“It wasn’t hard. She looked like she was having an orgasm when she was eating it.” Babs laughed.
Sadie’s cheeks heated. “Thanks, Babs.”
“Don’t even think about editing that out,” Abby said. Then she asked the audience, “I’m having a hard time deciding between cakes two and three, so help me out, guys. Which one did you pick for me?”
Cake number three—spiced pear with honey-caramel frosting—won out for Abby.
“Perfect, and I’ll take one to go, Bliss.” Abby glanced from cake number two to Mallory, who got a nervous expression on her face.
Sadie understood why when she got a look at the gleam in Abby’s eyes.
“I’ve just had a brilliant idea. Mallory, get up here.” Abby leaned over to pull another chair beside her.
“It’s okay. I’m good right here,” Mallory said.
“Please, for me.” Abby fluttered her eyelashes. When Mallory didn’t look like she was going to move, Abby started chanting, “Mallory, Mallory,” and the rest of the audience joined in, clapping when Mallory finally complied.
“I’m already married and almost nine months pregnant, so don’t even think about—” Mallory began as she lowered herself into the chair.
“But we weren’t at your wedding,” Abby said, putting an arm around Sadie’s shoulders and bringing their heads together. “And neither were your other friends and neighbors. Come on, what do you say? It’ll be perfect. You and Gabe can renew your vows.”
If the town of Highland Falls had been excited about Abby’s wedding, they were over the moon at the idea of three best friends getting married together. Even Sadie found herself getting a little caught up in the excitement of the moment, cheering when Mallory reluctantly agreed. And then Sadie remembered. She had to consult the groom.