Page 37 of Cut The Cake

“I’ve had lots of practice—working in L.A., there’s always something going on,” she added, defensive. She forced her shoulders square, refusing to wither beneath Nick’s long, studying glance. Seconds ticked by while she waited for his reaction.

Just when she’d grown certain he was trying to figure out a way to let her down easy, he asked, “What’s stopping you?”

He’d asked a very good question, one that deserved an honest answer. She reached down deep. “I’m not sure I’d be able to do it on my own,” she confessed. “I told you my cousin is a bigwig in the industry.” She waited for his nod before she plunged ahead. “Her name has a certain amount of cachet. I’m afraid I’ll find out that the success I’ve had so far has been due to her influence.”

“That’s not going to happen,” Nick said, sounding certain. “Look how well you’ve planned your wedding. You knew exactly what you wanted and pulled it together in a matter of days.”

“Yeah, but then I didn’t stick to it,” she pointed out.

“All the more reason you should be proud of what you’ve accomplished. Whatever the reason, you’ve had to make some pretty significant changes. But there’s a lot to be said for persistence. You could have just thrown up your hands and escaped to Bora Bora. You didn’t. You stuck with it, sweet-talked the vendors in town, and got them to do what you wanted. Even me.” His lips tilted into the crazy smile she liked so much. “And you did it yourself, without any help from your cousin.”

Jenny leaned back on her elbows. Nick might be onto something. Maybe she could open her own business. Of course, she’d have to start small, and probably not in L.A., where success depended more on celebrity endorsements than the ability to pull off an event without a hitch.

“There’s just one thing.” Nick hesitated.

“Yeah?” She glanced sideways at the man sitting on the blanket beside her.

“In order to succeed, you’ll have to stiffen your spine a bit.”

“Huh?” She cocked her head, not sure she understood what he meant.

“I mean you’re going to have to stand up to your clients better than you’ve stood up for yourself with this wedding.” Nick held out one hand and ticked items off on his fingers. “This wedding won’t be anything like what it started out to be. You’ve added to the number of guests, moved the ceremony and the reception from one location to another in the Captain’s Cottage. The menu, the flowers, the colors—you’ve changed them all. Not because you wanted to, but other people insisted on it.”

“You must think I’m a nitwit.” She hung her head.

“No, never that. You’re bright and cheerful, and everyone in town likes you. That said, I do think you need to decide what you want and then go for it. Don’t let anyone push you around.”

Her brow puckered. Had Nick discovered the real reason behind what she’d done? “Like who?”

“Well, your fiancé, for one.”

“What’s he got to do with this?” She canted her head. If she didn’t know better, she’d swear Nick sounded a bit put out with a man who didn’t exist.

“I thought you said he was the one who added to the guest list.”

Her breath hitched when Nick’s gaze bore into hers. That was the problem with secrets and lies. One led to another and then another. Pretty soon, it was hard to keep them straight. “Him, but mostly his mother,” she corrected. “She invited everyone on both sides of their family.”

“Hmm. You’d think …”

“What?” Suddenly, she really wanted to know what Nick thought.

“You’d think Bob would stand up for you, take your side. If I had a fiancée, that’s what I’d do. If she wanted a small wedding, I’d insist on it. That’s all.”

“Yeah.” Her soft agreement whispered into the room. “You think it’s all Bob’s fault.”

The mythical, nonexistent Bob.

Nick shrugged. “Who else is there?”

Slowly, Jenny nodded. “Who else, indeed.”

Nick folded his legs when the next wave sent water rushing over the sand at his feet. The tide had changed. Within the next hour, the water would rise nearly to the cliff. As sorry as he was to see the day come to an end, it was time for him and Jenny to retrace their steps to the B&B.

While Jenny bagged their trash and stored their empty containers in the picnic basket, he shook sand out of the blanket and rolled it into a tight cylinder. As he worked, he thought hard about Jenny, trying to assemble the pieces of her puzzle. They wouldn’t fit.

On the one hand, he admired her strength and determination, her dedication to family and her outlook for the future. She’d had to be strong to survive the deaths of her parents when she’d been so young. He’d known others who hadn’t been able to deal with that kind of loss. They’d let their grief overwhelm them. For the rest of their lives, they carried their sorrow with them wherever they went, like the crabs and snails carried shells. As for determination, Jenny had a boatload of that, too. She’d needed it in order to put herself through college. From outward appearances, she was a woman who knew what she wanted and went for it. Given all that, how could someone who was so dedicated to having a schedule and sticking to it get to be so fickle about her own wedding plans?

And then there was her fiancé. Most brides-to-be found one way or another to bring their Mr. Right into every conversation. Not Jenny. She barely mentioned the man she was going to marry in a few days. When pressed for details, the woman who insisted on precisely the right flowers in her wedding bouquet had nothing in particular to say about the man she was going to spend the rest of her life with. To tell the truth, her descriptions of him were so bland, the man sounded more like a cardboard cutout than a husband.

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