Page 54 of Fa-La-La-La Faking It
Adaline tucked her arm through his and gave his elbow a squeeze. “It’s going to work. I know it will.”
Maybe she was on a high after her triumph at the leasing office, but Adaline just knew everything was going to work out. The past few times she’d seen Gus at the senior center, he’d been a different man. Decent, almost. Beneath his bitter, crusty exterior, he longed for connection, just like everyone else did. The photograph Jace had found could be the catalyst that changed his relationship with his uncle forever.
A quiet laugh rumbled through Jace as he wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her close. “Are you always this optimistic?”
She grinned up him. “You know me too well already to even ask that question.”
Hedidknow her. Hesawher. From the moment he’d rolled into town, Jace Martin had seen her in a way that no one else did—not her family, not her friends, not anyone. He remembered the Adaline she’d been back before the world had taken its toll on her—before mismatched relationships had made her feel like she was too much to love.
Jace liked that girl, and by pretending to be in love with him, Adaline was beginning to realize she liked that girl too. She wanted tobethat girl again.
“Thank you for this,” Jace said, and the tenderness in his gaze made her believe anything was possible.
Only one rule left to break.Her heart thudded in her chest. There were only three days left until Christmas Eve. Having a clear time frame for their make-believe romance was supposed to be the most important rule of all. Now it hung over her head like an anvil...
Or mistletoe.
She couldn’t figure out which.
“You two certainly look cozy,” Belle said as she walked up behind them from the library’s research room.
“Morning, Belle,” Jace said.
“Oh, hi!” Adaline unwound herself from Jace to give Belle a hug. “I didn’t realize you were already here.”
“I got here early to try and see how far back the online archives go for theBluebonnet Beacon.” Belle’s eyebrows raised. “We’re in luck. They date all the way back to 1960. I’m hopeful we can find what both of you are looking for.”
Belle led them to the computer she’d been using to access theBeacon’s archives with her credentials from the Texas Library Association. Jace and Adaline pulled up chairs and the three of them squeezed in front of the monitor, shoulder to shoulder.
“Let’s start with you, Adaline, since you already know when Gram got married.” Belle’s glittery manicured nails tapped away on the keyboard. “What’s the exact date of the wedding?”
Adaline gave her the information, and within seconds an article popped up onscreen.
Belle gasped. “Look at this. Gram’s wedding landed right on the front page of theBeacon’s Community Events section.”
“Jackpot,” Jace said.
Adaline scanned the words onscreen. The article was glowing and detailed everything about the wedding, from the names of the attendants, all the way down to the designer of the shoes Gram had worn. Halfway down the page, her attention snagged on a grainy black-and-white photograph of her grandparents standing on the front steps of Bluebonnet Chapel. She and Jace had been in that exact spot yesterday, and in just a few days, Ford and Maple would walk down that same aisle. History truly had a way of repeating itself, didn’t it?
Except what Maple and Ford had was real. She and Jace were merely pretending to walk in those same footsteps. At least she thought that’s what was still going on.
“Look, sweetheart.” Jace pointed to a section of text three paragraphs down from the picture. “There’s a full description of the cake—just what you need to recreate it.”
Adaline leaned forward, greedy for every last detail. “Fresh vanilla bean and cherries in the sponge. I already guessed that part since Gram told me years ago she had a cherry vanilla wedding cake, but wow. The cake had a fresh tart cherry filling with almond undertones. I never would’ve known that. Most vintage wedding cakes had buttercream between the layers.”
“I can print the whole article, if you like,” Belle offered as she guided the cursor to a row of icons at the top of the screen.
“Please.” Adaline clapped her hands. “This isperfect.”
She was already itching to get back to Cherry on Top and whip up one last practice bake. She’d need to make a trip to Bluebonnet General for fresh cherries, but she already had almond extract on hand that she’d made herself using slivered almonds and Tito’s vodka—a Texas favorite, since it was crafted and distilled in Austin. Homemade extract was so much better than the bottled stuff, it wasn’t even funny.
But first, they needed to unravel the truth about Gus.
She turned toward Jace. “You brought the picture, right?”
“I’ve got it right here.” He reached into his shirt pocket for the photo and set it on the desk in front of the computer. Then he powered on his cell phone and handed it to Belle. “I also took photos of all the horse show pictures that showed the same woman, just in case that might help.”
“That was really smart.” Belle scrolled through the horse show images with quick flips of her thumb. “There’s a placard in most of these with the name of the horse show and the date it took place, so I’ll bet we can find her name that way. Then we can search theBeaconarchives for any articles that mention her name and Gus’s together in the same story.”
