Читать книгу Resisting Mr. Tall, Dark & Texan - Christine Rimmer - Страница 8

Late Thursday afternoon, Ethan parked his rented SUV on Main Street in Thunder Canyon. The early-June sun shone bright and the air was crisp and clean, with a cool wind sweeping down from the mountains. In the distance, snowcapped peaks reached for the wide Montana sky.

He was thinking he would walk the three blocks to the Hitching Post, the landmark saloon/restaurant that had stood for well over a hundred years now at the corner where Main jogged north and became Thunder Canyon Road.

But then, a few doors down, he spotted his sister-in-law Erika. The pretty brunette stood peering in the window of one of the shops. Beside her was a gorgeous blonde. Ethan knew the blonde, too: Erin Castro, his brother Corey’s bride-to-be.

As Ethan approached, Erin turned her back to the window. She sagged against it, hanging her head. When she spoke, Ethan heard the tightness of barely controlled tears. “I can’t believe this. I talked to him yesterday …”

Erika peered all the harder in the wide front window. “I’m so sorry, Erin. I really don’t think there’s anyone in there. And all the display cases are empty.”

Erin tipped her head back and let out a moan. “How can this be happening? Oh, Erika, what am I going to do now? The wedding is Saturday.”

Erika turned around and leaned back against the window, next to Erin. “I can’t believe he would just … vanish like that.” Right then, she glanced over and saw Ethan lurking a few feet away, waiting for them to notice him. She frowned. “Ethan? Hey, I didn’t know you were already in town.”

He nodded. “Got in an hour ago. My assistant shooed me out of the house. She doesn’t like me underfoot while she’s trying to unpack—and why do I get the feeling something has gone wrong here?”

Erin let out another moan. “Because it has.” She aimed a thumb over her shoulder at the sign that said Closed Indefinitely in the shop window. The shop was a bakery. La Boulangerie was written in flowing script across the front windows. “I came over to make my final payment on my wedding cake only to find that the baker, apparently, has skipped town.”

Erika said, “She paid him two-thirds in advance. Can you believe that? This is fraud, plain and simple.”

“It’s a disaster, that’s what it is.” Erin raked her shining blond hair back off her forehead with an impatient hand. “I don’t even care about the money at this point. I care that it’s Thursday … .” A whimper escaped her. “Thursday.”

Erika wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “We’ll figure out something. There are other bakeries in town.”

“I can’t believe it. Forty-eight hours until the wedding.” Erin’s huge blue eyes swam with tears. “The whole town is coming. And. No. Cake.”

Ethan never could stand to see a woman cry. Plus, as soon as he’d realized what the problem was, he had the solution. “Erin, dry those tears. And come with me, you two. My car’s right there.”

His brothers’ women looked at him as if he was a couple sandwiches short of a picnic.

Erin sniffed. “Ethan, we’re both glad to see you and we’d love to spend a little time with you. But right now we’ve got to find someone who can deliver a six-tier wedding cake by Saturday.”

“I’m with you. I get it.” He took Erin’s arm and wrapped it around his. And he offered his other arm to Erika. “And believe it or not, I happen to know the best baker in Texas.”

Erin remained unconvinced. “That’s great, Ethan, but there’s no time to fly someone in from Texas.”

“I know. And that’s not a problem. The baker in question is right here in town—whipping the house I’m renting into shape, as a matter of fact.”

“Uh, he is?”

“Actually, her name is Lizzie. She’s a genius of a baker. She’s at my house and we are going there now.”

Lizzie stood in the formal living room of the house she’d rented for Ethan, BlackBerry in hand, and checked off the afternoon’s already-accomplished tasks.

Unpack 4 Ethan. Check.

Unpack 4 self. Check.

There was more in the same vein. But overall, the house was in pretty good shape. It had come quite nicely furnished and she’d hired Super-Spiffy Housekeeping to make the place shine. Also, the Super-Spiffy folks offered a shopping service. Lizzie jumped on that, too. As a result, the pantry and fridge were now fully stocked and ready to go.

Now, to figure out what to whip up for dinner. It would have to be something she could make up ahead and stick in the fridge, just in case Ethan wandered in later with an empty stomach. And cookies might be nice. Her mama’s recipe for butter pecan sugar cookies maybe. He could never get enough of those.

Yeah, okay. She totally spoiled him and she knew it. But when she baked, she was spoiling herself, too. There was nothing like the smell of cookies in the oven. Or sourdough bread. Or a sweet fruit kuchen. Or a nice devil’s food cake.

The smell of something baking always made Lizzie feel that all was right with the world. It brought back memories of her childhood, as vivid and real as if they were happening in the here and now, so many years later. Memories of the little child-size table she had in the back of the family business, the Texas Bluebell Bakery. Of her mama singing “Au clair de la lune” and “Frère Jacques” as she decorated a tall, splendid wedding cake or even asked for Lizzie’s help to cut gingerbread men from dark, spicy dough. When Lizzie baked, she saw her maman’s heart-shaped delicate face, her pink cheeks and radiant smile. She saw her dad as a young man again, a happy man. He’d met her maman when he was in the army, stationed in France, and he’d loved her on sight. So he’d swept her off her tiny feet and brought her home to reign over the bakery he’d inherited from his parents. Lizzie’s dad had lived for her maman.

And when her maman was gone …

Lizzie blinked and shook her head. No point in going there. She had a meal to prepare. And then she had butter-thick cookie batter to mix with toasted pecans, roll into sugared balls and flatten with the round base of a glass.

She was just turning for the kitchen when she heard the front door open.

Ethan appeared from the foyer, ushering a striking blonde and a curvy, big-eyed brunette in ahead of him. He spotted her. “Lizzie, there you are.”

She laughed. “Ethan, what are you up to now?”

He put an arm across the blonde’s shoulders. “Lizzie, meet Corey’s beautiful bride, Erin Castro.” He hooked the other arm around the brunette. “And this gorgeous creature is Erika, Dillon’s wife. My brothers are such fortunate men.”

Lizzie recognized the two from family photos. “Hey, great to meet you both at last.”

Erin said, “Hi,” kind of limply. Erika echoed the word. Both women looked a little … what? Unhappy, maybe, and worried. Especially Erin.

Lizzie gestured toward the living-room sofa and chairs. “Make yourselves comfortable. I’ll brew a pot of coffee and see if there’s anything sweet around here …” She turned for the kitchen.

“Coffee would be great,” Ethan said. “And it’s you we came to see.”

She stopped, turned. “Me?”

The women shared a glance. Erin spoke. “Ethan seems to think you might be able to save me from disaster.”

“Yikes. There’s a disaster?”

“There certainly is. A cake disaster. I went to finalize payment on my wedding cake today and found out the baker has skipped town.”

Lizzie let out a groan of sympathy. “But the wedding is Saturday, isn’t it?”

Erin gave a sad little sigh. “Exactly.”

Ethan said coaxingly, “And I told them that you’re unbeatable in the kitchen. And that you’re planning to leave me to open a bakery …”

Lizzie grinned, pleased. “You want me to do the wedding cake.”

Erin let out a cry. “Oh, it’s too much. Way too much to ask.” She put her hands to her pink cheeks. “I’m so sorry we bothered you.”

“Hold on, now.” Ethan tried to settle her down.

But Erin would not be “settled.” She turned to Erika. “We really have to get going. I need to work this problem out and I need to do it yesterday …”

Lizzie ached for the poor girl. “Hey, did I say no?”

Erin blinked. “But I … Well, could you? Would you?”

“I can, yes. And I would be honored. And you can relax. It’s very much doable. Mostly it’s going to be about getting the equipment I’ll need together on the fly like this. But the cake itself is no problem.”

“No problem?” Erin was shaking her head. “It’s for three hundred people.”

Lizzie couldn’t bear to see the poor woman so worried. She went to her, took both her small, slim hands in her own larger ones. “Let me take this worry off your shoulders. Planning a wedding is stressful enough without your baker running off on you.” The man—why was she sure it had to be a man?—should be shot.

A tear trembled in Erin’s thick lashes. “Oh, if you could …”

“I can. And I will. You’ll see. I won’t let you down. I baked several multitiered wedding cakes when I worked in my family’s bakery, before college. And I’ve done four more since then, for friends in Texas who had big, gorgeous weddings.”

The tear escaped Erin’s lashes and spilled down her cheek. She freed a hand from Lizzie’s grasp to take the tissue Ethan had produced for her. “I know it’s only a cake. It’s not the end of the world. I shouldn’t let it get to me like this …”

Erika moved in closer and wrapped an arm around Erin’s shoulder. “It’s all going to work out.” She winked at Lizzie. “My instincts tell me that Lizzie is just what we need right now.”

“Yes, I am,” said Lizzie with a low laugh. “Now come on into the kitchen. I’ll make the coffee and see if we have some packaged cookies around here because I haven’t had time to bake anything yet. You can tell me all about the fabulous cake I’ll be creating for you.”

“Oh, thank you. Thank you …”

Over Erin’s shoulder, Ethan caught Lizzie’s eye and grinned in satisfaction. Lizzie grinned right back at him. He was pleased to have found a way to solve Erin’s problem. And he knew that Lizzie loved it when he brought her a challenge.

The kitchen had a big round table positioned in a bow window very much like the one in Ethan’s house in Texas. In fact, Lizzie had pretty much chosen the house because it seemed to her a slightly smaller version of his Midland home. She’d known he would feel instantly comfortable here—then again, Ethan felt comfortable wherever he was.

He went right to the table and pulled out chairs for the bride and for Erika as Lizzie got the coffee going and put some Pepperidge Farm Milano cookies on a plate. Within a few minutes, they were all munching cookies and sipping coffee.

Lizzie got out her notebook. “Okay, now, tell me all about your perfect wedding cake.”

Erin knew exactly what she wanted. “It has round tiers—six tiers. And real flowers. I have a lot of colors. So I thought if the cake itself was all white, we could put the colors in the flowers. I have mauve, red, purple, apple green, light orange and lilac …” Lizzie jotted down the colors as she ticked them off.

Erika added, “Each of her bridesmaids and matrons gets a different color.”

Erin smiled at her soon-to-be sister-in-law. “Erika’s dress is red.”

“That will be beautiful.” Lizzie started sketching. “Filling?”

“Raspberry preserves? And I want fondant on top of buttercream icing for that beautiful smooth look …”

“The porcelain look,” Lizzie said. “And the fondant holds up well without refrigeration.”

“Yes.” Erin frowned. “I know the fondant isn’t usually very tasty …”

“Mine is—does that sound like I’m bragging?” She shrugged. “Well, I am.”

Erin beamed. “Good. I have to tell you, your confidence is really encouraging.”

Erika chuckled. “Now is not a time she needs a modest baker.”

Ethan let out a rumble of laughter. “Lizzie? Modest about baking? Never. But then, why should she be?”

Lizzie granted him an approving nod. “White cake?” she asked Erin.

Erin said, “We wanted pink champagne cake. And can you add some vanilla mousse filling with the raspberry?”

“You’ve got it. I’ll need to get with your florist. Gerbera daisies in your colors would be nice, trailing in a spiral up over the tiers …”

Erin blinked. “How did you know?”

Lizzie shrugged again. “I can do some pretty white fondant flowers, too, for another accent, as well as edible pearls.” She turned her notebook around so that the other two women could see her sketch of the cake.

Erika made a pleased sound.

Erin was beaming. “Oh, it’s perfect. Just as I pictured it.” She set down her coffee cup. “And I’ve got my checkbook.” She grabbed for the bag she’d hooked on the back of her chair. “I can pay you right now.”

Lizzie put up a hand.

But Ethan was the one who spoke. “No way. Consider it your wedding present.”

Erin looked stunned. “But I couldn’t possibly … No, that’s not right. It’s too much. I know what a cake like this costs.”

Ethan held firm. “You paid once for your cake. Not again.”

“Ethan, you’re a prince. Really. But it’s way too much work for Lizzie. It’s not fair to ask her to give her time and talent away like that.”

Lizzie spoke up then. “Don’t you worry. As I said, I’m honored to create your cake for you. I’m going to love baking your cake for you, I promise you.”

“And I promise,” said Ethan, with that melting look that broke all the girls’ hearts, “that I’ll pick up the tab. It won’t cost Lizzie a penny.”

Lizzie reached over and put her hand on Erin’s slender arm. “Ethan will take care of me. Count on it. He always does.”

Before the two women left, Erin invited Lizzie to the rehearsal dinner the next night.

“I would love to, but I think I need to stay focused, if you know what I mean.” Actually, she probably could have fit in the dinner, but she wouldn’t have been much of a guest because she’d be totally concentrated on all that would need doing the following day. She’d be up at about 4:00 a.m. Saturday, and baking her butt off. Luckily, the wedding was in the late afternoon, giving her a perfectly acceptable window of time to pull it all together.

If she could get all her equipment tomorrow. Which was another reason she didn’t want to commit to dinner Friday night. She could still be running around madly then, trying to scare up cake boards or the right size pans.

“The three of us, then,” said Erin. “You, me and Erika. We’re taking a girls’ night out as soon as Corey and I get back from our honeymoon.”

Lizzie liked the sound of that. “It’s a date.”

“I’ll call you tomorrow,” promised Erika. “In case there’s anything you think of that I might be able to help with.”

“Thanks. That would be terrific.”

And then, in a flurry of goodbyes and thank-yous, Corey’s bride and Dillon’s wife were gone.

With a sigh, Lizzie sagged against the front door.

Ethan stood in the arch to the living room. “You’re amazing.” He looked at her with affection and appreciation in those gorgeous dark eyes.

She felt really good, she realized, basking in her boss’s admiration—and excited over the cake she would create. “I like them. Both of them. And this is going to be fun.”

“What can I do?”

“Stick around for about an hour while I make some calls?”

“You got it.”

“Then I’ll let you know what I need from you.”

Dark eyes gleamed. “See? You already love it here.”

She had to confess, “Okay, it’s not as bad as I imagined it.”

“Not as bad?” His voice coaxed her.

“Ethan, for crying out loud, what do you want from me? We’ve only been here half a day.”

“You love it.”

She pushed off the door frame and stood tall on her own two size-ten-and-a-half feet. “It ain’t Texas.”

“Lizzie.” He spoke in that dark, sweet voice he used with his girlfriends. “You love it.”

A strange little shiver went through her. She ignored it and blew a loose strand of hair out of her eyes as she gestured down the central hallway, toward his big, well-appointed home office. “Go … check your email or something. I’ll call you when I need you.”

Lizzie booted up her own computer in her little square of office space off the kitchen and started checking online to see if she could get the equipment she needed overnighted.

No way. Not to Thunder Canyon, Montana.

She spared a wistful thought for the well-stocked shelves in her maman’s bakery. But all that was long gone. And even if she’d managed to keep some of her mother’s pans and utensils, they would be in Texas now, useless to her anyway.

So she called a couple of restaurant and kitchen supply places in nearby Bozeman. Both were just closing, but they would be open at nine tomorrow morning. And between them, they had what she was going to need.

She made a list—not only of equipment, but of all her ingredients. And then she called Erin’s florist and made arrangements to pick up the multicolored daisies Saturday morning. If she was too busy to go, Ethan would do it for her.

He appeared right then, in the doorway to the kitchen, as if she had called for him. “So? Everything under control?”

She hit Save and then Print. “So far, yes.” Faintly, in Ethan’s office, she heard the printer start up. “Tomorrow, if you can manage it, I need you.”

“I’m all yours.”

“Great. You can drive me to Bozeman. The supply stores I found open at nine. I want to be there when they unlock the doors. And we can pick up the perishables before we come back, try and get it all in one trip.”

“I can get you there and help with carrying groceries and equipment. Also, I’ll bring my platinum card.”

“Perfect.” Then she remembered. “Corey’s bachelor party. It’s tonight, right?”

He looked puzzled. “Yeah. So?”

“You’ll be out till all hours.”

“That’s the way a bachelor party tends to work.”

“So never mind. I can make the trip tomorrow on my own. I’ll bring you receipts. Lots of them.”

“Uh-uh. I’ll get up in time. And I’ll take you.”

“I’ll believe it when I see it.”

He was grinning, looking way too handsome, as he took up the challenge. “And you will see it. Just wait.”

He was sweet to want to help. She did appreciate that. And she always enjoyed his company. But it didn’t matter either way. If he wasn’t up by the time she had to go, she’d just take off on her own. No big deal. “Want some dinner? I can throw something together within twenty minutes or so.”

He shook his head. “The party’s at the Hitching Post, a local watering hole. Dillon rented a private room in the back. Dinner included.”

“You guys hire a naked girl to pop out of a cake?”

“Lizzie, Lizzie, Lizzie. Give us more credit than that.”

“Two naked girls?”

He grunted. “You know the old saying. What happens at a bachelor party stays at a bachelor party.”

She waved a hand at him. “I know, I know. If you told me you’d have to kill me and all that. Better you just keep your secrets. I’m too young to die.”

“Plus, I need you alive to make Erin’s wedding cake.”

“Right. That, too.”

“So … the twins and Rose are staying at Thunder Canyon Resort.” His brothers Jackson and Jason were fraternal twins. At thirty, their sister, Rose, was the baby of the family. “I thought I’d wander on up there, see how they’re doing, maybe have a look around the resort’s main clubhouse a little …”

She almost laughed. “And I need to know your every move, why?”

He lifted one hard shoulder in a half shrug. “Well, I mean, if there’s anything you need from me. Anything at all …” Now he was giving her that look again. That sweet, melting look, eyes like dark chocolate.

She braced her elbows on her dinky desk and wrinkled her nose at him. “What are you up to?”

He smiled, slow and lazy. “Not a thing. I’m just saying you can count on me to help, that you’re a lifesaver for poor Erin and I’m here for you, Lizzie.”

She made a shooing motion with both hands. “Out. Go. See you tomorrow.”

“You sure?”

“I am positive.”

“‘Night, then.” He turned and left her.

She watched him go, thinking what a great butt he had.

Until she caught herself staring and made herself look away.

After that, for several minutes, she just sat there at her desk, staring blindly into the middle distance, wondering why he seemed to be pulling out all the stops to be charming and attentive to her the past couple of days.

It was kind of annoying, really. They had an easygoing, best-pals relationship. And suddenly, he was messing with the program, falling all over himself to be available to her, coming way too close to flirting with her.

Worse than whatever he was up to, was the way she seemed to be responding to it. Getting all shivery when he sent her a glance. And … staring at his butt?

Okay, yeah. It was a great butt. But still. It wasn’t as if that was news or anything.

Really. The last thing she needed was to start crushing on Ethan. That would be beyond stupid.

Lizzie tossed down her pen and stood up. She smoothed her hair and straightened her plain white sleeveless shirt. Get over yourself, Landry. Ethan wasn’t up to anything beyond being extra nice to her in hope that she might change her mind about resigning.

And she was not crushing on him. Uh-uh. No way. Not in the least.