Baked Alaska (41 page)

Authors: Josi S. Kilpack

Tags: #Cozy Mystery

BOOK: Baked Alaska

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“Breanna?” Pete prompted her when she said nothing. Sadie didn’t dare open her mouth for fear she’d start bawling.

“That...looks just like my cake,” Breanna said in a hush. She took a step forward. “It’s a smaller version of the
exact
same cake I picked out....in London.”

Sadie heard the door opening behind them and turned to see Liam sneak in. He looked absolutely terrified. Several faces appeared on the other side of the glass, including Liam’s parents, which Sadie was glad to see. When Liam told her what he’d done, she worried his parents hadn’t come with him. Sadie quickly stepped to the side of the bakery case, pulling Pete with her so that Liam would have room to come up next to Bre.

Breanna turned her head to look at Sadie, completely unaware that her fiancé and soon-to-be husband was standing two feet behind her. “What’s going on?”

“Hey, Bre,” Liam said quietly.

Breanna spun around and, as if on cue, all the employees who had been trying to make themselves look busy, moved forward from the back of the shop, their eyes bright as they watched what was happening. Sadie wondered if they had been up all night making this happen. Liam had explained on the phone that he’d chartered a flight not long after Breanna had given in to his mom’s version of her wedding day; he must have worked hard to put this in place before leaving London.

“Liam?” Breanna squeaked, and then threw herself into his arms, clinging tightly to him and burying her face in his shoulder. “What are you doing here?” She pulled back and brushed the hair off her face. When his only answer was a smile, she glanced at Sadie. “What is he doing here?”

Sadie nodded toward Liam. “He has the answers, not me.”

Breanna looked at Liam, and he smiled, so sweet and kind and full of goodness that the last of Sadie’s reservations about this marriage melted away like whipping cream on a hot day. They were a good match. They would make this work.

“I had a long talk with my parents after we finished talking with you the other night,” Liam said, still holding her hands. “And we’ve come to some agreements.”

“Okay,” Breanna said softly, still looking confused.

“Mom really wants a fancy reception. I tried to talk her out of it, but she’s insistent that on October 19, the day we were to be married, she gets to throw a great big obnoxious party. I’ll wear a suit of her choosing, and we’ll feature that overdone cake she likes, but you can wear the dress you already picked out.”

“The day we
were
to be married?” Breanna repeated.

“That’s the other part,” Liam said, his smile getting a little bit bigger. “We do the wedding how we want it, when we want it, and where we want it.”

Breanna looked at him, still trying to figure things out, then looked at the cake again. A moment later, one of the employees at the bakery came around the counter holding a clear dress bag with an exquisite wedding dress inside. Sadie had already seen pictures of the dress from the day Breanna had tried it on in London. It had cap sleeves, delicate beading at the sweetheart neckline and waist, but no train, no veil, no bling. Liam’s mother had deemed it unfit for a countess, but it was perfectly suited for Breanna’s style, coloring, and shape.

Breanna started to cry as she reached out and touched the bag. “My dress,” she whispered. She looked up at Liam. “My cake and my dress.”

“The two things you cared about.”

“And you,” she said even softer.

He smiled wide and took both her hands in his. “We’ll make this work, Bre, we will. I will never let things get so out of hand again and we’ll live the life we want to live—the life we’ve planned. Can you believe me when I promise you that?”

Breanna nodded and let go of one of his hands to wipe at her eyes. Someone handed her a napkin. Someone handed one to Sadie too.

“Today?” she said once she’d caught her breath.

“If that’s what you want,” Liam said with a nod.

“What do
you
want?” she asked, ever the diplomat.

He pulled on her hand that he was holding, bringing her closer to him. “I want you,” he whispered so softly that Sadie could barely hear it. “All I’ve ever wanted is you.”

Chapter 45

Five hours later, Sadie held a hand over her mouth as the officiator read the marriage vows for Breanna and Liam. It was happening! Her daughter was getting married in a small pavilion set in the Tongass National Forest, not a cathedral. Instead of organ music, the patter of lightly falling raindrops and the chatter of birds and squirrels from the dense woods provided the only accompaniment. Across the small space, Liam’s mother was also struggling to hold back her emotion.

After Breanna confirmed her vows, Liam took the wedding band from his pocket.

“I don’t have your ring,” Breanna whispered. Everyone laughed, except Sadie who was barely holding it together.

“It’s okay,” Liam said with a smile as he slid the band onto her finger until it was next to the diamond engagement ring she’d worn for only a few months.

“It’s my honor,” the officiator said, “to pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride.”

Breanna stood on her toes before Liam had a chance to lean into her, but he quickly wrapped his arms around her and returned the kiss with a vigor that bordered on embarrassing. The small group erupted with applause as the kiss sealed the deal, completed the day, and verified that Breanna and Liam—the Viscount and Countess of Darling—had joined their lives together. From this day on, they belonged to one another. It was more than Sadie could handle, and she finally let loose the emotion she’d been holding in and sobbed and cried as everyone exchanged hugs.

Sweet Mermaids had not only made the cake—which, just as Sadie had suspected, they’d stayed up all night to replicate—they also catered the wedding luncheon with bagels and lox, crisp green salad, and the most delicious thing Sadie had eaten the entire week: their signature salmon and red potato chowder. Sadie had begged the owner for the recipe and, gem that she was, she gave Sadie a copy, which Sadie couldn’t wait to put into her Little Black Recipe Book once she got home.

Sadie had cried off the rest of her makeup by the time she needed to help serve the cake to the fifteen members of the wedding party.

A photographer and videographer had been there to capture every moment, which Sadie found especially comforting since she wasn’t sure any of them would remember much on their own, it had been such a whirlwind.

All too soon, and yet right on time, a touring Jeep pulled up. Liam had arranged for the two of them to stay in a cabin several miles from town for the next five days. The wedding party all hugged again, then waved and cheered as the Jeep drove away.

With the bride and groom gone and the party winding down, Liam’s parents and friends said good-bye to the Hoffmillers and got in their prearranged taxis that would take them to their hotel rooms back in town while Pete, Sadie, Shawn, and Maggie took a taxi back to the pier. The ship would sail in an hour and a half, but the gangways closed in thirty minutes.

Just like that, Breanna was married, and Sadie was a mother-in-law. It would take some getting used to.

Half a block from the pier, Shawn asked the cab driver to pull over. “We want to do some quick shopping,” he said, stepping out and holding the door open for Maggie.

“Why don’t we walk back, too?” Pete suggested to Sadie.

Obviously, the others weren’t as exhausted as Sadie was, but she agreed. With the wedding over, it would be nice to absorb the atmosphere of this cute village a little longer, and the sun was setting in a beautiful swirling mass of pink, gold, and purple amid the clouds overhead.

“We’ll see you on the ship,” Shawn said after they all stepped out of the cab.

Sadie and Maggie hadn’t had a chance to talk, but Sadie had a feeling they would have plenty of time to work out whatever issues might be left between them. Maggie had been a wonderful help with the whirlwind wedding, doing anything that needed to be done without being asked. As Sadie watched Maggie and Shawn walk back to the ship side by side, she felt her heart do a little jump. People came together in the strangest ways sometimes. Maybe this was the purpose Maggie would find in all this heartache.

“They better hurry,” Sadie said, realizing how few people were left on the pier and how quickly the dockworkers were moving to ready the ship for departure. “We’d better hurry, too.” She took Pete’s hand and tugged him toward the boat, but instead of following like she expected him to, he pulled her back, causing her to stumble into him. She didn’t mind—what was one more minute?—and easily wrapped her arms around his neck. “Wasn’t today amazing?” she said, going up on her toes to kiss him. It wasn’t until she was once again flat-footed on the ground that she realized he seemed a little tense. “Are you okay?”

“I’m okay,” he said, but he didn’t sound okay.

Sadie took a step back. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong,” he said with a laugh—a nervous laugh. He put one hand in his pocket.

“Pete,” she said, taking his free hand in both of hers, “whatever it is, we’ll—”

“Maybe you could just stop talking for a minute.”

Sadie flinched. “You’re telling me to shut up?”

Pete laughed again, a real laugh this time, and shook his head. “I’m asking you to let me say something.”

“When have I ever not let you say something?”

He lifted his eyebrows, and she took a breath, pulled an invisible zipper across her lips and turned the invisible key. They really did need to hurry back, though. If she hadn’t just zipped her lips shut, she’d have asked if they could continue this conversation on the ship.

But then she saw the excited glint in his eye, and the fact that he had just pulled something out of his pocket. Sadie’s breath caught in her throat, and she put a hand over her mouth as Peter Cunningham sank down to one knee in front of her. Even if she’d wanted to speak at that moment, she couldn’t have found a single word.

Pete reached for her left hand—a hand that hadn’t worn a ring for a very long time. The setting sun caught the diamond on the ring he held, and Sadie’s chest tightened even more.

“I knew if I waited to do this until after Breanna was married, you’d be expecting it and I couldn’t have that.” He looked up at her with those beautiful hazel eyes of his, and she didn’t dare blink for fear she would miss an instant of this. “I’d hoped to find the perfect moment to say the words I’ve spent weeks planning to say, and now I’ve forgotten all those pretty words.”

Sadie moved the hand still covering her mouth. “I don’t need pretty—”

“Shhh, I’m not done.”

She zipped her lips again and gave the key an extra turn.

Pete cleared his throat. “Since that first day when I helped you make applesauce in your kitchen, I’ve been inspired by your energy and impressed by the size of your heart. As we’ve grown together in the years since then, and as I’ve lived through adventures I never imagined could happen in real life, I find myself surprisingly hungry for more.” He held the ring poised at the end of her ring finger. “You said that you didn’t feel like I benefitted as much from our relationship as you did.” He paused, and it was all Sadie could do to hold back the tears. “Sadie, you bring life into my living, and joy into my journey. I can no longer imagine a future without you in it, and I welcome whatever lies ahead for us. Sadie, will you marry me? Will you be my wife?”

The tears started to fall, and Sadie nodded several times.

“You can talk now,” Pete said.

“Yes,” Sadie said, pushing her finger through the ring Pete still held and falling to her knees on the pier in front of him. A jarring pain shot up her left leg, but she ignored it. “A million times, yes.”

He took her face in his hands and kissed her so hard and deep that she felt it in every cell in her body.

When she finally pulled back, she looked into his eyes and could see the years ahead of them. They were a beautiful sight. “I love you, Pete. More than I can say.”

“Oh, Sadie, Sadie,
almost
married lady, I love you, too.”