Always the Baker, Finally the Bride (16 page)

Sophie looked at Emma with a glint in her gray-blue eyes. “Emma Rae, did you know that this child doesn’t have a single food allergy? Not even to peanuts! That’s quite an accomplishment in this day and age, don’t you think so?”

Emma nodded, holding back the thump of emotion rattling her heart. “I do. That’s kind of amazing.”

“Emma Rae has diabetes,” Sophie told Hildie. “Her little body doesn’t know how to create insulin, so she doesn’t process sugar the way she should. Do you think that was easy on her mama?”

Hildie shook her head tentatively.

“No. But Emma Rae was just the child Avery and Gavin were meant to have, diabetes and all. In just that same way,” she said, jiggling the girl’s hand, “you’re just the child someone else is meant to have. But you need to let them look for who that is.”

Hildie gazed at Sophie, her face awash with a smooth combination of disbelief and hope.

“Maybe they’re no good with babies. Or they can’t stand to change a dirty diaper. Or they have no patience for a toddler who doesn’t understand a word they tell them. But an eleven-year-old with an active imagination and a lick of sense? Well, that’s just the right child for them, these people somewhere out there in the world. Do you understand me, Hildie?”

She shrugged slightly and replied, “I guess so.”

Emma knelt down in front of Hildie and gave her a warm smile. “But how will they find you if you don’t let them know you’re here?”

Hildie sighed and tilted her head backward, staring at the ceiling.

“Just come and talk to Mrs. Troy, Hildie. Give her a chance to find you a better situation than hiding in this room and stealing leftover food. Somewhere out there is a home with your name on it. I just know it.”

Sophie slipped her arm around the girl’s shoulder and squeezed her. “My Emma Rae is the most trustworthy person you’ll ever know. You do what she tells you.”

“She’s waiting for us in Jackson’s office,” Emma said as she rose to her feet and extended her hand. “Let’s go talk to her.” Hildie just sat there for what seemed to Emma like several minutes. Waving her hand, she grinned. “Yes? Come with me?”

Hildie groaned softly before taking Emma’s hand. “Yes. All right.”

As they hit the door, Emma turned back and extended her free hand to Sophie. “Come on, Aunt Soph.”

Once they left the storage room and entered the hall, she leaned in toward her aunt. “How is it that you always seem to end up in just the right place at just the right time?”

“Jesus takes the wheel, Emma Rae. I just ride along.”

“Well, it’s freakish . . . But I love you for it.”

“Yes. I know,” Sophie said as she smoothed her silver hair. “Perhaps Hildie can come and meet your uncle Tuck. He was orphaned at a young age, too.”

Uncle Tuck died when I was nine
, Emma thought. But she didn’t remind her.

Emma cradled Isabel in her arms and swayed from side to side in front of the large glass door overlooking Sherilyn’s back yard. Andy tossed a ball across the length of the grass, and their dog Henry barreled after it.

“So what’s going to happen to her?” Kat asked about Hildie.

“She finally agreed to go with Mrs. Troy, and hopefully they’ll place her in a foster home so she can get her land legs again. I’m just praying it’s somewhere warm and safe and dry, you know?”

“Emma, your tea is on the table,” Sherilyn told her as she sat down. “Come and join us.”

“I will,” she sang softly. Gazing down at the baby in her arms, she grinned. “I’m just having some alone time with my girl, Izzy.”

The baby’s eyes eased open at the sound of her name. The long, dark lashes surrounding her bluish eyes fluttered, and they came to rest on the top of her cheek as she drifted back to sleep. Emma planted a tender kiss on her head before tucking the baby into the bassinet next to Sherilyn and sitting down with Sherilyn and Kat at the dining table.

She sniffed the tea steeping in a large flowered mug in front of her. “Mmmm. Thank you, Mommy. This smells like heaven.”

“No more
Mommy
for the moment,” Sherilyn teased. “Right now, let’s talk wedding.”

A surge of adrenaline pulsed through her and Emma grinned joyously. “Okay, let’s.”

Kat flipped open Sherilyn’s pink laptop on the table before her. “We went over the details before you got here,” she told Emma. “And I think we have all of the bases covered, but let’s just run through it one time with you.”

“Okay, shoot!”

“The invitations have been mailed, and we’ve already received nineteen RSVP cards back. So that’s just fifteen outstanding. We’ll give them another week, and I’ll make phone calls to confirm the rest.”

Sherilyn nodded as Kat swiped the mouse and moved down the list on the screen before them.

“The flowers are all ordered and confirmed,” Kat stated. “Also confirmed are six chandeliers for the trees in the courtyard, twelve floor-stand candelabras—”

Just about the time Emma’s eyes began to glaze over, Sherilyn interrupted. “No. No. Stop. Too much information for Em’s brain. Let’s just go over the basics with her, and she’ll leave the details to us.”

“Thank you,” Emma said on a sigh.

Kat chuckled and returned her attention to the screen of Sherilyn’s laptop.

“Music?” she asked, and Sherilyn nodded. “Ben Colson has confirmed for the reception.”

“Oooh, goodie!” Emma cried.

“And we have a string quartet for the ceremony,” she continued. “We’ve reviewed the menu with Pearl, reserved the honeymoon suite from the day prior until the following day, confirmed the photographer and Pastor Miguel for the ceremony, and we have Andy set to go with Jackson for their tuxes on Thursday night.”

Emma leaned back and watched Kat and Sherilyn as they put their heads together and whispered over some detail looming on the flickering computer screen.

“Yes. I took care of that today,” Kat said softly.

“Excellent!” Sherilyn beamed. “Check it off then. Emma, did you put the license somewhere safe?”

“Check.”

“And you’ve picked up the rings from the engraver?”

“Check! Well. Jackson picks them up tomorrow.”

“Perfect.”

“Good grief,” Emma said on a sigh as she observed them. “You two could rule the entire world with nothing more than a laptop and a credit card.”

“Emma,” Sherilyn said with a sudden stern look in her eye. “Tell me you’ve narrowed down the cake.”

“Well, I thought I had.”

“Emma Rae! Kat and I have taken care of every minute detail aside from the wedding cake. Please. Decide.”

“It’s not that easy,” Emma defended herself to Kat. “It would be like you picking just the right jewelry for your own wedding, with all of your past creations to choose from!”

“We keep hearing this argument out of her,” Sherilyn told Kat with a grin. “But still no cake.”

“Soon,” Emma vowed. “I promise.”

“Ooh!” Kat exclaimed, and she shared a feline-that-ate-the-canary grin with Sherilyn. “Emma, I have something for you.”

“You do?” Emma set her teacup on the table and smiled. “Do tell.”

Kat reached into her bag; produced a large, forest-green velvet box with a brass-hinged lid; and slid the box toward Emma. “If you don’t like it, please don’t feel obligated to wear it. But I created it with you in mind.”

Emma’s heart fluttered softly as she eased the lid open. Inside, resting on a nest of pale ivory satin fabric with the striking logo of Kat’s new jewelry design firm on the inside of the lid, sat an exquisitely simple ivy-patterned rhinestone headband.

“I tried to use the design of the flower and vines on the cap sleeve of your gown,” Kat told her. “And if you look very closely, the center of a few of the flowers are dotted with very pale amethyst gemstones to tie in your lavender-blue hydrangea.”

Emma’s hand floated to her heart as she took a closer look. She’d never seen anything quite so beautiful, and the afternoon sun caused the array of stones to sizzle before her. The thought that Kat had designed it specifically with her in mind . . .

“Isn’t it amazing, Em?” Sherilyn asked her. “It’s so understated and elegant. Not like those huge tiaras so many southern brides seem to wear. I was thinking that, since you’ve chosen such a delicate veil, and you said you wanted to wear your hair up, it’s going to really look stunning.”

“It’s perfect,” Emma said on a sigh, and when her eyes met Kat’s glistening brown ones, a single tear escaped and streamed down Emma’s cheek. “Kat, I can’t believe you did this.”

“You’ve become such an important part of my life,” Kat told her with emotion. “Everyone at The Tanglewood has. I would never have met Russell, or jumped off the ledge from being Audrey’s assistant to creating my own line of jewelry . . . So many wonderful things have happened to me because of you and Jackson and your beautiful hotel.”

And at that, Sherilyn burst into tears and bolted from her chair.

“I’m going out to check on Andy,” she called over her shoulder as an afterthought before rushing out the door.

“Did I say something wrong?” Kat asked.

“No. Jackson did.”

Kat chuckled. “But Jackson’s not here. What did he say, and when?”

“He said yes when asked what Sherilyn believes to be a truly horrible question.”

“Which was?”

“ ‘Will you sell this hotel?’ ”

Kat gasped. “No.”

“Afraid so.”

“Well, no wonder she’s crying. I think I might cry, too.”

“Oh, good. That makes it official. You’re one of us now, Kat.”

Tips for Combining a Tiara and Veil

When wearing the hair down:

Hold the comb attached to the veil upside down,
with both the veil and the blusher pulled back.

Rotate the comb forward and slide it into the hair
with the concave side facing the scalp.

Slide the tiara onto the head at an angle and adjust it
so that there is no gap between it and the veil.