The Beach Wedding (Married in Malibu Book 1) (11 page)

T
wo beautiful weddings
in two days.

While Jason and Liz kissed to seal their vows, Jenn happily handed out the last of the pastries. She’d been worried about taking this job, fearing that it would be impossible not to be cynical about happily ever afters when her own had derailed so horribly. Yet, it felt so good to help give Liz and Jason this moment of blissful connection—even in the wake of the wreckage of Jenn’s own marriage and divorce.

After Liz and Jason headed into his house, the crowd and the reporters finally started to disperse. Jenn was cleaning up the beach when a boy and girl ran up to her. They were both fair-haired and blue-eyed, the girl a little taller and older. He had remnants of frosting on his fingers, while hers were licked clean.

“Thank you for the cupcakes,” the little girl said with a big smile.

“Thank you!” the little boy echoed. He finally noticed the frosting on his fingers and started to lick them. “They were great!”

“Kayla! Adam!” Daniel was heading over to them, his camera around his neck.

Now that he was approaching the children, Jenn could see the resemblance—the same sandy-haired good looks, the same smile.

“We were just saying thank you for the cupcakes,” Kayla said.

“Mmm,” Adam added. “They’re the best cupcakes ever.”

“Of course they were,” Daniel agreed. “Jenn made them. Now who wants to be in a picture?”

“I do! I do!” they both called out at once, making Daniel laugh as he lifted his camera.

Jenn had known he had children, but this was the first time she had met them. As he got ready to take the picture, she realized that if she didn’t move, she’d be right in the middle of the shot with the kids on either side of her.

But when she started to step aside, Daniel said, “Stay right where you are.”

“You don’t want me in the middle of your photograph.”

“Of course I do. You helped make this a great day, and you gave the kids cupcakes.”

“The best cupcakes ever!” Adam enthused.

“They had really pretty frosting, too,” Kayla added.

Jenn was glad someone had noticed. Everyone else’s attention had been so focused on Liz and Jason that they had devoured the cupcakes without even looking at them.

“Those are great shots,” Daniel said as he took several pictures of the three of them. “Jenn, I’m sure you’ve already figured this out, but Kayla and Adam are my kids.”

“I’m nine,” Kayla said, obviously proud of the fact. “And Adam’s seven. Do you work with my dad?”

Jenn nodded. “I bake cakes for weddings.”

The two children looked pretty impressed by that fact, especially Kayla. “Could you maybe come over some time and show me how to put on frosting like that?”

“I’d love to,” Jenn said.

“Cool,” Adam said, and with that, the kids were off and running around the beach with Daniel in laughing pursuit.

It was easy to agree to help bake cupcakes when Daniel had such great kids. Jenn loved children, and these two were very sweet. Saying yes had nothing to do with the butterflies that flew around her stomach every time she looked at Daniel. No, she couldn’t afford another relationship now, not so soon after her last one had failed so spectacularly.

She wasn’t ready to risk her heart again. Not yet.

Maybe not ever.

After Julie Delgado’s restaurant closes, she temporarily takes over the catering position at the Rose Chalet, a full-service San Francisco wedding venue. She plans to dazzle the bride and groom so the Chalet’s owner will keep her around, but fate has other plans for her when the bride’s brother shows up for the first food tasting
.

Andrew Kyle is not only the Cuisine Channel’s Edgy Eats host and chef, but his recent review of Julie’s restaurant was the final nail in its coffin. Once he meets Julie at the Rose Chalet, he’s certain she’s playing it safe. And he wants nothing more than to be the one to break her guarded passions loose.

But despite the undeniable sparks between Julie and Andrew–and the fact that he seems to believe in her when no one else does–can she afford to be taking risks with her cooking, with her career…or with her heart?

I
t wasn’t
easy trying to finish off the main courses and desserts, knowing all the while that Andrew Kyle was probably out there telling the Rose Chalet’s owner exactly how awful Julie’s food was. And Rose would listen, of course, because what else would she be able to do in the face of a triple whammy: celebrity chef, the groom’s brother, and great dimples?

Enough about the dimples
, Julie ordered herself.
Just remember what he did
.

It was pretty hard to forget. One review from the city’s most prominent TV chef, and her business had come crashing down around her ears. The faint trickle of new customers Julie had hoped would widen into a stream dried up completely. Her entire dream went south in a matter of weeks, all thanks to the man who was currently sampling Julie’s seafood platter.

Well, she couldn’t let him ruin this dream too. Which meant Julie couldn’t do anything horrible to his food, even if a small part of her wanted the revenge.

The truth was, the best revenge would be to show him just how wrong he had been. All she had to do was present him with the best plates of food in her life, and then force him to eat his words.

Easy.

Though if it was that easy, why was her hand shaking while she finished the duck? She needed to focus, take her time, and—

“Is everything okay?”

Julie jumped at the sound of Andrew’s voice, almost slicing a finger open in the process.

What was he doing in her kitchen? Had he finally realized who she was? Had he come to gloat?

Or, maybe, to apologize for what he’d done?

Knowing anything she really wanted to say to him would get her instantly fired by Rose, Julie settled for, “I’m not sure you should be in here.”

“No, it’s fine—”

“Julie,” she reminded him, like he hadn’t just been told her name a few minutes ago. “Julie Delgado.”

Was there a flicker of recognition in his eyes? Did he even vaguely remember her name?

Then again, why would he? He was a famous chef. She was a nobody who couldn’t keep her own kitchen open and was now cooking for scraps at a wedding venue.

“I asked Rose before I came in to see the kitchen where the food for the wedding might be prepared.”

“
Might
be?”

“My brother and his fiancé deserve the best. I promised I’d cast my chef’s eye over it as my wedding gift to them. Which is why I’d appreciate it if you could bring the desserts out with the main courses and stay with us as we go through everything.” He flashed that brilliant smile of his. “After all, I’m sure the two of us will have a lot to talk about.”

For a moment, Julie wondered if he meant the review, but those darn dimples of his were turning her brain just enough to mush so that all she could manage was, “Will we?”

“Sure,” Andrew replied, with another smile.

Oh my God, after all he’d done, was he actually flirting with her?

Julie just barely resisted the urge to hit him with the nearest thing on hand, but only because it happened to be a saucepan full of steadily reducing plum sauce. Of all the arrogant…

Again, Julie forced herself to take a deep breath and reminded herself that since she obviously wasn’t important enough for the big star to remember, why
wouldn’t
he try out the charm that had everybody else fooled?

“I’d be happy to bring out everything at once,” Julie said, if only because it seemed like the quickest way to get him out of her kitchen. “Just give me a minute or two.”

Watching Andrew Kyle eat was an experience. He didn’t talk between bites, as though that would in some way spoil his concentration. Instead he assembled the food carefully on his fork, closing his eyes and letting his nose take in the scent of it for a moment before he finally pushed it into that sensuous mouth.

Julie found herself briefly entranced by the way he clearly wanted to involve as many of his senses as possible, by the fact that he seemed to treat food as something truly important.

Of course, that didn’t make up for the way he kept Julie and Rose waiting while he tasted everything. In fact, the only time he spoke at all was about halfway through, when he glanced up and raised an eyebrow.

“Is everything to your satisfaction?”

Andrew put his fork down carefully. “It’s all well cooked,” he said. “The scallops are nicely done and the fish goes well with them. The salad is crisp and fresh. The plum sauce with the duck is just right, and I like the richness of the gateaux. The food is well prepared,” he said, “but, unfortunately, it’s too bland.”

Bland.

It was the same word he’d used about her restaurant.

Julie’s hands closed on the tablecloth. “Bland?” she repeated.

Andrew nodded. “As I said, it’s fine, it’s just…frankly, it’s wedding food.”

“That’s what this food is for,” Julie had to point out. “A
wedding.
”

“Yes, but it’s for my brother’s wedding, and I’m sorry, this menu won’t work. It’s been done. There’s nothing exciting here. There’s no twist on any of the classic dishes, and there isn’t anything innovative, either. This is my wedding gift to my brother and his fiancée. It needs to be special. But nothing about this menu makes it clear that their wedding is a really special occasion.”

Julie thought the part where there would be a bride and groom saying “I do” in front of a few hundred people might be a clue as to the specialness of the occasion, but, of course, she wasn’t going to say that. Besides, just then, she was too busy remembering the first time Andrew Kyle had made these comments about her food. Remembering how much it had hurt.

About as much as it hurt right now, come to think of it.

“So what is it you want?” Julie asked. She very carefully
kept her voice level. Completely devoid of emotion.

“Something special. Something different. Something with a bit of imagination to it. Look,” Andrew said, “I’d like to come back so that we can throw a few ideas around. Between Julie and myself, I suspect we can come up with something that’s perfect for the wedding.”

He’d just demolished her cooking for the second time in a few short months, and he thinks she would want him around?

“What a wonderful idea,” Rose said before Julie could flat-out refuse to ever see Andrew Kyle again. “Our aim at the Rose Chalet is to make sure the day goes exactly the way the happy couple wants it. Julie would be happy to brainstorm menus with you, wouldn’t you, Julie?”

Since the question was obviously rhetorical, Julie mumbled something that could be taken as a yes.

Rose stood. “Andrew, if you have a few more minutes, I’d like to talk you for a walk around the Chalet to get a feel for the place. My full staff isn’t here at the moment, but we can start to discuss a few options.”

Julie had never been so grateful for anything as when Andrew agreed. Ordinarily, with a guy like him, she would have watched him go just because she couldn’t
not
stare. Today, however, it was simply to make sure he was well and truly gone before she let out a sigh and slumped down in her seat.

What had she gotten herself into?

C
ome
for a visit to Walker Island where you’ll find stunning Pacific Northwest ocean views, men too intriguing to resist...and five close-knit sisters who are each about to find their one true love.

After four years on the Seattle mainland, when Hanna Walker returns to Walker Island to make a documentary about the infamous Peterson-Walker feud from the early 1950s, she’s shocked to realize that passions still run high. Especially when it comes to Joel Peterson, the one man who is totally off-limits…but that she’s never been able to stop dreaming about.

The last thing Joel wants is for Hanna to dredge up the past, but when he realizes she’s determined to follow through with her documentary no matter what, he knows he has no choice but to join her. Despite vowing to hold back his growing feelings for her, as Joel works with Hanna to unravel the mystery of what really happened between their two families, he soon begins to see that love is an unstoppable force…and that sometimes two people are meant to be.

J
oel didn’t have
time to straighten his tie before a woman pushed open the door to his office. Small and fine-boned, she was incredibly beautiful, albeit in a slightly unconventional way. Her blonde hair was streaked with light pink highlights, and her eyes shone out, blue and fierce from beneath her bangs. Even in cargo pants and a denim jacket it was obvious that she had a gorgeous figure.

As a high school quarterback, the son of the local shipping magnate, and then the director of the family business, Joel had had his share of relationships with good looking women. But there was something uniquely attractive about the way this woman strode over to his desk like nothing in the world was going to stop her from getting what she wanted.

Of course, by that point, two other things had become pretty obvious, both of which should have dampened the attraction Joel had felt in that first glance. The first was that she was probably only in her early twenties, which was far too young for him. But it was the second that was far more important.