Authors: Samantha Chase
The party was set for Valentine’s Day weekend and although the thought of it was a little cliché, the fact of the matter was that the Montgomery’s had indeed gotten married on February fourteenth. She knew this as a fact because in her years working for them, she’d been responsible for making dinner reservations and sending flowers.
The thought of Valentine’s Day was always depressing for a single woman and it was even more so for Emma because she was spending the day ensuring the happiness of a couple who had been blessed with thirty-five years of marriage. She only wished that someday she’d get to hit that kind of milestone with someone.
“Any c
hance of there being any of those peanut butter mouse cupcakes?” a male voice said from behind her.
Emma whirled around and genuinely smiled. “Jason! How are you?”
“I’m good, thanks. Mom said that you were taking over this place and she brought home some amazing cupcakes yesterday and I must have eaten about half a dozen of them. Have pity on me, Em!” he laughed. “Are there anymore left?”
She laughed with him. Jason had always been so nice to her and she realized that she actually had missed him. “For you? I think I can scrounge up a few.” Emma turned and walked to one of her display cases and boxed up another half dozen for him. Handing the box to him she waved his money away. “On the house.”
“Emma, that’s a sure-fire way to go out of business. Please, let me pay for these.”
“Your money’s no good here,” she teased. “Consider them my gift to you for the day that you took me to go and pick up my car
.”
Jason rolled his eyes. “That’s just crazy. You needed to get the car and it was dad’s fault that you needed to go and get the car. You don’t owe me anything.”
“Then consider them a gift to a friend,” she said simply. “And promise to not share with anyone.”
“Done!” he said. “The place looks great, Emma. Mom is so excited that you’re doing the desserts for the party. But tell me the truth; are these cupcakes on the menu?”
She laughed again. “They aren’t but I promise that the ones that are on the menu are even better!”
“Not possible but I guess I’ll just have to wait and find out.” He looked around the shop again before facing Emma. “Are you doing okay? I mean, this is a complete one-eighty from what you were doing at Montgomery’s.”
“I am more than okay. Baking is always something that I loved but never had the courage to think about as a career. Between your mom and Margaret, I’m making a go of it.”
“Will I see you at the party?” he asked.
“Probably not. I’ll be bringing everything over before any of the guests arrive. I’m just the hired help that day.” It wasn’t said with any form of malice, she was simply stating a fact.
“Well, that’s just not right. I think you should get to stay and enjoy the festivities. If nothing else, you should get to sit and collect all of the compliments the desserts are going to garner!”
“You’re sweet but with the agreement that your mom has with the club, they will have people to do the serving and so really, all I need to do is drop everything off.”
“Seems a shame, Emma,” he said and then paused. “We miss you.”
“Thanks, Jason. I miss everyone too,” she admitted honestly. Emma knew that by everyone she was implying the office staff but it was really more than that. If Jason caught on to that fact, he chose to say nothing.
“Well, maybe I’ll see you at the party. I’ll try to get there early just in case you need a hand.”
“Take care of yourself,” she said, hoping that he realized that she wasn’t encouraging him to visit with her again. The fewer Montgomery’s she saw, the more intact her heart would stay.
Valentine’s Day dawned cold and gray. Snow was in the forecast and Emma was more than a little nervous about transporting dessert for two hundred people. Her purchase of the bakery was completed the previous week and one of the things she had invested in was a delivery van. Her staff helped her to load everything into the van and she had been assured that there would be staff at the country club to help her unload.
Since there was a chance that she’d be seen by some of the guests, Emma had chosen to dress up. Wearing a deep purple wool wrap dress that was cut modestly low in the front and had a full skirt, she felt that should she get caught staying longer than planned, she’d be able to blend into the crowd. For the transport and set up, she wore conservative shoes but had a pair of matching heels in her bag just in case.
Things went from bad to worse almost instantly. The club was short on staff and could only spare her a few minutes to move the heavier items into the catering hall. Emma glanced around and silently prayed that Jason would be true to his word and arrive early.
He did not.
Once the cake was set up as the centerpiece of the dessert station with the help of the few staff members she’d been able to utilize, Emma went to work on getting the rest of the desserts set up and displayed properly. She was halfway through when
Monica and William showed up.
“Oh, Emma! Everything looks beautiful!”
Monica gushed. “William, doesn’t everything look wonderful?” Her husband nodded and simply smiled with gratitude at Emma. “How is everything going?”
“Well,” Emma began, unsure if she should be the bearer of bad news.
“Is there a problem?” William asked.
“It seems that the club is a little short staffed today so there wasn’t enough help for me. I was able to get everything in but I’m afraid I’m a little behind on the set up. I was hoping to be done and gone by the time you had arrived.” At the crestfallen look on William’s face, she corrected herself. “Not because I didn’t want to see you but because I didn’t want you to have to still have things being set up. I wanted everything to be perfect for your arrival.”
“We certainly appreciate that, Emma,” he replied. “Tell us what you need and we’ll give you a hand.”
“Oh, no! Please don’t!” she cried. “It’s your party and you shouldn’t have to do any of this!”
“Nonsense. We were promised a full staff and I will be having words with the event manager over that. In the meantime, let’s get this all set up.”
As much as Emma wanted to argue, she wanted to get the set up done so that she could leave even more. In less than twenty minutes, between the three of them, the table was completed and looked exactly as she had pictured it in her mind. She couldn’t have been more pleased.
“Emma,” Monica began, her throat clogging with tears, “it’s more beautiful than I ever imagined. The cake is just…stunning.” It was a multi-tiered cake with each layer being a different flavor and it was decorated with all of the milestones from the Montgomery’s life together. “And all of the pastries…it’s a cake lovers dream!”
“I’m glad that you’re pleased,” Emma said, visibly relaxing for the first time in hours. “Now, you go and enjoy your party. Congratulations to you both.” She turned to grab her bag when she felt William’s hand on her arm. She stood and faced him.
“Actually, Emma, we were hoping that you would stay and celebrate with us,” he said shyly. “You were the icing on the cake, so to speak, in making this day be everything that my lovely wife envisioned it and it would mean a great deal to us if you’d stay.”
“Oh, I don’t know,” she said, indecision weighing heavily on her mind. Part of Emma wanted to make a mad dash for the door while the other looked around the room and marveled at what a spectacular party they were going to have.
“If it makes you feel any better, you can help cut the cake and serve when the time comes,” Monica said in hopes of giving Emma the excuse that she needed to allow herself to stay.
“Oh, what the hell,” she said. “Why not?” And just like that, she was swept up into a big embrace by the two Montgomery’s who were flanking her. “Okay, okay, the two of you have a party to host and your guests should be arriving shortly. Let me go and freshen my makeup and put on my party shoes and then we can start celebrating!” She hugged them both and then went in search of the powder room.
“I thought she’d put up more of a fight,” William said, watching Emma walk away.
“I think she misses you as much as you miss her. She just needed to have the excuse to stay.” Leaning over and kissing her husband,
Monica smiled.
“What was that for?” he asked, his own smile spreading.
“For thirty-five wonderful years.” William leaned in and kissed her properly and she found that he could still make her swoon after all these years. “Now, let’s go and greet some guests.”
****
Emma was thoroughly enjoying herself. She didn’t think it was possible but she was surrounded by most of the Montgomery family and have a wonderful time. Both Jason and Mac had danced with her until her feet hurt and she couldn’t remember the last time she had laughed so much.
The dinner menu had been elaborate and it was almost time for them to serve dessert. Excusing herself, she went in search of the event manager to see what role she needed to play in that particular part of the evening.
“I know we’re a bit short staffed, so if you need me to assist in cutting and plating the cake, I’d be more than happy to help,” Emma said, more than willing to help out in a pinch.
“Thanks, Emma,” the woman replied. “We got extra staffing to come in so I think we’re going to be okay. Sorry about earlier.”
“It was no big deal; it’s what I’m paid to do.”
“Well, you were promised staffing to help you and you ended up doing the bulk of it by yourself – along with the Montgomery’s,” she cringed in embarrassment. “Not my finest hour.”
Emma laughed. “No worries, we all know that sometimes things happen that are beyond our control. Besides, everything worked out and looks great.”
“Your display is magnificent. I’d like to meet with you next week and see if maybe we can work out some other events together. The baker here is fine for small events but we would love to have someone who could handle the more specialty end of it and if this is what you can provide, we’d love to do business with you.”
Emma was floored. An account like this would be huge for her business. Pulling a business card from her purse, she handed it over. “Give me a call; I think we can definitely work something out.” They shook hands and Emma watched as the other woman walked away before doing a happy little dance in place and then hoped that no one noticed.
With a quick glance around, she straightened her skirt and made some last minute adjustments on the dessert table when someone spoke from behind her.
“May I have this dance?”
Emma froze. It wasn’t possible. There was no way that this family could possibly lie to her again! And she fell for it! Dammit! Taking her time fanning some napkins and turning a few cupcakes to optimize their appearance, Emma finally turned around and faced Lucas. She couldn’t make herself utter a word; she simply stared defiantly at him.
Lucas wasn’t sure what to expect when he saw Emma but the woman staring coolly at him was definitely not it. Clearly he had his work cut out for him. Without saying a word, he merely held out a hand to her and waited for her to take it.
“You’re kidding, right?” she finally said.
One dark eyebrow arched at her. “About asking you to dance? No, I don’t really kid about stuff like that.”
“I’m not dancing with you, Lucas,” Emma snapped.
Looking around the room, Lucas turned back to her and leaned in close. “People are watching. You don’t want to make a scene do you?”
Oh, she wanted to make a scene; she wanted to make a great, big epic scene where she screamed the room down and raged at all of the ways the Montgomery’s weren’t to be trusted. Ever! Taking her own turn looking around the room Emma saw that they, indeed, had an audience. She reluctantly took his hand and let Lucas lead her out onto the dance floor for the slow song the band was playing.
Her goal had been to remain silent but her curiosity got the best of her. “What are you doing here, Lucas?”
“I thought that would be obvious; it’s my parent’s anniversary.”
Growling with frustration, Emma glared at him. “I know it’s their anniversary. What I mean is everyone said that you weren’t coming; that they hadn’t seen you in months. Why show up now?”
“As I said, it’s their anniversary and I wanted to be here. And for the record, I have seen them.”
“Figures,” she mumbled.
“Excuse me?” he said, a smile tugging at his lips.
“I said it figures,” she hissed. “Your family seems to excel at lying, particularly to me.”
“And that’s a bad thing?” he asked, spinning her gently as he tugged her a little bit closer.
“Yes, Lucas, lying is a bad thing and I don’t appreciate it at all. I trusted your parents; I took this job because they promised that you wouldn’t be here. I kept my word but apparently they didn’t feel the need to do the same.”
“Well, maybe they did it for a good reason.”
Emma pulled back slightly and stared at him as if he’d lost his mind. “And what could that possibly be?”