Sweetly, Deeply, Absolutely (Sweet Love)

by Kira Archer

  Speaking of Jared…Jenny checked the clock on the bakery wall, and then pulled out her phone to see if there’d been any missed texts or calls. Incredibly unlikely as she’d been checking her phone constantly, more anxiously than she cared to admit, waiting for him to call.

  She sent off a quick text to him to see what was going on. It was already twelve thirty. He wasn’t all that late. It was more than possible the interview stuff was running long. But he had said he’d call.

  No response. Well…maybe he was still in the middle of staging or whatever they were doing. She sighed, grabbed the tray of baklava for the next layer, and climbed back up the ladder. The whole assembly process would be a hell of a lot easier once he got there, that was for sure. And she just wanted to see him. Although that was harder to admit.

  There was also the small matter of the pregnancy test that was burning a hole in her purse. With her period less than a week away, it was probably okay to take it. And really, she couldn’t wait anymore. But she’d wanted him there. Waiting for that clock to tick down the seconds until the test was ready wasn’t something she wanted to face alone. It was a good thing they’d closed the shop for the day so they could get the cake finished. She was so on edge she’d probably terrorize any customers who dared to come in.

  The back door opened and Gina pushed her way through, holding a baby carrier in front of her.

  “Hey,” Jenny said, her worries somehow both forgotten and amplified at the sight of her sister-in-law and new niece.

  She climbed down from the stepladder and cleared a spot on the counter so Gina could set the baby down. “What are you doing here? You should be home resting.”

  Gina waved her off. “I’m fine. Sore and tired,” she said with a laugh, “but fine. Lindsey and I wanted to come see how the cake was going. It’s gorgeous, Jen. Seriously.”

  Gina looked up at the towering stack of artfully arranged baklava while Jenny bent over the car seat to coo at her niece.

  “Thanks,” she said, her voice automatically changing to that singsong baby talk tone that was almost impossible not to adopt in the face of such newborn cuteness. “It would be going a lot faster if Jared would get his ass…symetrical butt back here.”

  Gina laughed. “You can say ass. I don’t think she’s old enough to pick up on that yet.”

  “That’s probably a good thing, because I’ve got a whole lot more I’m about ready to let loose and it’s not going to be pretty.”

  “Do you need help? She’ll be sleeping for a while. I can do whatever you need.”

  Jenny sighed. “No, thanks. It’s not that. I’m actually almost finished with the cake. It’s…”

  She stopped short, realizing she was about to spill everything. Gina cocked an eyebrow and leaned against the counter with her arms crossed.

  “Spill.”

  “Oh God,” Jenny said, covering her face with her hands. “I’m so screwed.”

  She spilled the whole story. All the sordid details. Well, okay, not all the details. But the important ones. By the time she was done, Gina was staring at her wide-eyed and openmouthed. Jenny waited for her to say something. And waited a bit longer. Finally, when she was about to ask if she needed to sit down, Gina finally blinked.

  “Do me a favor,” she said.

  Jenny nodded. “Sure. What?”

  “If that test comes up positive, give Jared a good head start before you tell Rick.”

  Jenny let out a sharp laugh, knowing Gina was only half kidding. Rick really would lose his shit.

  “Don’t worry. The last thing I want is a dead baby daddy and a brother in prison for his murder.”

  Gina glanced over to Jenny’s purse that was hanging from a hook near the back door. “So, you’ve got the test in there?”

  Jenny nodded.

  “Go take it.”

  “But…I was going to wait until Jared was here…”

  “I know. But he’s MIA and you’re going crazy. Go take the test. Then at least you’ll know one way or the other.”

  Jenny took a deep breath. “I’m scared.”

  Gina pulled her in for a quick hug. “I know. But waiting isn’t going to make it easier. Get it over with.”

  “Yeah. Okay.”

  She grabbed her purse and marched into the bathroom before she could talk herself out of it.

  Peeing had never been so traumatic. And the three minutes following were the longest of her life. Gina, bless her, didn’t say a word. Just stood silently and waited with her. When the timer dinged, she nearly jumped through the roof. Gina glanced at her, and Jenny froze.

  “I can’t look.”

  Gina didn’t say anything, just went into the bathroom and came back out with the test. And thankfully, she didn’t pause for dramatic effect, but came right out with it.

  “Negative.”

  The rush of relief was almost palpable. Jenny slumped against the counter, bending over like she’d run a marathon. “Oh, thank God.”

  Gina handed her the test, and Jenny looked for herself. One line. She blew out a long, slow breath, her head spinning with the surge of adrenaline.

  “How you doing over there?” Gina asked her.

  “Good. Relieved.” And yet there was a slight twinge of regret. So faint she almost ignored it entirely. But it was there. She glanced at Lindsey, whose pouting lips puckered with a sucking reflex every now and then while she slept like an angel.

  “Good,” Gina said, watching her like she knew there was more to it than that.

  “I mean, of course I’m relieved. I’m so not ready for a baby right now. And Jared…he’s…well, he’s Jared.”

  Gina smiled, obviously understanding completely. Then she cocked her head to the side, staring at Jenny in that manner she had that said she saw a lot more than was being said.

  “But?” she asked.

  “I don’t know. There’s a little disappointment also. Which is insane. I mean, I am so not ready to have a baby. But…I don’t know. I guess I’d kind of started planning how life would be if I was pregnant.”

  “And?”

  Jenny shrugged. “It might not have been so terrible.”

  Gina smiled and glanced at her daughter. “No, it wouldn’t have been terrible. But…”

  Jenny laughed. “Yeah. But. I’m glad I won’t be finding out how not-terrible it is for a while longer.”

  “Amen to that. When are you going to tell Jared?”

  Jenny frowned and glanced at her phone again. “I’d tell him now if he’d call me back. He should have been back by now.” She sent off another text.

  Need to talk. Where are you?

  She waited a few seconds and then shoved her phone in her pocket. She had a cake to finish. She didn’t have time to sit around and wait on Jared.

  “You okay?” Gina asked her.

  She sighed. “Yeah. Irritated that Jared is off doing who-knows-what with that woman. But other than that, yeah.”

  Gina’s brow furrowed. “You think he’s cheating on you?”

  Jenny stopped at that comment. “No. I mean, we aren’t even together.”

  Gina’s eyebrow rose at that, and Jenny couldn’t help a little half grin. “You know what I mean.”

  “Not really. My total knowledge of the two of you is that you hooked up, condom broke, have been hanging out together ever since, and liking it, as far as I can tell. While Jared is always on the upbeat side, there’s been a lot more behind it lately than there usually is. And now you have a negative pregnancy test and a new lease on life.”

  “Really?” Jenny hoped that word didn’t sound as pathetically hopeful as it was.

  “Yeah. If I had to guess, I’d say he was actually happy, for once in his life.”

  Jenny thought that over for a moment. She wanted to believe it. Wanted to believe that all the tender moments and good times and mind-blowing sex had actually meant something to him. Because they had to her. And that terrified her.

  “If all that’s true, then where
is he? Even without the whole pregnancy test thing, which granted, he didn’t know was happening right now, we have a massive cake he knows I need his help with. And he promised he’d be back by now.” She rubbed at her face with a little laugh. “I sound like such a whiny control freak.”

  Gina gave her a sympathetic smile. “No. You sound like a stressed-out woman who’s been through the emotional wringer and needs her man by her side.”

  “He’s not my…” She stopped, too overwhelmed to keep up the pretense. “Yeah. That about sums it up.”

  The baby made a little squawking sound, and Gina jumped into action, hurrying over to check on her offspring. Jenny watched her cooing soothingly and couldn’t help the flood of warm fuzzies that attacked her. She was glad she wouldn’t be dealing with that any time soon. But that didn’t change how adorable the little princess was.

  “All right,” Gina said. “I better get this one home so I can feed her. And maybe take a nap.”

  She drew Jenny into a smothering hug. “Don’t kill him when he eventually shows his face. I’m sure he has a good reason for blowing you off. And if he doesn’t, let me know. One word to Rick about this whole mess and Jared will have a lot more to worry about than impressing a client.”

  “You won’t actually tell him about this, will you?”

  “No,” Gina said with a reassuring smile. “Rick will definitely be happier being in the dark. For now, anyway.”

  “Good.”

  Jenny gave her niece a quick kiss and walked them to the door. When they left, she leaned against the wall, eyes closed for a moment. What a freaking day. And it wasn’t over yet. Time to get the cake done. They had to deliver it first thing in the morning. She needed to get back to work.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Another half hour ticked by. She sent off another text. She didn’t want to be the nagging girlfriend-type who kept a short leash on her man, but she really could use his help. And he’d promised to be here, or at least call. Surely they couldn’t be so busy that he couldn’t send a quick text.

  By the time two o’clock rolled around, Jenny was less worried and more downright pissed. She was half tempted to text him about the test, but even though it had been negative, it still seemed like something she should tell him in person. She wanted to do it in person. It would have been nice to have him standing there waiting to support her, no matter the results. Thank God for Gina, but Jared should have been there. And maybe she should have waited, but the waiting had been killing her and where the hell was he?

  Here she was, killing herself to finish a cake he’d promised, while he was off doing God-knew-what with the spoiled twit he’d been crushing on for months. Yeah, he’d said that was over and Jenny wanted to believe him and after last night she didn’t think he’d actually run straight into the arms of another woman, even if, by all accounts, he’d done that often enough in the past—and who was she to talk? But still…come on already!

  Forty-five minutes later, she didn’t care why he was late or not calling. She was ready to smear him with honey and stake him to an anthill. Her emotional roller coaster had been going full tilt for weeks. She wasn’t in the mood to be rational. Plus, her shoulders ached from trying to balance trays of baklava while carefully placing each piece, and her legs ached from climbing up and down the ladder—at least her calves were getting a killer workout—and she still had two layers to go before the thing was done.

  The one bright side was the cake itself. It had turned out fairly spectacular, if she did say so herself.

  A text finally came through, almost three hours too late to head off her temper.

  Sorry! Meeting ran late, on my way in now!

  An hour later, the back door squealed on its hinges and Jared finally rushed in. He had his hands in a defensive position and was already apologizing before she even had to say a word. So she didn’t. She just glared and kept placing the baklava in careful rows.

  “I’m so sorry. Apparently Food Network is going to be airing the segment we’re doing, and she wanted to go over some additional stuff with me. After we did the staging, we went to one of the other sets so I could watch a taping and get a feel for how it would go when we do our segment. And then we went to the wedding venue so I could see the layout and figure out where we can park to get this thing in the door. I had no idea it would take so long. I got out of there as soon as I could.”

  Jenny kept placing the baklava, counting each one as she layered it on, concentrating on her breathing. Everything he said was perfectly rational. Totally understandable. She got it, she really did. Couldn’t even blame him. But she couldn’t stem the anger that raced through her. Which probably had more to do with the baby mess than anything else and that wasn’t even his fault. She was supposed to have waited for him before taking it but still…it had been a very long afternoon of waiting.

  He watched her with wary eyes. “How great would it be to actually get this place on Food Network?”

  Jenny took a deep breath. “It would be completely amazing. It would be awesome for the bakery. It also would have been great if you’d have called or texted or something so I knew what was going on.”

  “I know, I’m sorry about that. I had to shut my phone off when we were on set. I texted as soon as I could,” he said, taking off his jacket and laying it on a counter out of the way. He rolled up his sleeves and took the empty tray from her so she could climb down unhindered.

  “This looks incredible,” he said, backing up a bit to take in the whole thing.

  “Why didn’t you call me once you were off the set?”

  “I did try to send a text, but it must not have gone through. I didn’t get any of yours until we were at the wedding venue, so service must have been sucky where we were. I thought you’d gotten my first text so I figured you knew what was going on. And at the venue I was talking to the caterer and wedding planner. The caterer had food ready for the rehearsal dinner tonight and offered us some since we hadn’t eaten lunch yet. The wedding planner was telling me about some other weddings she’s doing and I think she’s going to throw some more business our way. She’s had some pretty major clients. This could be huge for us. I would have stepped away if possible, but there didn’t seem to be a good time to call you without offending anyone I was talking to.”

  She. The wedding planner was a woman. Of course.

  “But it’s okay to offend me.”

  Jared stopped, finally seeming to realize how upset she was. He frowned. “I’m sorry, Jen. I really am. I figured you would understand. I got here as soon as I could.”

  Jenny sighed, feeling like a huge bitch for being so upset and at the same time feeling like a doormat for doing all the work while he was out wining and dining, no matter what his reasons were.

  “I do understand, Jared. But I’m finding it hard to care at this exact moment when I’ve been in here for hours, killing myself to get this damn cake done all on my own. The cake that I wouldn’t have had to do in the first place, if you hadn’t volunteered me. So while I get that it is completely irrational to feel this way, I can’t help but be pissed that after the night we spent together, you go running off the second she calls and leave me here to work my ass off in order to deliver on a promise you made to her. You come in here reeking of cheap perfume hours later than you said you’d be, with no call or text or anything to let me know what was going on.”

  “I explained that…”

  “I know you did!” She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Like I said, I know I shouldn’t be pissed at you for this. It wasn’t like you called her up for a date or anything. But it’s hard to remember that when I’ve been working on your project while you’ve been out flirting with your crush and some new woman. God, it’s like you collect them wherever you go.”

  “I do not. And Anna was never…” He stopped at the seriously look Jenny threw his way and started again. “Okay, she was, but only for half a second. The second I met you, I cared nothing for her. I was only
with her for the interview.”

  “Yeah, I get that. And I get that you had to go to the staging stuff, but you can’t tell me there was no way of getting out of lunch. All you had to do was say ‘no thanks, I’ve got to work on your cake.’ It isn’t necessary to try to charm every female you come across. The fact that you decided to go off on a two-hour lunch with this woman when I needed you here is hard for me to take, okay? I mean there is a time and place for being fun and flirty, but you don’t seem to get that. It’s like you have no off switch for that stuff.”

  “That is completely unfair. And untrue.”

  Jenny sighed again. “Whatever, Jared. I don’t have time to deal with this right now.” She took off her apron and tossed it on the counter. “Unlike you, I haven’t eaten anything at all today.” Jared flinched and petty as it was, she took some small satisfaction from that. He should feel guilty. Hopefully, once she got some food in her, they could talk without fighting. Right at that moment, she’d rather talk to the tray of baklava than him.

  “I’m going to go grab something that isn’t covered in honey. There’s two more layers to go, if you feel like being helpful.”

  “Jen.” He grasped her arms and pulled her to him. “What’s really going on? I get that you’re pissed I’m late and you have every right to be. But this seems like more than anger over my time management skills.”

  Normally, she would have smiled at his attempt to make her laugh, but it didn’t seem so funny at that moment. She pulled away from him, dug the test out of her purse where she’d stashed it, and slapped it onto the counter next to him.

  He stared down at it, stunned. “You took the test?”

  “Obviously.”

  “You said you’d wait for me.”

  “I did wait. For hours. I couldn’t wait anymore. It was driving me insane. Unlike you, who apparently haven’t thought about it all day.”

  “Of course I’ve thought about it! But it wasn’t something I thought was happening right now.” He picked it up and looked more closely at it. “Negative.”

  Jenny nodded, her throat suddenly tight with tears.