Resisting Mr. Tall, Dark & Texan

by Christine Rimmer

  “I can, yes. And I would be honored. And you can relax. It’s very much doable. Mostly it’s going to be about getting the equipment I’ll need together on the fly like this. But the cake itself is no problem.”

  “No problem?” Erin was shaking her head. “It’s for three hundred people.”

  Lizzie couldn’t bear to see the poor woman so worried. She went to her, took both her small, slim hands in her own larger ones. “Let me take this worry off your shoulders. Planning a wedding is stressful enough without your baker running off on you.” The man—why was she sure it had to be a man?—should be shot.

  A tear trembled in Erin’s thick lashes. “Oh, if you could…”

  “I can. And I will. You’ll see. I won’t let you down. I baked several multitiered wedding cakes when I worked in my family’s bakery, before college. And I’ve done four more since then, for friends in Texas who had big, gorgeous weddings.”

  The tear escaped Erin’s lashes and spilled down her cheek. She freed a hand from Lizzie’s grasp to take the tissue Ethan had produced for her. “I know it’s only a cake. It’s not the end of the world. I shouldn’t let it get to me like this…”

  Erika moved in closer and wrapped an arm around Erin’s shoulder. “It’s all going to work out.” She winked at Lizzie. “My instincts tell me that Lizzie is just what we need right now.”

  “Yes, I am,” said Lizzie with a low laugh. “Now come on into the kitchen. I’ll make the coffee and see if we have some packaged cookies around here because I haven’t had time to bake anything yet. You can tell me all about the fabulous cake I’ll be creating for you.”

  “Oh, thank you. Thank you…”

  Over Erin’s shoulder, Ethan caught Lizzie’s eye and grinned in satisfaction. Lizzie grinned right back at him. He was pleased to have found a way to solve Erin’s problem. And he knew that Lizzie loved it when he brought her a challenge.

  The kitchen had a big round table positioned in a bow window very much like the one in Ethan’s house in Texas. In fact, Lizzie had pretty much chosen the house because it seemed to her a slightly smaller version of his Midland home. She’d known he would feel instantly comfortable here—then again, Ethan felt comfortable wherever he was.

  He went right to the table and pulled out chairs for the bride and for Erika as Lizzie got the coffee going and put some Pepperidge Farm Milano cookies on a plate. Within a few minutes, they were all munching cookies and sipping coffee.

  Lizzie got out her notebook. “Okay, now, tell me all about your perfect wedding cake.”

  Erin knew exactly what she wanted. “It has round tiers—six tiers. And real flowers. I have a lot of colors. So I thought if the cake itself was all white, we could put the colors in the flowers. I have mauve, red, purple, apple green, light orange and lilac…” Lizzie jotted down the colors as she ticked them off.

  Erika added, “Each of her bridesmaids and matrons gets a different color.”

  Erin smiled at her soon-to-be sister-in-law. “Erika’s dress is red.”

  “That will be beautiful.” Lizzie started sketching. “Filling?”

  “Raspberry preserves? And I want fondant on top of buttercream icing for that beautiful smooth look…”

  “The porcelain look,” Lizzie said. “And the fondant holds up well without refrigeration.”

  “Yes.” Erin frowned. “I know the fondant isn’t usually very tasty…”

  “Mine is—does that sound like I’m bragging?” She shrugged. “Well, I am.”

  Erin beamed. “Good. I have to tell you, your confidence is really encouraging.”

  Erika chuckled. “Now is not a time she needs a modest baker.”

  Ethan let out a rumble of laughter. “Lizzie? Modest about baking? Never. But then, why should she be?”

  Lizzie granted him an approving nod. “White cake?” she asked Erin.

  Erin said, “We wanted pink champagne cake. And can you add some vanilla mousse filling with the raspberry?”

  “You’ve got it. I’ll need to get with your florist. Gerbera daisies in your colors would be nice, trailing in a spiral up over the tiers…”

  Erin blinked. “How did you know?”

  Lizzie shrugged again. “I can do some pretty white fondant flowers, too, for another accent, as well as edible pearls.” She turned her notebook around so that the other two women could see her sketch of the cake.

  Erika made a pleased sound.

  Erin was beaming. “Oh, it’s perfect. Just as I pictured it.” She set down her coffee cup. “And I’ve got my checkbook.” She grabbed for the bag she’d hooked on the back of her chair. “I can pay you right now.”

  Lizzie put up a hand.

  But Ethan was the one who spoke. “No way. Consider it your wedding present.”

  Erin looked stunned. “But I couldn’t possibly… No, that’s not right. It’s too much. I know what a cake like this costs.”

  Ethan held firm. “You paid once for your cake. Not again.”

  “Ethan, you’re a prince. Really. But it’s way too much work for Lizzie. It’s not fair to ask her to give her time and talent away like that.”

  Lizzie spoke up then. “Don’t you worry. As I said, I’m honored to create your cake for you. I’m going to love baking your cake for you, I promise you.”

  “And I promise,” said Ethan, with that melting look that broke all the girls’ hearts, “that I’ll pick up the tab. It won’t cost Lizzie a penny.”

  Lizzie reached over and put her hand on Erin’s slender arm. “Ethan will take care of me. Count on it. He always does.”

  Before the two women left, Erin invited Lizzie to the rehearsal dinner the next night.

  “I would love to, but I think I need to stay focused, if you know what I mean.” Actually, she probably could have fit in the dinner, but she wouldn’t have been much of a guest because she’d be totally concentrated on all that would need doing the following day. She’d be up at about 4:00 a.m. Saturday, and baking her butt off. Luckily, the wedding was in the late afternoon, giving her a perfectly acceptable window of time to pull it all together.

  If she could get all her equipment tomorrow. Which was another reason she didn’t want to commit to dinner Friday night. She could still be running around madly then, trying to scare up cake boards or the right size pans.

  “The three of us, then,” said Erin. “You, me and Erika. We’re taking a girls’ night out as soon as Corey and I get back from our honeymoon.”

  Lizzie liked the sound of that. “It’s a date.”

  “I’ll call you tomorrow,” promised Erika. “In case there’s anything you think of that I might be able to help with.”

  “Thanks. That would be terrific.”

  And then, in a flurry of goodbyes and thank-yous, Corey’s bride and Dillon’s wife were gone.

  With a sigh, Lizzie sagged against the front door.

  Ethan stood in the arch to the living room. “You’re amazing.” He looked at her with affection and appreciation in those gorgeous dark eyes.

  She felt really good, she realized, basking in her boss’s admiration—and excited over the cake she would create. “I like them. Both of them. And this is going to be fun.”

  “What can I do?”

  “Stick around for about an hour while I make some calls?”

  “You got it.”

  “Then I’ll let you know what I need from you.”

  Dark eyes gleamed. “See? You already love it here.”

  She had to confess, “Okay, it’s not as bad as I imagined it.”

  “Not as bad?” His voice coaxed her.

  “Ethan, for crying out loud, what do you want from me? We’ve only been here half a day.”

  “You love it.”

  She pushed off the door frame and stood tall on her own two size-ten-and-a-half feet. “It ain’t Texas.”

  “Lizzie.” He spoke in that dark, sweet voice he used with his girlfriends. “You love it.”

  A strange little shiver
went through her. She ignored it and blew a loose strand of hair out of her eyes as she gestured down the central hallway, toward his big, well-appointed home office. “Go…check your email or something. I’ll call you when I need you.”

  Lizzie booted up her own computer in her little square of office space off the kitchen and started checking online to see if she could get the equipment she needed overnighted.

  No way. Not to Thunder Canyon, Montana.

  She spared a wistful thought for the well-stocked shelves in her maman’s bakery. But all that was long gone. And even if she’d managed to keep some of her mother’s pans and utensils, they would be in Texas now, useless to her anyway.

  So she called a couple of restaurant and kitchen supply places in nearby Bozeman. Both were just closing, but they would be open at nine tomorrow morning. And between them, they had what she was going to need.

  She made a list—not only of equipment, but of all her ingredients. And then she called Erin’s florist and made arrangements to pick up the multicolored daisies Saturday morning. If she was too busy to go, Ethan would do it for her.

  He appeared right then, in the doorway to the kitchen, as if she had called for him. “So? Everything under control?”

  She hit Save and then Print. “So far, yes.” Faintly, in Ethan’s office, she heard the printer start up. “Tomorrow, if you can manage it, I need you.”

  “I’m all yours.”

  “Great. You can drive me to Bozeman. The supply stores I found open at nine. I want to be there when they unlock the doors. And we can pick up the perishables before we come back, try and get it all in one trip.”

  “I can get you there and help with carrying groceries and equipment. Also, I’ll bring my platinum card.”

  “Perfect.” Then she remembered. “Corey’s bachelor party. It’s tonight, right?”

  He looked puzzled. “Yeah. So?”

  “You’ll be out till all hours.”

  “That’s the way a bachelor party tends to work.”

  “So never mind. I can make the trip tomorrow on my own. I’ll bring you receipts. Lots of them.”

  “Uh-uh. I’ll get up in time. And I’ll take you.”

  “I’ll believe it when I see it.”

  He was grinning, looking way too handsome, as he took up the challenge. “And you will see it. Just wait.”

  He was sweet to want to help. She did appreciate that. And she always enjoyed his company. But it didn’t matter either way. If he wasn’t up by the time she had to go, she’d just take off on her own. No big deal. “Want some dinner? I can throw something together within twenty minutes or so.”

  He shook his head. “The party’s at the Hitching Post, a local watering hole. Dillon rented a private room in the back. Dinner included.”

  “You guys hire a naked girl to pop out of a cake?”

  “Lizzie, Lizzie, Lizzie. Give us more credit than that.”

  “Two naked girls?”

  He grunted. “You know the old saying. What happens at a bachelor party stays at a bachelor party.”

  She waved a hand at him. “I know, I know. If you told me you’d have to kill me and all that. Better you just keep your secrets. I’m too young to die.”

  “Plus, I need you alive to make Erin’s wedding cake.”

  “Right. That, too.”

  “So…the twins and Rose are staying at Thunder Canyon Resort.” His brothers Jackson and Jason were fraternal twins. At thirty, their sister, Rose, was the baby of the family. “I thought I’d wander on up there, see how they’re doing, maybe have a look around the resort’s main clubhouse a little…”

  She almost laughed. “And I need to know your every move, why?”

  He lifted one hard shoulder in a half shrug. “Well, I mean, if there’s anything you need from me. Anything at all…” Now he was giving her that look again. That sweet, melting look, eyes like dark chocolate.

  She braced her elbows on her dinky desk and wrinkled her nose at him. “What are you up to?”

  He smiled, slow and lazy. “Not a thing. I’m just saying you can count on me to help, that you’re a lifesaver for poor Erin and I’m here for you, Lizzie.”

  She made a shooing motion with both hands. “Out. Go. See you tomorrow.”

  “You sure?”

  “I am positive.”

  “’Night, then.” He turned and left her.

  She watched him go, thinking what a great butt he had.

  Until she caught herself staring and made herself look away.

  After that, for several minutes, she just sat there at her desk, staring blindly into the middle distance, wondering why he seemed to be pulling out all the stops to be charming and attentive to her the past couple of days.

  It was kind of annoying, really. They had an easygoing, best-pals relationship. And suddenly, he was messing with the program, falling all over himself to be available to her, coming way too close to flirting with her.

  Worse than whatever he was up to, was the way she seemed to be responding to it. Getting all shivery when he sent her a glance. And…staring at his butt?

  Okay, yeah. It was a great butt. But still. It wasn’t as if that was news or anything.

  Really. The last thing she needed was to start crushing on Ethan. That would be beyond stupid.

  Lizzie tossed down her pen and stood up. She smoothed her hair and straightened her plain white sleeveless shirt. Get over yourself, Landry. Ethan wasn’t up to anything beyond being extra nice to her in hope that she might change her mind about resigning.

  And she was not crushing on him. Uh-uh. No way. Not in the least.

  Chapter Three

  At 3:10 a.m. Friday, Ethan clapped his brother Corey on the shoulder. “You’re a lucky man,” he said.

  “Yes, I am,” Corey agreed. “I’ll walk you out.”

  Jackson, who was good and toasted at that point, called, “Hey, where you two goin’? Party’s jus’ gettin’ started. ’S’bad enough Dillon crapped out on us early.”

  The redhead on his lap giggled. “Yeah, you two. Stick aroun’…”

  “I’ll be back,” promised Corey with a rueful grin.

  Jason, across the table from his twin, shook a finger. “You guys are gettin’ old,” he accused.

  Neither Corey nor Ethan argued. The lone bartender, left to close up the place when the party was finally over, shook his head and went on polishing the short bar at the other end of the room. He’d stopped serving at two, per Montana law. But that didn’t mean the partiers couldn’t bring their own and serve themselves.

  Ethan waved and left the private back room of the Hitching Post with the groom at his side. They emerged midway along a dim hallway and went right.

  Corey pushed the bar on the heavy door beneath the red exit sign and the cool night air came in around them. He waved Ethan out ahead of him and put down the stop on the door to keep it from latching.

  They stood in the quiet parking lot under the sodium vapor lights and Corey asked, “You good to drive?”

  Ethan nodded. “Not even buzzed. I couldn’t afford to get blasted. I’m taking Lizzie to Bozeman bright and early tomorrow to buy supplies for the wedding cake.”

  Corey grinned. He was a fine-looking man and took after their mother’s side of the family, with lighter hair and eyes than Ethan had. “Got news for you, big brother. Tomorrow is already today.”

  “Did you have to remind me?”

  Corey chuckled, but then he grew serious. “I owe you. And Lizzie. You’ve made Erin very happy.” His deep voice softened when he said his bride’s name. And it struck Ethan strongly: Corey was deeply in love.

  First Dillon. Now Corey.

  The Traub brothers were dropping like flies lately.

  Not that there was anything wrong with settling down. If a man was interested in that kind of thing.

  Corey went on, “I told Erin all about the Texas Bluebell Bakery, about those cream cakes and éclairs that could light up your mouth, and about those
pies Lizzie’s French mama used to bake. Remember those pies? I loved them all. Especially the sweet-potato pie.” Corey stuck his hands in the pockets of his jeans and stared up toward the sky, a dreamy look on his face. “When I think of Cécile Landry’s sweet-potato pie, it brings it all back, you know? Being a kid again, before Dad died, when life was simple, when a piece of pie could just make your day…”

  Ethan did remember Cécile Landry’s pies. “I was partial to the strawberry-rhubarb, myself.”

  “Oh, God,” said Corey with a groan. “The strawberry-rhubarb…”

  “Lizzie still bakes a rhubarb pie for me now and then. And they’re just as good as her mama’s, believe me.” Lizzie. He scowled. Lizzie, who thought she was leaving him….

  Corey lowered his head. He peered at Ethan more closely. “You’re lookin’ a little grim.”

  “Lizzie wants to quit.” The words were out before he even realized he would say them. And then he went ahead and elaborated, sounding more annoyed than he meant to. “She’s got a dream, you know?”

  Corey did know. “The bakery—but you were aware of that. You told me two or three years ago, after the two of you became BFFNB, that she wanted to open a bakery again someday.”

  “Uh…BFFNB?”

  “Best Friends Forever, No Benefits,” Corey explained with a self-satisfied grin.

  “Very funny—and it doesn’t matter that I was aware of her big dream. The point is I never really thought she would ever go through with it. What’s wrong with working for me, that’s what I want to know?”

  “Whoa.” Corey stepped back. “You’re really upset about this.”

  Ethan felt embarrassed suddenly. Which was ridiculous. He grunted. “Well, yeah. Yeah, I am. We’ve got a good thing going, me and Lizzie. And have you any idea how much I pay her?”

  “What’s that have to do with anything?”

  “Just answer the damn question.”

  Corey answered carefully. “I’m sure it’s a lot.”

  “You bet it’s a lot. She’s got full medical and dental. She’s even got points in TOI.”

  Corey’s brows drew together. “But she wants to get back into her family’s business.”