CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
“I DON’T NEED a party,” Willow insisted as she closed out the register. “I know you guys want to do this, but an engagement party seems silly since we’re getting married in three months. How about if we have joint bachelor and bachelorette parties?” It had been ten weeks since Willow and Zane had gotten engaged, and eight glorious weeks since Zane had come back to Sweetwater. Willow had never felt so complete in all her life, and she didn’t need a party as confirmation. She thought her mother was going to hound her about it, but her mother had understood. It was her sisters who had arrived at the bakery fifteen minutes before closing time to hassle her for the umpteenth time.
Piper groaned. “Joint? Really?”
“I like that idea,” Talia said. “It shows you’re a strong, committed couple.”
“I agree.” Bridgette grabbed a rag and began wiping down the tables.
Piper set her hands on her hips. “The old Bridgette would have given you hell for not taking advantage of your one last opportunity to be a wild, crazy single woman.”
“Actually,” Bridgette said, “Willow did make me dance with Aiden, who was a magnificent specimen of a man. Perfect for Talia. So maybe we should have separate parties. With a stripper.”
Willow laughed. “A stripper? You do know who I’m marrying, don’t you? Zane would tear apart any man who tried to strip in front of me. But I do love that you’re thinking along those lines. Maybe our risky sister isn’t gone after all.”
“Payback, baby,” Bridgette said with a smirk.
“Hell no, she’s not gone,” Piper said. “She just needs the right man to bring her back to life.”
“I still don’t know what you didn’t like about Aiden,” Talia said. “Willow said he was gorgeous and successful, seemed well educated, and he was a proper gentleman.”
“As she said, he was perfect for you, T,” Piper said. “We like our men a little naughtier.”
Talia closed her notebook and raised her brows. “It’s the quiet ones who are usually the naughtiest.”
Willow giggled. “Is that firsthand knowledge?”
“Um . . .” Talia’s eyes darted away. “No. That’s what everyone says, though.”
“She’s holding out on us, but she’ll never give up details, so . . .” Piper peered into the bakery box on the counter. “Whose delicious-looking pastries are these? They should be mine.”
“A customer called in the order.” Willow organized the accoutrements behind the counter. “I didn’t recognize the name. Booker, I think. They were supposed to be here half an hour ago. You guys, is it crazy that I’m nervous about signing the papers on Mom and Dad’s house?” Their parents had received final approval on a smaller house, and tonight she and Zane were having dinner with them to sign the contract for the Grand Lady. Willow couldn’t believe the house she had grown up in and adored was really going to be theirs.
“Perfectly normal, sis,” Talia assured her.
“It’s no different from when you bought this space for the bakery.” Bridgette finished wiping down the tables and went to rinse out the sponge as Zane came through the door. “Except now you have a hunky almost husband to buy it with.”
“I hope you’re talking about me. There’s my beautiful fiancée.” Zane wrapped his arms around Willow and kissed her.
Piper tapped her chin with a teasing smile. “How does it feel to know you’re not lying when you call her your fiancée?”
Willow’s sisters and parents had been annoyed with them for lying about the engagement, but it had blown over quickly. In the end, they understood why she and Zane had done it, but that didn’t stop Piper from razzing Zane every time she saw him.
Zane kissed Willow again. “It feels fantastic. How does it feel to know you’re going to have a brother-in-law you can give shit to anytime you want?”
“Better than fantastic,” Piper quipped.
“How did the call with Steve go?” Zane and Steve were working out the final details of their contract so they could move forward with funding and finding talent for his screenplay. She’d never seen Zane happier than he’d been these last few weeks. She’d like to believe it was one hundred percent due to their relationship, but she knew the movement on his script played an enormous part in his feeling of fulfillment.
“Great. We’re Skyping tomorrow to nail down the last of the loose ends. Are you almost done here? Want me to help with anything? We’re supposed to meet your parents in twenty minutes.”
Zane was always willing to pitch in and help. He’d come down with her in the mornings and help her bake or work on his screenplay while she baked, but they’d end up making out and throw her entire morning off schedule so often she’d had to ask him to come down after customers began arriving. Most of the time, anyway.
“I’ve got the bakery under control.”
“Speaking of the bakery.” Piper pointed at the ceiling. “What are you going to do with your apartment after you move?”
“Aurelia is ninety-nine percent sure she wants to go in on combining the bakery and bookstore. If she agrees, and if we can swing it financially—”
“Which we can,” Zane interrupted.
Willow poked him in the chest. “Stop. No bigness from you. Aurelia and I want to do this on our own.”
Zane rolled his eyes, and Willow kissed him. “But I love your generosity.”
He smacked her butt. “I’ll keep my bigness to the bedroom.”
“Hey! Sexpots!” Piper laughed. “Renovations?”
“Oh, right. Sorry. We’re talking about building stairs that lead up to the second floor and making that into the bookstore, but lofting the ceiling so it doesn’t feel like a separate store.”
Piper looking up at the ceiling, her eyes narrow. “Hand me some paper and a pencil.”
“Here she goes.” Talia tore a piece of paper out of the notebook she was writing in and handed it to Piper, along with her pen. “I don’t have a pencil.”
“It’s all good.” Piper bent over the table and began sketching the renovations.
“Piper, we have to go meet Mom and Dad,” Willow said. “Can we do this another time? We don’t even know if it’s happening yet.”
“Sure.” Piper hugged her. “Talia? Want to grab a bite at the café?”
Talia gathered her things. “Definitely. I’m starved. See you guys later.”
“What about the party planning?” Bridgette asked.
“How about something small, Bridge?” Willow suggested. “Just family? At the house? Or maybe down at Harley’s?”
“Okay. Let me think on it,” Bridgette answered.
“What about Remi? You guys text all the time. And if it weren’t for Patch, you wouldn’t have come to the resort to meet me,” Zane pointed out.
“And Aurelia,” Piper added. “She’d be pissed if she wasn’t invited. But you guys can figure that out. I’ll see you tomorrow morning. Can you make whatever you made for that customer who didn’t pick up their stuff? Those look amazing.” She followed Talia out the door.
“Oh, shoot. Z, give me five minutes to wrap this up?” She picked up the bakery box as a tall, dark, handsome stranger walked into the shop, and Bridgette’s jaw dropped open.
“Hi. I’m Bodhi Booker. I called in an order. Sorry I’m late. I got lost.”
“Hi. I’m Willow. I’m glad you made it in.”
Bridgette grabbed the box from Willow’s hands. “I’ve got this. You can go.”
“Thanks, Bridgette.” Zane pulled Willow toward the door.
Bridgette waved her off and approached Bodhi with a wide smile. “Hi. Are you new in town?”
Willow glanced over her shoulder at the fire in her sister’s eyes. Fire she hadn’t seen in years. “Call me later,” she called over her shoulder as they left the bakery. Once outside, Zane tucked her against his side. “Did you see what I just saw?”
“If you mean Bridgette drooling, yes. More importantly, are you ready to sign on the dotted line on our new home?”
“Yes.” She looked at her gorgeous and oh-so-perfect engagement ring as they walked the few blocks to her parents’ house. It was late summer. The air was warm and the sky clear. Just like my heart.
When they reached her parents’ house, Zane wrapped her in his arms before they went inside. He’d changed in the past few months. His eyes were clearer, his smiles more genuine, and his touch—his sensual, loving touch—had the tenderness, and the roughness, of a man who knew his woman was really his and still treasured every second of their closeness as if it were a gift.
“I love you, Wills. And I can’t wait to make our own memories, and raise our own family, in this house with you.”
“I think we need to add extra locks to the windows and doors to keep our stubborn, sugar-addicted children from sneaking out to do dirty things.”
He brushed his lips over hers and whispered, “And ruin all their fun?”
“You’d be okay with your teenage daughter sneaking out and having sex with a guy who can’t wait to leave town?”
Zane’s brows knitted. “Double locks. And a shotgun.”
“Locks, yes. Gun?”
“How about we line the yard with those net traps that hang from trees? We can catch the bastard before he touches our little girl.”
“What if it’s a little girl coming to meet our son?”
“Well . . .” He smirked.
She swatted his arm, laughing. “You’re impossible.”
“And I’m all yours.” He pressed his lips to hers. “What does that make you?”
“The luckiest girl in the world.”