Page 32 of Bad Boy Bakers, Vol. 2

“Try Moonbeams and Sweet Dreams downtown,” Rebecca suggested. “If Misty doesn’t have anything, she’ll know where Magnolia’s registered.”

“Thanks.” On a wave, he slid into the driver’s seat.

His brain was already working through all the details he needed to put into place so he could make this move home official and permanent. That was the first stage in making a life with her that was permanent.

“Okay, one of you fell down on your job of stopping me from getting lost in the black hole that is Pinterest,” Rachel announced. “Why did I decide that homemade soaps and custom handmade party boxes were a good idea?”

“Because you’ve got a limited guest list, and you wanted to give it a personal touch,” Cayla informed her. “And as it is actually a lovely idea, it was my job as your wedding planner to encourage that.”

“Besides, many hands make light work.” Rebecca narrowed her eyes as she carefully cut around the edges of the template that would ultimately be one of the party boxes.

“I really appreciate you coming to help. After last night, you totally didn’t have to.”

“I’m happy to help.”

Mia carefully pre-folded one of the boxes. “How was last night? I swear, I thought Brax was going to pace a hole in the floor.”

“Holt wasn’t any better. I overheard him on the phone with Jonah debating about whether anybody in the area had a snowmobile. As if we ever get enough snow in Tennessee to justify one of those.”

“Jonah was thinking more horseback. If you’d been any closer, I’m pretty sure he’d have come after you.”

Rebecca rolled her eyes. “Oh, for heaven’s sake. You’d think I was a teenage ingenue, the way they’re all acting. I’m a grown-ass woman. It’s not like I was trapped with the big bad wolf.”

Cayla tied off one of the fully assembled boxes with the blue and silver ribbon that matched the wedding colors. “Well, to be fair, given how Grey looks at you, I don’t think that’s too far from the truth.”

Heat burned in Rebecca’s cheeks, and she turned all her focus to her cutting. “That is none of their business.”

Mia threw back her head and laughed. “Good for you!” She lifted her glass of sparkling cider. “Here’s to breaking long dry spells.”

Rebecca shot an apprehensive glance around the table as all three girls lifted their glasses. “Please don’t mention that to the boys. They might do something stupid like corner him.”

“We would never,” Cayla assured her.

“We are duty-bound to redirect our men so they don’t interfere,” Rachel added.

Remembering how she’d jumped in to help distribute the rest of the Christmas crackers at dinner, Rebecca offered a when-in-Vegas shrug and lifted her own glass in a toast.

Cayla drank and set down her glass. “Hopefully, they’ll have all worked off some frustration with that town-wide cleanup of trees downed by the ice storm and will be chilled out again by the time they get home.”

“Here’s hoping.” Mia resumed pre-folding the boxes. “As someone who also got married right out of high school, I’m supercurious—was this a surprise to you, or was there some kind of love triangle situation going on back then between you and Lonnie and Grey?”

She definitely didn’t want to get into that.

“Grey and I were very close when we were younger, but we wanted different things out of life. Neither of us knew how to compromise, so at eighteen, that was the end of that. Now we’re both older and theoretically wiser, so we’re exploring the road not taken. Whatever that looks like.”

Cayla heaved a dramatic sigh. “I love a good second chance romance. Have you asked him to the wedding yet?”

“I hadn’t actually thought about it. I figured I’d be mostly tied up and hadn’t thought about a date.” Though, now that she mentioned it, Rebecca really wanted to see Grey in a suit.

As the conversation turned to a cheerful discussion of all the reasons she ought to ask him, Rebecca noted her future daughter-in-law had gone awfully quiet. She filed that away to address when they’d wrapped for the night.

“Okay, this is the last one!” Cayla finished tying the bow and threw up her hands, as if she were a calf roper in a rodeo. “We are done, and I need to get home for the bedtime routine. If I’m not there to cut it off, Maddie will have Holt singing about eleven million bedtime songs.”

Mia shoved back from the table. “I’m out, too. Dakota will go down fine, but Duncan usually only wants me at bedtime.”

“I’ll stick around to help clean up. Give all those sweet babies second-hand grandma hugs.”

“We absolutely will,” Mia promised.

After another round of hugs and thank yous, the two women headed out, leaving Rebecca alone with Rachel.

She began gathering up paper scraps for the garbage. “Are you okay? You seem like something’s on your mind.”

Rachel knit her fingers together. “Yeah. Yeah, there is.”

Sensing she needed some support, Rebecca eased back down in a chair.

“Do you want to talk about it?” This whole wedding had to be bringing up a lot of memories and feelings about her first husband, who’d died a few years before as a result of a traumatic brain injury sustained on his job as a firefighter.

A furrow dug in between her brows, betraying her sense of disquiet. “I really do. I’ve been thinking about this a lot for the past few weeks.”

Oh, boy. Keeping her voice gentle, Rebecca laid a hand over hers. “Are you having second thoughts about the wedding?”

“No! No, it’s nothing like that. But it does have to do with Jonah.” The sheer concern in her expression had an alarm bell beginning to clang somewhere deep in Rebecca’s brain.

“Does he have more of a problem with me dating Grey than he’s said?”

Rachel pressed her lips into a thin line, obviously considering her words. “That’s complicated.”

“Complicated how?”

“So, you know how, when you’re with somebody for a really long time, you notice all these little quirks about them? Body language. Birthmarks. Just the sort of little things most people don’t consciously register.”

“Sure.” When Rachel said nothing, Rebecca pushed. “What is it, honey?”

“It’s just… I’m trying to find the right way to say this.”

“Just spit it out.” Whatever it was would be easier to deal with once it was out there.

Distress highlighted Rachel’s blue eyes, and she went back to linking her fingers together. “Please know that this is not about offending you or accusing you, but I just have to know.”

Rebecca’s heart began to pound. She was out of time.

“I thought, at first, that Grey reminded me of Jonah just because he was also a SEAL and they had the same kind of training. They move the same way. But I kept looking at Grey during Christmas dinner. Everyone says Jonah looks just like you—and he does, to a point. But I think that’s what everyone defaults to because you’re who was here for comparison.

” Rachel stared at her, eyes begging her to understand.

Damn it. Damn it! She should have already talked to Grey.

She’d put it off, telling herself they deserved the uncomplicated time to find their way back together.

And they had. But this was not how she’d wanted this to go.

None of the scenarios she’d considered involved someone figuring it out before she’d had the chance to voice the truth herself.

Swallowing hard, she managed to keep her voice level. “Have you talked to Jonah about any of this?”

Jonah hadn’t shown up demanding explanations, so she was pretty sure the answer was no.

Rachel shook her head. “No. The truth is better coming from you. But I need to know—is Jonah Grey’s son?”