“Oh, actually —”
“Yes, lovely to meet you.”
I turn wide eyes on Dan, who just winks as he shakes the woman’s hand. What the heck is he doing?
“I’ve taken the time to pull the designs Mrs. Hazelwood preselected, and we have an array of flavours for you to try.”
“I’m sorry, what was that about the designs?” I ask, interrupting Joanne. She looks confused as we take a seat at a small table where a thin folder awaits us.
She turns to Dan. “Your mother was in here earlier this week and selected half a dozen designs she felt would match your aesthetic. She informed me you would choose from those.”
Once again, Cordelia takes over. I shouldn’t be surprised by now, yet somehow, I am.
“Why don’t we focus on flavours first.” Dan’s hand lands on my knee, squeezing it gently. I look at him and see the concern etched on his face. Pasting on a smile, I cover his hand with mine for a second, then turn to Joanne.
“Yes. Let’s start with flavours. Should we give you a list of what we’d like to try?”
Joanne blinks, and it’s such a small gesture that it shouldn’tfeel so ominous. But I know what she’s about to say before she even opens her mouth. “Mrs. Hazelwood already notified me which flavours you wish to sample.”
“Of course, she did,” I mumble under my breath.
“As long as one of them is carrot cake, we’re good.”
I turn sharply at Dan’s words. “Carrot cake?”
He gives me a wink and a shameless grin. “Your favourite.”
“How did you know that?”
Now his eyebrow lifts. “Come on, Birdie. Do you really gotta ask me that?”
I blink slowly. “I…I guess not.”
He turns to Joanne, that wide smile now directed at her. “So, carrot cake. With cream cheese frosting. That’s gotta be an option for my girl. She loves to bake, but no way is she making her own wedding cake.”
There’s no hope in trying to ignore the shiver I get hearing him saymy girl,even if I know he means nothing by it. We’re playing along with the assumption we’re a couple, and maybe the guilt over that deception will hit me later, but for now, I’m glad he’s here. I don’t think Baron would have thought to ask for carrot cake.
As Joanne wheels out a cart covered in plates, each one with an admittedly gorgeous-looking slice of very fancy cake on it, I force myself to relax. As Dan said on the phone when I asked him to come with me, who doesn’t like free cake?
“Okay, we have to start with this one.” Dan gestures to a slice of light-coloured cake covered in pristine white icing with some sort of orange filling. “What’s that flavour, Joanne?”
“That would be a cardamom cake with a citrus curd filling.”
Dan dishes some onto a fork and hands it to me before scooping up his own bite. He raises his utensil, and I can’t help but smile as we clink them together, then bring them to our mouths.
But my smile quickly falls. I try to school my reaction as I quickly chew and swallow, but one glance at Dan tells me I’m not alone in the struggle.
He ducks his head and whispers under his breath, “Say nothing, it’s a trap!”
I have to muffle my laugh at theStar Warsreference, turning to Joanne with a hopefully believable neutral expression. “That one is not my preference,” I say politely after wiping my mouth. “Sorry.”
“No need to apologize,” Joanne says breezily. “I’ll leave you two lovebirds to your tasting. And once you have your top few choices, we can discuss design plans.”
I nod in thanks and wait until she walks back into the kitchen before leaning over the table. “Oh my God, that was repulsive.”
Dan lets out a quiet chuckle. “Thank fuck you agree. I don’t know if I’ve ever met a piece of cake I didn’t like, until now.”
Eyeing the rest of the selections, I feel my worry mounting. “What if they’re all weird like that? She didn’t leave us a list or anything. Is it meant to be cake roulette?”
