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“Can I help you?” a woman asks from behind the counter.
“I’m waiting for my… my friend,” I tell her, feeling more than a little awkward and wishing I’d just stayed in the damn car until they’d shown up. “She asked me to come to the cake tasting with her today to help her choose.”
The woman smiles at me. “That’s so sweet of you. Feel free to have a seat.” She gestures around the bakery, and I head over to one of the booths near the wall where I can see the outside.
I glance at my phone, counting down the minutes until they arrive. This all feels so awkward, but I’m desperate to see Lucia and relay Victor’s latest progress to them so we can work on the plan to get her out of this. Hopefully, we’ll never need this cake.
I wish Angel had let me install my usual apps on his phone, but he’d laughed at me when I’d suggested it. “We’re working together, Saint, but don’t assume everything’s going back to the way it was before.”
I wasn’t assuming anything. Okay, maybe I was, a little. He had his… tantrum, as Victor called it, but now that he’d calmed down, we should have been on the same page.
The only concession he’d made doesn’t help distract me from the dark swirl my thoughts take. The idea that they’ll take my help and disappear without me at the end keeps rearing its ugly head, and Victor hadn’t been any help on that front.
I hate this uncertainty. Not knowing what to do, who I can trust.
Thankfully, I notice Angel and Lucia approaching the store, ending that line of thought. I put my phone away and get up, practically ambushing them as they walk through the door.
“Hey! You’re here,” I greet, smiling.
I thought I’d give Lucia a kiss in greeting, but she quickly evades me, putting Angel between us.
He looms between us, looking for all the world like he’s actually the faithful bodyguard he’s pretending to be. He seems to be shielding her from something—from me?—and hurt starts to pool in my gut.
“Sorry,” I mumble, stepping back.
“Don’t take everything so personally,” Angel mutters. “We’re in public, you dick.”
Lucia is quiet, and she looks drawn and pale. Her makeup is as expertly applied as usual, and she’s dressed in a form-fitting dress that shows off just a hint of cleavage. She looks gorgeous—or at least she would, if it wasn’t for the unhappy look on her face.
“What’s going on?” I ask, immediately alert.
Before Angel can respond, the woman from behind the counter calls out, “Good morning. Are you here for the Bellini-Pavone cake tasting?”
Lucia flinches, but she flashes the woman a brilliant smile. “Yes, that would be us.”
“I have your samples all ready for you,” she says. “Have a seat over there,” she gestures to a nearby room, “and I’ll bring them right out to you.”
We all sit down at one of the small tables in the semi-private room nearby. Angel stalks around the entire room, looking around to make sure it’s empty and out of sight from the front entrance. He hadn’t been this paranoid when he’d gone to the boardwalk, but… these are different circumstances.
I pour all of us a cup of coffee from the nearby coffee machine and set them down. Lucia takes the center seat, facing the doorway, and scoots a bit closer to Angel once he’s in place. I try to bury the twinge of jealousy and remind myself this is all for show.
“Any, ah, news on your end?” I ask carefully. “I have a few updates myself, but I want to make sure we’re in private when I tell you.”
Angel pours four creams into his coffee. “The invitations were all sent out this morning. The final count was… uh, four hundred something, wasn’t it? Not quite five hundred. A lot of out-of-town invites.”
Lucia nods slowly. “Yeah. He has friends all across the country. Everybody will get to see me walking down the aisle.”
“No, they won’t,” I say firmly. “Because you won’t be walking down the aisle. We’re going to get you out of there before his big event.”
She offers me a smile, but it’s a bit strained. She looks so different from the way she had the last time we’d spoken. There had been an air of confidence and calm about her, and she’d absolutely been in control. But right now, she looks a little… lost.
“What happened?” I ask, but before anyone can answer, the baker comes into the room with a tray full of cupcakes.
“I’m Katie, by the way,” she says. “I put together all the samples you asked for in cupcake form to make things a little easier. We can cut them up so you can all taste them.” She sets the tray down and hands each of us a little plate. “But please keep in mind that, since this is all so last minute, and in such high volume, we won’t be able to do anything truly unique. I hope that won’t be a problem, Ms. Bellini, Mr. Pavone?”
It takes me a second to realize she thinks that Angel is the groom. I’m about to correct her misunderstanding when Angel puts his arm around Lucia’s shoulders. “Yeah, that’s fine. Lucia and I aren’t that fussy. Honestly, if it were up to us, we’d elope, but the family is… uh, they’re insistent, and large.”
Katie smiles sympathetically at him. “I understand. Well, any of the flavors your wedding planner sent over are fine, except for the millefoglie. It’s beyond our means on such short notice.”
