Wedding Cake Wishes (4 page)

Works her way back.
Trina's words reverberated through Logan's thoughts. Had he been praying for his mother's recovery without really believing it could happen? The question convicted him in a way that even thoughts of his empty seat at all those family dinners hadn't.

It was difficult for him to imagine his mother entertaining big crowds or running her fast-paced business when so far she hadn't even mastered her aim for lifting her fork to her mouth, but he couldn't allow himself to think that way. Who was he to limit his mother's recovery or God's ability to heal? Faith was about believing without seeing, and his mother needed them all to believe.

“Is everyone ready for dessert?” Trina asked as she pushed back from the table.

“I am,” Lizzie announced.

The adults just stared at each other. Matthew's daughter was too young to understand, but the others couldn't forget that Amy Warren's scrumptious cakes were a tradition at every Warren-Scott family gathering.
Not having them there didn't feel right. Logan caught Caroline's gaze, and she gave him a sad smile.

“You know, Mrs. Scott, I'm pretty full already,” Logan told her.

Trina had started toward the kitchen, but she turned back. “Oh, that's too bad. My brownies are cooling on the counter. I thought we'd put scoops of vanilla ice cream on top.” She paused, resting her knowing gaze on Logan. “Are you sure you're too full?”

Logan pushed back from the table and patted his belly. “Oh, I think I could fit a little.”

“Good.” Trina took orders from the others and continued into the kitchen.

No one mentioned the cakes or their absence, but Logan was grateful Mrs. Scott hadn't purchased one of his mother's desserts for the occasion. She understood that the effort for continuity would have hurt more than it soothed.

Soon they were all gushing over Trina's brownie dessert and laughing together about old times. That, too, was a Warren-Scott family tradition.

Logan smiled as he thought how much his mother would hate missing tonight. But there would be other times, he was suddenly certain. His mother would even host her infamous dinner parties again. He just knew it. And when she did, he would happily attend every one.

T
he pews were only half-full at Community Church of Markston that Sunday morning, reminding Caroline again that it was a holiday weekend. As odd as it felt for her to be sitting in her mother's church, she would have felt just as out of place at her own church in Chicago as seldom as she'd darkened its doors lately.

With Jenna and Dylan on one side of her and Haley and Lizzie on the other, Caroline couldn't resist peeking farther down the pew to her mother. She fully expected one of her mother's knowing stares, cueing her in that Trina had guessed about her sporadic church attendance. She hadn't exactly given up her faith, but she'd had a hard time squeezing church into her Sunday work schedule.

But Trina wasn't paying attention to her at all, her focus on the doors at the rear of the sanctuary. Suddenly, it made sense. Mrs. Warren had always been annoyed by Dylan and Logan's continual tardiness at church. Jenna had reformed Dylan, but Logan was probably still playing beat-the-church-bell. In Amy's absence, Trina must have seen it as her duty to censure Logan.

At the front of the sanctuary, Matthew sat in his music minister's seat, his focus on the back door, as well.

“He's not going to make it,” Jenna said, glancing at her watch.

“I should have called him before I left my apartment,” Dylan murmured.

Jenna chuckled. “Don't worry. My mom will make him toe the line.”

“Like you did me?” He took her hand.

Caroline shifted in her seat. She'd never noticed before how many family jokes were directed at Logan. About small things from his Casanova ways to his job as “Ranger Logan,” but they all came with mild disapproval for his choices. Had he taken on the role of the family comedian to deflect some of that?

Her sudden temptation to tell both of their families to knock it off made her smile. Logan would not appreciate her defending him. He didn't need her to be his champion now any more than he'd needed her to step in when he'd been dealing with that difficult customer. She understood that he was fine on his own, but that didn't keep her from watching the door and rooting for him to show up
tout de suite
.

Just as the organist played the first notes of the processional music, Logan breezed through the door, a weathered leather Bible tucked under his arm. Although most of the men in the sanctuary wore polo shirts and slacks, Logan was dressed like it was Easter Sunday. He'd paired his navy suit with a crisp white shirt and a blue tie with geometric designs in the exact green shade of his eyes.

“What?” Logan asked in a low voice as he came to
the end of the pew. His left eyebrow lifted in question, that same side of his mouth rising, as well. “Good morning, everyone.”

He might have said
everyone,
but he was looking right at Caroline. Only then did she realize she'd been staring at him with her mouth hanging open like a landing pad for flies. She clicked her teeth shut and shifted again. It didn't matter how amazing he looked; she had no excuse for staring. But a glance around told her she wasn't the only one who'd noticed the man who wore a business suit with the same ease as he sported jeans and hiking boots.

Logan didn't pay attention to the fuss as he waved to Matthew up on the podium and scooted into the pew next to Caroline's mother. As Trina reached over and patted Logan's arm, Caroline couldn't help thinking of the service last Christmas when her mother and Mrs. Warren had made a display of standing and shifting seats so that she and Dylan were forced to sit together.

Caroline hadn't really expected her mother to try something like that this morning, but she couldn't explain her mild discomfort when she didn't. She should have been relieved. Was she disappointed that her mother and Mrs. Warren hadn't tried to set her up with a
third
Warren brother? That couldn't be possible.

Her gaze slid to Logan's end of the pew. No, not possible, she decided, choosing to ignore the annoying seeds of doubt that lingered.

“Let's get this morning started off right,” Matthew said as he stepped to the lectern. “I can't imagine a better way than by singing ‘How Great Thou Art.'”

Caroline smiled up at her brother-in-law, grateful to him for interrupting her strange thoughts. This was
what she needed to clear her head: good hymns, good meditation and a thought-provoking sermon on grace or the destructive power of sin.

But when Reverend Leyton Boggs directed everyone to turn to a passage in Mark Chapter 10, her hope faltered. It was the same passage she'd read aloud for Haley and Matthew's wedding.

“Jesus is a real proponent of marriage,” Reverend Boggs began. “Not the temporary kind like we see so much today but the enduring kind.”

He read from the beginning of the chapter, but when he reached Verse 7, Caroline found herself quoting the Scripture with him.

“‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh,'” she whispered.

Looking up from her open Bible, Caroline glanced at the couple seated to her right. Dylan was cradling Jenna's hand and moving it so that the sanctuary lights caught on the facets of her diamond engagement ring. Soon those two would be “one flesh.” Caroline looked up in time to catch Matthew and Haley exchanging a warm look. They already had melded their lives into one.

A knot formed in her throat, surprising her. Her gaze moved again to Logan on the opposite end of the pew. Did their siblings' cozy togetherness ever make him uncomfortable, the way it did her? More than that, did their obvious happiness ever make him wonder if he was missing something like—

No. She cleared her throat, uncrossing and then recrossing her legs. Logan wasn't the settling-down type any more than she was. If he was committed to anything,
it was to playing the field. And her life was complete. Not a thing was missing. But had she been happy, even before she'd received the pink slip? Had she truly been fulfilled? Did she have real friends or just colleagues? She praised the joys of her solitary life, but sometimes wasn't she just lonely?

“I don't need a wrap-up when Jesus said it so well for us in Verse 9,” the minister said when Caroline finally tuned back in to his message. “‘What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder.'”

Reverend Boggs had taken his sermon full circle back to the passage in the Book of Mark. Her thoughts had been just as circuitous, but unlike the minister, she had no answers to her questions. Clearly, her job loss was causing her to rethink all her choices, but was it more than that? As much as she didn't want to admit it, her general ennui just might have something to do with a park ranger who was trying his hand at running a bakery.

 

After Reverend Boggs spoke the benediction, Caroline had the urge to make a break for the parking lot. But how could she explain her sudden need to avoid spending time with the two families she loved most in the world? Or that she wanted to avoid a particular Warren family member?

Because there was no way she would admit any such thing, she followed Dylan and Jenna into the center aisle and braced herself for the crush of another Scott-Warren family reunion.

Lizzie reached her first, wrapping her arms around her skirt-clad legs.

“Church is over, Aunt Caroline,” she announced.
“Did you think I was good in church? Mommy and Daddy let me have dessert after lunch if I'm good.”

Caroline reached down and tugged one of the child's sandy-brown braids. “You were great in church. I think you deserve two desserts.”

“Just one will be fine,” Haley said as she reached them. “Thanks for the help, Caroline.”

“Anytime.”

Dylan elbowed Jenna and leaned close to speak to her in a loud stage whisper. “Remind me not to let your sister anywhere near
our
kids.”

As she laughed, Caroline felt herself relax. It was always like this when their two families got together—a lot of silliness, plenty of jokes. One marriage, another engagement and even a serious health crisis hadn't changed that. Maybe nothing had changed.

But as Logan came around the front of the pews and stepped into the circle next to her, his sleeve brushing her bare forearm, tingles raced to her shoulder. Something was different in the old family-friend circle, all right, whether she cared to admit it or not.

Dylan grinned at his brother. “So, Logan, did you have a job interview after this, or just a photo shoot with
GQ?
”

“Oh, this old thing?”

“I think he cleans up nice.” The words were out of Caroline's mouth before she had the chance to censor them. To keep from fidgeting, she tucked her hair behind her ear. Why did she always fidget so much around him, anyway?

He lifted an eyebrow, but then he grinned. “Thanks. You, too.”

“Thanks.” She brushed her damp hands down the
sides of her black pencil skirt, careful not to touch her silk blouse and leave embarrassing handprints. “Remember the time when we were kids and your mom had cleaned you up for church only to find you rolling down the hill in the backyard?”

As soon as she said it, she was sorry, but she couldn't seem to help herself. She'd always joked with Logan as much as the others.

“I'll try to remember not to roll on the ground today,” he said, his voice sounding tight. “I wonder to whom Reverend Boggs was speaking with his message this morning.”

Caroline stilled her hands on her hips. She deserved that, she supposed. But when she looked up again, he wasn't talking to her. He had sidled up to Dylan instead and was patting him on the back.

“Sorry, everyone.” Dylan held his hands wide. “Jenna and I didn't mean for everyone to be included in our premarital-counseling class.”

Trina had been over talking to a few of the church ladies, but she approached in time to hear the last. “If you're starting counseling, does that mean you two have finally set a wedding date?”

“Mother, please.” Jenna rolled her eyes.

“We'll get around to it,” Dylan assured her.

“I'm not getting any younger, you know,” Trina said, her lips in a pout that earned her a laugh.

No one mentioned Amy, or that she was a few years older than Trina and that her health was precarious at best, but the awkward pause in the conversation showed that they were all thinking about her again.

“You know…if you were to set a date, it would give Amy something to look forward to.” Trina held her
hands wide as if to show the simplicity of her idea. “It would give her another reason to work to get home sooner.”

“I don't know, Mrs. Scott,” Dylan said, shaking his index finger at her. “Are you worried your most recent match won't make it to the altar?”

“Of course not.” She waved away his suggestion. “I just know that Amy would want you all to live your lives instead of putting them on hold while she's recovering.”

“That's just what I've been trying to tell
you,
Mom,” Haley piped in. She moved between her sisters. “Did she tell you guys that Mr. Kellam invited her out for coffee, and she shot him down? The poor guy.”

“Why, Mom?” Jenna asked. “Frank Kellam is a cutie with all that silver hair and those blue, blue eyes.”

“Yeah. Why not?” Caroline wasn't sure she was ready to see her mother begin dating, but she didn't want her to be alone, either.

“Would you all hush?” Trina looked flustered as she shot a glance to the rear of the sanctuary. “He's a member here, you know.”

“He's really nice, too,” Jenna said.

Trina gave Jenna a warning look and turned back to Haley. “Now I told you…even before everything with Amy…that it wasn't going to happen.”

“Why not?” Haley rested her crossed arms on her belly. “Dad died more than two years ago. You should—”

“Not long enough.” Trina shook her head. “It will
never
be long enough.”

A second uncomfortable silence settled in the sanc
tuary, until Logan started chuckling. Everyone turned back to see what was so funny.

“Well, well, well, Mrs. Scott,” he said finally. “It's different when the tables are turned, isn't it?”

Instead of answering, Trina stared at him waiting for him to explain himself.

Logan held his hands wide, as if the explanation was simple. “The matchmaker gets a dose of her own medicine, and it doesn't taste too sweet.”

All the younger adults laughed, but Trina gave him one of those looks that used to hush her daughters in church.

“There will be no matchmaking, and that's final.”

“Okay,” Logan said with a shrug. “But you might want to remember that Matthew said that same thing. And Haley. And Dylan. And Jenna.”

By the time that he'd made it through the list, Jenna and Haley were muffling giggles, and Logan's brothers were looking away, trying and failing to cover their smirks.

“Logan Michael Warren,” Trina said in the same warning tone that they'd all heard Mrs. Warren use after one of Logan's jokes.

When Logan stiffened at the sound, Caroline couldn't help but do the same. Everything had to remind him of his mother lately.

But when Caroline turned back to her mother, Trina was smiling in a reminder that all thoughts of Mrs. Warren didn't need to be sad ones.

“Since Amy couldn't be here today, I knew she would want me to pick up the slack.”

Laughter filled the sanctuary again, with Lizzie
laughing the loudest in that way children do when they don't get the joke.

Just as Matthew returned to them from the receiving line in the vestibule, the overhead lights flickered off, leaving behind only the yellow cast of daylight filtering in through the stained-glass windows.

Matthew pointed to the lights. “There's our signal to go home. Unless you all just want to stay until the evening service.”