Sugared (Misfit Brides #4) (26 page)

That was a problem.

He loved his mom, and he wanted to give her what she wanted, but after what he’d done to Kimmie, he didn’t deserve to be happy.

T
he last thing
Kimmie expected was for a pickle to be the answer to her problems, but that pickle Tuesday night had turned half her life around.

Not that she intended to start making pickle cupcakes or anything. She was good, but not
that
good. She did, however, intend to become the new and improved Kimmie.

Today, her employment situation.

Tomorrow, or maybe next week, or next month, or in another life dimension, she’d tackle getting over the broken heart.

Josh hadn’t called.

He hadn’t followed her. He hadn’t texted. He hadn’t stopped by.

And why would he?

He didn’t love her. Even good ol’ fake Joshanova hadn’t been able to say the words.

Her mother, on the other hand, wouldn’t stop trying to suffocate her. Kimmie had called Arthur to ask him to run interference, and then she’d gone so far as to ask CJ to accompany her around town as a bodyguard.

Not that Kimmie couldn’t handle her mother.

She just couldn’t handle her
today
.

When she was done at the real estate office, the bank, the post office, and the bank again, she happily let CJ drive her to Suckers for dinner.

Pepper was there too, so Kimmie claimed the stool beside her while CJ went to work behind the bar.

“How are you doing?” Pepper asked over a hug.

“Depends on the minute.” Her phone dinged. She cringed and peered at it.

So proud of you,
Rosita texted.
Stick to your guns, girl. We love you.

Kimmie shrugged in response to Pepper’s silent
everything okay
? “Just a friend checking on me,” Kimmie said.

Everything felt odd today. She was supposed to be up to her elbows in buttercream. Instead, she was up to her elbows in something equally scary and exciting.

Pepper passed her a platter of cheese fries. “Has Zoe Scott talked to you today? She has a bride with fifteen attendants who want to do a bachelorette party at the Painted Slipper, and they’re interested in having dirty cupcakes and ice cream catered in. And I had a bride in this morning who wants a cupcake cake. Her fiancé just found out he’s deploying, so they’re planning the wedding fast. Should be about two hundred guests, but with barely four weeks to plan it, they were thinking they’d order cupcakes from the grocery store. I told her I’d ask you if you could do it.”

CJ plopped a Kimmie colada up on the bar. “Forgot to tell you. Nat said the Hart brothers are planning a surprise anniversary party for their parents next month. Heard they’ll be texting.” He eyed Pepper. “And I might have a sister who needs cupcakes for… something.”

“Old news, Princess,” Pepper said. “Mom and Dad have known about Saffron’s baby for a month. When are you going to tell them
your
news?”

Kimmie was already choking up about the cupcake orders. But the tears threatened an appearance now. “Is Nat…?”

CJ grinned. “You guys know something I don’t?”

“Don’t even,” Pepper said. “I know she told Lindsey and Arthur last night. And she’s not hiding the morning sickness as well as she thinks she is.”

“Ain’t getting a word out of me,” CJ said. “But if we
did
have reason to need cupcakes, we’ll be calling you first, Kimmie.”

Kimmie’s chin trembled. Maybe Josh didn’t love her, but her friends did. Maybe her mother wasn’t the best family, but Bliss was. Her eyes stung, but it was a good sting. She didn’t even mind the burn in her nose.

“Aw, Kimmie.” Pepper squeezed her in another hug. “He’s not worth it.”

“I love you guys.” Kimmie sniffled.

“We love you too. Forever and always.”

“I’m opening my own shop,” she blurted. “I have good credit and a solid business plan, and the bank is rushing the loan through, and Bennie’s is next to Dahlia’s place, and they’ve been having trouble finding a buyer, but I need a job, and I love cake, and I love Bliss, and so I’m opening my own shop.”

Pepper whooped. “Your mother’s going to salt her butter.”

“My mother can take a flying leap off one of the chocolate moons in my dreams.”

“Kimberly.”

Kimmie froze. “She’s behind me, isn’t she?” she whispered.

“Yes, Kimberly,” General Mom said.

Kimmie turned on her stool, inch by inch, until she was facing her mother.

General Mom was in her usual white suit, her usual perfectly bobbed and perfectly colored hair, and her usual
I am the Queen General and I will be obeyed
temperament. “There’s no reason to go to the trouble of opening a cupcake shop when you have a job waiting for you at the family business,” General Mom said.

Kimmie’s heart beat fast enough to whip butter. But she refused to look away. “If you want to be my mom, we can talk about that. But you can’t be my boss anymore.”

Her mother’s mouth flattened into a grim line.

Kimmie swallowed hard.

Bliss and the bakery were her mother’s life. There was a decent chance Marilyn Elias, direct descendant of the founders of Bliss, chairperson of Knot Festival, and president of the Bridal Retailers Association, would choose them over her own daughter. Habit demanded Kimmie duck her head, but a few lessons she’d learned recently made her return her mother’s hard glare instead.

“Knot Festival is next week,” General Mom said.

“Your workforce is well trained.” Kimmie’s voice trembled. “They’re prepared to handle Knot Fest with a short-staffed kitchen. You don’t need me.”

“Your heritage—”

“Is not my
life
. I don’t need you to bake cakes. And I don’t need you to always be disappointed in me or to doubt me. I
did
have a deal with Josh. He
was
going to give the bakery to me. But you two—you deserve each other.”

It was low, and Kimmie flinched at the injury that flitted through her mother’s eyes, but she didn’t let herself apologize.

She also forced herself to stand on her rubbery legs until General Mom had stalked out of the building.

“Wow,” Pepper whispered. “You okay?”

“Not yet,” Kimmie whispered. “But I’m getting there.”

T
he next Tuesday afternoon
, Josh hit Bliss town limits with a rock in his gut, a flutter in his heart, and a legal document signed and sealed on the seat next to him.

Would’ve saved everyone a lot of trouble if he’d done this in the first place.

Kimmie’s car wasn’t in the Heaven’s Bakery parking lot, but she lived close by and the early June weather was gorgeous. She’d probably walked. Josh parked and let himself into the bakery.

The kitchen was running smoothly, with at least seven women seamlessly working together on six wedding cakes while another pulled cupcakes from the oven.

“Where’s Kimmie?” he asked the cupcake lady. Rosita, Kimmie had called her.

“Gone. She quit. Forever.” Rosita sniffed at him. “I can’t decide if I should spit on you or thank you.”

The office door banged open, and Marilyn came out, in an apron, with white streaks on her cheeks and in her hair. “Mr. Kincaid.”

Josh stifled an eye roll. “Where’s Kimmie?”

“Give me one good reason I should tell you anything about my daughter.”

It would’ve been easy to snap back a sarcastic or baiting comment, but instead, Josh ignored the heat rising in his face and the uncomfortable bruising on his heart. “Because I love her.”

Clatters and gasps went through the kitchen.

Marilyn snapped her fingers, and silence reigned.

Except for the lady Kimmie called Paige. “I’m totally quitting when Kimmie opens Kimmie Cakes,” she whispered to an older lady next to her.

Marilyn flushed.

She was up shit creek without a cake pan, and Josh suspected she knew it.

He turned and stalked out.

Kimmie wasn’t at her apartment. Josh returned to The Aisle, dodging an insane number of bridal parties and shoppers enjoying Knot Fest, but despite going into half the stores, he didn’t learn a thing about Kimmie’s whereabouts. She wasn’t paddleboating or playing goofy golf. She wasn’t at the ice cream shop that her friend Dahlia ran. She wasn’t at Suckers.

And no one would confess to knowing where she was.

He planted himself on a stool at Suckers and refused to move until he was served. The hamburger tasted like sawdust—most everything had for the last week—and it settled in his stomach as if he’d eaten nails, but he forced himself to eat it.

And not to panic.

He listened in on conversations, but they were about Knot Fest and the Husband Games and people’s relatives and friends. Nothing about Kimmie. He was about to punch out, head to Chicago and regroup, when a murmur went through the bar.

Josh’s burger tumbled in his stomach.

Billy Brenton and his new bride had arrived.

If Kimmie were coming, she’d be coming with them.

But she wasn’t.

Lindsey caught sight of him, and unlike the rest of the residents of Bliss who had given him the cold shoulder, she headed straight for him.

And unlike the rest of the residents of Bliss, she was smiling.

She settled onto the stool beside him, and Billy took the seat on her other side. One of the big bouncer dudes from the wedding stood behind them.

“Josh,” Lindsey said, “brave of you to come to Bliss during Knot Fest week. Were you planning on being at your own wedding?”

He wanted Kimmie, but not like that. The wedding he’d planned was tainted with his own idiocy. “Where’s Kimmie?”

“She’s keeping herself busy. She officially quit Heaven’s Bakery. I assume no one told you. It seems most of Bliss dislikes you almost as much as they dislike Marilyn.”

“And you’re talking to me because…?”

“You’re here.” She smiled a benign, friendly smile that set Josh’s nerves on edge. Billy was smiling too, but his smile was too amused for Josh’s comfort. “Why
are
you here?” Lindsey said.

“I have something for Kimmie.”

“What?”

“That’s none of your business.”

Billy chuckled. “Wouldn’t say that to her if I were you.”

“All due respect, I’m not married to her.”

“All the more reason to answer the lady. She doesn’t owe you a thing. Might be the only person in the country on your side.” He hooked a thumb over his shoulder. “Bruno’s here under protest. Doesn’t like what Lindsey’s up to, and he’ll take any excuse to pound you into the ground.”

The short, redheaded bartender handed Billy a beer and set a glass of wine in front of Lindsey. “I don’t like it either,” she said. She glared at Josh. “But at least I got to spit in your burger.”

Lindsey eyed her wine. “I don’t believe I’ll be drinking that.”

“Good call, lawyer lady,” Billy said.

Lindsey propped her cheek on her fist and raised a brow at Josh. “You’ve been all over Bliss, irritating the locals, telling Marilyn you love her daughter, and you’re sitting here getting questionable food and dirty looks. Must be something important for Kimmie.”

Josh tossed a napkin in his empty burger basket. He didn’t want to tell Lindsey anything.

But as Mom said, living needed to come before pride. “I’m surrendering my share of Heaven’s Bakery to her.”

Billy tilted an eyebrow, but if Lindsey was surprised, she didn’t show it. “Kimmie’s done with Heaven’s Bakery,” Lindsey said. “Owning half of it won’t change that. If anything, it’ll complicate her life because she’ll have to deal with her mother again.”

“You think I should give it to Marilyn instead?” Josh barked out an unamused laugh. “No way in hell.”

“Why do you want Kimmie to have it?”

“Because it should’ve always been hers. Because
all
of Heaven’s Bakery should be hers. She’s the magic, but Marilyn takes the credit.”

“Marilyn gave Knot Fest bonuses to everyone at Heaven’s Bakery today. An extra full two weeks of pay each. To thank them for working under hard conditions lately.”

Josh clenched his jaw shut.

“She’s a pain in the ass,” Lindsey said happily, “but she has her moments. She’s promised my father she’ll see a therapist about her addiction to Bliss. Nat’s the new Knot Fest chairperson next year. And I have it on good authority that Marilyn’s going to lose the Bridal Retailers Association presidential election next month. A year ago, there weren’t many people who would stand up to her, but if Kimmie can, all of Bliss can, if for no other reason than to support her.” Lindsey patted Josh’s shoulder. “Nice job. She needed that confidence.”

“It’s becoming obvious Marilyn isn’t the only pain in the ass in Bliss.”

Bruno the bouncer scowled at him.

Billy grinned.

“Do you want Kimmie or not?” Lindsey asked.

Yes
.

But he couldn’t even bring her a gift without it being wrong.

Josh reached for his drink, but stopped when he remembered who had served it to him.

“You could make her very happy,” Lindsey said quietly. “I don’t know you well, but I know Kimmie. Except the Kimmie I know never would’ve stuck it to her mother during the busiest week of the year. The Kimmie I know wouldn’t have taken it a step further and bought her own bakery around the corner from her mother’s shop. The Kimmie I know never would’ve made a scene at a wedding to ask for something as basic and simple as another human being’s love. Because the Kimmie I know has never believed anyone
could
love her as much as she doesn’t even know she deserves.”

Josh suddenly understood where her reputation as a shark of a divorce lawyer had come from.

She hadn’t uttered a single threat, yet she was still fairly terrifying.

“Other than standing up to her mother, I have no idea what you may have done to deserve Kimmie,” Lindsey continued. “But she told the entire world that she loved you last week. I’ll say this once more. If you love her, you owe it to her to
love
her. If you don’t, get the hell out of my town.”

Josh swallowed hard.

Lindsey was right.

He didn’t deserve Kimmie. But Kimmie deserved to be happy. With a husband. Babies. Her own bakery. Her friends. Bliss.

And if he could make Kimmie happy—he swallowed hard—then he was a fucking selfish bastard if he let his fear of losing her some day in the future win out over her simple request that he love her.

She’d given him everything. Her trust. Her virginity. Her love.

She deserved that much and more. His voice wasn’t steady, and it wasn’t suave, and it certainly wasn’t Joshanova quality, but he pushed out the husky words anyway. “You think she still loves me?”

“I have no idea.” Lindsey smiled an evil, diabolical smile before sliding a ring-size jewelry box onto the bar. “Will’s security team recovered this after our wedding. Based on what I learned about it on The Aisle today, I suspect you might want it.”

If it was what he suspected it was, she was right.

He wanted it.

He should’ve told Kimmie what it was. Who it had belonged to. How Josh had gotten it.

What it meant.

He snatched the box and shoved it in the inner pocket of his suit jacket.

“It’s not about the ring or the bakery or the show, Josh,” Lindsey said. “It’s about the love. And all of us—you, me, even Marilyn—we all need it. Whether we admit it or not. Easiest way to get it is to give it. Will this be a story you tell your grandchildren or a secret you’re buried with?”

First his mother, now Kimmie’s best friend.

“Not for me to answer,” he said.

But how to get to the woman who
could
answer it was another question entirely.