6. Lark

Chapter six

Lark

“So you’re not coming?” I try to keep the disappointment from my voice. It’s not as if I enjoy spending time with my mother, but her apparent lack of interest in doing anything with me for this wedding still hurts.

“No, Lark.” She sounds distant and exasperated. Like always. “Your father and I have had plans with the Riordans for weeks. I can’t be expected to drop everything just to sample cake.”

I could fight back and tell her that most mothers would absolutely drop everything to help their only child plan their wedding. But then again, this is exactly what it’s always been like. I’m the lowest priority for my parents.

“Fine.”

“We’ll talk soon.”

That’s all I get before she hangs up, leaving me staring at the phone. I push off my couch and go to the kitchen to pour a glass of water. Now what? I don’t exactly want to go cake tasting alone.

I consider asking Willow if she wants to join me, but then I remember her mentioning she has plans with her boyfriend Ronan and his daughter Peyton.

Before I can overthink it, I type out a text to someone I at least know I’ll have a good time with.

LARK: How do you feel about free cake?

DAN: How is that even a question…

LARK: Right. Well, are you doing anything in an hour?

DAN: Other than eating free cake? Nope.

An hour later, I’m biting back my grin as Dan comes swaggering up to me, a big, goofy smile of his own stretched across his face.

“What the heck are you wearing?” I fold my arms across my chest. He looks down, spreading his hands wide.

“This old thing? Just a shirt I had lying around.”

The bright blue shirt with a huge cartoon slice of cake and the words “My Favourite Flavour of Cake is More” is stretched across his muscular chest.

“That is ridiculous.” My smile breaks free. It’s nice to be around someone who doesn’t care about appearances or status, just about having fun and enjoying life. That’s always how I feel with Dan. Carefree, light, and happy.

He shrugs, giving me a grin. “Yep, it is. Also, appropriate.”

I bite my lip to not laugh, but he’s right.

“Hey, any word from the university?” Dan asks as we near the coffee shop we decided to meet at before the tasting.

His question makes my mood drop slightly. I shake my head. “No, still nothing. I don’t think I’ll hear for a while. The placement wouldn’t even start until next fall.”

He nudges me with his shoulder. “They’d be stupid not to take you.”

Here’s hoping the people running the research project at the university agree with him.

Inside the coffee shop, the line isn’t too long and there’s an open table by the front. Dan gestures to it and says, “You grab us a seat, I’ll get drinks.”

I go and sit down, and a few minutes later he joins me, setting two mugs down. “Vanilla cappuccino, half caff with oat milk for the lady, and a mocha with extra whip for myself.”

For a few seconds, I stare at the steaming mug in front of me, more uncomfortable truths hitting me, this time strong enough that I can’t ignore them the way I normally do. In all the years I’ve been with Baron, I don’t think he has even once ordered my coffee the way I like it. I’ll drink coffee with regular milk, without flavouring, whatever. But my favourite? It’s right here in front of me, courtesy of a man who is so good a friend, he always gets my coffee order right.

I lift it to my lips and take a sip, my mind spinning. I’ve always known Dan is a special kind of guy. A good man with a heart of gold. He’s the one who always makes everyone around him smile, and nothing ever seems to get him down.

He’s silly, and kind, and giving, and smart. And I count myself incredibly lucky to have him as a friend.

And as I look at him smiling around the coffee shop, sipping on his mocha, not caring that a smudge of whipped cream is on the corner of his lip, my heart flip-flops in my chest.

Because someday, a woman is going to be even luckier than I am and have Dan Montgomery as her partner.

Leaning forward before I can think about what I’m doing, I lift my thumb and wipe away the whipped cream, stilling when he quickly turns and his piercing brown eyes fix on me.

“You had a little…” I show him my thumb, still frozen. His gaze bounces down, then back up. Slowly, I move my thumb to my mouth. He follows my movement, and there’s no mistaking the clenching of his jaw when my tongue darts out to lick it up.

All of a sudden, I feel hot and squirmy.

Pushing back from the table, I pick up my coffee cup and drain it, letting the still-hot liquid run down my throat. “We should go,” I say when I’m done, moving to the counter where a bin holds dirty mugs. I don’t meet his gaze as I walk out the door of the coffee shop, still trying to figure out what exactly was that reaction I just had.

I don’t get hot and squirmy around Dan.

Then again, there was that moment at his house the other night when I walked in on him shirtless. If this is going to be happening every time I see him, if I’m going to start feeling things I have no business feeling, things are going to get awkward really fast.

And the thought of things changing between us, of me somehow ruining our friendship, has me filled with dread.

But he seems oblivious to my internal freak-out as he chatters to me about the Little League team his Little Brother is on. Grayson’s a good kid, and I smile and nod as necessary, even though my head is a million miles away.

We reach the bakery in a few minutes, and Dan holds open the door with a little bow. “After you.” He’s always doing cute things like that, and I can’t help but compare him to Baron, who hasn’t held a door open for me in years.

“You must be the Hazelwood couple, welcome. I’m Joanne.” An older woman wearing a pristine white chef’s coat comes out from behind the counter.

“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’t feel 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 say my 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 the Star Wars reference, 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?”

“We can do this. And after, we’ll go for burgers and brews.”

His confidence is cute, but I’m not buying it. “Ugh, what’s so wrong with simple? Vanilla, chocolate, that’s good enough.”

“How about a carrot cake slab from the grocery store?” Dan winks. “That simple enough for you?”

“Honestly, yes,” I answer, leaning back in my seat. Waving my hand at the tray of small plates, I mutter, “All of this is just too much.”

He opens his mouth, then closes it, as if thinking better of what he was about to say. I wish he wouldn’t. I wish he would be honest and tell me his opinion. Because the doubts I have about this wedding are growing bigger and bigger with every day that passes, and I need someone to tell me I’m not crazy for questioning if I should be going through with the marriage at all.

And I know every one of my friends would support me if I said I wanted to cancel everything. Heck, Willow already did when I told them I was engaged but I was worried it was a mistake.

Yet somehow, despite my doubts and misgivings, I’m still here, going through the motions. All the while wondering if this is going to turn out to be the biggest mistake of my life.