28. Elise

CHAPTER 28

Elise

We’re meeting Blake’s grandmother at the bakery.

I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.

On the surface, it’s good. I love the bakery and feel at home here. She’ll love our desserts. I should feel more relaxed here. And it’s a huge compliment that she has always wanted to try Books and Buns.

It’s been about two weeks since we first came up with our how-we-met story and we’ve filled in more details since then. We’re ready for this meeting. But I’m so jumpy that I feel like I’ve already had four cups of coffee.

I suppose I’d feel that way no matter where we were meeting.

Why am I nervous though? This isn’t real. It doesn’t matter in the long run if she likes me or not.

But I want this to go well for Blake. The cabin is important to him, and if his grandmother does not believe that we are heading down the aisle, she might not turn the place over to him.

I will admit that there’s a little jab in my chest when I think about him moving to Minnesota. Not only do I not want him that far away because I’ll miss him, but I’m a little concerned about him becoming a hermit as well. He’s a quiet guy. Not a people person. But he has seemed happy with the time he’s spent with me, Aidan, and Simon. I kind of hate the idea of him up there in the woods all alone.

I take a deep breath and push through the swinging door, stepping out from the kitchen and into the main bakery with the tray of macarons, pain au chocolat, and éclairs.

I’ve already served both Blake and Heidi coffee and cappuccino. They are sitting at one of our tables near the front window.

Blake looks almost ridiculous in the tiny white wrought-iron chair. His hulking frame makes everything in the bakery look even more dainty and feminine than usual.

I’ve seen hockey players in here before. Crew McNeill stops by, and Alexsei Ryan is, of course, a regular. But even next to them, Blake is humongous.

“Good luck,” Luna says softly to me.

I had to confess the fake engagement to her and Dani. I couldn’t have them believing that Blake and I were actually getting married.

“Thanks.” The huge diamond on my left hand catches the sunlight as I pick up three glass dessert plates. “It’s going to be fine, right?" I ask Luna.

“Convincing her that you have feelings for Blake?" Luna asks. She gives me a wink. “ Completely fine.”

I don’t know if I like that answer. I do have feelings for him. I want his grandmother to believe that. But I don’t know if I want to be broadcasting it to the entire world. I don’t even know if I want Blake to know that. That will make things a lot more complicated when it comes time to end this. I don’t want it to be awkward when he says "Hey, thanks for the help. Really excited for the cabin. You were a real trooper.”

“For what it’s worth,” Luna says, moving behind me to refill the coffee cup for the woman at the counter. “He clearly has feelings for you, too. It will be a very easy sell to his grandmother.”

I don’t know if that helps. It’s not like it matters. I do think that Blake likes me. I think we went from casual flirtation to much more pretty easily. But I’m not a part of his long-term plan. He wants to live in Minnesota. I am a Chicago girl. My business is just taking off here. I am not the outdoorsy, live–in–a–cabin type of girl. At. All.

I just give Luna a smile, at a loss for words. Then I head for the table. I set the desserts down and hand Blake the plates. He chooses one of each of the desserts, setting them on one of the plates and handing it to his grandmother. Then he does the same for me as I take the seat next to him, the diamond ring heavy on my finger.

“You’re a model. And you design your own dresses,” Heidi says. “Tell me all about that. That’s amazing.”

I relax slightly and give Blake a smile. He told his grandmother about my business and that makes this first topic of conversation easy. There doesn’t need to be any lies here.

“This has been absolutely lovely,” Heidi says.

We have been chatting and eating for forty-five minutes. She loves the desserts, loves the cappuccino, and seemingly loves me.

We’ve answered every question, we haven’t stumbled over a single thing, and Blake has visibly relaxed. He’s leaning back in the tiny chair, and has his arm draped over the back of my chair.

“What have you discussed with your parents as far as the wedding?” Heidi asks me.

I carefully swallow the sip of coffee without choking and set my cup down.

“Um…we haven’t discussed details at all yet.”

Heidi frowns and I feel a trickle of trepidation. Dammit. It’s been going so well.

“Oh. I was hoping for some news on a wedding date.”

Blake shifts on his chair, but I don’t risk looking at him for fear of giving away the what the hell going through my mind.

“We haven’t set a date yet,” he says.

“Really?” Heidi leans in.

“Yes, really,” Blake says. “Why do you look confused?”

“Because that’s confusing. Elise is wonderful. You’re obviously completely enamored. There’s a huge ring on her finger. Your retirement is coming up. Seems that you would want to get married before making a big move to Minnesota, especially because Elise will be needing to move her business and figure out how to continue with her modeling.” She looks at me. “Or are you going to quit? I mean you’re just getting started. You seem so excited about it. But that will be difficult from Minnesota. Or maybe not. Everyone is on social media these days.”

I swallow. “Well, I…”

“Obviously we’ll be traveling back-and-forth from Minnesota to Chicago whenever Elise needs to,” Blake says easily.

“I see,” Heidi says. "That will make fittings with your clients much more difficult. Of course, you can gain clients in Minnesota. Still, living way out there in the woods is going to make it hard for people to come to you. Are you able to travel and do fittings with clients hours away?”

Shit, shit, shit. I shouldn’t have given her so many details about my business. I just get carried away when I’m talking about it.

I nod. “Of course. I’ll become a traveling show.” I smile. “I’ll be in Chicago once a month. People will come to their fittings when I’m in town. And I’ll do adjustments then. And I would love to expand to a Minnesota clientele. I can easily go to them.” I have no idea if that’s true, but it sounds good. “A lot of my customers are strictly online anyway.” It doesn’t matter. All of this is fake. Don’t panic.

Heidi shakes her head. “Well, not easily . We are pretty off the grid up there.” She turns her attention to Blake. “Have you not told her? You really should take her to the cabin so she knows what she’s getting into.”

“Of course I’m going to take her to the cabin,” Blake says. “But we’re going to work all of this out. Being together is the most important thing.”

Heidi focuses on me. “Elise doesn’t seem like the type of woman to give up her career. Especially when you’re retiring. You should just stay in Chicago.”

I look at Blake. He’s gritting his teeth. I smile at his grandmother. “We’ll work it out. I love my job. But I also love your grandson.”

Saying the words that I love Blake out loud, in front of him, to his grandmother, feels a little too real to me. I feel a shiver of awareness trip down my spine and realize Blake is staring at me.

His grandmother is watching us closely, so I give her a big smile.

“Well, that’s obvious, dear,” Heidi tells me. She looks at Blake. “I can’t believe that you haven’t told your parents about Elise. Everyone was so surprised when I told them.”

He stiffens. “Who all did you tell?"

"Well everyone . I’m so excited. Your mother is obviously very upset you haven’t told her. Why haven’t you?"

“We were going to wait to announce it.”

“Wait for what?” Heidi asks.

“After my retirement. When we had some of these details worked out.”

“Oh.” She doesn’t seem worried about ruining the secret. “Well now they’re all very excited. And I’ve decided that the cabin will be my wedding present to you. No need to go through all that silly paperwork.”

I look up at Blake. His eyes are narrowed. “What do you mean?"

“Well, you, of course, will have to take over the property taxes and all the maintenance and everything, but I’ll just give it to the two of you. I’ll bring all the official paperwork signed and delivered to the wedding.” She smiles at me. “I’ll put both of your names on it.”

“That would mean that you would expect us to get married before we move,” Blake says. “You want us to just throw a wedding together?”

“Oh, even better,” his grandmother says. “Let’s have the wedding at the cabin! You’re not a big crowd guy anyway. I imagine you’d want to have a small wedding. We’ll just have family and close friends. I’m sure all of them would be happy to make the trip to Minnesota. Then you can just move right into the cabin.”

Blake doesn’t say anything for a long moment. Then he takes in a deep breath through his nose. “Of course. Getting married right away makes sense. After all, me moving to Minnesota and Elise staying here wouldn’t work, would it?”

His grandmother beams. “Exactly. I’m sure you’ll want her to move with you when you go. And if you’re going to get married anyway, might as well do it sooner versus later.”

I feel like I’m watching a ping-pong game as I look from one to the other. I have no idea what to say here, and decide my silence is more helpful than anything.

But how are we going to do this? We can’t have all of our family and friends go all the way to Minnesota for a fake wedding. What are we going to do? Pay off the minister? Get a fake marriage license?

His grandmother reaches under the table and grabs her purse. “I’m going to be late for my nail appointment.” She stands and turns to me. “But thank you so much for getting together. Everything was delicious and it was delightful to meet you in person. We’re going to be seeing a lot of each other.” She leans over and gives me a kiss on the cheek, then does the same to Blake. “We’ll talk soon.”

Then she’s out the door, and getting into the town car that appears as if by magic at the curb.

I blow out of breath.

Then I hesitantly look up at my fake fiancé.

“Well… fuck ,” are the first words out of his mouth.

“Yeah.. That’s kind of a curveball.”

He sits forward in his chair and rests his head in his hands. “Kind of? Fuck. She doesn’t believe us.”

I frown. “Is that what that was?”

He looks at me. “Yes. She knows there is no way that you are moving to the woods of Minnesota with me. She doesn’t believe our whole thing at all. That’s her way of calling me out. Because the woman won’t just say it. She has to make me sweat. And she told my parents. I can’t believe they haven’t called me. They must not believe it’s real either. Fuck, fuck, and fuck.”

I chew on my bottom lip, thinking.

He sighs and sits back. “I’m gonna have to come clean. I shouldn’t have lied to her in the first place.”

“But you really want the cabin,” I say.

“Yeah,” he says. “I really do.”

“Well then, there’s only one thing we can do.”

He looks at me. “Buy some land and build my own cabin?”

Right, he's a millionaire hockey player. I nod. “Okay, there’s two things we could do. You could do that, and give up the cabin that is part of your childhood, something that means a lot to you and that in my opinion should be yours. Your grandmother is trying to manipulate you, and that’s not cool. No matter how nice and sweet she seems.”

“Okay, what’s the other option?” he asks.

“We get married for real.”

He just stares at me. He says nothing. He doesn’t make a single move.

I shrug. “Come on. Let’s just do that. There’s no stipulation that we have to stay married. We get married, we get an official marriage license, and she can’t doubt us then. She has to sign the cabin over to you.”

“You would actually invite your family and friends all the way to Minnesota to marry me for real at the cabin?”

I shake my head. “I think we should say that we were swept away by emotion. Once she put the idea in our heads, we couldn’t wait. We go get married in Vegas. Or down at the courthouse. Whatever. We just get married on a whim, tell them it was the most romantic thing ever. We can say that we’ll do a ceremony or a reception some other time for everyone. But as long as we have a real, legal marriage certificate, she loses her high ground.”

He studies me for long moments. It’s almost as if he’s trying to memorize my face. “You’re extraordinary, you know that?”

I laugh lightly. "That’s a nice way of saying I am slightly crazy."

"But you’re doing this for me. You’re not really getting anything out of it."

I’m able to genuinely smile at that. "I get to help one of my favorite people out.”

He looks stunned. "I’m one of your favorite people?"

I lean in. "You know things about me that very few people do. You have been there for me in ways no one else has. You make me feel extraordinary. You make me feel special and cared about and beautiful, and like I can actually make one of the grumpiest people I’ve ever met happy. You have given me things. And yes, you’re one of my favorite people.”

It’s actually not crazy to help him out at all. It makes me feel warm inside and out, considering what he’s given to me.

He reaches up and cups my face. "You make me so happy, Elise. And you’re one of my favorite people, too.”

And then one of the grumpiest people I know gives me one of the sweetest kisses I’ve ever had.