Bridesmaid For Hire

“I’d like to order a wedding cake for a wedding taking place three weeks from now.”

Actually, it was three weeks from this past Saturday, she thought, but that was a tidbit she was going to save until she had someone in front of her she could make eye contact with.

The movement she’d initially heard had definitely stopped. And still no one opened the back door any farther. Weren’t they coming out?

This was all very strange, she thought. Maybe this “artiste” wasn’t here and she had walked in on a misguided burglar who was caught in the act of trying to rob the place.

She tried one last time. Raising her voice again, Gina called out, “If this is a bad time, I’ll come back. You don’t have your store hours posted, but—”

She saw the door leading to the back room opening all the way.

Finally, she thought.

And then, when she saw the person walking to the front of the shop—walking toward her—her jaw slackened, causing her mouth to drop open. Any other sound that might have come out at that point didn’t.

After a beat, Gina realized that she had forgotten to breathe.

Shane.

But it couldn’t be.

Could it?

And yet… It was definitely Shane, cutting the distance between them in what now felt like slow motion.

Was she dreaming?

She would have blinked to clear her eyes if it didn’t strike her as being almost cartoon-like.

A hot wave washed over her.

Breathe, damn it. Breathe! she silently ordered herself.

When he heard her voice, Shane was almost convinced that he was imagining things. He had come out to see and prove himself wrong.

Even so, he knew he would have recognized her voice anywhere.

And he was right.

It was her.

Ten years went up in smoke and just for an instant, he was that lovesick kid again.

And then reality, with all its harsh reminders, returned with a vengeance.

“Hello, Gina.”

Because for one wild split second, the shop she was standing in had insisted on going for a quick spin around her, Gina grabbed the edge of the counter to keep herself steady. She refused to do something so incredibly hokey as to pass out even though she felt as if she could barely get her legs to support her.

“Shane?” she whispered.

His name slipped out before she could stop herself. It looked like Shane, except that it was a handsomer, upgraded version of the man who lived ten years, unchanged, in her past. His face appeared more gaunt now, and more rugged. Some of the boyishness had worn away, replaced, she noted, by an almost arousing manliness.

His hair was still blond, though, and his eyes, his eyes were still that piercing shade of blue that always seemed to go right through her. Time hadn’t changed that, she thought.

The corners of his mouth curved ever so slightly at the confusion that was on her face.

“Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten what I look like,” he said in response to the questioning way she had said his name.

Oh God, no, Gina thought. Even if she had gotten amnesia, there was no way she could ever forget Shane’s face. Like it or not, it was and always would be permanently embossed on her brain.

Because she realized that she was staring at him as if he were an apparition, Gina cleared her throat and stumbled her way through an explanation.

“I’m sorry—” she began only to have him interrupt her.

“Nice to finally hear you say that,” Shane said.

Gina wasn’t able to read his expression, but she instantly pulled her shoulders back, prepared to engage in an unpleasant exchange. Not that, at least from his point of view, she could actually fault him. But in her own defense, she had tried to find him and apologize. But she wasn’t able to and that was his fault. He was the one who had taken off and disappeared, not her.

“—but I seem to be in the wrong place,” Gina continued tersely. “I’m looking for a cake designer named Cassidy—”

Shane inclined his head. For now, he stayed behind the counter. He didn’t trust himself to come any closer to Gina than he was at this moment. Despite the fact that he felt she had humiliated him, despite being angry at her, the woman had still managed to fill his head, not to mention his dreams, every waking minute for more than an entire year.

It had taken that much time for his longing to subside, and then another year for him to pull himself together. That was when he admitted to himself that he didn’t want to be a lawyer. That had once been his parents’ dream, not his, even though he’d tried to honor it. So one day he just walked away from it, had gone to work with his older brother halfway around the world and ultimately found something he felt he had a passion for. Something unique and unlike anything he had ever done before.

Myriad emotions pulsed through Shane right now as he looked at Gina, although he was able to keep any of that from registering on his face.

Instead, he told Gina in a very calm voice, “I’m Cassidy.”

Gina stared at him, her eyebrows coming together almost in an upside down V. What was he trying to put over on her?

“No, you’re not,” she contradicted, almost annoyed that he was trying to fool her. “You’re Shane.”

Just saying his name again after all this time sent ripples of warmth and longing undulating through her. Her brain was having trouble computing seeing him after all this time. At the very least, the man should have had the decency to look a little paunchy and worn around the edges, not like some rugged movie star stepping off the big screen.

And why was he smiling at her like that? Was he going to say something sarcastic?

“You don’t remember,” Shane guessed.

“Remember what?” she asked, feeling more and more confused, befuddled and exasperated.

This morning, she had been happily saving yet another anxious bride’s wedding, and now, less than a couple of hours later, she felt as if she was suddenly caught up in the center of a whirlpool, being tossed around and unable to figure out which way was up.

“That my middle name is Cassidy,” he went on to tell her. “Shane Cassidy Callaghan,” he said, giving her his full name as he watched her face.

Seeing Gina again without any warning just served to remind him how much he had missed looking at that face. How much he had missed the scent of her hair and the feel of her soft body pressed against his.

Get a grip, Callaghan. She did a number on you once, don’t leave yourself open for another assault. She’s even forgotten your middle name.