“Toby? This is Jay Michener.”
There was silence on the other end of the phone.
“Is Alysse all right?”
She hadn’t told her family that he’d walked out on her again. He felt shocked and surprised. “Yes. I mean I think so. I messed up and I need your help to get her back.”
“You need my help? What the hell did you do now?”
“Ran away again. But your sister held her own with me, which I’m sure isn’t any surprise to you.”
“No, it’s not. Alysse knows how to give as good as she gets and she is brutally honest sometimes.”
“She called me a coward,” Jay admitted.
“Damn. You must have really upset her,” Toby said.
“I did, but I want her back, Toby. Will you help me?” Jay asked.
There was a long silence on the other end of the phone. “If I help you it’s because I love my sister and I know that she wants you in her life.”
“Thank you, Toby. I want to be worthy of being in her life.”
“What’s your plan?” Toby asked.
He outlined what he had in mind and after a few minutes Toby agreed to assist him. “If she says no, that’s it. I want you out of here for good.”
“If she says no then I don’t deserve her.”
Jay drove back to the Hotel Del Coronado where Toby met him in the lobby. They spent the afternoon seeing to every detail and when the evening rolled around Jay got dressed in a tuxedo he’d purchased from Nordstrom’s with Candi’s help earlier in the day. He stared at himself hard in the mirror and he hoped that whatever Alysse had seen in him when he was in his dress blues, she’d see in him tonight.
He’d never needed another person as much as he needed her and it would be damned hard for him not to worry. He’d never depended on another person as much as he did on Alysse. And he had no idea how she’d react tonight.
Chapter Fourteen
“SWEETDREAMSBAKERY, home of the incredible red velvet dream cupcakes,” Alysse spoke into the phone. It had been the longest three days of her life and now that it was almost closing time on Friday afternoon she wanted to get out of the bakery and go back to her home and hide away.
But she couldn’t do that because her home was now filled with memories of Jay. She couldn’t believe he’d left her once again. Worse, that she was still in love with him.
“Hello,” the caller said. His voice was very familiar.
“Toby?”
“Yes. I have a dessert emergency,” he said.
“An emergency?” she asked. “What kind of emergency?”
“It’s Molly’s parents’ anniversary and I told her I’d order a replica wedding cake and deliver it to the Hotel Del Coronado tonight by six.”
“Toby! I can’t make a replica wedding cake in four hours,” she said.
“It doesn’t have to be huge or perfect or anything like that. I just need something. Maybe two layers.”
“Two layers. I don’t know. I have some cakes that I baked for a wedding tomorrow that I could use. If you want me to do this, you have to come down here with a photo so I can decorate it properly.”
“Fine, but then I need you to deliver it because I have to get back to their party, which you are invited to, as well. Dress fancy.”
Her brother was a lunatic. “I am supposed to bake a cake, haul it across town for Molly’s parents and get dressed up, too?”
