Logan nodded.
He wiped his face with a napkin and went inside. The sound of banging of cabinet doors and heavy footsteps came from the kitchen as Logan made his way through the house. When he entered the room, it was still a disaster, just one of a different variety.
Erin no longer sat on the floor in a pile of ruined cake. She was pulling ingredients from the pantry and different shelves. Logan tried to make sense of the commotion, and spotted the cake. It was still on the floor, just pushed into a corner so it wasn’t getting stepped on as she hurried from one spot to another.
Logan was sure she hadn’t registered his presence yet, and he stood in the doorway and watched as she measured flour in a large mixing bowl. She added a few other things to it before throwing some sticks of butter into the stand-up mixer. With the push of a button, the machine was in motion.
When Erin turned, she spotted Logan. Their eyes locked, and her feet stopped so suddenly, her body struggled to stop in time. She started tilting forward and Logan took a step toward Erin to catch her.
She fell into his arms, her body stopping mere inches from his. As she righted herself, Logan’s hands caught on her waist. He knew she should pull them away, he had no right touching her like that, but he couldn’t seem to move. Erin didn’t notice, or she didn’t care, because she stood rooted in place, her face tipped up to look at him.
She gave him a strained smile. “Hey.”
A corner of his mouth lifted in an almost smile. “Hey.”
They stood like that looking into each others’ eyes for a moment before Erin seemed to rememberherself. She stepped back, out of his gentle grip, and brushed her hands over the skirt of her apron.
“You’re making a new cake.” It was obvious but Logan wasn’t sure what else to say.
Erin bit her bottom lip and nodded. “I have to.”
“Will you be able to recreate it?” His voice trailed off as he asked, afraid to know the answer. Baking and decorating a wedding cake in less than twenty-four hours was a herculean feat, even he knew that.
She took a deep breath. “No, but they can’t not have a cake on their wedding day.”
He picked up some larger pieces of cake from the ground and threw them in the trash hoping it wouldn’t upset Erin too much to see her hard work thrown away. He turned the water on to wash his hands. “Do they know?”
Erin closed her eyes and shook her head. “Not yet. I tried calling, but it went to voicemail. My guess is they’re busy with the rehearsal dinner.”
Logan couldn’t imagine the thoughts that must be going through her mind as she waited to talk to the bride. There was a real possibility that the couple would be so angry that they wouldn’t want her cake. Yet, here she was frantically working in the kitchen to make sure she hadsomethingto give the soon-to-be-married couple tomorrow. For better or worse.
He admired that about Erin. She’d always been determined, stubborn. And she’d always wanted to dothe right thing. Logan was glad to see those things hadn’t changed over the years.
“I think I’m going to go for a much smaller cake. Just a simple smooth frosting,” Erin continued. “And then I’ll have a couple of sheet cakes we can hide in the back. After they cut the cake, and they bring it back for the caterers to slice it for guests, we can serve sheet cake.”
“That’s really brilliant.”
A pink tinge appeared on her cheeks. “A lot of people do that for weddings. I wasn’t going to do that for this wedding because they wanted something grand, but”—she shrugged—“I don’t have a lot of options.”
Again, Logan felt a tremendous amount of respect for the woman standing in front of him. She hadn’t stayed on the floor, wallowing in self-pity. No, Erin had allowed herself to cry and then gotten back up, determined to make the best of her situation—something Logan imagined she had a lot of experience with lately.
While Erin busied herself with making batter and pouring it into cake pans, Logan decided he could help by tackling the dishes that were overflowing in the sink.
Once the water was good and hot, Logan got to work washing measuring cups, frosting tips, baking pans, and anything else that needed to be cleaned. As he went through the mind-numbing motions, his mind went toSamantha and Parker. They were in good hands with Aunt Betty. She’d always had a way with children and would keep them occupied without worrying them about their mama, while Erin caught up as much as possible.
As he put another wet dish on the rack, the sound of Erin’s phone ringing had him sneaking a glance in her direction. He watched as she answered the phone. Even with the water running, he could hear the screaming coming from the other end of the call. As expected, the bride was not happy with the current turn of events.
Erin grimaced as she listened to the woman yelling at her. She walked out into the hallway to finish the call. Logan couldn’t hear what she said, and that was probably for the best. He had no business listening to her grovel about something that was beyond her control.
He decided to keep his head down and continue to clean while Erin dealt with that. He put another dish on the pile of precariously stacked dishes. It took him a couple of tries to get it to stay, and Logan took that as his cue to move onto something else for a while.
Erin would clean the counters, but she might not want to after the conversation she was currently having. So Logan tossed the discarded eggshells and grabbed a rag to wipe the loose flour and sugar that coated the counters.
He was just finishing up when Erin walked back in, tears filling her eyes.
Logan set the rag down and moved toward her until he was only a few feet in front of her. She wouldn’t meet his gaze.
“That bad?” he asked.
