Sigh.
I leaned down and picked up the box from the local bakery. This wasn’t the cute little corner place where I ate cookies with Minnie. It wasn’t where people would go for a quick croissant or a muffin when they were craving something sweet but wanted to sound like they were being healthy. This was the exorbitantly expensive, painfully trendy bakery that specialized in wedding desserts.
Setting the box down on my coffee table, I opened it up and looked inside. A dozen little squares of cake were arranged perfectly inside. The gold envelope tied to the top with a satin ribbon contained a handwritten description of each of the samples. It looked like the baker had included several different combinations of cake, fillings, and icings. I could only imagine they were specifically chosen by Minnie.
It was one of those great days when I woke up without feeling sick, and I did have a growing baby to support, so I popped one of the tiny cakes into my mouth. I had every intention of enjoying each and every one of them. But I wasn’t going to be paying attention to what they were, and I most certainly wouldn’t be making any selections.
The next morning, another knock woke me up. Just like the day before, by the time I got to the front door, whoever delivered the package was nowhere to be seen. And sitting in the middle of my porch was a box of wedding invitation samples. The next day changed things up. Nothing woke me up, but I was on a call with a new client when a thick book of fabric swatches and hors d’oeuvres samples from four different caterers appeared.
I would have been amused by Minnie’s kamikaze campaign if it wasn’t so incredibly inconvenient. I didn’t even know how she was pulling it off, but I was officially at my wit's end. My conversation with Nick evidently didn’t have any effect. Either that, or he had relayed my message and she’d just decided to ignore it.
That meant I needed to take matters into my own hands. I really liked Minnie, but this couldn’t keep going on. She needed to understand the situation. I could appreciate that she had three sons happy and settled that she just wanted to see the fourth follow suit. But she needed to realize I wasn’t going to be the solution. She couldn’t just keep planning until she convinced us we were engaged.
I waited until I figured there wouldn’t be a huge number of people at the compound. The crowd during the employee picnic was fairly large, but I assumed many of them were family members of the people who actually worked there. That cut it down, but I wanted as few people as possible. My goal was to confront Minnie, not make an absolute spectacle out of myself.
When I got to the Freeman Racing compounds, I told the guard at the gate I was there to see Minnie. He didn’t seem completely convinced until I mentioned my name. Then he smiled and let me on through. That shouldn’t have really surprised me. Of course she would have added me to the list. It was probably only a matter of time before she went ahead and changed my last name to Freeman.
With that thought in my head, I had the compulsion to reach into my purse and take a quick glimpse at my driver’s license. I might have been gradually tipping over the edge into conspiracy theory territory now, but after everything I’d witnessed, I wasn’t going to put anything past this woman. She seemed like the kind of person who got what she wanted, when she wanted it.
The receptionist directed me to the kitchen at the back of the main building. When I got there, I found Minnie in there alone, pulling a sheet tray of caramelized onion tarts out of the oven. They smelled heavenly, and I wanted to just tip the entire tray right into my mouth. This was the dichotomy of my life now. Either I was sick and woozy, or famished beyond reason. Very little middle ground happening.
She was sliding the tray onto a trivet on the island when she glanced up and noticed me. Her eyes lit up, and she gave a wide smile. Partially to stop her from saying anything, and partially to control myself around the onion tarts, I held up a hand and shook my head.
“Listen, I applaud your stubbornness and perseverance. But I don’t imagine your son wants to date me, never mind marry me. There’s a lot going on here. He’s a really amazing person, and he’s doing something incredible for me to help me drag myself out of an awful situation. There’s just too much going on and too much that has already happened and it’s just… too much. I haven’t even told him I’m pregnant yet.”