Once Upon a Wedding (Meet Cute Romance 7)

“It’s open!”

In response to Cayla’s shouted invitation, Misty opened the front door and stepped into chaos. The cushions from the sofa were scattered on the floor. A bowl of popcorn was upended in front of the TV, where Frozen was playing at low volume, and a half-full sippy cup lay abandoned on the coffee table. Even as she watched, a giggling four-year old went streaking down the hall—literally. The kid was naked as the day she was born.

A harried looking Cayla chased after her. “Madeleine Faith, you get your tush back to the bathroom. It’s time for your bath!”

Already up to the middle name. Clearly the night wasn’t going well. Now Misty understood why Cayla had asked her to stop by her house instead of bringing the ribbon she’d picked up by the shop.

Shutting the door behind her, Misty dumped her purse and stepped into the hallway. When the little girl came racing toward her, Misty scooped her up and blew raspberries on her belly. “I spy a dirty little girl.” Indeed, a fair portion of whatever had been for dinner was smeared all over her face. Mac and cheese had definitely been part of the menu.

“No!” Maddie giggled.

“Don’t want a bath?” Misty asked.

“No!” Maddie shouted. “I’m a princess! I don’t have to.”

“Princesses have to be clean. It’s in the handbook.”

“What’s a handbook?”

Misty began walking down the hall, carrying the squirming bundle of little girl. “It’s like the Princess Rulebook. Elsa and Anna are always clean, aren’t they?”

Maddie screwed up her face in thought, and Misty prayed she hadn’t misremembered the movie.

“Yeah,’ Maddie admitted slowly.

“Don’t you want to be a princess like Elsa?”

Maddie shrieked a fresh giggle. “I wanna be a reindeer like Sven!”

“But then you’d have to eat hay. You don’t wanna do that, do you?”

She made a squished face of disgust. “I don’t like hay.”

“Then princess it is. And princesses take baths.” Misty set her into the tub, which was already filled with bubbles. “And check it. Your mom put in these cool colored bubbles. They’re blue, just like Elsa’s dress!” She scooped up a handful and set them on Maddie’s head. “There, now you have a crown.”

Maddie preened.

“If you play quietly and finish your bath, you can have two stories tonight

before bed,” Cayla promised from the doorway.

“’Kay.”

“Mommy and Miss Misty are gonna be right out here, okay?”

But Maddie was already lost in her adventure, which Misty was pretty sure was a reenactment of Elsa and Anna’s parents’ ship sinking.

Cayla stepped into the hall and blew out a breath. “Thanks for that. It’s been a…day. And thank you for coming by. I’m sure I interrupted plans with Denver.”

It was Misty’s turn to blow out a breath. “You’d be wrong. I haven’t spoken to him in a week.” Not since he’d so abruptly left her shop.

Cayla frowned. “What? Why? Did y’all break up?”

“Breaking up would imply we were formally together in the first place.” Which, yeah, okay, she’d thought they were—or at least had been heading hard in that direction.

“What happened?”

“I have no idea. Things were good. Great, even. Or so I thought. Then last week he came by the shop with lunch from the diner. It was the anniversary of Judy’s death, so I was pretty down. He wanted to know what was wrong, so I told him about her. And something about that set him off.” Misty had played the whole thing over and over in her mind and couldn’t figure out the problem. What had she said? What had she done?