Fool for You (Southern Bride 7)

Landon looked at me. “Really? You want a small wedding?”

I nodded and smiled. “I think so. You?”

He grinned. “Yeah, something small and intimate.”

Lynda cleared her throat. “You haven’t spoken about this yet?”

I quickly turned my head from Landon to Lynda. “Well, we’ve spoken about venues, picked the date, and that’s about all.”

Lynda’s eyes moved down, and she gasped. “Your ring!”

I held out my hand so she could inspect it.

“It’s stunning.”

“Thank you so much. Landon bought it from an antique store in Italy. He’s been holding on to it for two years.”

Lynda gasped. “How romantic!”

I nodded. “I know.” I had already taken a picture of the ring and posted it on Instagram. Let’s just say, Landon earned a lot of brownie points. My followers were already in love with him.

Clearing his throat, Landon asked, “When are we actually tasting the cake at this cake…or cupcake tasting?”

Lynda chuckled. “Go ahead, dig in.”

With a wave of my fork, I said, “Let’s do the vanilla with the chocolate mousse.”

Landon winked. “Sounds good, Emme. Can’t go wrong with vanilla.”

I gave him a nod and we moved on until we had tasted every cupcake with each of the frosting options. My stomach pleaded for me to stop.

“Do we have a favorite?” Lynda asked as I finally sat back and put my fork down.

“Are you not going to finish your cupcakes?” Landon pulled my plate over to him and started to eat the leftovers.

I snarled my lip. “How can you even put any more of that in your mouth?”

He shrugged, shoveling more in. “Told you, I didn’t eat lunch in preparation for the goods.”

I laughed and focused back on Lynda. “I think I like the pink champagne with the white chocolate mousse. Landon, what do you think?”

He was shoving a piece of lemon cake with cream cheese buttercream into his mouth. He pointed at it and rolled his eyes up to the heavens.

“You like the lemon and cream cheese?”

He nodded. “It’s so damn good.”

I smiled and looked at Lynda.

“You could always do cupcakes along with the cake,” she said.

“Or the groom’s cake could be the lemon with the cream cheese,” I replied, opening my notebook and making a few notes.

Landon froze. “Wait…are you saying I get my own cake?”

Lynda and I turned and looked at him as I said, “If you want your own cake.”

Those blue eyes lit up like it was Christmas morning. “You mean, like a cake I can have decorated any way I want?”

I laughed. Lynda held up her hand, clearly having dealt with many a bride who’d allowed their husbands to have a groom’s cake, but hadn’t allowed them to pick the type of cake or design.

Before she could shatter Landon’s dreams, I quickly replied, “Yes. The groom’s cake is all yours. The flavor, the style, colors. It’s all yours.”

A slow smile spread across his face. “It’s got to be a car. Maybe a fifty-five Ford truck. Or we could even do a race car.”

I glanced around to see if anyone else heard how hard and fast my heart was beating. Landon wasn’t acting. He was dead serious.

“Do you like cars?” Lynda asked.

Landon laughed. “I used to race in NASCAR, and I own a restoration shop here in town.”

She lifted her brows. “Oh, well, isn’t that nice!” Then she turned back to me. “Now, Emmerson, tell me who your wedding planner is, and I’ll be sure to mark her name down.”

“Um, that would be me. I’m planning the wedding.”

Lynda raised a single brow, looking displeased. Okay, why in the world would she have a problem with a bride handling her own wedding planning?

“Is that going to be a problem?” I asked.

“No! No, of course not!”

I plastered on a fake smile. “Good. You see, I plan weddings for a living, and honestly, I cannot imagine anyone else doing any of the planning for me.”

That made Lynda sit up and take notice. “Do you now? What’s the name of your business?”

“Serendipity Wedding Planning,” Landon said with a proud smile on his handsome face. I reached over and wiped off the icing that was on the corner of his mouth. Without thinking, I sucked the icing from my finger and watched Landon’s eyes hood with lust.

I moved in my seat in a sad attempt to ignore the way my lower stomach now pulsed with a desire that only the man sitting next to me could satiate.

Lynda smiled. “Oh, I’ve heard such wonderful things about Serendipity Wedding Planning. What an honor to have you here as a bride!” She quickly launched into a speech about deposits and time frames as Landon leaned over and whispered in my ear, “We need to leave. Now.”

Then he stood up. Fast.

I stood, too, as did Lynda.

“What’s wrong?” I asked. “You look like you’re about to…”

My voice trailed off as I realized I’d seen that look on Landon’s face before. We were only around twelve and ten, camping with Hailey and Noah out in the backyard of our folks’ place. We had each packed our own dinner that night, and it was obvious that Landon and Noah had grabbed whatever they thought sounded good. Landon had eaten a bag of chocolates, half a stick of smoked cheddar cheese, at least five Slim Jims, and some olives that Hailey had brought, not to mention an entire bag of M&Ms. Thirty minutes after eating all of that, he got sick and threw up in the tent.