I wake up to Phillip kissing my shoulder. My back is spooned tightly into his chest. I’m still half-asleep, but I notice his kisses feel rough. The scruff on his face is tickling my shoulder.
“You need to shave,” I whisper.
He runs his scruff up the side of my face and pulls my hips into a serious case of morning wood.
“Dang, Phillip, been having some good dreams?”
“Reliving last week, I think. We should have Naughty Dream Week every week. Starting now.”
After an amazing wake-up, Phillip leaves for work, and I text Danny.
Me: You awake?
Danny: Yeah.
Me: Video chat?
Danny: Cool.
I open up my laptop and see just part of Danny. One broad, shirtless shoulder, half a muscular pec, an angular jaw, messy blond hair, and one blue eye. Danny sucks at video chatting.
“Danny, the computer is like your center. Line up under the ball.”
He grabs the sides of the computer with both hands, and his whole face comes into view.
“You need a haircut,” I tell him.
“What are you, my mother now?”
“No. How come you’re up so early?”
“Lori was craving blueberry muffins.”
“So, you had to go get her some?”
“No, she’s baking her mom’s recipe. I’m keeping her company.”
Lori yells from nearby, “Jade, why aren’t you at work?”
She’s way too smart for her own good. Who would even think of that?
“Um, I’m going in later. Working from home this morning,” I lie.
Danny can usually tell when I’m lying. He says I always look up at the sky. He grins at me. His Devil Danny grin. Crap. That means he knows I’m lying.
I try to play it cool by saying, “What?”
“So, I heard the big news.” He keeps grinning at me.
What? Phillip promised he wouldn’t tell. No. Phillip always keeps his promises. Danny must be talking about different news.
“Um, what big news is that?”
“Naughty Dream Week was a big success.”
I inwardly sigh with relief. “Yeah, it was a lotta fun. Phillip seemed to like it.”
“He did. I talked to him on his way to work this morning. Heard all about how naughty you were.”
“Did he say what he liked best?”
Danny looks at me, confused. “Shouldn’t you know that?”
“Oh, yeah, probably. I think it was the baseball. We almost got caught. Like, if Cookie had shown up a minute later, we would’ve been doing it.”
Danny shakes his head at me. “Nope, that wasn’t his favorite.”
I squish up my nose. “Then, it must’ve been the tent.”
“No. Don’t you know your own fiancé? He liked Cancun.”
“Really? Cancun wasn’t that naughty.”
“You attacked him in a beach chair in front of the restaurant where, if it wasn’t for your long dress hiding things, people could’ve seen.”
“Oh, yeah, that. That was kinda naughty. Okay, so I have a question for you. Hang on. I’m gonna get some cereal. I’m starved.” I quickly pour a bowl of cereal, add some milk, grab a spoon, and then sit back in front of the computer. “Okay, so, how did you set your wedding date? Did it have any significance?”
Lori’s face comes rushing into the screen. She has a little bit of flour on her cheek. Danny gently wipes it off as she says, “Jade! Are you setting a date? Did you set one?”
“Not yet, but we’re talking about it.”
Her face looks bright. “That’s so exciting! And, no, we just had a time frame of when we wanted to get married. We picked three resorts and called to see if they were available. They all were, so we chose our favorite.”
“It was a really pretty resort. We had a fun weekend. Not that your wedding wasn’t great, but Phillip was pissed at me, which sort of made it seem not as pretty.”
“You look tanner,” Danny says.
“A little. We laid out in the sun a lot. You should see Phillip. He’s way darker than I am.”
“He always gets tanner than us.”
“I know. It’s sexy.”
Lori sighs. “At least you don’t burn like I do. So, what do you think you want? Maybe you should start by picking a season. Which sounds best—winter, spring, summer, or fall?”
I go out on a little limb when I say, “I was thinking a winter wedding might be pretty.”
Danny and Lori’s eyes both get big.
Lori says, “Like, this winter? That’d be so great! I won’t be huge.”
“I don’t know when. I just thought winter might be cool. It might be next winter.”
“Why would you wanna wait that long?” Danny asks. “I couldn’t wait to marry Lori. I’m glad we had a short engagement.”
“Did people give you crap about that?” I’m a bit concerned about this part.
Lori says, “My parents were sure I was pregnant. That pissed my dad off a bit. I assured them that I wasn’t, and they got over it. They love Danny. I mean, who wouldn’t?” She plants a sweet kiss on the side of his neck.
Danny says, “My mom thought we might be rushing things.”
“She did?” I pause and let out a sigh. “I have been dragging my feet a bit on the wedding planning.”
Lori says, “I’ve noticed that. But why? You love Phillip.”
“It’s just hard without my parents. Like, my mom would’ve helped me find the most amazing dress. I went shopping with Katie and Lisa, and I have no idea what I want. Well, I guess I know what I don’t want. I don’t wanna look like Cinderella.”
“Jay—” Danny starts to say, but I keep going.
“And the Macs are great, but Phillip’s mom is so, like … she’s …” I struggle for the right word.
“She’s a steamroller,” Lori says.
I nod my head at her. “Yes. And I don’t wanna get smooshed. Danny, I have a really big favor to ask.”
Danny nods his head at me.
“You know your dad’s been there for me through, like, everything.”
“I know, Jay.”
“I wanna know if it’s okay with you if I borrow him.”
“What do you mean?”
“I wanna ask him to walk me down the aisle.”
Danny solemnly stares at me. He knows all the emotions wrapped up in what I’m asking. “Jay, you know he’ll be honored.”
“I feel bad though. I feel like all I ever do is go out there, eat your mom’s cinnamon rolls, whine, beg for advice, or ask them to do something for me.”
Danny smiles a soft smile. “My mom said you were out there the other day. She said she always prayed for a daughter, and now, with you and Lori, she has two. They adore you.”
Lori’s face pops back onto the screen. “Jade, I’m so sorry. I didn’t know that’s why you’ve been dragging your feet. I’ve been pushing you on planning and stuff, and I never even thought about how hard it must be. I’m such a bad friend.”
Danny pulls her onto his lap.
“Oh … uh … hang on,” she says. She quickly runs off the screen.
“Where’s she going?” I ask as I take a bite of my cereal.
Danny grins at me. “To puke.”
I drop the spoon back in my bowl. “Nice. I think, on that note, I’ll say good-bye.”
My phone buzzes with a text.
Phillip: I love you. We’re gonna have an amazing wedding. Have fun looking for ideas today.
And that motivates me. I pull up a popular wedding planning website. I look at all the pictures of things to choose for your wedding and click on the one choice that I’m sure will be easy.
Cake.
I love cake, especially white wedding cake.
And what’s the deal with brides lately? They get all creative on this part. The last two weddings I went to had all these flavors of cake, and not one of them was white! Another wedding we went to had white cake, but they ruined it by adding a gross lemon filling.
Don’t brides know that white wedding cake and an open bar are the only two reasons people go to weddings?
I know that’s one tradition I’m not going to mess with.
My cake will be white. Plain white cake with chocolate frosting. That’s the cake my mom made me every year for my birthday.
I also want fluffy frosting, not the stuff that looks like cardboard.
I start clicking through photos of cakes. There are over two thousand cakes to choose from. They’re all quite beautiful, and I save photos of my favorites. I’m not sure if I’ve found the dream one yet, but I know this …
I want some cake. Badly.
I run to the store, buy a cake mix, bake some cupcakes, and make my mom’s chocolate buttercream frosting.
Phillip comes home for lunch while I’m frosting. As he walks in the front door, he says, “Yum. What smells so good?”
I hold up a freshly frosted cupcake. “Cupcakes.”
“I thought you were supposed to be planning our wedding?”
“I was looking at cakes.”
He laughs. “Let me guess … that made you crave cake?” He grabs a cupcake and puts half of it in his mouth.
“Yes, and I’ve decided one thing. I’d like to have white cake with chocolate frosting. Sound good?”
He shoves the last half of his cupcake into his mouth. “You can have anything you want. Especially if I can have what I want.”
“What do you want?”
He sticks his finger into the bowl of frosting, smears chocolate down the side of my neck, and then licks it off.
“Phillip!” I scream playfully.
While he’s licking my neck, I shove my whole hand into the frosting bowl. I attempt to smoosh it onto his face. He’s too strong though. He grabs my arm, so I only manage to get a little bit on his cheek.
“Want me to lick it off?” I ask with a laugh.
He grabs more frosting and smears it down my arm.
I still have frosting all over my hand, so I try again to get his face.
He grabs me, spins me around so that my back is to him, and then grabs my hand and rubs it across my face. “Ha! You’re putting it on yourself!”
Pretty soon, we’re in the midst of a full-fledged frosting war.
I throw a chunk of frosting at him. It hits his shirt.
“Oh, you’re in trouble now. You got it on my shirt!”
He pulls his shirt off, grins sexily, takes a step closer to me, and pulls mine off, too. He smears frosting down the front of me and then slowly licks it off. He says, “This is an awfully pretty bra. It’d be a shame to ruin it with chocolate.”
“Well, it wasn’t your mother’s kitchen island, but it wasn’t too bad.”
He laughs at me.
“What?”
“You should see yourself. You have chocolate, like, everywhere. You need a shower.”
“Shut up. You have chocolate all over you, too. You need a shower,” I say back.
“Exactly my thought. I’m also thinking I don’t really need to go back to work today.”
