“I love you guys to pieces, but we just got engaged.” She caught a supportive look from Bridgette. “Can you give us a little breathing space, please? Let us enjoy the newness of our engagement before we throw a party. Zane starts filming next week. There’s going to be enough craziness around here.”
Piper leaned closer to Willow and whispered, “This is all Mom’s doing.” Then louder, “I have an estimate to give in ten minutes. I need to boogie. Thanks for breakfast.” She grabbed a muffin and headed for the door.
“And I need to open my shop. You know your fiancé called me about the roses, but I didn’t have the stock to fill your bakery with them.” Bridgette raised her brows and said, “The guy’s got serious game, sis.”
Louie kissed Bridgette. “’Bye, Mommy.”
“Bridge, take the body butter,” Willow pleaded while Bridgette fussed over her little man.
“No way.” Bridgette headed out of the kitchen. “If too many Zane seekers come by and drive you crazy, text me and I’ll come save you.”
“Thanks, Bridge. Don’t blame me if your phone starts vibrating like a”—she looked at her mother—“phone.”
Roxie laughed. “Honey, I really can finish the baking.”
Willow closed her eyes for a second, breathing deeply and trying to channel her inner calm.
Her mother chuckled and reached a hand out to Louie. “Come on, sugarplum. Let’s go work in the garden and leave Auntie Willow to her baking.” On the way out the door, Roxie lowered her voice and said to Louie, “Maybe tomorrow she’ll let us take over.”
Willow grabbed a doughnut and shoved it in her mouth to keep from accepting her mother’s offer and hightailing it upstairs to be with Zane.
ZANE TRIED TO give Willow space so she didn’t feel smothered, but every minute was a test of his willpower. She’d kept him at arm’s length for so many years, he wanted to soak up as much time with her as possible. A brief phone call with Jacob told him that his threat had helped, but after going for a run, studying his lines, and weeding through e-mails, he couldn’t stay away another minute.
The bell over the bakery door rang, and Willow looked up from where she was bent over the counter. Her hair was pulled back in a long braid, making her damp green eyes look even more devastating. She dabbed at them with a wad of napkins, her lips curving up in a strained smile.
Zane’s heart lurched as he closed the distance between them, vaguely aware of the customers sitting at the table saying hello to him as he passed. “What’s wrong?”
She pushed from the counter and waved his screenplay at him. “This. Z . . . ?”
“It’s that bad? I knew it was rough, but—”
“Shut up. Rough?” She thrust the papers against his chest, and a tear slid down her cheek. “This is heartbreaking, and beautiful, and suspenseful. It’s not at all what I expected.”
“Thanks?” He wiped her tears with the pad of his thumb and kissed her softly. In a blue T-shirt and cutoffs, she looked deliciously sexy. “I missed you, and you nearly gave me a heart attack. I thought something had happened.”
“Something did happen.” She inhaled deeply and shook her head.
“She’s been crying the whole time I’ve been here.” A gray-haired woman rose from one of the tables and smiled. “You don’t remember me, do you?”
“I’m sorry. It’s been a long time,” Zane answered.
“I’ll give you a hint. You brought me groceries and cut my lawn after my husband left.” She pulled her purse over her shoulder, and recognition dawned on him.
“I’ll be right back,” he said to Willow, and came around the counter, unable to believe his eyes. “Mrs. Gerstone?” He had cut her lawn and brought her groceries from the time he was thirteen until he left town for good. She had been so heavy for all those years, she could barely walk. “I’m sorry I didn’t recognize you.”
“It’s funny what losing a hundred and thirty pounds does to a person’s appearance. And their health.” She touched his cheek. Her palm was cool against his face. “You were my inspiration. Bless you, Zane.”
“Me?”
“Oh yes. I buried my unhappiness about the hand I’d been dealt in food. You used yours for motivation. And look where you are now.” She looked at Willow and then back at Zane, who was floored by her admission. “Engaged to our Willow, the kindest woman in all of Sweetwater.”
Willow came around the counter. “She’s only saying that because I make her special nonfat muffins and sugar-free tarts.”
“Bless you both,” Mrs. Gerstone said. “I’m glad you never forgot your roots, Zane. You always were a nice boy.”
They talked for a minute longer, and after she left Willow said, “You know what you said about my family knowing the real you?”
“Yeah.”
“I think the people here know the real you, too.” She looked down at the screenplay as they walked back to the counter. “But after reading this, I wonder how much of you I really know. You blew me away. You’re brash and cocky, but this . . . this is . . .” She nibbled on her lower lip, a deep V forming between her brows. “It’s raw and passionate. I don’t know anything about the streets of Chicago, but this boy . . .” She lifted her eyes to him again. “How did you come up with this story? You have to make this into a movie.”
“Says my very biased fiancée.”
“Zane, if it sucked I wouldn’t encourage you to share it with anyone else.” She hooked her finger into his belt loop. “But it’s incredible. I don’t know how you get scripts made into movies, but can you show it to your director or something?”
“I’m on the fence with showing it to anyone in the industry, and honestly, I want to be the one to produce it if I do decide to go in that direction.” He’d been wrestling with this since the spring and still didn’t have enough faith in his writing to do anything with it. But her support gave him a modicum of hope that it really didn’t suck.
Her eyes bloomed wide. “That’s awesome. You should totally do it.”
“It’s a little more complicated than that.”
She began wiping down the counter. He grabbed a washcloth and helped, speaking in hushed tones so the customers didn’t hear him.
“Right now I’m on top of my game, babe. But you’ve heard the stories about actors who try to become producers or directors, and when their film flops, it overshadows everything else.”
She stopped wiping down the counter, her eyes flat, her mouth pressed into a firm line. “Zane Walker, you walked out of Podunk Sweetwater with zero experience and made your way to the top of the action-hero list, and you’re going to let something like what could happen stop you from doing something bigger?” She smirked. “Guess you’re not the man I thought you were.”
He sidled up to her, gathering her close, and guided her to the pastry display, blocking the customers’ view of them. “I think I proved what kind of man I am last night.” He slid his hands to her butt and squeezed, earning an adorable squeak from Willow. “I’d be happy to show you right here and now that I’m far more of a man than you ever imagined.”
“What if I say okay?”