Page 20 of Save the Dance

“It’s a nice, safe choice,” Jason declared after sampling a bite. “Personally, I think I’d like something a little more out of the ordinary.”

He was teasing, right? Tara shot a quick glance at the man seated on the banquette. The laughter in Jason’s eyes contradicted his serious attitude.

“How about coffee-infused layers separated by a chocolate rum filling and topped with a vanilla bean frosting?” Nick asked. He sliced into the next sample.

Tara hadn’t been sure he could improve on the first cake, but her next bite exceeded all her expectations. As a quick burst of intense chocolate faded, rum and coffee lingered on her tongue. She ran her fork through the icing and licked the tines. Sugar crystals melted in her mouth. More, please! She swallowed. “I’ve never tasted anything quite like this, Nick. Is it your own recipe?”

“This particular combination was my dad’s favorite. He opened I Do Cakes over a decade ago. I’ve been running the place for almost three years.”

Though she tried to resist, Tara helped herself to a second bite that turned out to be as delicious as the first. She rubbed her hands together. “What’s next?”

Over the next hour, she and Jason worked their way from one end of the table to the other. Though she’d been certain any number of bakeries in New York would outshine I Do Cakes, she couldn’t recall a single one that offered a buttercream frosting as luscious as Nick’s. Fillings that ranged from sweet to savory tempted her to linger over each bite. And that wasn’t all. She’d walked into the shop convinced that no one could make a pecan cake better than her mom’s. Nick’s, though, packed so much dense flavor into each light and airy layer, she couldn’t imagine how he’d done it.

“There you have it,” the baker announced after she and Jason had narrowed their choices to their absolute favorites. “Working together, you’ve created the perfect, one-of-a-kind cake for your wedding.”

Tara felt her cheeks heat. She should never have participated in the taste test. One bite of that first sample had robbed her of the ability to write a single negative word about I Do Cakes. Not that she’d found anything to complain about. The shop had been absolute perfection, from the moment she’d stepped across the threshold and heard the cheery bell over the door.

At this rate, she’d return to New York singing the praises of Heart’s Landing. Which wouldn’t get her the promotion she deserved. It would only get her fired. Something that wouldn’t earn her parents’ respect at all. She clenched her teeth. With only one more store to visit this morning, her chances of finding anything wrong were diminishing quickly. She gulped. At their next stop, she’d have to be more careful about remaining impartial. Judgmental, even.

On the sidewalk outside I Do Cakes, Jason inclined his head to hers. “The Memory Box is a block down and left on Honeymoon Avenue. Do you mind walking?”

Despite a renewed determination to remain cool and distant, she couldn’t get snippy with him. He didn’t deserve it. She patted her tummy. “After all that sugar, a walk sounds like a very good idea.”

With Jason in the lead, they made their way down the shady sidewalk, past store windows filled with tempting displays of items ranging from chocolates to dressy dresses. At Bow Tie Pasta, the tantalizing odor of onions and garlic floated in the air. Tara inhaled deeply. “That smell reminds me of the dinner you ordered last night. Did it come from here?”

“It did. Wait till you go there in person. It’s a great place to hold a rehearsal dinner.”

“Humph.” She reached for her newfound determination. She’d be the judge of that. “I don’t eat out much, but when I do, there’s the perfect little place less than a block from my apartment. Red-and-white checkered tablecloths. Chianti bottles for candle holders.”

A memory of the creamy goodness of the Bow Tie’s alfredo sauce tickled her tongue. At dinner, she’d savored every bite of her lasagna. Her shoulders rounded in defeat. Who was she kidding? “Honestly, I always thought the atmosphere at Anthony’s was authentic, but the food doesn’t compare with what we had last night.”

“Not every restaurant can find that perfect balance of service, atmosphere, and taste,” Jason said with far more understanding than she’d expected. “Not in Boston. Or even in New York. But you like it in the city?”

“I love it,” she said, thinking of all her favorite places. “Taking the Staten Island Ferry past the Statue of Liberty. Stopping for dim sum in Chinatown. Walking through Rockefeller Center. Times Square—though it should be old hat by now, I still get a thrill every time I see myself on the big monitors.” She could stand in front of the cameras for fifteen minutes at a time while she waved to the crowds with one hand and kept a firm grip on her purse strap with the other.

“I sense a but in there somewhere.”

How did he know what she was thinking before she did? Yes, there was a “but,” as in, but with all the hours she was putting in at work these days, she didn’t get to enjoy much of living in the city. Could she admit that to Jason? Something in the tilt of his head, the interest that flickered in his gray eyes urged her to confide in him.

“It’s, um, more—much more—than I anticipated. More crowded. More hectic. More expensive. Especially that. I’m still living in the fifth-floor walk-up I moved into when I first arrived. My whole apartment could fit inside my parents’ bedroom closet. There’s no air-conditioning, and the heat is a joke. Before I moved to New York, I’d built up a nice nest egg. I’ve had to dip into it just to make ends meet. I’m not sure how much longer I can live there if I don’t get this promotion I’m up for.”

“Well, I’ll keep my fingers crossed that you get it. You love what you do, don’t you?”

That part she didn’t have to hide. “From the first time I saw a copy of Weddings Today, I’ve dreamed of covering celebrity weddings and helping brides make the right choices. It’s just that, well, there have been too many days when going on a coffee run for the senior editors was the most important contribution I made to the magazine.” She clamped her mouth shut. She absolutely would not tell him she’d been doing exactly that as recently as last week.

“It’s tough starting out. Especially in a creative field. It’ll be worth the sacrifices you’re making now, though, when you get that big promotion.”

“I wasn’t sure I’d make it until Regina gave me this assignment. This could change everything for me.” And Heart’s Landing.

“Everyone here is going to help you with that,” Jason said. “Ever since my great-grandmother glided down the circular staircase of the Captain’s Cottage to marry into the Rockefeller clan in a wedding that turned the socialites of the day misty-eyed, our town has been a premier wedding destination. Today, we’re doing everything we can to maintain that position. You’re not going to find one thing to mark us down on, and when you turn in your report at the end of your stay, your bosses will agree that you’ve done a great job.”

If he only knew. The problem with his plan was that in order to please her boss, she’d have to dig up some dirt on Heart’s Landing or destroy the myth the town was built on. Both were tasks she looked forward to less and less with each step she took on the tree-lined sidewalk. If her career was the only thing at stake, she might have a different perspective. But having her own byline would go a long way toward making her parents see that she’d chosen the right career, and that made whatever she had to do worthwhile. She simply couldn’t let herself get attached to the town.

Or Jason. Especially not him. Firming her shoulders, along with her resolve, she was determined to reach her goal.

Soon, Jason’s footsteps slowed to a stop beside another intriguing window display. On the other side of the glass, a lacy blue garter dangled from a mannequin’s hand over an intricately carved wooden box. Wedding invitations, reply cards, church programs, and a bouquet of dried flowers spilled from the box to puddle in artful disarray on a low table.

“Helen’s store specializes in storage boxes for wedding memorabilia,” Jason explained, “though I suppose you could use them for other purposes, too. Want to take a look inside?”

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