Page 35 of Fa-La-La-La Faking It
Maple reached to squeeze her hand. “Things are changing. I know. That’s one of the reasons why we decided to move up the wedding. You don’t need to explain. I totally get it.”
Adaline breathed a little easier. “Are you sure you like this idea? I’m fully aware this is your special day, but I thought it might be nice for the cake to have a family connection. If you’d rather have something else—”
Maple shook her head. “Absolutely not. I couldn’t dream of a more perfect wedding cake. I’m blown away, hon. This is so, so special. It makes me feel like I’m really and truly going to be part of your family.”
Adaline wrapped her arms around her friend and hugged her tight. Maple had a complicated relationship with her adoptive parents, and she’d never gotten the chance to know her birth father, who’d passed away right before she moved to Bluebonnet. Ford meant the world to her, but so did being part of their family.
“We’re sisters now, remember?” Adaline whispered.
“Sisters.” Maple gave her a watery smile as the hug ended. “Look at me. You’ve gone and made me cry.”
“Happy tears, I hope,” Adaline said.
Maple sniffed. “The happiest. Oh, but wait. You were going to tell me something a minute ago. About Jace, I think. What was it?”
Adaline’s stomach churned.
Oh, nothing important...just that I’m bringing a near stranger to your wedding and making a mockery of your vows by pretending he’s the love of my life.
She couldn’t do it. Maple’s wedding day was sacred. There was no way she could admit that her arrangement with Jace was a lie. They were already in too deep. She’d gone and kissed the man in the biggest gossip hot spot in town. There was no going back.
If she tried to get out of it now, she’d hurt people. Not just Gram, but Maple and Ford too. Maybe even Jace’s grinchy uncle Gus, although there was no telling what was going on there. She was just going to have to stick with the pretense and act like she was in love.
“Nothing important. Just that you were right—Jace is wonderful,” she said and her internal lie detector, which had been going berserk for the past twenty-four hours, didn’t budge an inch.
“For the record, I think you two are perfect together. He gets you, Adaline. It’s so obvious,” Maple said, because she was a bride and all brides could see were hearts and flowers. It was the only explanation that made sense.
“I think you might be right,” Adaline lied, ignoring the way the words flowed so easily from the tip of her tongue.
Just keep on pretending. It’s the only way not to break a few hearts.She kept her eyes glued to the freshly baked cake so Adaline wouldn’t notice that she was on the verge of tears.But what about mine?
“Where’s your girlfriend?” Uncle Gus’s gaze fixed on Jace in the mirror hanging above the bathroom in room 212.
Today was haircut day, as decreed by Jace, and he was doing the honors himself with a comb and an electric shaver he’d bought at the drug store on Main Street. Heaven forbid Gus actually leave the building and get a trim at the barber shop around the corner from the town square where he’d always taken Jace when he was a kid. Jace loved that old barber shop. It had a striped pole out front, padded chairs that swiveled a full 360 degrees and rows of jars that held combs floating in blue disinfectant. A fishbowl full of root beer–flavored candy sticks sat beside the cash register—a hulking, antique brass number that looked like it came straight of the Smithsonian, complete with a hand crank and pushdown keys.
Getting his hair cut there had always felt like stepping back in time. Jace would’ve bet money that not one thing in the place had changed since he was there last. Alas, he wouldn’t know, because Gus had dug his feet in and refused to let Jace take him anywhere.
“Adaline is working at her bakery this morning,” Jace said, running the trimmer along Gus’s sideburns. The haircut had been more along the lines of a full makeover than a trim. He knew his uncle was sick, but he couldn’t just let the man give up when life kept going on around him.
Plus, he figured that once Uncle Gus looked a little better, he’d probably feel better too. Next up after the haircut was getting him to wear something other than threadbare dress socks paired with a hospital gown. Jace hadn’t broached the subject of his clothes yet. Baby steps and all that.
“So she and that dog aren’t going to turn up out of nowhere today?” Gus scowled, but Jace wasn’t buying the cranky-pants act.
“No, but I think they’ll be back tomorrow for their regular visit.” Jace grinned at his uncle in the mirror. “I’ll tell her you were asking about her and Fuzzy, though. That will probably make her day.”
“I remember the schedule around here. I just don’t want her showing up out of the blue all the time now that you two are hot and heavy.”
Jace lifted his brows. “Would that really be so bad?”
Not that Jace would ever ask or expect Adaline to go out of her way to spend time with his uncle. He wouldn’t inflict that kind of misery on her even if they truly were “hot and heavy,” which they weren’t.
He just didn’t like Gus complaining about Adaline. There was no valid reason for it, and it rubbed him entirely the wrong way.
“That grandmother of hers keeps coming around here now.” Gus bobbed to the side in an effort to avoid the electric shaver, but Jace was undaunted. “First she wanted me to go to bingo. Then it was lunch. Make sure you close the door when you leave so she doesn’t try to drag me to the dining room for dinner.”
“I think it’s nice that she’s trying to include you in the activities around this place. You should try it.” Jace pointed at him with the comb. “You might even like it.”
“The grandmother is as nutty as a fruitcake. She dotes on that stuffed dog like it’s real, and she inserts herself into everyone’s business. She’s impossible to ignore.”
