Stephanie Dees - The Marriage Bargain

Jules laughed. “Yeah. It’s when she’s awake that’s the problem.”

“No kidding.” Wynn paused in the act of taking a bite, doughnut in midair. “How are you sleeping?”

Jules slid the tray of doughnuts into the waiting rack, pulled out a tray of vanilla cupcakes and picked up a different piping bag. “Sleep? I don’t sleep. It’s my first day back at work and already I feel like I’m failing them.”

“I know this is going to be difficult to hear, Jules, but you’re not perfect—and that’s okay.”

“I like being good at things.” She paused in making her signature frosting swoops on the cupcakes as Wynn snorted. “Stop it. I’m being serious. Besides, this is important. Glory left the children with me, but she didn’t really give me any advice on how to deal with her mother, who’s drunk texting me all the time, or...whatever.”

“Whatever, like Glory’s brother showing up?” Wynn licked her finger and grabbed a napkin from the table.

“Yeah, exactly.”

“What does he look like?” Wynn tapped on her cell phone’s keyboard.

“You know the biracial doctor on Grey’s Anatomy ? Like that, but with more intense eyes.”

“Whoa.” Wynn turned the phone around to show Jules the picture she’d pulled up from Cam’s author website.

“Yep, that’s him.” Jules sighed. “So if the situation’s not awkward enough, I’m also tongue-tied because he’s that good-looking.”

“That’s so rough.” Wynn’s words were compassionate, but the laughter behind them gave her away.

Jules rolled her eyes. “Thanks for the sympathy.”

“Anytime. So have you heard from Garrett about a court date for finalizing the guardianship?”

“No, but he said when he gets word from the clerk, he’ll let me know as soon as possible.”

The baby stirred and Wynn jumped up with a panicked look on her face. “Uh-oh. I better get back to the office. I know you’re anxious to get all this finalized, but don’t worry. Garrett knows this stuff inside and out.”

“I know.” Wynn’s law partner was well-known for his skills in family court. But Jules wouldn’t breathe a sigh of relief until the legal papers were signed by the judge.

She picked up the piping bag again. She had two more trays of cupcakes to frost and then she was going to check on her babies at preschool. Maybe that made her a helicopter mom, but she didn’t really care. There wasn’t anything she wouldn’t do for those girls.

* * *

An hour later, Cam pushed open the door to Take the Cake, which he found on Main Street next door to the Hilltop Café. He hadn’t been in Juliet’s business before, but he was impressed. It had a charming homey feel, with some reclaimed architectural pieces on the walls and a couple of tables that looked like they came out of someone’s barn. However, even those tables were glossy, and the glimmer of glass from the bakery case gave the whole place a polished, intentional look.

The door from the kitchen swung open and Juliet came into the customer area with Emma in some kind of contraption strapped to her chest. She stopped short when she saw him. A hesitant smile curved her lips, lighting her eyes. “Oh. Hi.”

He smiled back. “Looks like you have company today.”

Jules crossed her arms around the sleeping baby. “She... I went by to check on her and the day care workers said she was having a hard time going down for a nap, so I brought her back with me. I know it’s probably not the right thing to do, but she just lost her mom and she’s had so many changes—”

“Jules, you’re not gonna get any judgment from me. I think it’s fine.”

“You do? Okay.” She took a deep breath. “Sorry, still new at this mom thing. Can I get you something?”

“I didn’t have breakfast. How about a cup of coffee and some kind of pastry?”

“Wintertime, I always have pumpkin bread. I serve it with homemade whipped cream. I also have apple Danish.”

“Can I have whipped cream with apple Danish?”

“Now you’re talking.”

Today she was dressed all in black, which just made her blue eyes look more intense. Her hair was pulled back in a low bun. When she looked up with a smile, he said, “I bought a house.”

“What? That’s great! Congratulations!”

“Thanks. I’ve never bought a house before. I mostly live out of suitcases and overnight delivery boxes.” He’d never really thought about how pathetic that sounded.

“With your job, I guess you haven’t been in one place long enough to settle down before.” She slid a piece of apple Danish from the bakery case onto a plate. A squirt of homemade whipped cream from a stainless steel dispenser and a sprinkle of cinnamon topped it off. It looked amazing. “One second.”

Jules disappeared into the back and reappeared a few seconds later with a candle, which she stuck into the pastry and lit. “Now. A piece of Danish worthy of your celebration.”

“Can you join me?”

She hesitated, glancing behind her at the kitchen, but picked up a bottle of water and eased into the chair across from him, her hand keeping the baby in place.

Cam blew out the candle with a smile and cut a piece of Danish with his fork, but set it down again. “I didn’t have anyone to tell about my new house...so I came here. Thanks for being happy for me.”

She smiled, but her lip trembled. “You’re welcome. I wish Glory was here to see this.”

“Me, too.” He took a bite of his Danish and groaned. “Jules, this is good .”

“Thanks.” She patted Emma’s little back. “I’m just getting back to work, but luckily I have an awesome assistant who’s been with me awhile. So, you just went out this morning and bought a house?”

“Technically, I made an offer and they accepted, but yeah.”

“Where?”

“Now, that’s the best part. It’s next door.”

Her eyes widened. “To what?”

Feeling really satisfied from the apple Danish he’d just inhaled, he grinned at her. “To you. And the girls.”

“Oh. Wow.” She paused. “The Grayton house?”

“I’m not sure I heard it called that. Supposedly some country star built a house down here and didn’t realize it would be quite so quiet living in the ‘middle of nowhere,’ as the agent put it.”

“That’s it. Abbie Grayton built it. I think she was here for about two weeks before she went back to Nashville.”

“It’s a beautiful house with a pool and a pond. I think I got a little caught up in the idea of taking the girls fishing when they get older.”

“You fish?”

He laughed. “I’m an adventure writer. Of course I know how to fish.”

“When do you move in?”

“I already did. Or I will, I guess, when I take my suitcase in. I bought the place furnished, and arranged to rent for the month or so until closing.”

“Wow,” she said again, but she looked a little disconcerted.

“Jules, when I said I wanted to be a part of the girls’ lives, I meant it. I’ve been on my own a long time. I waited too long to come back, and missed having a relationship with my sister. I don’t want to make the same mistake with the girls.”

He paused and looked out the window to the street lined with flower boxes of pansies. He’d been away a long time. If he didn’t know homes like the one he grew up in existed in this small town, he wouldn’t believe it.

Maybe it was time he reclaimed his past and brought it into the future, where he could make peace with what happened to him. “Look, I know I messed up with Glory—believe me, I get that. But please, give me a chance with her girls.”

Jules put her hand on his and he felt a jolt of recognition. Kindness. He’d found it in every corner of the world in one way or another. It was more than he deserved.