The Marriage Recipe (20 page)

“I want a cup of coffee, too,” Kim said, and as both women moved to the refreshment stand, Rachel hurried to the exit opposite the doors through which they'd entered. The rain pelted her cheeks when she stepped outside, and the air wreaked havoc with her hair. She tried to tuck the locks behind her ears as she searched for Colin's plane.

The receptionist hadn't lied. He wasn't far, less than one hundred yards. She could see him sitting inside the Cessna, waiting for the rain to stop.

She quickened her pace and dodged raindrops as she ran around the front of the plane. She opened the passenger door and climbed in.

“Rachel?” Colin wore a shocked expression, and Rachel couldn't blame him. First, she was soaked. Second, he probably hadn't been expecting her.

“Hi,” she said, wiping the wetness from her forehead. She rubbed the end of her nose and tried to calm frayed nerves. He appeared thinner, and there were circles under his eyes, as if he hadn't slept well. Still, to her, he appeared divine. “I ran into your mother and my grandmother inside. They're getting coffee.”

“Well, we can't leave until the skies clear, anyway,” he said, immediately falling silent again as he attempted to figure out what this was all about. He wasn't giving her an inch, but who could blame him?

She took a deep breath. She had to try. It was now or never. “Got room for one more?”

Colin blinked furiously. “You're going to Morrisville? I guess I can take you. But how will you get back to New York?”

“I was hoping you'd help me with that, too,” she rushed to say. “I thought maybe one of your friends could fly us both up sometime. It's a long, lonely drive and I'm really tired of being alone.”

He held up his hands. “You're going to have to clarify. I might co-own a plane, but I'm not a taxi service at your disposal.”

“No, but you
are
dense. I'm moving home. Permanently. As of this very minute. Or at least, when you can get this thing up in the air.” The words burst forth in a jumble and she waited for his response.

He looked dumbfounded. “Why? This is New York. This is your dream. It's all you talked about.”

“Was,” she corrected him, realizing how much she loved him. She'd been such a fool. As Heather had said, anywhere was home when you were with the man you loved.

“My goal is to own my own bakery,” Rachel told Colin. “I can't do that here. I've missed everyone. I've been so wrong. About everything. I've been deluding myself. I have a lot to tell you, the first of which is that I'm sorry about everything.”

“So you think you can just apologize and that will change everything?”

She couldn't tell if he was joking or serious, so she addressed both possibilities. “I don't know if it will. But I'm willing to try. I'm willing to lay my heart on the line.”

The airplane windows had fogged up. It was as if they were inside a bubble.

“I hurt you. I know that.” She understood that she had an uphill battle. She'd left him for greener pastures after a week of lovemaking.

She had no magic wand to vanquish the pain of what she'd done. She would have to work hard to win him back, to prove she meant what she said. To prove that he was her other half and her future.

“We should probably check on Kim and my mom,” he said.

“Can we talk later?” she asked.

“We'll see how later goes,” he said, handing her an umbrella. He opened his door and got out.

Rachel sat there a moment and then followed him. But when they reached the lounge, neither Kim Palladia nor Loretta Morris was anywhere to be found.

First rain, then Rachel, now this. “The women in here earlier—where are they?” Colin asked the receptionist as Rachel came to stand beside him.

“Oh, they left with their limo driver, who was waiting around for a return fare into the city,” the receptionist said.

At that moment, Colin's cell phone shrilled and he answered it. After listening for a moment, he hung up. He couldn't believe this. “That was my mom. She and Kim decided that since the storm would be around for a few more hours, they'd just go back to Manhattan and stay another night.”

“Oh,” Rachel said.

“Oh, yeah. It's not like I had to work tomorrow or anything.”

“Sorry,” Rachel said.

His shoulders slumped. As he exhaled, though, some of the tension left him. “Then again, my dad owns the place. I'm sure it will be fine. So why am I stressing?”

Because Rachel was standing next to him, wanting back into his life, that was why.

“A new weather brief just arrived,” the receptionist said. “The weather's supposed to be clear in about forty minutes. The front moved faster than expected.”

“Let's go back to the plane,” Colin said. They could talk there while he took a look at his charts.

The rain had almost stopped and Rachel climbed into the copilot's seat. The last time she'd sat next to him, they'd visited Chicago. Now here she was, flying home, to stay.

He wasn't sure if he could trust her declaration that she was returning permanently to Morrisville. The idea of Rachel settling down in a small town seemed so contradictory because she'd fled at the first opportunity. A thousand thoughts entered his head, all of them speculative. Maybe she'd been fired again. Had run into Marco. She'd said she couldn't open her own sweet shop in New York. Maybe that was the reason she was leaving a city she loved.

He glanced at her. “So you're back to stay,” Colin said, breaking the silence.

“I am.”

“Why?” he asked.

She sighed and Colin steeled himself. Here came the moment of truth. “There are lots of reasons. My grandmother dropped by to see me in New York. She was in and out like a whirlwind—which, I realized later, is how I used to visit my family and friends in Morrisville—I'd breeze in and breeze out.”

She stopped for a moment, shaking her head. “Anyway, there I was on a Friday night, sitting in my hole-in-the-wall rented room. I don't really remember everything that she said, but her words made sense. I wasn't living the way I'd dreamed. I realized I've spent my whole life running away from Morrisville. It wasn't until two days ago that a huge fact struck me. Like blinders had been pulled off my eyes. I never really appreciated everything I had there. I was so jaded from high school, so determined to escape, that I shut out all Morrisville's good qualities. I had to do that in order to delude myself that my life in New York was flawless and all I'd wanted.”

“Nobody's life is perfect,” Colin said.

“That's not what I meant. I have people in New York I can hang out with, but when I left, no one missed me. No one truly cared that I was gone, except maybe Marco, and that was because his pride was dented. It's not like he didn't move on quickly. I heard he's thinking about marrying his new girlfriend.”

“I'm sorry,” Colin said.

“Don't be. I'm not. Actually, I'm relieved. I was in love with a fairy tale. I told myself I was going to have my own bakery. I wanted to be like Sprinkles in L.A. or even as renowned as the Cheesecake Factory. But I was simply creating an illusion. I wasn't going to accomplish that. Not in New York. Not where I didn't have any true support.”

She sighed before continuing. “I'm a third-generation cook. I have to live up to both my mother's and grandmother's reputations. I've been so afraid of being a failure, of not being good enough to be a part of Kim's, that I never tried to fit in in Morrisville. Not until February, when I had no other choice but to return. Did you know that Harold likes my bear claws better than my grandmother's? She told me that.”

“My father thinks Harold's in love with your grandmother.”

“That doesn't surprise me in the least. If he is, that makes his words even more meaningful. My baked goods
are
better than my grandmother's. That means I'm more than good enough. I'm not in anyone's shadow anymore.”

“You never have been in the shadows,” Colin protested.

“But in my mind I was. I thought you liked someone else. I worried that I'd never be good enough to take over the restaurant, and better I went somewhere else, someplace I had a clean slate. But this morning I realized that I could run a kitchen better than my horrid Bitsy's Bakery supervisor. The realization was like all the numbers on a slot machine lined up and there was the jackpot.”

Colin didn't speak for a minute. “So you had a eureka moment? You couldn't have figured everything out before you broke my heart?” he asked finally.

“I hate myself for hurting you. I can't apologize enough, but I'll try.”

“I'm not blaming you,” he said softly. “I've been kicking myself. The best moments of my life were these past weeks with you, and they became like a one-night stand. You mean much more to me than that.”

“I'm so sorry,” she repeated.

“I did it to myself,” he insisted.

At that moment, the rain stopped and the sun came out. “Perfect timing. We should be able to take off within the hour, depending on how backed up the runways are,” he said.

“So can we begin again?” she asked. “You once told me that Marco's offer wasn't what we'd hoped for, but it wasn't the end of the world. Well, neither is this situation. I'm open for negotiation. I'm willing to come from my end if you're willing to give me another chance and come from yours. We'll end up where we want.”

“And what is it that you want?” Colin asked, his gaze locking on to hers.

Rachel took a deep breath. “You.”

 

C
OLIN SAT THERE
a moment, savoring the one word she'd uttered. “I want you,” she repeated, as if making certain he knew exactly how important this—he—was to her.

“What if you get bored? What if I'm not enough?” he pressed. He probably sounded like a cad, but he had to be certain.

“That's not going to happen. Home isn't a place. Home is being with the person you love, and that's you.”

His heart skipped a beat. “You love me.”

“Yes.” She nodded and lowered her chin, almost as if embarrassed.

“You're not being very convincing.” She glanced up then, looked at him. “I'm a lawyer. I'm a hard sell, especially given the evidence.”

“What evidence? You don't believe your client's word?” she retorted.

Ah, there was the fighter he loved so much. His Rachel never quit. “I guess I'll have to reserve judgment,” he said.

She leaned over, halfway into his space. “You can trust me. I'm here. I love you. I'm not leaving you ever again. That was the dumbest mistake of my life, and one I'm not repeating. You'd better get used to having me around, because I'm not going anywhere.”

Exactly what he needed to hear. He covered her hand with his. “Thank you.”

She used her free hand to sandwich his. “I love you. I just hope it isn't too late for you to fall in love with me again.”

Men weren't supposed to cry, but Colin felt his eyes tear up. “I never stopped.”

“No?”

He could hear the hope in her quivering voice. He shook his head. “No. I've always loved you. I still do. You are the one I want to spend the rest of my life with.”

“Can I kiss you now?” she asked.

Had any kiss been sweeter or more full of promise? His lips could taste the future. “As much as I hate to wait, we should take this somewhere more private. I believe you had some demands you wanted to make, and as your attorney, I'm ready to entertain them.”

“My first is that you stop referring to yourself as my attorney,” she said, kissing him again.

“So what am I to you?”

“Everything,” she replied honestly. “And more. You are my man.”

“I can live with that. Next demand?”

“That you take me home right now and make love to me. Your home, not mine,” she clarified quickly. “I'm rather homeless. And I'd like to stay with you from this moment forward.”

The skies were clearing and the rain had stopped, the fast-moving storm almost done passing through.

“Ah. I can grant that wish. We'll take off as soon as we get our family members back. We just need to
get
our family members back.” He pressed her against him and gave her a long kiss.

“Good. Because I have a lot of plans to discuss with you.”

“Sounds serious,” he teased, enjoying the sensation of her body touching his.

“It is. You know how Morrisville likes to speculate.”

“Oh, I do. I lose sleep over the gossip every night.” Colin rolled his eyes.

She laughed at him. “You'll lose sleep, but not because of that. However, we'll have to discuss how to handle the grapevine. You see, Morrisville's going to have us hooked up and married off by next June. They'll give us a year, tops, before they'll be clamoring for us to walk down the aisle.”

Colin made a mock-disgusted face. “Sounds horrible. I probably need to hide you quickly before anyone sees this embrace I'm sharing with you.”

She winked at him. “You'll need to hide me only because what I'm about to do to you isn't fit for public viewing. As for the citizens of Morrisville, just beware. I'm siding with them. Your parents and mine might just get what they've always wanted.”

She meant marriage, and Colin felt the last weight lift from his shoulders. He loved her. He didn't want one night or just a few months. He wanted forever. When the time was right, he'd surprise her with a ring. For now, the promise of a future was all the assurance he needed. “Well, I believe I told you that you belonged to me. That means I'm yours, as well. So next June, huh?”

“Uh-huh.”

He grinned, happiness filling him. “I'm not afraid,” he joked. “I've lived in Morrisville all my life. Shall we get going?” He reached for his phone to call his mother. He was ready to leave. Rachel was moving home. She'd marry him. She could start her Internet bakery, use Kim's Diner as a base of operations. And one day, just as Lancaster and Morris would be Colin's, Kim's Diner would be hers.

Hours later they drove up into Colin's driveway.

“Let's go inside,” Colin said. “You have some promises to keep.”

Rachel smiled and Colin knew they'd travel life's path together. At the moment, any appropriate quote slipped her mind, so she simply held his hand and gestured toward the door. “Yes. Let's.”

And meeting in the middle, they took that first step.