She was entering new, uncharted territory—with the bakery, with Leo’s family, with Leo himself—that would alter her life. Not just for six months, but forever.

Chapter Nine

Chapter Nine

When Leo reentered the office, Jack was bending over his model town with a tiny toy car in his hand. If Jack was actually pretend-driving down the pretend-streets of the pretend-town, that might possibly be cause to reassess their lifelong friendship. But not until he married them first.

“Shall we get started?” Leo took hold of Tessa’s hand. He felt an urgency to get this over with before something else happened to stop them.

“Okay. Here we go again,” Jack said, grabbing his phone again as they reassembled in front of his desk. “Tessa and Leo, we gather today to—”

A knock on the door had them all turning. Actually, it was more like ferocious pounding before two women burst into the room.

One of the women, a redhead, stormed up immediately to Jack and tapped him on the chest. “What kind of mayor are you?” she demanded. “How dare you marry my sister without a witness?”

“Hello, Juliet,” Jack said with strained patience. “We’re in Indiana. None needed.”

She tossed him a scowl. Then, turning to Tessa, she said, “I’m sorry I’m late. I—I have your bouquet.” She held out a small round bouquet of tiny white flowers, tied with a bright pink ribbon.

The other woman, who was blond, ran over to Tessa. “I’m here!” she said, throwing her arms around her. “You look beautiful.” Her eyes overflowed with tears.

Leo realized with a bit of a shock that that had to be Tessa’s youngest sister, Vivienne. His last memory of her was of a big-eyed little girl eating a chocolate cone with ice cream dripping down her chin.

Yeah. It had been a while.

The door opened again. Lilac Krause, who Leo knew was the town’s children’s librarian, stood there in leggings and a smock-like shirt covered with sewn-on silk flowers. “I’m not late, am I? I just ran over from toddler story time.”

Leo turned to Tessa. “You called her, too?”

Tessa shrugged and gave Lilac a little wave. “She’s my best friend.”

“We’d better get this going before the whole town shows up,” Leo said under his breath.

Tessa was crying and hugging people. “Viv! You came from Paris?”

Vivienne gripped Tessa’s arms tightly. “I-I was on the way back anyway, can you believe it?”

“You were on the way back?” Tessa said incredulously. “But why—when?”

“Everything’s fine. I just…missed everyone. It’s a little strange, but Tessa, I was thinking that maybe Dad had something to do with this, you know? Maybe he didn’t want me to miss your wedding.”

That made Tessa tear up. Actually, it created a chain reaction of tears as everyone cried together. “Oh, Viv,” Tessa said, hugging her sister tight.