When I Fall in Love(97)

Max to the rescue again. He’d breezed in yesterday, checked her ingredients, then stuck around to help her make the dressing for the salad. And tomorrow he’d run the kitchen while she stepped out of her role as chef to play maid of honor.

This just might work.

Especially since, with the overhaul of the dinner, the menu had been simplified. In fact, the entire thing took a turn toward redneck with Jace’s allergic reaction to fish.

Scratch sushi. And anything to do with seafood. Or, for that matter, Hawaii. She and Max had reworked the entire menu to suit Jace’s palate.

The only thing that remained was the Waimanalo salad. Now the menu featured, along with the roasted pig, a gingered-mango sauce; truffle macaroni and cheese; roasted zucchini, mushrooms, and summer squash; pineapple fruit kebabs; and Hawaiian sweet bread.

Grace could finally sleep through the night.

And Max had been more than she’d expected or imagined. Not only helping her overhaul the menu, order the ingredients, and train the staff, but making her believe, once again, that she could do this. Last night he’d given her another pep talk as they washed the dishes and loaded the sauces into the refrigerator. He even helped her roll the silverware into napkins and tie them with raffia.

And watching him, sitting on the stage rolling napkins, she realized . . .

She loved him. More than her fledgling feelings from Hawaii, the fullness of her emotion took root, embedded her bones. He’d glanced at her as she struggled to swallow the realization away.

How would she possibly say good-bye to him after the wedding? Especially since he had no more reason to be in her life?

Max seemed to sense her mood because he’d gotten quiet too, and it nearly touched her lips to ask.

He’d driven her home then, pensive in the darkness, and when they pulled up to Eden’s apartment and she turned to him, the expression on his face stopped her. As if he might want to say something to her.

She waited in the silence until he looked away and said, “Call me if you need anything. I’ll drop by the venue tomorrow.”

She’d ached with the frustration of it all when she got out of the car.

“Do you think Jace will like it?” Eden asked, still surveying the room.

“Are you kidding me? He will love it,” Grace said.

“He won’t even see it. He’ll be so entranced with his bride,” Raina said, joining them. She wore her hair up, a pair of jeans and her chef’s jacket. “Grace, I finished chopping the vegetables and put them back in the cooler.”

“Perfect. Where are we with the fruit?”

“I have Ty storing it in the cooler now.”

“Sounds like you have everything under control,” Eden said. “I knew it. Has anyone seen Mom and Dad?”

“They should be getting to the hotel anytime,” Grace said. “I should go back and change for the rehearsal. I still think I was crazy to agree to be in the wedding party and the head chef—”

“Listen, that’s what you have me for,” Raina said. “You did all the hard work. We—me and Ty and the crew from the cooking school—have this.”

The smartest thing Grace had ever done was take Eden’s idea and offer the local Minneapolis Institute of Culinary Arts class a chance to help cater. Not only did she get their services cheap, but she’d met the director.

A relationship she hoped to cultivate. Maybe someday she could ask for a second chance to apply.

“Besides, if I get in over my head, Max will be here,” Raina said.

Right. Max would be here.

Grace picked up her clipboard. “I just want to go over tomorrow’s schedule with the team, and then I’ll head back to your place, Eden, and get ready for the rehearsal dinner.”

“You’re a lifesaver, Grace. No one could have pulled this off but you.”

And Max—ah, there he was again, ever present. “And Raina,” Grace said, winking at her friend.

But Raina had stilled, was looking past her toward the door.

Grace turned and spied Casper standing there, holding his motorcycle helmet. “I just came by to see if I could help,” he said, his gaze landing on Raina.

Grace’s heart twisted at the hope in his expression. Once Raina had told her that Casper was not the father of her child—and had never been a candidate—the sad fate of his heart had Grace wanting to tell him the truth about Raina’s situation.

But it wasn’t her news to tell. And Raina clearly didn’t have it in her to tell him, not yet, despite Grace’s urging that Casper deserved to know. Did Raina plan on waiting until she started showing and Casper had to ask?

It didn’t help that he’d pitched in, ordered supplies, helped Grace dig up recipes, offered his suggestions as she experimented with flavors, and generally hung around her planning sessions with Raina for the last three weeks. Despite the fact that Raina barely looked at him, Casper appeared undaunted.