Chapter 1
Mia was busy icing of the fourth tier of a wedding cake when her phone rang, startling her. To her dismay, the delicate rose she had been working on was crushed when she jumped. She sighed, frustrated with herself. Part of her wanted to fix it immediately, but her phone was still ringing. Looking at the phone, she saw it was her friend Emily.
“Not a great time, Emily,” she grumbled when she answered the phone.
“Something wrong?” asked Emily, sounding concerned.
“No,” sighed Mia. “It’s all right.” Her frustration passed quickly. It was just the icing, and it would be easy enough to fix. “Just a little cake issue. Nothing I can’t handle. What’s up?”
“I’m getting married!” Emily was practically shrieking with joy. It was infectious, and Mia immediately caught it.
“Oh my God! Matt proposed?! Tell me everything!”
“Oh Mia, it was perfect!” Emily gushed. “You know how much we both love dear old State. Matt took me back there for a home game. I thought we were just going to party and tailgate, but he took me all around campus. We reminisced over all of our favorite spots, and then when we got the ice cream place where we had our first date, he knelt to the ground and pulled out a ring and said -”
“Marry me, Juliet. You’ll never have to be alone?” supplied Mia with a small smile.
“Yes!” Emily sounded so very happy. “He did the entire verse!”
“That’s so cute!” Mia was impressed. When they were in college, Emily had become a hard-core Taylor Swift fan. Matt certainly knew her well.
“It was amazing, Mia! Say you’ll be a bridesmaid!”
“I would be honored.”
“You are so wonderful! I have to go though – there are so many people I need to call before it ends up on Facebook.”
“Good thinking,” Mia approved. “Talk to you later, kay?”
“Bye!”
After hanging up the phone, Mia found herself inexplicably a bit sad. What Emily and Matt had was beautiful. When she was a younger woman, she had felt a hole in her life where romance was lacking, but over the years Mia had learned to be content on her own. She concentrated on her little bakery and being financially independent. Besides, even though she had no romance, she certainly did not lack for love. Her friends and her family were what really mattered. There was no room in her life for a man, and most of the time, she gave romance no thought. Some days, however, she could not help but regret her choice.
Chapter 2
“My family is so weird. Why were my aunts giggling whenever I broke a ribbon?” asked Emily as she picked up the broken ribbons from where they fell on the floor.
“It’s an old bridal shower tradition,” explained her sister Kathleen who was returning from loading the last of the gifts into the car. “The superstition is that for every ribbon you break, you’ll have a baby.”
“But that’s like 17 kids!” exclaimed Emily.
“I guess you better get started,” said Mia solemnly. Emily swatted her with some wrapping paper, and they both laughed.
“Matt and I have decided we would like to have three,” she told them. “Not right away of course, but eventually.”
“That’s a good number,” approved Kathleen. “I don’t think James and I will have more than two though. Robbie and Sam already keep us busy enough as it is! Speaking of, I should probably get back home. The poor babysitter is probably tearing her hair out!”
“You go,” said Mia. “Give the boys our love. We’ll clean up here.”
“You sure?”
“Don’t worry – we’ve got this,” Emily assured her.
As Mia started rolling up the plastic tablecloths to throw away, Emily walked over to help.
“Now that it is just us, there is something I have been meaning to talk to you about,” Emily began hesitantly. One look in her friend’s face, and Mia knew something was wrong.
“What is it?” she asked, setting down her
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