“I am not jumping out of a cake,” Samantha told her flatly, though she’d taken on more embarrassing jobs to pay the bills in her early days in New York.
“It would dazzle Ethan,” Gabi suggested, getting into the spirit of things, or maybe trying to pacify Emily by siding with her for once. “You told us yourself he seems to respond to the unpredictable side of your nature, to say nothing of the glazed over, gaga looks he gives you every time you walk into a room. And that’s without ever seeing you naked.”
“Exactly,” Emily enthused. “And you wouldn’t have to be naked. In fact, that would be tacky, but you’d look fantastic in a bikini. I’ll even pay for you to get a spray tan.”
Samantha studied her sisters incredulously. “You’re really serious about this? You want me to jump out of a cake at Boone’s bachelor party just so I can make sure there are no strippers there?”
“And to stir up a few fantasies for Ethan,” Emily said. “He needs to live a little. Oh, he’s doing everything he has to do for the wedding, but he’s way too somber these days. This is practically your patriotic duty, to say nothing of the favor you’d be doing me. And we all know you want to get him into bed, even if you intend to deny it with your dying breath.”
Samantha could see that her sister’s heart was set on this absurd idea. Since she’d made a promise to herself to do nothing to spoil these next few days for Emily, she sighed.
“If you can arrange for the cake, I’ll do it, but I’m taking one quick look around and then I’m out of there. I can bear only so much humiliation, even for you.”
Gabi grinned and slapped Emily’s outstretched hand. “Told you she’d go for it. Mentioning how staid and uptight Ethan is these days was a nice touch. She came home last night all hot and bothered because he’s still holding out on her.”
Samantha frowned at the on-the-mark but annoying observation. “Watch it. I can still back out.”
“But you won’t,” Emily said, throwing her arms around her. “Because you love me too much. And you’re at least half in love with Ethan. This could push that along nicely.”
“Whatever relationship I have with Ethan—and I’m not saying there is one—it does not need to be pushed along by the likes of you,” she declared, though it was obviously a wasted argument.
“If not us, who?” Emily inquired. “Grandmother’s good, but she’s not half as inventive as Gabi and I are.”
“Maybe because Grandmother has the good sense to know when to leave well enough alone,” Samantha retorted.
Gabi chuckled. “Nah, that’s not it. She’s just biding her time. I’m pretty sure she still has a few tricks up her sleeve in case you and Ethan don’t get with the program. But she’s not likely to push the boundaries of good taste the way Emily and I will.”
Samantha suspected her sister was exactly right. The thought of Cora Jane kicking her matchmaking skills into high gear scared her to death. Hopefully she was so preoccupied with wedding details that Samantha and Ethan weren’t on her radar just yet.
* * *
Ethan glanced up when the door to the deck at Castle’s opened to allow a huge cake to be pushed through on a trolley. There wasn’t enough icing in the universe to disguise that the cake was fake. Since he hadn’t ordered a cake of any size, its arrival was definitely a surprise, and a suspicious one at that.
Suddenly there was music, too. Boone and the dozen or so men who had gathered for the bachelor party ceased talking and stared. Boone turned to Ethan with a questioning look. Ethan shrugged.
Boone backed away from the cake. “Please tell me Emily is not going to jump out of that cake,” he said, his eyes glued to the lavishly decorated cardboard monstrosity. “And if she is, please, please don’t let her be naked. That view is meant for me alone. I am not sharing.”
“No idea,” Ethan said tersely.
“And it’s not a stripper?” Boone asked.
“If it is, then someone else called for one,” Ethan assured him. “Sorry, but the thought didn’t cross my mind, since I thought all the men here tonight were more mature than that.”
Boone grinned at the stuffy remark. “Then, again, it is a bachelor party. Who knows if I’ll ever again get to see a naked woman who isn’t my wife? I’m starting to hope it is a stripper.”
“If you’re too eager for the sight of naked women, you might want to reconsider getting married,” Ethan suggested wryly, even as the top layer of the cake began to sway dramatically. That was accompanied by a few grunts and a pounding noise, then a yelp of dismay. That yelp sounded oddly—distressingly—familiar.
“Maybe we should do something,” Boone suggested, his gaze glued to the cake.
Ethan grinned, discovering that he was oddly fascinated by the prospect of seeing just what Boone’s bride-to-be had cooked up...with a little help from her sisters, no doubt. “Allow me.”
He walked closer to the cake and tapped on the top layer. “Having problems?” he inquired.
“Get me out of here,” an imperious voice commanded.
“Won’t that spoil the effect?” he asked, his suspicions confirmed about who was inside the cake. Samantha! Who else would Emily be able to talk into pulling a stunt like this? Why she’d done it hardly even mattered.
“Ethan, if you don’t help me right this second, when I do get out of here, I swear I’ll...” Words seemed to fail her.
“What?” he asked curiously.
“I’m not exactly sure, but you won’t like it.”
“We could wait and see.”
“Ethan, I’m hot and I’m annoyed.”
“Okay, okay. How were you supposed to get out?”
“The top is supposed to pop right open, but it’s stuck or something.
