Page 92 of Faking it with my Bad Boy Crush

"Deal."

"And the flowers. I don't trust you to think about flowers when you're this deep into cake logistics."

"Also deal. And really, I appreciate the help. I just need the location to stay exactly what it is."

"I understand. Truly." Her voice softened. "Your grandfather would have loved this. Watching you marry someone who actually deserves you, in the place he built with his own hands. I just want it to be perfect for you both."

After we hung up, Tessa emerged from the back office where she'd apparently been eavesdropping while pretending to do theaccounting, because privacy was a concept she generally treated as optional between best friends.

"Your mother wants a tent consultant," she said. "This is either going to be beautiful or an absolute circus, and I genuinely cannot predict which."

"Can it be both? I feel like given our track record, both feels statistically likely."

"Extremely likely, yes." Tessa hopped onto a stool, notebook in hand—the same notebook she used for both wedding planning notes and, suspiciously, what looked like book material for her sequel. "Okay, update me. Where are we on the guest list, because last I heard you and Ethan were fighting about whether to invite Jennifer Walsh."

"We're not fighting. We're having a spirited disagreement about whether inviting Jennifer Walsh counts as 'appropriate wedding guest' or 'deeply strange flex.'"

"I vote invite her. She seems fun, in a terrifying competent-prosecutor way, and honestly she's basically responsible for us having a happy ending, so she's earned cake."

"That's Ethan's argument exactly. I just think it's going to be a weird conversation topic at the reception. 'So how do you two know each other?' 'Oh, she's the prosecutor who put Ethan's old boss in prison after Ethan destroyed his own career blowing the whistle on him.' Not exactly typical wedding small talk."

"Nothing about your relationship has been typical, Maya. I think we're past the point of aiming for normal." Tessa flipped through her notebook, then glanced up with an exaggerated wince. "Please tell me nobody's floated inviting Marcus. Just so I can cross it off the list without asking."

"Nobody has floated that, Tessa, because we're not deranged." I didn't even look up from the cake. "That man sued me for three-quarters of a million dollars. He does not get weddingcake. He doesn't get to be within a hundred miles of wedding cake."

"Just checking. Given the general theme of 'building bridges' happening in this relationship, I wanted to rule it out officially."

"Excellent. Glad we agree on at least one boundary." She made a note. "What about the council? Helen Chen keeps hinting she'd like an invitation, very unsubtly, every time she comes in for her weekly bread order."

"Invite her. She fought for us during the vendor contract meeting, and honestly the whole island basically adopted us as this weird, chaotic love story. Feels rude not to include the people who cheered us on through the lawsuits, and yes, that includes Emily Russell,” I added before she could say anything. “If she brings out her binoculars or tries to snoop through the kitchen, you are allowed to kick her out.”

“So the wedding is basically going to be half genuine loved ones, half people who witnessed our various public scandals and became emotionally invested."

"Pretty much, yes. Community wedding. Very on brand for us at this point." I finished the cake and set down my piping bag, wiping my hands. "Speaking of scandals, has Ethan mentioned anything about his ethics reinstatement timeline? He's been weirdly cagey about it lately."

"He mentioned something to Richard last week when I was picking up pastry orders for the community center. Something about the suspension possibly getting reduced for good behavior? I didn't hear the whole conversation, I was mostly focused on not dropping forty croissants."

Before I could ask more, the bell over the door chimed, and Ethan walked in, still wearing his boathouse-office clothes, looking like a man who'd been waiting all day to share something.

"Perfect timing," I said. "Tessa was just interrogating me about the guest list, and I need backup on the Marcus situation."

"Marcus doesn't get cake. I've made my peace with that boundary, despite my occasional impulses toward reconciliation." He crossed to the counter, kissing me hello with the easy familiarity of six months of practice. "But I actually have news. Good news. The kind of news that might affect wedding timing."

"You're worrying me. Good news usually means complicated logistics in our relationship."

"Fair assessment, but I promise this one's simple." He pulled out his phone, showing me an email. "The ethics board reviewed my case for early reinstatement based on the completed coursework and Patterson's supervision reports. They're reducing my suspension. Six months instead of eighteen. I get my full license back in October."

I stared at the phone, then at him, then back at the phone. "That's—Ethan, that's incredible. That's four months from now."

"Four months from now, I go back to being a fully licensed attorney. Full-time at Patterson & Associates, no restrictions, no supervision requirements." He was smiling in that specific way that still made my chest do something complicated, even six months into this relationship. "Turns out publicly confessing your ethics violations to two hundred witnesses and then spending six months doing consumer protection work for actual disadvantaged families counts as 'demonstrated rehabilitation.' Who knew?"

"I knew. I've known since that overlook conversation that you'd figure out how to fix this." I hugged him, laughing into his shoulder. "This is incredible. We need to celebrate. Actually celebrate, not just 'terrible reality television and champagne' celebrate, though obviously that too."

"I was thinking we could move the wedding," Ethan said carefully. "Not far. But if I get reinstated in October, and we're already planning for early winter—what if we did it in November instead? Full license, full redemption arc complete, actual closure on this entire chapter before we start the next one."

"You want to time our wedding around your legal reinstatement."

"When you say it like that, it sounds slightly unhinged."