Page 45 of Holly Jolly Cake Fight
“See? This is pretty good — go easy on that!” She grabbed Laurin’s arm to guide the cayenne pepper away from the crock pot. “Some judges don’t handle heat very well. Add all the spice you want to what’s left after they do their tasting.”
Her hand on his felt nice. He wasn’t grouchy with her or even the conversation they’d had the night before, the secrets he’d had to share just to show how wrong she was about family. He missed his own family, and it was weighing on him, but Candace’s touch warmed him.
Cameras be damned. His heart ached as if there was a fix standing right there next to him, and he was going to take it. He snagged her by the waist and pulled her to him.
And got smacked in the face with a buttered basting brush.
“Oh gosh, I’m sorry!” Candace belted out before a laugh rumbled up out of her, and she scrambled to get a towel. “I thought I was heading to your side or something, I don’t know, and meant to hold it out of your way.”
Laurin covered his eye and squeezed it closed until Candace pried his hand away and dabbed at his lashes. “It’s okay, I shouldn’t have grabbed you like that. I’m trying to make myself feel better and . . .”
“And buttering the eyeball turned out not to make you feel any better?”
Laurin chuckled. “Who’d have thought, right?” He held still as Candace wiped the mess away and followed her when she led him to the sink. She was being way more careful than she needed to be with him, and he thought about telling her he once literally had a bone pop through his skin for the entire world to see during a widely televised game, but that gentle touch was nice. Especially when she finished up and rubbed his back.
“There. Try opening your eyes now.”
Everything was clear enough, and he got the bonus of swiping some sage butter off Candace’s cheek as well.
“Better?” she asked.
“Yeah. Glad we’re both still in pajamas, too. We didn’t make too much of a mess of anything but our faces.”
“I don’t think your face is a mess at all.”
Candace turned away too quickly for Laurin to see if she was flirting with him, but he suspected she was.
Chapter 17
The table looked amazing.The centerpiece Laurin had crafted was breathtaking. The cameraman had spent fifteen minutes getting it from all angles, even calling in some additional lighting. Everyone who helped him with the rig oohed and aahed over it, and that finally cracked a bit of Laurin’s miserable shell away.
He was quick to say, “Your table runner is really nice,” once the dining room cleared back out, and Candace smiled for him, but she didn’t need the compliment. The table runner was a table runner, and itwasreally nice, but it would never draw the attention of the judges like the centerpiece would — or the miniature matching ones Laurin had made for each of the six settings. He’d really outdone himself on this.
Their cameraman gave them warning that the judges would hit them first, but they were ready to go. There’d be a bit of pageantry, an awkward luncheon of crudites at the table, then Candace and Laurin would have the rest of the afternoon to prep the main course. She far preferred to be first rather than last.
The knock on the door was staged. The blocking of the scene, with Candace opening the door and Laurin standing behind her, was scripted. Kate did the introductions, explaining that Georgette Lyndon was an editor for Country Kitchen and Roger Perry was taking the day off from directing his current family feature. Laurin introduced himself and Candace to them. Candace and Georgette had a little exchange about meeting before — Georgette had judged Candace twice. She hadn’t beeneliminated either of those times, so Candace took this as a good omen.
“Shall we?” Laurin asked, motioning to the dining room.
Candace led them in, nearly missing a step when Georgette murmured, “Oh, my.”
That wasn’t part of the script. They were all supposed to be seated at the table before they reacted to anything; that way, the cameras could get the best angles and clean footage instead of warped sounds and the backs of people’s heads.
Candace knew she was grinning stupidly when she looked back to Georgette, and she didn’t care. She was too proud of the work Laurin had done out on their back porch last night while Candace shouted through the window to keep up conversation. She’d dragged the sewing machine out to the kitchen so she could find out more about Laurin’s family, gobbling up every one of his stories as though they were courses of a meal to be shared and somehow nourish her. She’d gone back to the machine when she was done in the kitchen, but Laurin had joined her for a few minutes here and there, always praising her progress.
Had her ex ever supported her hobbies? Candace couldn’t even remember him giving kind words about her bakery, and they’d had to rely on that for their sole income several times.
“Laurin made it,” Candace gushed. “Isn’t it amazing? I don’t know if we’ve ever had anyone so talented with sugar sculpting here.”
There were nods of agreement while everyone took their seats, Laurin at the head and Candace beside him, the judges taking the opposite corner, the hosts flanking them. Roger was only in his seat for a few seconds, though, before he got back upto inspect the centerpiece more closely. “You gotta tell me how you made it, man.”
“It’s a combination of a few things,” Laurin said. “The tall shards are poured sugar. You can see here where I stacked colors and alternated clear and opaque layers to give the depth to it.”
“And that really nice swirl,” Candace pointed out.
He grinned at her, and under the table, tucked away enough where the cameras would never pick it up, a heavy weight landed on Candace’s knee.
Laurin’s hand. His fingers dug into the soft flesh, squeezing gently. It was low enough down that there wasn’t anything all that inappropriate about it outside of the obviously clandestine staging of it, and Candace wasn’t great in picking up on cues, but she knew this wasn’t just appreciation. And if she’d thought about how something like this would go, she’d have imagined herself tensing up, being a big spaz about it, but right now? It felt nice.
