Page 86 of Holly Jolly Cake Fight
Her eyes narrowed. “Did you do that on purpose?”
“Jax swapped some of his own stories with Lucas, so he’s also been banned from the network. You took his spot.”
That made Candace sad. She’d only worked with Jax once, but he’d seemed like a good enough guy. It was proof enough ofhow difficult it was to tell if someone was a predator. “But why didn’t you just tell me? Why did you make me go through this whole season?”
“I wanted to keep you here. The moment I found out what happened, I intended to offer you the guaranteed invites to keep you here. But there was some concern that you were burnt out or no longer able to handle the pressure. Not from me, mind you—”
Candace frowned and crossed her legs to keep her from tapping her heels nervously, but it only achieved shaking her entire body. “I don’t think I handled it very well.”
“We’ll agree to disagree. So here are my offers. You won that hundred thousand. That’s yours. And if you want to go public with what Lucas did, I can’t stop you. But you haven’t yet, so I didn’t have that envelope prepared.
“This is simple. There’s no way of knowing who would have won Summer Bakes if you’d stayed, so if you sign the NDA, I will give you twenty-five thousand. The top prize for that season. I’m also confident enough in you that I think you’ll win three more times, at minimum. So if you don’t think you can go on, I will give you an extra seventy-five for those three you deserve, but I like to think you’d rather earn that through competition. And please don’t think I intend to bring you back for three and only three. This contract is peace of mind for you. What do you say?”
“You’re not going to give me any time to decide?”
“You work well under pressure,” he said with a smirk. “So I’m going to eat one of these croissants while you decide. I have faith that you’ll make the right choice.”
He wasn’t joking. He plucked one of the croissants from the box and took a single bite of it before sitting back and chewing slowly, savoring it.
Candace stared down at the checks. She’d already earmarked one hundred thousand. As for the rest of it? Twenty-five was money for a pop-up stand and lines of credit with suppliers. It would get her back on her feet with some work. She could have her own bakery again.
One hundred thousand was security. Payroll. A down payment on a fully furnished bakery with café seating. A proper car, so she didn’t have to drive the delivery van anymore. It was comfort. It was room to breathe. The smartest thing she could do was to take the payout and never look back.
So she handed the big check right back. She wasn’t smart. She was strong and brave and resilient, and her next season, she would be even better.
“Smart girl,” Michael said as he tore the envelope up.
“Not at all,” Candace laughed. “And it’s about to get worse. I need this check split up. I want the prize from Christmas to go to Laurin.”
Laurin didn’t know why he was pacing. He wasn’t a pacer in general, and he had no reason to pace. Nothing bad was happening. Candace had won the competition. The absolute worst thing that could be happening right now was some stern lecture about how she’d been so inappropriate at Summer Bakes that the only reason she got to participate in the Christmas Spectacular was because someone backed out at the last minute and she’d never be invited back again. That would suck, absolutely, but she won that $100,000 fair and square, and shewas in high demand. Manon had been great about stalking her on Instagram and always told Laurin what shops she was doing her guest spots at — plus the dozens of requests she got on every one of those posts from other bakeries trying to score a chunk of her time. She was going to be okay.
And he still had every intention of making her a permanent resident at his bakery, although he’d gladly let her do her guest spots at any of the Atlanta area bakeries.
There was nothing for him to be nervous about, but here he was.
It felt like an eternity before Candace opened the door for him and gestured him in. He couldn’t quite tell if she was happy or sad. She was nervous, her foot shaking wildly and her cheeks rosy as a strawberry macaron, but he knew how easily she got rattled. Maybe this would be fine.
He gave her the biggest smile and paused to kiss the crown of her head as he walked in because everything would be fine after they left here, no matter what happened right now.
He stumbled over his own feet when he saw who else was in the room, standing behind the desk in a fancy suit and the biggest shit-eating grin ever.
“Rob?” he choked out.
“Good to see you again, Laur.” His voice was just as deep, just as resonant, as Laurin remembered even though it had been years.
“I thought we were meeting Mike,” Laurin said, hedging himself by addressing one thought at a time. The first: Where was Mike? The second: Why was his old gym buddy lookingsuper corporate behind the desk at a niche TV network’s headquarters?
He hadn’t seen Rob in years. The gym they’d frequented had been elite, mostly for professional athletes and others with celebrity status who paid top dollar for the privacy of an ultra-exclusive gym. Some of the members liked to crow about whatever they did that gave them the status to need that gym, but Rob wasn’t the only one who never talked about his claim to fame, and Laurin didn’t pay enough attention to American sports to recognize him. The gym had a strongdon’t know then don’t askvibe, and Laurin was good with that.
Except that he’d lost all his friendships there when he couldn’t afford his membership anymore. He’d genuinely never thought he’d see Rob again.
“You know, I always wondered if you thought Rob was my first name, and now I know.”
Wheels turned in Laurin’s head until he felt incredibly daft about everything. “You’re Michael Robbins, CEO of Robbins Hall Communications Network, the parent company of Food2Love.Merde.” He scrubbed at the scruff on his chin. “How did I not put this together?”
“I didn’t either,” Candace said lightly. “I was just as shocked.”
“But we worked out together for years.”
