Page 5 of Holly Jolly Cake Fight
Seriously, though. He would have gladly been paired with Belle, Patty, or either of the two new girls. At least they were unknowns. Candace Coale? This was worse than football club hazing.
He walked out of his cubicle with a smile on his face. He was going to channel every ounce of Christmas spirit he had into being as eager and jolly and likable as he could so if he lost — which, teamed up with Candace, was all but destined — he’d be invited back.
Valentine’s wasn’t his thing in the slightest, but he’d romance the pants right off the judges without the Candace Coale albatross around his neck.
Candace gave him the most painful smile he’d ever seen when he took his place next to her. Shame about that. She had a pretty face when she wasn’t faking it for the cameras.
A pretty everything, really. She desperately needed at least ten of those camera pounds, but from behind, her trademark stockings were white knit sin.
He wasn’t a fan of style without substance or playing hard-to-get, so he didn’t have any risk of turning into a slavering creep while they were bunked together, but he’d have to play things taking-Vivvy-to-the-community-pool safe. Candace had a reputation. He was sure he’d been bunked with her due to the usual gender confusion with his name, but he couldn’t rule out something more nefarious.
Was he a pawn in their ratings game? Were they hoping for a new sex scandal from Candace Coale by pairing her with someone single and age-appropriate? He wasn’t about to give them the scandal, but he’d have to work even harder to prove himself now.
“Finally, for our last cabin,” Kate belted out when the cameras had finished doing their thing, her eyes unnaturally bright and trained right on Laurin as though she’d caught him checking out Candace’s legs and didn’t approve. “From Seattle, Washington, we’ve got Hot Potato Bakery’s Debbie Arthur!”
Okay, maybe Candace wasn’t the worst possible partner. At least twice, Debbie had dropped her contest entry when carrying it to the judges, first a magnificent five-tier replica of the Space Needle in the Hometown Heroes competition, then a banana cream pie in the ill-fated Summer Bakes season. Equal parts catastrophic and hilarious, she’d tripped over a mat and fallen face-first into the pie like a one-man Three Stooges. Food2Love constantly replayed that clip in their trailers.
Sometimes pairing it with the clip of Candace’s shoe kicking up the corner of the mat on her way back from delivering her entry. There was unending speculation in the forums about whether she’d done it deliberately or not.
“And our last contestant, from Mobile, Alabama, head pastry chef from the Graham Park Hotel, Stephanie Daniels!”
Laurin clapped with the rest of the contestants as he looked back to watch Stephanie emerge, but the door remained closed.
“Come on out, Stephanie Daniels!” Jannie coaxed.
The applause became labored as anticipation waned.
“Stephanie?” Kate called.
Nothing.
Laurin jogged over and opened the door to find a portly, fortyish-year-old woman, of the same ilk as the mom who reigned over the pick-up lane at Vivvy’s school, fussing with her overly highlighted hair. “Oh, have we started?” she asked.
“Cut!”
Jannie and Kate needed three more takes to get through their introduction, and Candace was already sweating by the time she knew what fresh hell the next two weeks would be. It wasn’t even all that hot; it couldn’t have been more than sixty-five degrees outside, and the crosswind wicked away any extra heat generated by the lighting rig. She was just nervous about being in teams and doubly nervous about being teamed with Laurin.
He was a good bit taller than Candace and took up a lot more space. He was attractive — from both sides, she lamented when she followed him back to their cubby holes for the second take — and had a charming smile and a rich but friendly voice with an extremely inviting accent. Southern with a touch of sophistication she hadn’t yet narrowed down, which would have the viewers just as intrigued as she was.
His very existence was bigger than Candace’s, and he would eclipse her. Who was going to look at the lamb when there was a huge, irritatingly majestic lion towering over her?
Jannie’s announcement that the first round was going to involve decorating their cabins for the holidays further crushed Candace. She was ready to bake her buns off and carry Laurin through the competition if her suspicions were correct and he was there to be eye candy. Trimming a tree, though? What kind of challenge was that? You wrapped it in lights, threw a bunch of tinsel and ornaments on it, and topped it with a star. That wasn’t a challenge. That was a Thursday night with nothing better to do.
The parade of golf carts taking the contestants to their cabins was noisy enough to mute voices, but Candace could see that Debbie and Stephanie in the cart in front of her were having an animated conversation. The way Glitter Greg’s hands gesticulated in the next car up indicated conversation there, too. On the seat next to her, Laurin was messing with his phone.
“Shouldn’t we talk? Make a plan or whatever?” Candace huffed even though she had no interest in it herself. Planning before all the details were given out rarely helped anything, but she didn’t like that he wasn’t trying to plan. He was new. New people were supposed to be overzealous about planning.
“Mike said they were taking phones away. I just want to say ‘goodbye’ again to my family before they do.”
Candace snorted. “Did you think they’d let you keep your phone? Not in a competition like this.” She wasn’t even allowed on premises with her phone. Social media savvy had earned her a bakery and a regular spot on the baking competition circuit, so she couldn’t even blame them for so aggressively stripping her of anything with an internet connection and a lens.
God, she’d give anything to get a hold of Laurin’s phone to take a selfie with him for insta. Some teaser eye candy would be great for both her feed and the show.
Laurin shrugged. “I figured they’d take it away, but I’m going to talk to my family while I still have it. Why aren’t you?”
“They took mine when I got here.” Not that she would have used it to contact her family anyway. Candace wasn’t close with them — or anyone else these days. “They probably didn’t take yours because they got so flustered messing up the cabins. What’s with the girl’s name?” What right did any baker have to have an ass that firm? Clearly, he was a trap.
Her Food2Love career would not survive even a whiff of an affair, even if it were no more real than the last one. The only way to prevent the speculation that would naturally form from them living together was to start off on the wrong foot and keep it there.
