“You will have three hours to make your creations. During that time, the judges will leave the baking area so as not to be swayed by anything that goes into each individual process.”
“Plus, three hours is a long damn time to just sit here and watch y’all,” Nana Rhodes adds.
“What my mother-in-law said.” Mrs. Rhodes gestures in Nana Rhodes’s direction, a smile spreading across her face as she takes a seat.
Nana Rhodes stands up proudly. “While there are no rules for this bake-off, we do—” She pauses and glances at her fellow judges. “Do I really need to say ‘request’? That sounds kind of lame. I’m not going to say that.” She swats a hand. “Essentially, don’t intentionally sabotage anyone andmake sure to share the oven because y’all are limited on time.”
Aunt Carol stands from her spot once Nana Rhodes has sat down. “If you need anything from the store, you can contact one of the judges, and we can pick it up. Good luck and happy baking, y’all!”
We quickly disperse into separate corners of the kitchen and dining room while each team plots their creation.
“Please tell me you came with some good ideas, Mr. Hollywood.”
Charlie rolls his eyes. “Just because I came from LA doesn’t mean I’m going to have brilliant ideas, but yes I came prepared.”
“What do you got?”
“I’m thinking we do a spinoff of my Nana and Papa’s love story. They met at Christmastime in a Christmas tree lot. It’s easy to pull off, it’s got some creativity and a plot line that will tug at the judges’ heartstrings.”
“I like it. What do you think, Rhett?” I glance up at the man who is quietly standing opposite me. While setting up, we determined four teams would be too many if we only had one oven to share, so Mom and Aunt Carol offered to take a step back this year, likely because they knew they didn’t stand a chance. They’ve quite frankly never been a threat. Then Rhett joined Charlie and me, and Olivia joined Lauren and Callie.
“I like it.” Rhett nods. “We’re going to crush the girls if they go with Olivia’s idea. She wanted to do some sort of Christmas version of Resilient Paws. I told her she needs to learn how to stop working when she’s not at work.” He shakes his head, but there’s an affectionate smile on his face.
Despite Rhett being difficult to read, no one has ever doubted he loves Olivia. A lot. I point an accusatory fingerat him and ask, “How do we know you aren’t working for the other side?”
He shrugs. “I guess you can’t know for certain, but I’m telling you now, as much as I love that woman, I still want to crush her.”
I glance at Charlie, wordlessly asking,should we trust him?
Charlie beams and offers his hand for Rhett to shake. “I like this guy! You’ll be a nice addition to the team this year.”
We start mixing the dough for the sugar cookies, plain and chocolate because Rhett insisted the chocolate will be great for turning into Christmas trees.
He orders us around the kitchen, and we grab supplies for Rhett as he asks for them. As much as it hurts my ego to be his servant, I can put aside my feelings of inadequacy for a moment if it means beating the girls at this competition.
“Okay, I think this first batch can be cut and put into the oven. Just bake them for eight minutes. We can cook them for a maximum of twelve, but we need to check them early. I don’t know how hot the oven runs,” Rhett instructs.
“Pretty hot. Our stuff gets burnt every year.”
“That’s because you don’t have a single baking bone in your body,” I say to Charlie.
“That’s not true! I bake delicious chocolate muffins. Ask Callie.”
I glance over to the girls’ group as Lauren tosses her head back in laughter, and I forget what I’m doing for a second. I love to see her so happy. She’s the most gorgeous girl I’ve ever met, inside and out, and her laughter is so infectious?—
“Jax? If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were staring at my sister.”
I go pale and immediately try to hide it by turning myfocus down to the cookie dough as I stick one of the Christmas tree cutters into it and wiggle it around a little. “I was just going to ask you how being around Callie has been, but I got distracted because I thought I heard the girls say something about their idea.”
“We’re already committed. We can’t change things now,” Rhett mumbles as he mixes up the plain cookie dough.
Charlie doesn’t look up from his chore of cutting dough. “It’s been fine. She hasn’t said a word to me besides hello, but I guess I should’ve expected that.”
“I’m sorry, man.”
“It’s all good.” Charlie tosses a hand. “It’s not like I expected anything different from her.”
“You just let me know if you change your mind. I’m happy to play wingman again, especially for you two.”
