I spotted little cottages dotted along the path. “Are those houses?”
“I think they’re holiday homes.”
I loved it. What a great way to get out of the city. It was close enough that people could stay for a night or two and didn’t have to make a big trip out of it.
We made it to a large waterfall and sat down in the shade. Grayson unzipped the backpack he’d been carrying, producing a variety of sandwiches, a fruit platter, chocolate, and water.
“You brought a picnic for us?” I asked, though I didn’t know how his thoughtful actions still surprised me.
“If I remember correctly, you decreed it would be my job to bring the food along on our hikes ‘until the end of time.’”
He pitched his voice up an octave at the last few words, imitating me.
I chuckled and accepted the water he held out. “But you organized the hike this time as well.”
I used to be in charge of planning our hikes, and he used to be in charge of organizing provisions.
“I have a few years to make up for. We missed a lot of hikes.”
Not wanting to turn the mood somber, I held out my hand in a “give me” gesture. “Sandwich me up, please.”
We spent the rest of the day in our blissful bubble, and I wished we could move into one of the cottages and never have to leave.
Eight
It was week nine of the show, and weariness had settled in. If I didn’t get voted out, I had another four weeks of filming ahead of me.
We were down to five contestants. Mae was one of them, spreading her sunshine and rainbow confetti around. At least she was until about three seconds ago.
“It finally happened,” she hissed next to me, pulling me out of worrying about my egg whites not forming stiff peaks like they were supposed to. I wondered if there was egg yolk in it and I didn’t notice.
“What happened?” I asked Mae, not taking my eyes off the egg whites.
“I forgot an ingredient. What am I going to do now? It’s my gran’s recipe, so nobody else can help me out.”
Today’s challenge required each contestant to bake their specialty. It had to be a recipe you couldn’t find anywhere else. And bonus point if there was a secret ingredient.
I turned my back on my wayward egg whites and put my hands on her small shoulders. “Take a deep breath.” She did so immediately, the air wheezing in with a stutter. “Now another one.” Now she sounded less like a ten-pack-a-day smoker and more like the Mae I knew. “Remember what Oprah told us: ‘Think like a queen.’”
Mae nodded, her eyes big, blinking rapidly. At least she wasn’t in danger of passing out anymore.
“You’re the queen, and you’re going to kick this challenge’s ass. Now focus and think back to one of the times your gran baked the recipe with you.”
More nodding and blinking.
“Picture it in your head. Where were you standing? What were you doing to help? Then go through it step by step.”
Mae’s shoulders fell, all the tension draining out of her. “I can’t believe it actually worked,” she said, her voice tinged with wonder. “I remember.”
She crushed me to her in a tight embrace and kissed my cheek. “Thank you so much. You did it.” She left before I could say a word.
I got back to my still-not-stiff egg whites and did the sponge part instead. I was making coffee crunch cupcakes. The meringue would go on top, and buttercream icing went between the cupcake and the meringue.
It was one of the bestsellers at my shop. But I couldn’t be sure if it was because everyone liked them so much or because there were never any baked goods left at the end of the day since Willa liked to sample our products.
She called it quality control. I called it eating our profits.
I turned my attention to the icing, leaving the fate of my egg whites in the hands of the baking gods. I put the already soft butter in the blender with the rest of the ingredients and turned it on.
