“You volunteering for something other than lining your own pockets? I’m shocked.”
“I can be properly motivated,” he said. He looked me up and down. “Contest doesn’t start for fifteen minutes. Three minutes to walk to city hall, two minutes up to your office. I can be done in ten minutes, eight if you really talk dirty to me.” He set my baking supplies on my counter.
I slapped at his hands. “Everyone will know if we just disappear together,” I hissed at him as I unpacked my box. I looked at him then over to his baking station. “Where’s all your stuff?”
His eyes widened.
I smirked.
“I didn’t know we were supposed to bring anything… shit.” He grabbed his phone and navigated to his email.
“It doesn’t say anything about bringing baking supplies!”
“Everyone knows baking contests are always bring your own supplies!”
“Crap. You’re doing this on purpose.”
I made a kissy face at him.
“Stupid small towns. What does baking have to do with being mayor anyway?” he grumbled.
* * *
Hunter must have senthis little brothers for baking supplies because several of them showed up right before the contest started, toting crates of tools.
“What am I supposed to do with these?” Hunter argued with them.
“This is all Parker had at his office,” Arlo said.
“He didn’t use this in one of his science experiments, did he?” Hunter made a face at the beakers and metal stirring sticks his brothers had brought.
“And we have a coffeepot from Weston’s office!” his little brother Nate said proudly. “And we brought a secret weapon!” He motioned Hunter closer so that I wouldn’t see what they had brought.
I chewed on my lip. I didn’t like the sound of a secret weapon. I needed Hunter to do badly so I looked like I knew how to bake.
Hunter was smug when his little brothers trotted off.
I kept glancing over at him.
“Keep your eyes on your own station!” he said loudly.
“Welcome to the Mayoral Bake-Off!” Sadie announced. Her skirt was festooned with dancing, happy cakes. I felt nauseated.
Hunter was like a cat with the cream, smug and sure of himself.
Please let it be something I know how to cook.
Hazel had made me run through all the various desserts she knew. Surely it would be one of those, right? My heart hammered as Dottie handed Sadie a large glass bowl with little slips of paper.
“And today’s baked good is… tiramisu. We have a mini grocery store ready for you, thanks to the farmers of Harrogate. We at the Rural Trust support our local farmers, and we hope you do too!”
Tiramisu consisted of espresso-soaked ladyfingers, usually the hard ones, not the spongy ones, surrounded by lightly sweetened, whipped eggs and mascarpone.
I breathed out a sigh. That wasn’t too difficult to make. Tiramisu was a simple Italian dessert that relied on fresh, high-quality ingredients. I selected the eggs, heavy cream, mascarpone, cocoa powder, sugar, and rum from the farmers’ tables.
“Good luck!” Ernest said, giving me a thumbs-up.
Hunter, sunglasses on, waited to see what I picked before he selected his ingredients.
