“I can’t. I’m too busy. Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t possibly. I’ve got a stack of orders to work on.” Taking the clipboard down, she flipped the pages. “See?” Then she marched into the bakery kitchen.
Much smaller than the factory, it was still impressive. “I thought you had two shifts of people working for you to handle things. You can’t get away for just a couple of hours?”
“I’ve got a lot to do.”
He wasn’t convinced there wasn’t some way they could work this out. “What’s the biggest thing on your plate right now?”
“I promised to do the groom’s cake for Rusty. The cake is my gift to him. I can’t very well hand it off to someone else to do.”
“Rusty Addams?”
“Yes. He’s marrying a real nice girl from Georgia. They’re getting married down at the river at his parents’ place this week. An evening wedding.”
“Let me help you. It’ll be like old times.”
A melancholy frown flitted across her face. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“Oh, come on. Let’s have some fun.” He stepped closer to her. “We were young. I didn’t handle the situation very well. I said I was sorry. Look at you now. I practically did you a favor. You’ve blown your goals right out of the water.”
“A favor?” She glared at him. “You always had a way of twisting things around. I worked hard for this.”
“I didn’t mean it that way. I can see that you worked hard, and it’s truly impressive. Can we please call a truce?” He crouched down to get eye-to-eye with her. “Please?”
She turned her head.
He dipped to the side, not letting her get out of his view. “Come on. Let me help you with the groom’s cake. What are you going to make?”
“I’m not even sure yet.”
“I’ll do the grunt work. Wash pans. Whatever. Pay for my mistakes.” He clapped his hands together. “Even more reason to let me help.”
“Why?” Theirs eyes held.
“Why not? I know him. It could be fun. Come on. I’ve already caught up with Mom and Dawn, and you know there’s no other nightlife in this town. Throw this old friend a favor.”
“I guess Bailey’s Fork isn’t busy enough for a guy who hangs out with the rich and famous in Paris.”
“It’s not like that. The only thing I do with the rich and famous is cook for them. I work. A lot. Like, all the time.”
“I know how that is. I can bet you wouldn’t want it any other way either, though.”
“You’re right. From the looks of things with you here in your bakery in the middle of the night, you’re the same way.”
“Guilty as charged.”
“It’s our passion. So let’s cook together.” He moved through the kitchen. “This is nice. Top of the line.” He flipped through a book of laminated recipes. “How about you make a red velvet cake? You always made the best red velvet around.”
She threw her hand into the air like a traffic cop. “Whoa. Hold on right there. If you’re going to help, you have to stay within the few guidelines I have from the customer.”
She agreed to let me help! “Sure thing.”
Kelly picked up the order sheet. “He likes chocolate, peanut butter, and caramel. No mint. No fruit. No pastel colors. No cupcakes. No frilly stuff.”
“He really said all that? More like a list of what he doesn’t want.”
“Men. Go figure.”
He held his tongue.
“Yep. See? It’s right here.” She turned the page around for Andrew to read. “Actually,” she continued, “I think the six-tier wedding cake has him a little freaked out. It’s pretty fancy. And very frilly.”
“Fair enough.” He’d probably feel the same way.
“So, I’m making it up to him with an amazing groom’s cake. I’m thinking chocolate with peanut butter center. I’ve done tons of themed groom’s cakes, but I want this one to be special.”
“A theme?” Andrew chewed his bottom lip as he pondered. “He loved fishing. What if we made a big fishing lure? We could do edible metallic hooks.”
“For a bachelor party, maybe, but this is their wedding. It needs to be a little classy,” she said.
“Okay, fine, but seriously, how much has Rusty changed? Because the Rusty I remember is about the furthest thing from classy I’ve ever known.”
Kelly pulled her apron over her head and put her hands on her hips. “He’s Dr. Addams now. He’s kind of a lot classy, actually. You haven’t kept up at all, have you?”
“No. I haven’t.” It hadn’t been entirely intentional. He’d been busy. “But you don’t miss what you don’t know about.”
The way she was looking at him, he knew that she was going to say like me, but she held her tongue. Instead, she said, “I guess that’s one way to look at things.” Kelly turned her back to him and began pacing the floor.
“Think mode,” he said in a sing-songy way like he used to back in the day.
“Some things will never change,” she admitted as she made two more passes across the kitchen. “I’ve got it.” She snapped her fingers. “I’ll do a simple square layer cake. Chocolate with peanut butter filling. He does still love fishing, but we’ll do a simple watercolor blue fondant and a fish leaping out of the top.”
“I can help make this magnificent with some sugar work.” He grabbed a piece of paper and sketched it out. “Edible sugar glass for the water. Like it’s splashing up. It’ll look like that fish just jumped in the air. That would be cool.”
“I’ve never done sugar glass.”
“I can teach you. It’s amazing. You’ll love it. It’ll change your life.”
“I like my life just fine, thank you,” she said, but she’d said it playfully. “I’ll make the chocolate cake with peanut butter centers and a simple chocolate crumb coat.”
“You could do a smooth pearlescent fondant wrap. Save the real blue for the sugar glass. That wouldn’t be too hard, would it?” He knew it wouldn’t be. If it
