“Tell us about your training, Kelly.”
She blushed. “I’m self-taught. I’ve never been to a class or traveled to France. Haven’t trained professionally. I learned through spending hours at my grandmother’s side in the kitchen. She was an amazing baker, and I loved helping her. I’ve been creating my own recipes since I was old enough to use the oven, and still writing with crayons. Sometimes when I get an idea I still write with the first thing I can find. Markers, crayons, in frosting if it’s all I have.”
Martin laughed. “You own your own bakery, and I have a feeling many of our viewers aren’t strangers to your business.”
“I do. I have a bakery in Bailey’s Fork called The Cake Factory. We ship fresh and tasty cakes and cupcakes all over the nation.”
“We’ve been to your shop. It’s beautiful. Crisp, clean, whimsical, and yet you have a full factory in the building attached.”
“Yes sir. We employ sixty to a hundred employees, depending on the time of the year. Of course, some of the holidays bring a wave of orders. From Valentine’s Day to Easter and late in the year between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I’ll be honest, this is the first time I’ve ever worn a chef’s jacket. If y’all ever come to my place, you’ll see me in my black-and-white apron.”
“Well, apron or chef’s jacket, these two can bake,” Martin announced with a dramatic pause as he moved toward the audience with both arms out to his side while they cheered.
Martin stopped at the edge of the stage and turned back toward Kelly. “Kelly, do you know who nominated you?”
“No.” She shook her head and shrugged. “I don’t.”
“Well, we want to share with you both who nominated you. But first, did I just see one of Cupid’s arrows whiz across the stage?”
Kelly wasn’t following what Martin was trying to say.
“So, I’m not sure if you’ve picked up on the secondary theme in this year’s special bake-off,” Martin said. “We had a married couple. A first-date couple.” He turned to Kelly and Andrew. “And these two.”
Andrew shot a look toward Kelly. Her vision narrowed. What’s going on?
Kelly looked at Andrew. He looked confused too.
“This person,” Martin continued, “completed the online form and said that you two had been the best cooking team she’d ever known. That before your job took you halfway across the world, Andrew, the two of you had plans to partner your talents. She thought bringing you together in this competition would be a wonderful way to reunite you. And since you’re both so competitive, a fun way for you to both showcase your skills. In her mind, it’s a win-win no matter which of you wins.” Martin laughed. “Say that three times fast.”
A drum roll pounded, filling the air with chaos as the lights dimmed.
“Could it have been your mom?” he whispered.
“Not in a million years.”
The huge screen on the side of the stage broadcast the audience shot. The spotlight panned across the room and then stopped in the middle of the second row.
The camera focused on the woman, and her smiling face filled the screen.
“Would you mind reading your letter for us?” Martin climbed down the stairs to the audience and sidled up to the woman. “Mrs. Dawn York Redding nominated you both.”
“Dawn?” Andrew dropped his head back. “You?”
“I knew why you were coming to New York the whole time, brother,” she said with a smile.
Kelly was confused.
“Dawn, I took the liberty of bringing a copy of the letter with me. Will you?” He handed the piece of paper to her.
“Sure.” She held the paper then looked toward the stage. “I hope y’all are going to forgive me for this.”
Martin said, “One of them is going to go home a hundred thousand dollars richer. I think either way, you’re going to be forgiven by at least one of them.”
The studio audience laughed.
Dawn began to read,
“Dear Martin,
I love your show. Even the bakery in our town, The Cake Factory, schedules their breaks around the viewing schedule of your show so their employees can stay motivated and proud of the work they do. I’d love to nominate not one, but two people to compete in your special Valentine’s Day edition. Now, I’m not the husband or wife or fiancée as the call-out at the end of the show on December fifteenth stated, but I know two people who were once so in love that no one expected to ever see them apart. Kelly grew up in our hometown of Bailey’s Fork, North Carolina. She’s such a good person. Hard working and caring, a great part of our community. She built The Cake Factory in our hometown. Not only is it the bakery everyone goes to for every special event, but she also brought jobs to our community as her online company has expanded. Now people all over the nation are enjoying her recipes right out of our small town.”
Kelly couldn’t see a thing for the tears welling. She didn’t dare brush them away, hoping no one would notice.
“My brother was engaged to Kelly when my Aunt Claire arranged for him to go to France to a very elite pastry school for six months. The whole time he was gone, he and Kelly worked on recipes from thousands of miles apart.”
An awww crossed the audience like the wave.
Dawn continued, “Careers and opportunities have kept them apart, but neither has found that special someone. I think both of them are worthy of the title of Best Four Square Valentine’s Day Bake-Off Pastry Chef, and if it brought the two of them together, then it would be the icing on the cake.”
Someone in the audience whistled.
Kelly swept away the tear that fell to her cheek.
Andrew tapped his heart with his right hand. “Thanks, sis.”
Dawn pulled her hands to her mouth and blew kisses toward them.
“She’s right. We’ve never had talent so closely matched.” Martin waved toward her. “We might
