Page 45 of My Irresistible Enemy

“Vinegar pie?” Tanner said. “That sounds—I don’t even know what that sounds like. Have you ever heard of that, Viv?”

Vivian nodded. “I have, and it can be quite good. But it’s a tricky recipe to get right. What made you think of that, Nolan?”

“He’s showing off.”

Aiden’s voice cut through the din of the tent. I looked up to see that he’d turned around and was smiling at Tanner and Vivian.

“Nolan was helping me decide what to bake today, and we were going through this list of classic pies, and I saw that one and thought it looked gross. So he decided to prove me wrong.”

“Really?” Tanner sounded intrigued. “Is that what happened, Nolan?”

Not exactly, but I was grateful enough to Aiden for jumping in and saving me that I figured I could go with it. I flashed him a smile that I hoped conveyed my thanks.

“I’m not trying to prove you wrong, I’m trying to expand your horizons.”

Aiden grinned. “Oh, you can expand me any time you want. Stretch me all the way out.”

Tanner’s eyes went wide, and Vivian snorted. I gave Em and the camera a silent plea for help.

“So,” Vivian said to Aiden when she’d recovered, “it sounds like you got a little assistance from a friend this weekend. Does that mean we can expect better results from you this time around?”

Aiden laughed. “Definitely. But it also means that if anything goes wrong, it’s Nolan’s fault, not mine.”

“Hey!” I objected. “No fair. I have to be responsible for two pies, and you don’t have to be responsible for any?”

Aiden shrugged. “Sorry, I don’t make the rules.”

“You sure like to take advantage of them,” I grumbled.

“Aw, Nolan. Do you want to take advantage of something too?”

“That’s not—”

“Because let me offer myself up, if that’s the case. You can take all kinds of advantage of me.”

I looked at Vivian. “Do you think it’s any use, reminding him that this is a family program?”

She laughed. “Probably a lost cause.”

Still, I wasn’t really complaining. I didn’t know what it was about Aiden, but when I was talking to him, I was way less nervous about the cameras all around us. Maybe it was just because he annoyed me so much, there wasn’t room for any other emotion.

Eventually, Vivian and Tanner moved on, and I fell back into my rhythm—until, predictably, Aiden jumped up and began cursing.

“Shit! Shit, shit, fuck!” He ran to his oven, peered inside it, then looked back at me. “Nolan! Nolan, I think I fucked up.”

His hands were clapped to his cheeks, and the cameras weren’t even focused on him. He really was just this dramatic all the time. He’d probably come out of the womb pulling faces and curtsying.

“What happened?” I asked, walking over.

I used my gentle voice, the one I broke out whenever a cook or server was panicking over something at the restaurant. Ninety percent of the time, the problem wasn’t as bad as it seemed, and the other ten percent, panicking certainly wasn’t going to make it any better.

“I fucked up,” Aiden repeated, his eyes full of remorse. “Oh my God, I fucked up, even after all the help you gave me, I’m such a dumbass—”

“Aiden, calm down,” I said, but he ignored me.

“So much time is gone,” he continued, “and I can’t do it again, but there’s no way it’s going to come out right now, and I swear, I didn’t do it on purpose—”

“Hey, it’s okay, just tell me what happened.”

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