Page 16 of Scandalous

“Who?” Ezra asks hesitantly.

“Aurora,” Liam, Santi, and I say in unison.

“And we’re done,” Ezra says, pushing himself out of the chair.

“Come on! What’s wrong with the girl?” I ask.

Ezra pauses. “Absolutely nothing.”

“She scares him.” Santi smirks.

“Are you going to stick around and watch her live?” Liam asks.

“What is she making today?” Ezra reluctantly asks.

“Something with cherries,” I say.

Ezra sits back down. “I think I can watch for a minute.” He waves toward the smart TV. “Cue it up. I know you don’t want to miss a minute of it.”

Santi looks over at me, and we share a smile.

Ezra’s grumpy ass is just as taken with her. He just doesn’t want to admit it.

Yet.

Five

Imake sure everything is out that I need. Mixer, cast-iron skillet, and all the baking supplies. Taking a deep breath, I flip on the ring light and open my camera. My hair looks all right, my makeup is light, and my teeth are clear.

Ready or not,I think as I exit the app and open PicApp.

I hit a few buttons and I’m live. No matter how many times I’ve done this, my hands still shake, and I’m filled with nerves. One by one, people start joining the live, and I smile.

“Hey guys, thanks for joining me.” I smile softly. “I’m just going to wait a few minutes for more people to join, and then we can get started.”

My eyes take in the names of the people coming in along with the comments already starting.

“Hey Susie,” I say to one of my longtime followers.

I see The.Aussie and The.Boricua join the live and smile.

“Hey guys,” I say to them, but it could really be to any of the followers who are eager to join.

“All right, let’s get started. This week I’ve been a little homesick, so I decided to make something my grandma always made when we had a family get-together. She always used blackberries, but I found these cherries,” I say, holding them up to the camera. “And I wanted to see how they would turn out. So tonight, we are making a cherry cobbler.” I pop an already-pitted cherry into my mouth and wink at the camera.

“First, we need to preheat our oven to three hundred seventy-five degrees Fahrenheit. Or a hundred ninety temp for those of you who use Celsius. While you wait on the oven, you can take this time to pit your cherries. I’ve already done that off camera because it takes a minute. If you can’t find fresh cherries, it’s all good. You can use a cherry pie filling.”

I pull out the can I bought to show what I mean, making sure the camera catches it before setting it aside.

“Once you have your cherries pitted or your can emptied into the bowl, you have to add the sugar and flour. So I’m going to toss my cherries with a little bit of flour and sugar and set them to the side,” I tell the viewers as I do just that.

I look up at the stream and see comments rushing in.

The.Aussie: I’ll gladly toss your cherries for you, Rora.

The comment makes me shake my head as I fight off a smile.

“Just a reminder, guys, we need to keep this as PG as possible. We don’t want to get banned.” I wink. “Whenever I spent time with my grandma when I was young, we always ended up in the kitchen. She used to tell me that food was a language of its own and even if someone couldn’t talk to me, food would bring us together. I guess that’s why I get so much comfort out of doing these segments with you. I feel like it brings us closer together.”

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