Page 93 of Bake You Mine
On his way out the door, he stopped at the fridge for the cold bag with the steaks he’d been marinating for dinner. Aubrey’s father was handling the sides, and she’d made a Japanese cheesecake for dessert. She’d joked he should be glad they were having this dinner before they knew who the winner was, or she would have made chocolate cake because of their bet.
He should have made a counter-bet, but he didn’t want anything from Aubrey that he didn’t already have.
On the drive across town, he mulled over his upcoming meeting with Jason. DC had grown on him a little. It would be a considerable risk that could pay off big time, especially with someone like Jason Morse on his side. They’d exchanged a few emails, with Jason or one of his assistants answering his questions almost instantly. They were in courting mode, that was sure enough. He just wondered what life would be like once they had him.
Ifthey did, after the pasta brain flopped on live TV, he was less certain the contest was a sure thing. Of course, he wanted to win; he’d be an idiot not to want to take advantage of such an opportunity.
But if he didn’t win, Aubrey was well deserving of the prize. And if his path led him outside of Port Fortune onto bigger and better things, well, maybe that’s where he was meant to be.
He was grateful for this dinner; at least he’d have a couple of hours to forget about his fate after the competition.
After he rang the bell at Aubrey’s, Daphne ran out the front door and hugged him. He wasn’t expecting the near tackle. The kid had impressive strength.
“Be careful, Daph.” Aubrey appeared on the front porch and took the cold bag from him.
“Kid, you should think about football. You’d be a great defensive tackle.”
Daphne smiled. “I don’t know if I’m interested in sports. Did you play any?”
While moving into the house, he told Daphne he had played baseball in high school and was on a rec rugby team.
“Hmm, do they have girls’ rugby? I like knocking people over.”
Aubrey laughed. “She’s been like that since she learned to walk. It’s less charming now that she’s taller than me.”
Liam laughed. “I’m pretty sure there is. Maybe I can investigate for your mom.”
As Aubrey hung his coat in the closet, Daphne skipped ahead of them.
“She’s a great kid,” Liam said.
Aubrey closed the closet door and turned to him. “She thinks the world of you, too.” There was an edge to her voice he couldn’t quite figure out, but before he could ask her about it, Aubrey’s father appeared.
“Hello, fellow William. I’m sure glad you go by Liam, and I go by Bill, or life could get mighty complicated around these parts.”
Aubrey groaned. “It’s a little early for the dad jokes. Come on, let’s get dinner started.”
He loved his crazy, chaotic family, but dinner with the Dennisons was a completely different experience. After a fantastic meal, they retired to the family room to play Scrabble.
Liam soon realized Daphne was something of a Scrabble shark if such a thing existed. When Liam cried foul, Daphne let out an evil laugh.
“I know a lot of words because I came in third at the state spelling bee.”
“Jeez, you could’ve warned me, you little hustler,” He groused as he pulled dud letters from the bag.
“And allow you to underestimate me? Never!” The evil laugh came again.
Aubrey palmed her forehead. “That’s a line from an anime she loves. We’ve been hearing it a lot lately.”
A sudden wave of gratitude washed over Liam, and hereached over to squeeze Aubrey’s hand. No matter what happened on Friday, he’d already won.
Aubrey wouldn’t admit it to anyone, but she was pretty sure Liam had the competition in the bag.
Even after the pasta brain implosion, his appearance had left folks charmed. The comments on his socials were thirsty, to say the least. His followers had jumped up by five thousand after theSunrise Washingtonsegment. While she’d seen engagement and her numbers increase, it was nothing on that level.
Gary hadn’t said if they’d be looking at that sort of thing when deciding the winner, but comeon. They had to.
She’d channeled that nervous energy she’d spent fretting about the contest into a plan to reorganize the existing space. They’d gotten used to shoving things where they fit instead of having an actual system.
