Page 168 of Knot Baked Out For This
Until then, we just keep loving our girl — our sweet honey of an Omega that’s finally beginning to blossom into the beautiful wildflower she is.
I watch her walk away, curves swaying, confidence in every step.
CHAPTER 31
Pumpkin Patch Photoshoot & Corn Maze Chaos
~HAZEL~
The Maple Hollow Pumpkin Patch Festival is where dignity goes to die and Instagram content is born, apparently.
"I'm not doing this," I announce for the seventh time, standing at the entrance to the festival grounds while October shows off with perfect seventy-degree weather and light that makes everything look like a Hallmark movie.
"Yes, you are," Rowan says calmly, hand on my lower back, guiding me forward like I'm a skittish horse. "You're modeling professionally now. Consider this practice."
"I model clothes! Not... whatever this is!"
"This," Reverie says, appearing with enough camera equipment to film a documentary, "is marketing genius. 'Local Omega Baker and Her Three Alphas Take On Fall'—it'll go viral instantly."
"I don't want to go viral!"
"Liar," Levi calls out, arms full of props that definitely weren't approved. "You loved the viral cookie video."
"That was different! That was about baking!"
"This is about baking,too," Luca says, carrying what appears to be professional lighting equipment because of course he owns that. "You're literally sponsoring the pumpkin pie backdrop."
The backdrop I agreed to sponsor when I was wine-drunk and feeling generous. Past Hazel makes terrible decisions.
The festival sprawls before us—pumpkins as far as the eye can see, hay bales arranged "artistically," corn maze looming in the distance like a vegetable-based labyrinth. Families everywhere, couples taking selfies, children covered in caramel apple. And at the center, my bakery's backdrop: a rustic wooden frame decorated with gourds, fairy lights, and a sign reading "Hazel's Harvest Haven" that Reverie definitely designed without asking.
"It's beautiful," I admit grudgingly.
"You're beautiful," Rowan murmurs against my ear, and my face immediately heats. "And the agency specifically requested 'candid pack photos' for your portfolio."
"They did not!"
He pulls out his phone, shows me the email. They absolutely did.
"Besides," he continues, pocketing his phone with a smirk, "we need proof you can smile without flour on your face."
"I smile without flour all the time!"
"When?"
"Right now!" I bare my teeth in what's definitely not a smile.
"That's terrifying," Levi observes. "You look like you're about to bite someone."
"I am! You!"
"Kinky."
"LEVI!"
But he's already bouncing toward the backdrop, laying out his props with the enthusiasm of a child at Christmas. There's awhole picnic blanket, multiple scarves in fall colors, a basket of mini pumpkin pies that smell suspiciously fresh, and?—
"Is that whipped cream?" I ask suspiciously.
