Page 20 of Emma and the Grumpy Baker

“Liam Ackworth,” I said monotonously, but then remembered that this was me talking to Emma’s followers, not her boyfriend. “Sorry. Liam Ackworth.” That time was a little bit better and a lot less grumpy. Emma came to stand off to the side, and I saw her looking at me skeptically.

“You own the bakery that is right next to Emma’s, right?”

I nodded, looking over at Emma for a second. “Yes, I do.”

“So what made you want to come over and help her today?

“Well, I saw that she had a lot of orders and figured she could use an extra set of hands,” I answered honestly.

“You don’t consider Emma to be your competition?” I almost rolled my eyes at the question. No, of course, I didn’t. Emma was sunshine and I needed her light more than I would ever need success.

“No, not at all. Quite the opposite, in fact. I want to see her business do well, which is why I’m more than glad to be here.” I hadn’t intended on being that honest, but when I looked at Emma while answering, I couldn’t help the words that fell from my mouth.

“I love it! Have you known Emma very long? Or did you meet after both of you opened your businesses?”

“I’ve known Emma for a very long time.” I locked my jaw in place, so I wouldn’t say anything else.

“How did you meet?”

I didn’t look at Emma this time, and blurted out the first thing that came to my mind. “We dated for five years.” My face was blank, but only because I forced my expressions into submission. I couldn’t let the camera or Emma or Anne or the guy behind the camera know my emotions.

“That’s a long time! How long ago was that?” I wanted to punch this guy in the face because he didn’t know when to stop asking questions.

“It’s not really important, Grady,” Emma interjected, and he faced her. Grady, I guessed, was his name.

“It’s just more content for the story.” Then he turned back to me and nodded for my answer.

“That was eight years ago.” I told him, and then my watch started ringing with the cookie timer. I turned and pulled the pan out and made them all perfectly circular.

“So would you say that you and Emma are good friends now?” Grady asked, and I wondered how mad Emma would be if I threw this burning hot pan of cookies at his face. He deserved it.

“I actually hadn’t seen him in eight years until he came to my opening day,” Emma answered for me. Her face was as emotionless as mine.

“I’ve lived on the mainland for the last eight years,” I added. Hopefully, the mutual energy that Grady was getting from us would make him back off of the questions.

“Do you see yourself dating ever again now that some time has passed and you’ve been reunited?”

Grady really wanted my fist in his face. I just knew it by the questions he was asking.

But why would he ask me if I would date Emma if he was dating her? He wouldn’t. So they must not be dating.

A little smirk formed on my face as I looked at Emma. Her cheeks blazed red and she glared at Grady.

“You think I want to date the man that opened up a rival business right next to mine? Unlikely.” She rolled her eyes and walked away, back to what she was doing. Grady focused his camera on me and winked.

“I mean, who knows what will happen?” I shrugged and smirked at the camera before walking away to put the cookies on the cooling rack.

19

Emma

After an incredibly long day, I was ready to go home. I didn’t know if I could physically stand up for any longer, because my feet and legs were so over being used.

We’d finally made all of the cookies, and I’d made enough cinnamon roll dough for all of the ones that were sold. Tomorrow, I would come in and bake them after the dough rose enough. That left just the macarons to finish, and I needed the kitchen to be much less humid in order to do that. I did a test batch today, but the weather was so wet that they wouldn’t set up correctly. It was frustrating and definitely put me behind schedule.

In order to finish the cookies, Liam took a whole batch over to his kitchen to bake so that we could get more done. Of course, I’d went with him to make sure his oven baked the cookies the right way. Different ovens had slightly different actual temperatures, so I watched over them to make sure eleven minutes was correct. Then, I left him to finish the batch on his own, after making him tell the camera he wouldn’t steal my recipe.

Once everyone was done, we ate the pizza that I’d ordered in the lobby. Liam seemed to warm up to Grady after the entire day of all of us in the kitchen together, so they chatted over dinner while Anne and I sat silently. It was interesting that Liam was so cold and short with Grady at the beginning of the day, but after Grady interviewed him, Liam lightened up.

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