“I think the audience will like to see that even the experts make mistakes, right?” Sasha continued, hands on her hips as she looked between Cass and Austin. “And that they can handle missteps with grace and humility.”

Sasha was clearly speaking directly to Austin, but he wasn’t listening. Instead he was running his finger down the recipe on the tablet his nervous-looking assistant had brought him.

“Nothing’s missing. I added everything. Flour. Yes. Sugar, yup. Amaretto, two teaspoons . . .” he muttered under his breath. Cass stood beside him, locking eyes with Sydney. “Baking powder, added. Baking soda . . .” Austin paused, tapped the screen, then looked at his assistant. “The baking soda got added, right?”

“I think so,” Nathan squeaked out. “But, uh, I was making the candied apricots at the time.”

Sydney and Cass exchanged a quick but telling look. Then Cass said, “Austin, we really need to get these iced.”

“Give me a minute!” he said, loudly enough that Sasha turned around, her glare causing him to wilt slightly.

“Fine,” Austin said, sighing deeply. He was rattled and Cass took a moment to enjoy that she was responsible for his current demeanor.

Because what he didn’t know, would never know, was that Cass had enlisted Sydney—who was still ticked off about when Austin (via Nathan) stole Cass’s recipe idea from under her nose—to make a slight change to the amaretto cake recipe. She’d removed the baking soda line, and then added it back in once the cake was in the oven. There were plenty of people on set at any given time, so switching tablets wasn’t easy, but Sydney had distracted Nathan by telling him Sasha insisted he find star anise in the spice room, and then after he left she’d made the change to the recipe. Once the cakes were baking, which was when the assistants took short breaks, Sydney added the line back to the recipe and voilà—no one was the wiser. Without baking soda, necessary to leaven the cake, Austin’s dessert came out flat and dreary . . . not dissimilar to how he looked right now.

“Okay, everyone,” Sasha said. “Cakes iced and decorated, ready for the final shots.”

Austin leaned in, lowering his voice to a mere hiss. “I know you did something to my cake. You won’t get away with this, Charlie.”

“Oh, Austin,” Cass said, her voice quieting to match his. She held a hand over her mike as she moved closer to his ear, whispering, “I already did.”

18

Charlie

Tuesday: 4 Days Until Christmas . . .

Starlight Peak

Charlie readjusted her headband and finger swept some of the loose tendrils of hair into the low bun at the nape of her neck as she looked over the cupcakes. She was happy with how they’d turned out, the sparkling sugar-spun snowflakes sitting atop ice-blue buttercream frosting. It had been a while since Charlie had to make a hundred of any confection in one go, and she was sticky with sugar and effort.