“Um, yes. Sure am.” Cass needed to go, to put some distance between herself, the house, Brett and prying Sharon. “I have to get back to the bakery. Enjoy your walk.”

Cass’s thoughts spun as she headed back. She pulled out her phone to call Charlie back, but it rang in her hand.

“Charlie,” Cass answered. “I have so much to tell you. I went to see Brett—”

“Cass, hold that thought, okay?” her sister said. “I need your help with something. I know it’s going to be the very last thing in the world you want to do, and will push you way outside your comfort zone, but I need you to think about how much you love me and how you’d do anything for me and how much I need this. My career depends on it.”

This made Cass stop in the middle of the sidewalk and press the phone tighter to her ear. “Depends on what? Charlie, are you okay? What’s going on?”

“I will be. I think. But I need you.” Her voice sounded shaky, uncertain—and very un-Charlie-like. Suddenly her messy evening with Brett was the last thing in the world that mattered to Cass.

“Of course. Just tell me what you need me to do.”

“Come to L.A.”

“What? But, Charlie, this time of year is imposs—”

“I know, I know. The holidays are the busiest time for the bakery and Mom and Dad aren’t around this year and under normal circumstances you would never leave—but it would just be for a few days.”

“How many?”

A pause.

“Ten.”

Cass knew she couldn’t abandon the bakery for the remaining days left until Christmas—and yet, all at once, the idea of temporarily leaving her problems behind was tempting. “Believe me, I would love to get out of town, but I can’t just drop everything. The Starlight Bread orders alone . . . Plus, Brett just told me a Makewell’s is thinking of moving in. I feel like everything is falling apart. I have to be here to keep it together.” Cass thought about the dough she’d abandoned, and the stack of unfulfilled orders back at the bakery. Her parents were trusting her to run the show while they were gone, and she needed them to believe she was up for the task of taking over the bakery, a lifelong dream. Except, as she looked around at the familiar streets of her hometown now, her dream suddenly felt small and suffocating.

“No one is neglecting the bakery. I’ll take your place. We’ll switch, like we used to do when we were kids, remember? You come to L.A., I come home. It will be fun.” But there was nothing in Charlie’s voice that indicated this was going to be fun. Charlie loved her life in L.A., which, from Cass’s perspective, was full of glamor and adventure, and could not be more different than life in Starlight Peak. The last time Charlie had come home she had seemed distracted, restless. Why would she want to come back here so badly?