“Well,” Cass said, her lacquered lips forced into a wide smile. “Let’s see if these taste better than they look, shall we?”

“Indeed,” Austin replied, making a funny face as he took a first bite. “Hmm, interesting. I think the effort was good, but frankly, the entire thing is a bit of a hot mess.” This comment felt directed at her, not the contestant, but Cass was determined not to show how rattled she was. “Quite literally,” Austin added, grimacing as he pointed his gold-tone fork at the piped buttercream, which was melting into the too-soft gelée, the whole thing making a soupy orange disaster on the plate.

Ignoring Austin’s snideness, Cass lifted her fork and took a bite of the cupcake.

“I think you’ve made a good effort here,” Cass forced herself to say to the stricken-looking contestant. “But unfortunately having to redo the cupcakes that late in the game meant you didn’t have enough time to cool them,” Cass continued, feeling awful for the contestant, who was close to tears. She felt responsible for these terrible cupcakes; it was her screwup that had caused the contestants to use pectin and not the needed gelatin. “And the texture of the gelée is, well, a touch soft . . .”

Beside her, Austin burst out laughing, interrupting Cass. “Soft!” he exclaimed, laughing harder.

“I’m sorry,” he said to Sasha and the camera operator, though he didn’t look sorry at all. “Let’s do that take again. One for the blooper reel, right?” The audience laughed along with him, enjoying his maverick ways. Meanwhile, Cass felt like a stooge and a total failure.

• • •

“Tomorrow will be a better day,” Sydney said while cleaning up the day’s mess. Cass apologized yet again and Sydney shook her head. “Don’t worry about it, Charlie. Just, send me the recipe file and I’ll make sure we’re all organized for this week?”

“Right,” Cass said. “Of course. For sure.” But as she walked away and checked her phone, there was still nothing from her sister. She dialed the number of the bakery, but the line was busy—not a surprise, considering what a frenetic time of year it was. She tapped out another text—Hi! I really need those recipes. Can you please send them??—and headed for the door, hoping against hope that her sister would come through for her, but had a terrible feeling that she was on her own.

6

Charlie

Wednesday: 10 Days Until Christmas . . .

Starlight Peak

After the burned bread incident, the rest of the previous day had flown by without a hitch. Charlie had an overwhelming number of orders to fill—Starlight Bread aside, basic sourdough loaves were a staple on most dinner tables in Starlight Peak, too—and it felt like the bakery’s phone hadn’t stopped ringing. With Walter taking orders and assisting with the dough, they had managed to double the sourdough loaf count that morning to make up for what she’d burned the day before, all without a visit from the fire department. But in order to be ready for the Christmas Eve party, they also had to bake a certain number of Starlight loaves each day. And because of Charlie’s screwup and the need to double the plain sourdough, they were now a day behind.