And then it began to count down.

She turned to Randy. “I have to win this.”

For all the moments she’d ever missed Andrew. For the money to put aside to help keep Main Street Cafe a part of Bailey’s Fork. She’d buy it and figure out how to make it all work. Her team could keep The Cake Factory going. She could hire a chef to run the cafe if she had to. Or maybe just expand the factory into the old Main Street Cafe space and serve light fare during the lunch hour. But now wasn’t the time to waste brain cells on that.

Kelly turned to Randy. “There are five hundred ideas rolling through my head right now.”

He smiled. “You’ll impress them no matter what you do. I’d suggest you create the cake proposal you’d want. Start with one decorative factor, and let it go from there.”

“A Tiffany blue ring box. It seems like the most romantic thing in the whole world to me. You see that blue box and you know it’s special.”

“Yeah. I’m still saving for one of those. My girl thinks the same thing. Okay. What is your knock-’em-dead cake?”

“Oh gosh, traditional wedding cake is amazing, but if I were making this for me, I’d go with my favorite recipe. One I created myself over weeks and weeks of practice to come up with the right balance of flavors. Triple-Layer Honey Almond Cake with Berries.”

“I think I just drooled.”

“It’s so good, plus it’s a nice upgrade from the traditional almond cake.” He’d unstuck her flow. She started sketching out the design on the parchment. “We alternate a light, fluffy mascarpone crème fraiche with fondant-covered cake layers. So, four layers, and the ring box topper.”

He ran his finger along the sketch. “Fondant at the bottom, then whipped, fondant, whipped, and the ring box?”

“Yes.”

“I like it.”

“We’ll do an edible white chocolate card hanging from the box with Will You Marry Me? in red with interlocking hearts to tie in the Valentine’s Day part of this theme.”

She held the pencil to her lips. “Oh. I know! Then conversation hearts in Tiffany blue, white, pink, and yellow with YES on every one of them, like he’s stacking the deck.”

“Clever. I like it.” He nodded and got right to work. “I’m great with modeling chocolate. Want me to make the box?”

“Yes. Larger than life—let’s make it about six inches. We’ll make the ring too. We can do edible sugar glass for the big diamond. I’ll get the cakes going.”

In a flurry of activity, and a mist of flour, the final round was under way.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Chapter Twenty-Nine