As she walked inside, she was blasted with the mouthwatering aroma of baking bread. Most of the room was taken up by large-scale, industrial-sized ovens, but a small area had been set up here near the door with a table with chairs and a glass display case, in which several model wedding cakes sat under bright lights. Joan indicated the chairs, and she and Maddie sat down.

“I’ll be back in a minute with the first round,” Joan said, then disappeared in the back.

“I have a question,” she said once they were alone.

Maddie laughed. “I thought you might. But don’t worry—it was all good gossip.”

“What?”

Maddie’s brow furrowed. “You weren’t asking about what she said outside?”

“No, actually, but now that you mention it—”

“Forget I brought it up!” Maddie said, holding up her hands.

She laughed. “Okay. Fine. Keep your secrets. Anyway, I was wondering why Stuart has so many bakeries lined up for us to try. You would think Joan’s would be a given.”

Maddie leaned onto her elbows. “You would think that, wouldn’t you? Actually, Jai insisted we try more. He didn’t want there to be any favoritism or nepotism.”

“Does he think there will be an audit later?”

Maddie barked a laugh. “Right? That’s what I said. But anyway, you know how Stuart is with sweets, so he didn’t really argue with him. I think Stuart just wanted to go to a bunch of bakeries to try all the samples, but now it looks like that will be our job, not his.”

She couldn’t help a slight stab of something like jealousy. Clearly Maddie knew her friend well, which meant he’d spent a lot of time with her. She made herself shake it off.

“That sounds about right. And yet—here we are, and he’s missing out.”

“True. Hopefully he’ll get to at least try some of the others with us.”

Joan reappeared then, carrying two plates. She set one down in front of each of them before sitting next to Maddie. Each plate had a ring of tiny slices of cake, about a quarter inch a piece, eight total.

“You said this was the first round?” Ryann was a little apprehensive now.

Joan laughed. “I have another plate with just as many.”

“Wow,” Maddie said.

“I’ll walk you through each slice. If you like a frosting or a cake or a filling, it can be combined with another cake or filling if you like one better.”

“Gosh,” Ryann said.

“The first,” Joan said, pointing at a tiny slice on each of their plates, “is lemon cake with raspberry filling and lemon-cream-cheese frosting.”

Ryann took the smallest bite possible, but the lemon flavor burst across her tongue, making her mouth water and pucker. Then the sweet raspberry filling caught up, mellowing it slightly. Maddie had taken a bigger bite and was still chewing, her eyes closed.