Chapter 43

43

Grady

I can't decide if Annika's game face is next level or if she had a rough morning, but her donuts smell like heaven, and I couldn't be more fucking proud.

She's in that ruffled Duh-Nuts apron, standing by her donuts while the judges sample both of our creations.

Hers are prettier with their unicorn faces piped on and that awesome Duh-Nuts logo on the bottom.

Mine probably taste better.

"Dude. Dude, try this shit." Zeus Berger shoves the plate with Annika's donuts to the guy sitting between him and his twin. "It's like having a climax in my mouth."

"Berger, you know I love you, but you can keep that to yourself," Chase Jett replies.

"Eat that donut—oh, 'scuse me, ma'am—I mean this duh-nut and tell me you wouldn't take this thing for a ride in the Bratwurst Wagon."

"You mean on?" Daisy Carter-Kincaid asks.

Zeus wiggles his brows at her. "You. Me. Parking lot. Bratwurst Wagon. Ten minutes. I'll show you in ."

"We're going to have to cut this," Star says to the producer.

"You invited us, baby. You invited us," Zeus replies.

"Food," Ares grunts.

"That's right, dude. Eat the food. One finger for the donuts, two for the muffins, right, big guy?" Zeus says.

Ares shoves the donut and the muffin in his mouth together and holds up ten fingers and one foot.

Zeus snaps his fingers at Annika. "Hey, Duh-Nut lady? My brother wants twelve dozen of these nutgasms."

"Muffins are good," Chase Jett says. "Good pudding."

"Say that to my sister, and we'll end you," Zeus says.

All three men crack up.

"He's right," Georgia murmurs to me while the judging goes off the rails and Star stands there seeming at a loss. "She invited them. And they have awful taste. Is this contest rigged?"

I cut a glance at Annika.

She's not smiling.

Her mama's cracking up. Bailey's giggling. Amy's clearly holding it in.

But Annika looks like she hasn't heard a word.

Something's up.

Something bad.

"Daisy, Fatima, Edison? Any opinions."

"This banana pudding muffin is better than anything I ever had in Texas," Edison says.

He's rubbing his finger over the plate to get the last of the pudding, and licking it off.

"Bananas are too obvious." Daisy's sniffing the donut. "Give a girl chocolate, you give her life. Then your banana doesn't have to do all the work."

"Fatima?" Star asks.

"I'm fond of both," Fatima says. She's soft-spoken, but also the only one of the judges who regularly works with food in a professional capacity. "The pudding is creamy and perfectly flavored, the muffin moist, and the whipped topping complements it all very well. But the donut—the donut is simply decadent."

"You. Cooper's brother." Zeus Berger points at me with the extra donut one of the producers just gave him. He takes a huge bite. "Bro, you find a woman who can bake duh-nuts like this, you don't fight with her. You marry her."

Marry her .

My head snaps to look at Annika.

Her wide eyes meet mine for the first time all morning, and yeah .

Yeah.

I'm gonna marry her.

I'm gonna marry her. Take her on a honeymoon. Bring her home.

Do her baking for her.

Keep her bed warm at night.

Her yard too.

The lake.

Our tent.

We'll get six more goats and I'll help her figure out what she wants to be now that she doesn't have to be a baker anymore.

"He doesn't need to marry a woman who can bake, you scabby sea bass," Pop barks. "He can bake everything he needs himself."

Cooper leaps between Pop and the giant hockey player, who's rising to his feet. "He's ninety-five," Cooper says to Zeus. "Going senile."

"Ain't what your grandma said about me this morning," Pop replies.

Annika's still staring at me.

"Final votes, judges?" Star says quickly.

Bailey steps between me and Annika, blocking my view of her, and says something I can't hear.

"What the hell's going on?" Georgia mutters beside me. "You don't still like her, do you?"

" Maaaa! " Sue hollers, and while Pops and Cooper are distracted, my goat takes off like a shot past my kitchen station to leap up and snag as many donuts as he can get in his mouth.

"Sue! Get down," Annika hisses.

Loudly.

For the whole studio to hear.

Bailey misses the fact that Annika knows my goat's name, because she's leaping to Maria's side, playing protector in case Sue goes rabid and attacks the blind lady. Annika's tugging on Sue's collar.

"Sue! Bad goat." I reach them and grab for his collar too. My hand connects with Annika's, and she snatches hers back like I've burned her.

I jerk my head up.

Oh, fuck.

Shiny eyes. Wobbly chin. Death glare that says she's pissed she's about to cry and pissed that it's my fault.

I open my mouth to tell her I'm sorry Sue ate her donuts when I'm suddenly lifted two feet in the air.

Again.

Except this time, the voice in my ear isn't Roger's.

Nope.

It's distinctly chocolate-scented and full of angry hockey grunt.

"Stay on your own side," Ares Berger says. "Goat says chocolate donuts win. Be nice to all girls."

"I was trying to get my goat," I tell him.

He grunts a displeased sound and deposits me back at my own station, then stands there blocking me from getting to Annika, arms crossed, deep blue eyes threatening to impale me with my KitchenAid mixer.

Possibly through my head.

"I'm nice to girls," I tell him.

"He is," Georgia squeaks in agreement behind me while Ma wrestles Sue back to our side of the studio. "But if you're going to kill him, could you make him sign his bakery over to me first?"

"Thanks," I mutter to her.

"All's fair in baking and war."

"Judges?" Star says again.

"Chocolate donuts all the way," Zeus Berger says.

"Banana—" Chase Jett starts.

Ares growls at him.

He snickers. "Ah, what the hell. Chocolate donuts."

"The donuts get my vote," Daisy announces.

I try to peer around Ares, but he puffs his chest wider, and there's no seeing around—huh.

You'd think a guy wearing a T-shirt featuring a cartoon platypus saying Eat My Bananna —yep, spelled with three n's total—would've voted for my muffins.

But that's not the point.

And I can't see Annika as the rest of the judges—even Edison Rogers, who's clearly doing so under protest—vote for her donuts.

Georgia wants to call this whole thing rigged. I can feel her physically restraining herself, but the fear of Ares Berger is real.

"Congratulations to Duh-Nuts Bakery," Star says. "Annika, how does it feel to know your donuts impressed the judges so much?"

"Victory's only sweet when it's a well-fought fight." She's upset. I can hear it. She doesn't want to be here. She won, but her voice says she lost, and I don't know why, and I can't get past Ares Berger to get to her. "But I'm happy to have Mama's bakery making such a good name for itself. This one's for her."

"Aw, that's as sweet as your donuts. Maria, how do you feel?"

"So proud of my girls. So, so proud of my girls."

"What did you think of the donuts?"

"They're delicious, of course. Everything my girls touch turns to magic. They're the best thing I've ever done with my life."

"Wow, that is one eager goat," Star says, nodding to Sue, who's now being restrained by both my mom and brother. "How's it feel to know the decision was unanimous with your competitor's pet voting for your donuts too?"

"Sue would eat a garden hose," Tillie Jean says.

Cooper hushes her, but Pop chortles. "Likes to eat dirt too."

"Knock it off," I tell them all.

Ma gives me a funny look, but the rest of them resort to whispering whatever insults they want to fling Annika's way.

And I'm getting pissed.

Because what did she really do?

What did she ever do that was unforgivable?

Hell, what did anyone in Sarcasm do that was so bad?

Turn a bunch of goats loose during a wedding?

We don't even have proof it was them.

And it got me Sue, didn't it? He's not the brightest goat, but he's loyal, and I swear he's been on Team Annika since the minute she set foot back in Virginia, and that counts for more than him being trainable as a circus act.

"We'll get 'em next time," Georgia says to me. "When the judges aren't terrifying people who seem to have a soft spot for the other team."

Ares growls.

She jumps.

Sue maaaa s.

And Star calls it a wrap.

She also slips me her phone number on her way out the door, which my entire family sees.

Only Cooper hangs back and gives me the you're so dead look. Everyone else converges around us to help pack boxes.

Ares stands watch the whole time we're picking up.

"Dude. We gotta get to—you know," Zeus says to him. He grins broadly. "That thing. For the bet."

But he still doesn't leave.

Pop has Sue back on a leash, but Annika's gone.

You fucked up , Amy mouths to me.

Pretty sure she's not gloating.

I don't give a damn that I lost.

I give half a damn that a nearly seven-foot-tall hockey player who's as wide as he is tall is still glaring at me, because I still have some self-preservation instincts left, but I need to talk to Annika.

Apologize for my family.

Congratulate her.

"I swore she didn't look like she knew what she was doing," one of the producers is muttering to one of the cameramen, "but those donuts were amazing."

"Hey, Ares, dude. I got this. You go on and check out the rest of the city. Lots to see and do here, man." Cooper steps between us, and while Ares Berger could also snap him like a twig, the giant hockey player finally uncrosses his tree trunk arms and steps back.

He glares at me one last time, before leaving with Zeus and Chase Jett.

Most of the other judges are gone, but after most of my family departs with boxes to take to my truck, Daisy Carter-Kincaid swings her hips right up to my station, leans forward to show off her cleavage in the tight red mini dress she's wearing, and crooks a finger at me.

I keep a healthy distance. "Yes, ma'am?"

She slides a look at Georgia. "Go steal me five of those unicorn cookies the other team is hiding in their bins."

Cooper grabs Georgia's arm before she can tell off the billionaire heiress. "I'll go too."

"Yes, ma'am?" I repeat when we're alone.

"Call me ma'am again, and you'll wake up tomorrow with your ears where your balls go. Also, next time you're secretly sleeping with the competition, own it on camera. Love makes a better story than hate every time."

She turns on her stilettos and swings her hips while she walks away before I can utter a word. When Cooper and Georgia hold out the unicorn cookies, she stuffs them into her cleavage and keeps walking, signaling her bodyguard on the way.

Not all that different from Zeus Berger shoving cookies down his pants, which he's doing right now too.

One of the crew says something to him, and he whips out a Sharpie and signs the dude's forehead.

"Got it all?" Georgia says to me.

Countertops are empty except for the tray of banana pudding muffins that are dwindling as crew move past, rearranging the set for whatever segment they're taping next and snagging snacks for later.

Maria, Bailey, and Amy are done clearing their stuff, with a few Sarcasm locals helping them like my family's helping me. Bailey's left a tray full of individual servings of banana pudding on the counter, and those are going faster than my muffins.

"Have to wonder what they told the crew with how popular they are," Georgia mutters.

"Cheaters," Tillie Jean adds.

She's back, but Annika isn't.

I don't see Annika again at all before we're shown out of the studio.

I text her as soon as Sue and I are alone in my truck.

Hey. You okay?

She doesn't reply right away, and the message doesn't even show as read.

I wait a few minutes, then text her again.

Driving back to Shipwreck. Call me if you need me .

She doesn't call.

Not before I leave Copper Valley. Not while I'm on the highway. Not once I'm back home.

Not while I open the bakery for the lunch crowd, who all want to know how the contest went.

She doesn't call at all.

She doesn't answer my calls either.

So as soon as I can, I turn the bakery over to Georgia, and I head home to check on Sue.

Then I hop back in my truck.

I don't care if somebody in Sarcasm sees me.

I need to know what's wrong.

I lost her once.

I'm not going to lose her again.

No matter what it takes.