When all the judges were introduced, the announcer started to introduce the contestants. After he introduced each to the crowd, a short clip of their backstories was played. The audience could get to know each contestant and decide who they wanted to root for. It finally came time for Grayson's introduction and backstory video. Since he was the hometown favorite he got a huge cheer from the audience. He grinned sheepishly and waved out to everyone, feeling honored and humbled by their support. When all the contestants were introduced, the announcer introduced the first competition.
“In this round, you have one hour to bake the best pie any of us have ever eaten. The ingredients are in the pantry. First come first served. The contest begins in five, four, three, two, one…”
The contestants ran off to the pantry and started grabbing ingredients in a frenzy of flour and sugar. A burlap sack of pecans, still in their shells, sat in a corner. No one had noticed them. Grayson grabbed them greedily and threw them into his basket and carried everything back out into the kitchen.
He quickly mixed together his piecrust, then put it in the fridge to chill. With that done, he began shelling the pecans. It was going to take him quite a bit of time and effort to get this done. But they were the only pecans in the pantry, and he was determined to make his famous pecan pie.
Once he had several cups of shelled pecans ready, he sifted through the nuts and made sure no shells had gotten into the mix. He whipped up eggs, butter, brown sugar and spices before he added chopped pecans. He pulled his crust out of the fridge and rolled it out on a floured board.
After sliding his buttery crust into the pie pan, he pinched off the rim with his fingers to make a perfect scalloped edge.
With the crust complete, he poured in the filling. He placed pecan halves in a circle around the outside and created concentric circles until the pie was filled. He popped it into a cool oven, noting he only had forty minutes to bake. Several other bakers had their pies already in the oven, and he hoped he had enough time.
If it was undercooked, the filling would be soggy. With that in mind, he increased his temperature by five degrees, hoping it wouldn’t over brown the crust. He went to the fridge and found the ingredients he needed to put together whipped cream. He began making that while his pie baked.
The other contestants were having their own issues all around him. One contestant still hadn't put her pie in the oven with twenty minutes left. Another contestant pulled his pie out of the oven with a burnt crust. Someone was crying and someone else swore.
Grayson took a deep breath and finished the whipped cream. With five minutes left, he checked his pie. He’d turned it around several times to make sure it cooked evenly. Everything looked perfect and he was relieved. Anything could have gone wrong. As the clock counted down, he pulled his pie out of the oven and hoped that it would cool down enough to cut and serve before the final countdown.
With only a minute left, he cut pieces for each of the five judges. He plopped a dollop of whipped cream on top, dusted it with cinnamon and put everything on the tray.
As the countdown commenced and the audience counted along “Five, four, three, two, one…” a buzzer went off. One of the contestants stomped her feet and another pounded his fist into a counter. Grayson wiped the flour from his chef’s coat and watched the judges as the pies were served one by one.
When his pie was served to the judges, he gritted his teeth and grasped his wrist as he waited. He watched Heathcliff York take a bite of the pie, biting his inner cheek as his heart pounded in his ears. Beyond Heathcliff, he spotted Donika in the audience, grinning and giving him the thumbs up. Seeing her there helped him relax a little.
He grinned at her and gave her a private wave that he hoped no one else would notice. She waved back. When he looked back up at the judges, he could see the pleasure in their eyes as they ate his pie. Vanessa Basset had nearly finished her entire slice. When the judges had finished tasting all twelve pies, they went backstage to deliberate.
The judges returned five minutes later and began to go through their critiques of each contestant. Their only critique of Grayson’s pie was that it could have been allowed more time to cool. He breathed a sigh of relief. The judges asked four contestants to step forward, Grayson among them. Everyone was mixed together so no one knew who was the top and who was the bottom. His heart raced. What if he was in the bottom? He would disappoint everyone in Fate Valley.
“And the winner of the first day’s competition is… Grayson Baxter!” the announcer said to the audience.
Everyone cheered. Donika stood and clapped wildly. He went to the front of the room and the judges shook his hand.
“Congratulations Grayson. As the winner of the first round, you get thirty extra seconds in the pantry tomorrow.”
He thanked the judges and went back to his place. Then the second runner-up was announced, a woman named Charlotte from Pennsylvania who had baked a Dutch apple pie. She grinned at him on the way to her station in a way that let him know she was coming for him. He gulped and watched as the judges dismissed the first baker to leave the show. It was a man named Francis who had burned his lemon meringue. He nearly cried when they told him. All the other bakers patted his back as he took off his chef coat and left the kitchen.
Grayson felt bad for the guy, but this was a competition. There were winners and losers, and that's just the way that it went. When the show was finally over, the chaos really began. The contestants were ushered behind the scenes and the audience was told it was time to leave the event center.
Grayson pulled off his chef coat and went to his locker to find his things. It had been a stressful day, and he could barely believe he would be doing this every day for the next two weeks. But one thing was for sure, Donika made it all worth it.
Chapter 17
After the bake-off, Donika sat in her car, gripping the steering wheel. She had an interview with the only law firm in town today, and she prayed that it would go well. She was running out of money and she had no other option except to look for a job.
Even though her bank account and credit cards were locked, she still had to pay her bills. She started up her car and made her way through town, her heart pounding and sweat forming on her brow. Donika was a Harvard Law graduate and had all the top law firms in the country clamoring to hire her when she’d graduated. But now, she was going to a rinky-dink law firm, ready to beg for a position.
Spinner and Sons Legal sat in a strip mall between a Chinese take-out and a discount shoe store. Donika took a deep breath, steeling her nerves, and walked through the front door. She found a receptionist sitting at the front desk. Her sharp bleached blonde bob vibrated as she clacked on the keyboard with her long red nails.
“I have an appointment with Mr. Spinner at three,” Donika said.
“Oh, I see you right here, Donika Devon,” the woman said. “Just have a seat, and he'll be right with you.”
Donika sat in the waiting room, clutching her designer purse in her lap. If it wasn't humiliating enough to be asking for a position in this tiny firm, in this tiny town, she was afraid she wouldn't get it.
A moment later, a man in a cheap gray suit walked into the waiting room. He had greasy black hair combed over a pasty white bald spot.
“Donika Devon?” he asked, reaching out to shake her hand.
“Yes,” she said, taking his hand. It felt as greasy as his hair looked.
She followed him into a small office across from the bathroom and sat in the office chair in front of the desk.
“Donika Devon,” he said, drumming his fingers on the desk while he looked down at her resume.
“Yes sir,” she said brightly.
“Looks like you graduated from Harvard Law at the top of your class. You worked for the New York office of Shyster and Shyster for the last four years. What brings you to Fate Valley?” he asked, finally looking up at her.
“I decided to come home to be with my family. My grandmother's getting older, and I
didn't want to miss her last years,” she lied. Grandma Pearl would probably outlive them all.
“And what about the lawsuit you are currently involved in with your previous employer?” he asked.
“That shouldn't interfere with my ability to perform my duties here,” she said, not knowing how he knew.
“And what exactly happened with Mr. Shyster?” he asked.
Donika searched her mind, trying to come up with a good answer. She was a skilled lawyer and had been in this type of position before in the courtroom. She had to think fast and come up with a plausible excuse.
“We had a disagreement about one of our clients.”
“The public record says that you punched him in the nose and broke it,” Mr. Spinner said.
“That's an exaggeration.”
“You have an impeccable resume. We would be happy to have a lawyer of your caliber working at our firm. But we can't have a violent, angry woman in our office. This instance with your boss, it's unacceptable. This is a family firm, you see. Not to mention the fact that you are currently being sued by one of the most powerful firms in the country. They've sent a warning to every law firm this side of the Rockies, telling us not to hire you.”
“I was afraid this would happen,” she muttered.
“Stanley Shyster is a very powerful man.”
“I'm well aware,” Donika said, finally breaking down. “My accounts have all been locked. I was evicted from my apartment. And I'm being sued. He didn’t even bother to have me arrested. Oh no, he just went straight for the jugular and took everything I own. Now I can't even get a job with an ambulance chaser.”
Mr. Spinner cleared his throat and gave her a pointed look.
“I’ve known your family for years. You’re a Fate Valley girl, and I hate to turn you away.”
“No, it's perfectly understandable,” she said, rising. “If I were you, I would feel the same way.”
“Once you have the lawsuit straightened out, please come back and check with me again.”
“I'll keep that in mind,” she said.
If he'd wanted to help her, if he cared that she had been born and raised in Fate Valley, he would've hired her on her merits. But he was too intimidated by Shyster and Shyster to see her for how valuable she would be to him.
This had to be one of the most humiliating experiences of Donika’s life. No, she did not think she would be coming back. She'd rather get a job as a hospital janitor or a garbage collector. She shook his hand and left, giving him a fake smile on the way out.
As she walked out of the law firm, she glanced down the street. A man in a black suit, wearing black sunglasses, stared right in her direction. It sent a cold shiver down her spine. She'd seen these men before. Were they watching her? She tried to shake it off. It wasn't uncommon for a man in a suit to be in a black SUV. Why would she think it had anything to do with her? Maybe they were in town for the bake-off. Maybe they were clients of Spinner and Sons. It could be anything, she told herself.
She growled when she pulled her car out of the parking lot. Barreling out onto the road, she took stock of her assets. She had a thousand dollars left in cash and would have to Western Union it to her creditors.
Donika was used to making five figures a month and now she had to live on almost nothing. She had no idea what she was going to do. When she made it back to the inn, she found the guests all gathered in the front parlor, chattering about the bake-off they had all just witnessed.
“I'm still partial to our hometown boy Grayson Baxter,” Grandma Pearl stated.
“After that tainted lemon cake?” Martha asked.
“His cake had nothing to do with that raccoon’s death!” Pearl defended.
“Oh Donika, how did the job interview go?” Adele asked.
Donika sat in the parlor with the guests, feeling depressed and downtrodden.
“It went well,” she lied. “He offered me a position. But I had to turn it down.”
“Why did you turn it down?” Pearl asked.
“Below my pay grade,” she said, pouring herself a cup of tea from the porcelain pot on the coffee table.
She leaned back and sipped her grandmother's blend of handcrafted tea, daring her to question her.
“I'm going to start my own firm here in town,” she said, coming up with a plausible excuse on the spot. “But I'm going to need something to keep me busy until I'm able to find an office. So, I am willing to help around the inn. If you'll take me.”
Adele and Pearl looked at each other and then back at Donika. The guests went silent as they watched the family sizing each other up.
“We could always use the help,” Adele finally said.
“Why don't you get that boyfriend of yours to bring us cakes every day, and we’ll call it a deal,” Pearl said.
“We always need somebody to clean the bathrooms and take out the trash,” Adele said.
“That sounds perfect,” Donika said, taking another sip of tea, trying not to gag at the idea. “But I don't know if I can get Grayson to bring you a cake every day. He’s busy with the competition. Why don't I bake you one?”
“Donika, bake?” Adele said, almost choking on her tea.
“I can bake,” she whined. “I do all kinds of domestic things. I'm halfway through making a patchwork quilt right now.”
“I saw that,” Adele said. “You're doing fine work.”
The guests’ conversation turned to crafts, which was a popular subject around the Fate Valley Inn, and Donika excused herself to her room. She closed the door to the craft room behind her and sat on the foldout bed. She’d never felt more embarrassed in her life.
Why had she made up that story about opening a law firm in Fate Valley? She groaned. She knew she was trying to save face in front of her family. She’d just been denied a job at a tiny law firm she never would have worked for in a million years a week ago.
She laid down on the foldout bed and stared at the ceiling. With a deep sigh, she put her hands behind her head and started to think about what it would take to actually open her own practice. It couldn't be that difficult, could it? She knew exactly what she would need to do, what licenses she would need to begin her practice. But she doubted that she would be able to do it. She had no money, no available credit, and she was currently being sued.
Someone knocked at the front door of the inn. It sounded like a police raid. She jumped out of bed and hurried down the hall to find her grandmother standing there with a courier. He held a thick yellow envelope.
“Donika Devon?” the man said.
Her grandmother turned to Donika as Donika continued down the hall. She knew exactly what this was all about.
“Yes?” she said to the courier.
“You've been served,” he said, handing her the envelope. She took it, and her heart sank. She’d known this moment was coming.
“Thanks,” she muttered, turning away.
Pearl shut the door in the courier's face and Donika walked back down the hall and shut herself in her room. The humiliation she had suffered today couldn't get any worse. She dropped the papers on a crowded crafting desk and flopped down on the bed. She couldn’t even read it in her current state of mind.
She'd think about it tomorrow. After seeing Grayson again and sampling some of his delicious desserts, maybe she’d feel a little better. Grayson had a way of making her feel strong, even when she felt weak. Donika was definitely at a weak point in her life, and she was more grateful than ever that Mate.com had matched her with Grayson.
Chapter 18
Grayson stood behind the scenes with the other contestants. All his friends and family were in the audience, rooting for him. He didn't want to let anyone down.
Most importantly, he wanted to impress Donika. He wanted to have something to offer her, and winning the title of the Great American Bake-off would be a way to show her that he was somebody worth being with. He knew she had a lot going on in her life, and he couldn't expect her to just drop it all to
focus on him, but he hoped she would, just a little bit.
“Contestants, you’ll be taking your stations in five minutes,” said one of the production assistants.
She wore a pair of thick glasses and held a clipboard with a lanyard slung around her neck. Grayson took a deep breath and let it out, trying to calm his nerves. He'd baked a million recipes and served a million customers in his life. But this was just a whole other level. The show was televised to millions of people across the country and the world. Not to mention, his fated mate was in the audience. It was all just a lot to take in.
Five minutes flew by as if it was five seconds. The production crew called the contestants onto the soundstage. He hurried out and took his spot. The audience members were seated on folding chairs, while the audience handlers were telling them to remain quiet with big white signs.
Grayson scanned the crowd, looking for Donika's sweet face. Then he spotted her, her beautiful eyes and the curve of her sexy mouth. She didn't look particularly happy. When she saw him looking at her, she smiled and gave him a little wave. It made his heart burst with joy. He gave her a secret wave back. The judges came out and sat at their seats. Heathcliff looked at Grayson rather harshly as he sat. Grayson gulped, not knowing why Heathcliff would give him that look. He had impressed the judges with his pie during the last show.
“And we’re on in five, four, three, two, one…” said the production assistant.
The cameras focused on the contestants and judges, and the announcer walked out onto the stage in his slick tailored suit.
“Welcome to day two of the Great American Bake-off!” the announcer said. “Here is a recap of our last episode.”
The video rolled, showing the drama of the previous episode, and Grayson winning the competition. The show came back to the announcer, and he continued.
“Since Grayson Baxter won the first round, he'll have thirty extra seconds in the pantry this morning. Grayson, that means you'll get first choice of ingredients. Use your advantage wisely. Today, the competition will be scones.”