I Only Have Pies for You (Pumpkin Spice Life 1)

“I’ll be honest, I had so much fun putting this together with only my taste to worry about and time to pick just the right pieces.” Julie nodded. “Wait ’til you see the bathroom and the built-in shelves and closet in the bedroom.” Grabbing her hand, Rosaleen ran through the rest of the room, sharing her plans and showing off her place like a teenager.

They ended the tour in her closet. “Jackpot. Have you thought about what you’re wearing today?”

“My uniform?”

“Oh no. I want Alaric to be unable to take his eyes off you. We know he’s worried about your baking skills. We also need to remind him how lucky he is to have such a beautiful woman.”

“You’re brilliant.” Rosaleen wrapped her in a hug. “I never even though of that.”

“I know, it’s why I’m here. You’ve focused all your attention on winning. Let me take care of some of the smaller details. Fire up those hot rollers and let me at this closet, ’cause Mama’s got some work to do.”

Surrendering to hurricane Julie, she allowed herself to be treated to a facial mask and an eye mask. Her smartwatch was set to alert her ten minutes prior to the oven going off, so for now she’d center herself before

“You need to be sexy without trying,” Julie said as she rifled through the clothes on hangers. Julie hummed as Panic in the Disco played on her Bluetooth speaker.

“Jeans make you look cool and show off that banging ass of yours. Not all of us are so blessed, you know?”

“Says the woman who doesn’t look like she’s birthed two children,” Rosaleen supplied.

“You’re so sweet,” Julie said.

“Around here we say bless your heart.”

Julie laughed. “Is my Midwest girl moonlighting as a southern belle?”

“Maybe.”

“I love what this town has done to you,” Julie whispered.

“What do you mean, Juls?”

“Before you were always burned out and worn thin. I know you were getting ahead with your career, but your life was on hold. Your eyes were dull. I think you forgot how to live. I know the adjustment period has been rough here, but the sparkle is back in your eyes, and you’re having fun. You’ve participated in more things in the past few months than you did in an entire year previously. I know you’ve been wondering if you made the right choice coming here and putting everything you had into For Cake’s Sake. I think you did.”

“That really means a lot to me, Jules. And why the hell did you wait until I couldn’t see you to lay this on me?”

“You know we don’t do a lot of chick flick moments.”

“Thanks, Deanna Winchester,” Rosaleen said drolly.

“Okay, Cinderella, time to peel off that mask, and eye patches. I’ll have your ensemble ready when you return.”

“I trust you, fairy godmother.” Standing, she peeled everything off and headed to the bathroom. After rubbing the rest of the moisturizer into her dewy face, she admired the life breathed back into her skin. It was all too easy to neglect self-care. Don’t pimple up on me. I swear I’ll do better, skin.

Washing her hands, she returned to the room to find a comfortable pair of jeans, a V-neck white T-shirt, and a knee-length heather gray cardigan. The icing on the cake would be the black heels covered in orange pumpkins.

“It’s perfect.”

“We’ll curl your hair up big beauty queen style, and do a natural make-up. You’ll be slaying them in more than baking.”

“I love your confidence. For all we know he’s turned into the pumpkin terminator and is about to hand me my whisk.”

“Girl, please. You cook from your heart. He might be cooking in the name of his mother, but it’s not the same.”

“We’ll see.” Her alarm chimed. “Time for me to take my bread out of the oven to cool.”

“You go see to your cooking, and I’ll dig through your makeup.” She tapped her fingertips together like a mad scientist.

“If I didn’t know you so well, I’d be terrified right now,” Rosaleen said as she walked down to wait in the kitchen to deliver her food baby. She’d added a swirl of vanilla latte cream cheese swirl in the center for a different flavor to shock the judges taste buds into overdrive. Pulling out the golden-brown loaves, she rested them gently on a cooling rack. Make mama proud, babies.