Sprinkled with Love

I can do this.

I. Can. Do. This.

Avery’s whole body was tense as he entered the Main Street Diner for round two of the Bake-Off. The power of positive thinking was failing him today. He wasn’t worried so much about himself, but rather about Jillian. By now, everyone in Marietta knew that she was mentoring him, and he didn’t want to let her down.

He’d arrived early, hoping to get familiar with his surroundings and settle his nerves. But now that he was here, he was more nervous than ever.

Before checking out his work space, he needed to do something important. He wanted to make a sizable donation to Harry’s House and he knew exactly how to do it. He glanced around, finding that Jillian had her wristbands as well as her wire necklace and earrings on display. She’d worked so hard on them and it showed. They were stunning and they’d look amazing on Jillian.

His gaze strayed across the room to where Jillian was speaking with the judges. Her back was to him and so he made his way over to where the bid sheets were and grabbed one. As quickly as he could, he wrote out an amount he was certain no one would outbid. And then he dropped it in the jar.

Feeling as though he’d just gotten away with it, he turned around and bumped into Jillian’s mother. She frowned at him. He’d always had the feeling she didn’t like him, but he didn’t understand why.

“Hello, Mrs. Parker.” He forced a smile to his lips.

She didn’t smile back. “I see your house is up for sale.”

“It is.” Though he still had his reservations, he’d given in to his siblings’ plan.

Mrs. Parker nodded. “You’ve been seeing a lot of my daughter lately.”

“She’s been a huge help getting me ready for the competition.”

The woman studied him for a moment. The intensity of her stare made him want to turn away, but he stood his ground. If he ever wanted to win over the daughter, he’d need to win over the mother.

“What exactly is going on between you and my daughter?”

He swallowed hard. “We’re friends.”

“But you want it to be more than that?”

Wow. She wasn’t going to lighten up on him. He supposed he deserved it. “I, uh, like your daughter.”

“Listen, if you are just going to string her along and hurt her again, back away now.”

“But we aren’t dating. She’s seeing someone else.”

Her mother’s eyes widened. “She is? This is news to me.” Mrs. Parker’s gaze sought out her daughter. “Perhaps I’ll go have a word with her.”

Avery found it strange that Jillian wouldn’t tell her mother about Glenn, but maybe she was worried her mother wouldn’t like him. And for good reason too. Glenn wasn’t exactly the friendliest sort of guy—at least not the side of Glenn that Avery had seen.

He didn’t have long to think over his conversation with Jillian’s mother. He had more pressing matters on his mind. Right about now, Avery was regretting going along with this Bake-Off competition. Even though he’d baked three pies, he’d only produced one that made Jillian smile when it came out of the oven.

This event was making him way more nervous than the first round of baking. He didn’t even want to contemplate what it would be like to make a cake. The pie seemed challenging enough. He hoped he wouldn’t do anything to embarrass Jillian. He just needed to get through the pie portion of the contest without burning anything this time.

Avery headed to his station and put on his apron as Mrs. Monroe made the kickoff speech. As soon as the announcement concluded, Avery began putting together the ingredients for the pie crust.

His hands had a slight tremble as he cut the butter into the flour mixture. He struggled to get the dough to come together properly; then he recalled what Jillian had taught him about adding additional water to get the mixture to the right consistency. And it worked.

By the time he had the rolling pin out, he was starting to feel a bit more confident. He got all of the ingredients for the filling out. He just had to add everything at the appropriate time.

He glanced up every so often to check on Jillian. He didn’t know why, he just liked knowing she was close by. And that’s when he noticed she was speaking to someone. When the man glanced up, Avery recognized him—Glenn. And he didn’t look happy. Avery couldn’t help but wonder what was going on with them.

It was none of his business so he turned his attention to the bowl where he was measuring out the ingredients for the pie filling. He added sugar, cinnamon, salt—his gaze strayed back to Jillian.

Jerky arm movements said that the conversation had deteriorated. And now Jillian was frowning and pointing to the door, but Glenn was shaking his head.

Avery wasn’t going to stand for Glenn bullying Jillian. He set down the measuring cup, not the least bit worried about the pie at this point. He ignored the judges’ comments as he moved away from his station. He’d be back just as soon as he made sure everything was all right with Jillian.