Half Baked Hearts | ✔

35. The Missing Ingredient

There was only one container of gold glitter and I grabbed it, much to Rita's dismay. I started to understand what Nate meant about being afraid the twins might hex us.

I tried to shake off the evil glare Rita gave me and focused on the Christmas tree Nate and I were working on. I needed the gold glitter for the star on top and some of the ornaments. We had almost three hours on that challenge and, per Daniel's instructions, everyone brought their B game.

Nate and I planned out our design last night—a standing tree decorated with red, gold and silver ornaments, with presents made of rice crispy treats.

I worked on the tree while Nate wrapped squares of rice crispy treats in our handmade marshmallow fondant. The plan was to stack eight round cakes together, starting with a big one at the bottom and having them descend in size until it was tree shaped. Then I would cover the cakes in green icing using the piping tool.

Winning the last round boosted my confidence. We were so close to winning I could taste it. I could see myself in the newly renovated Cake Me Up rolling out dough for cookies in the back kitchen to fill an order for someone from the Netherlands. They'd say they heard of us from a friend of a friend and just had to hop on a plane to try our sweets.

Okay, maybe that was a stretch, but the fact remained that if Nate and I won, Cake Me Up would get the recognition it deserved.

I refrained from getting too cocky as I used the piping tool with a drop flower tip to cover the cake in green frosting. It was going to be time-consuming so, if I messed up, I wouldn't have time to restart. Concentration was important.

"And what do we have here?"

I swallowed down a groan as Daniel wandered over to our baking station. I couldn't pipe and answer questions. Thankfully, Nate stepped in and told Daniel the plan while I focused on getting the peaks of icing as even as possible.

Stealing a glance at Nate, the smile on his face as he talked to the host, almost made my hand slip. His grin was easy, carefree, but the intense look in his eyes told me he was focused on making sure the fondant went on smooth over the rice crispy squares.

It amazed me how effortless he made things seem. From the outside you'd think he was half-assing it, but the end results always proved otherwise.

When he did something, he went above and beyond. Whether it was baking or make sure I didn't have to suffer through thirty minutes of dodgeball—once he set his mind to it, he didn't walk away until his goal was met and then some.

I felt lightheaded thinking about how he came into my life when everything around me was falling flat, a cake that wouldn't raise. Nate was the missing ingredient. He was the baking powder I didn't realize I needed.

My heart seemed to expand in my chest as one word bounced around in my head.

Love.

I loved Nathaniel.

The thought shocked me back into the present. I remembered where I was and that there was a timer behind me ticking down the seconds and that I was supposed to be frosting a Christmas tree.

One of the cameramen, Connor, I think, had his camera pointed at me. He had a slight smirk on his face. What weird expression did I have on my face when it dawned on me that I was in love with boyfriend? Did the hundreds of live viewers see it? Connor definitely did.

Shaking it off, I focused on the cake and my piping bag of green icing. Whatever new realizations would have to wait to be unpacked until after the competition.

♡ ♡ ♡

We made it the final round on a technicality. Our Christmas tree was lopsided, the star cookie might've looked nice with its shimmery gold glitter, but it was too heavy to stay up. Clearly, that part had been poorly thought out. And the icing didn't look at all how I pictured it.