Chapter 20
Laurin didn’t know how he sensed the exact moment that Candace went cold. He knew she’d deliberately separated herself, but that was only tempting him to give chase. Something had transpired in her conversation with Patty that caused a shift.
Perhaps it was body language or a dulling of her eyes. Maybe the blush had suddenly faded. He didn’t know, but he was glad to get hold of her hand again in the line-up, even if she leaned toward Patty.
He rubbed his thumb along hers, hoping to warm her back up, and instead got her chewing away on her bottom lip, but that was okay.
As the few crew members scurried around in the last seconds before action would be called, she seemed as though she wanted to say something to him but gave in at the last second and leaned into him with a pensive sigh instead.
Action was called, and Candace’s grip tightened on his hand.
He squeezed back, and she finally glanced at him, giving him a soft smile.
That was better. Something had spooked her for sure, but it wasn’t him.
Some challenges didn’t start immediately after the introduction.
If there was a break after Jannie and Kate did their thing, he’d take the opportunity to massage her shoulders, ask her what was wrong.
Or maybe just massage her until she was loosened up enough that he could slide his hands down the front of her shirt — today her collar was a bit lower over her scoop-neck sweater vest — while he did his best not to leave a hickey on her neck.
That was a good plan. A bit secondary-schoolish, but he was okay with that. Young love didn’t have to be between the young.
The peculiarity of the scarce crew continued when cameras started rolling, but on propellers; the camera that greeted Kate and Jannie as they pushed through the candy cane-striped door was mounted to a drone.
Laurin didn’t know where the operator was, but it did look incredibly steady.
Steadier than the shoulder-resting cameras.
Still, midway through the season didn’t seem like the right time to upgrade the technology.
He was so distracted by the drone that he missed the half of Kate’s speech announcing that it was, indeed, Candy Week, and tuned in just in time to catch Jannie saying, “Now, we are officially on our final four, but as you’ll remember from last week, the judges were simply blown away by Candace and Laurin’s dinner spread.
We’ve never had a centerpiece praised so highly—” not that they did centerpieces often on the show, “—and we were all moved to tears by Candace’s sacrifice of valuable minutes with her family so Laurin could spend more time with his daughter. ”
Laurin was glad he was paying attention for this part because it gave him the best excuse to toss an arm over her shoulders and lean as though to say something to her, but really, he was grazing his lips over the pale wisps at her temple.
She blushed as hotly as ever, but she was the villain getting called out on a great kindness.
“To show how much we appreciate their victory last week, our judges today will be . . . Laurin and Candace!”
He was still facing her, so he got to see her go wide-eyed with genuine shock as he did the same. Food2Love competitions rarely included immunity prizes. One this close to the end of the season was unheard of. Laurin couldn’t remember if he’d ever seen it in a semi-final. And now—
“We’re automatically in the finals,” Candace whispered, and he got the feeling she couldn’t have spoken more loudly if she tried.
Laurin, who was still leaning in close, whispered back, “When we go back to the cabin, I’m going to pin you to the wall and split you so wide open I’ll have to wrap your legs together to close you up and carry you in for the judging.”
Candace’s jaw dropped, but no one was the wiser.
Jannie and Kate gave the breakdown of the challenge: what Patty and Zara had to make, how much time they would get, and which surprise elements they needed to include.
It would be three types of candy, at least one containing chocolate and one containing citrus, and the display also had to be edible.
The prep time would be four hours, which really meant five hours with production breaks, and that could have been extended further, what with the thinned-out crew.
Through all of that, Laurin was waiting to hear one thing, which they didn’t announce until the very end of the brief.
The judging would be blind.
Laurin and Candace would not only not be needed at the pavilion, they would have to go somewhere else.
He took a single, well-planned step behind Candace, casually positioning her body in front of his to prevent Food2Love network from accidentally broadcasting his erection into three million homes worldwide.
Lord knew Candace didn’t need another season of scandal, and he was finding it impossible to keep his hands off her.
He couldn’t help it. He felt better touching her, and this was a high-stress moment, after all.
He lived for this kind of stress. He’d had to remove himself from it too long and welcomed back the adrenaline with open arms, but that just made the good stuff feel so much better.
It made touching Candace feel so much better.
He locked his knees to keep from nudging into her so she would know what was on his mind. But he was distracted enough by escaping that he practically tripped over her when Mike called cut and he tried to drag her out while she held her ground.
“Why did you change the rules?” Candace asked into the ether as he righted himself. “Not trying to look a gift horse in the mouth or anything, but we weren’t originally going to be the judges, were we? You would have given everyone a call home, then.”
Laurin beamed over how clever she was. Those rare times immunity was awarded, that was always the only prize they got.
Same with the call home. It was coveted enough that any contestant would be happy to get that prize alone.
In fact, when this episode hit the airwaves, boards would be lighting up with complaints over this.
Candace and Laurin would both get roasted over how excessive and unwarranted this was.
Favoritism, they’d call it, and it wouldn’t be the first time Candace was accused of it.
So, yes, Laurin wanted to know the full story now for that reason alone. He hoped whatever the reasoning was would be beyond reproach.
Kate and Jannie approached them, and it was Candace who got her hackles up when Kate’s eyes scanned her and Laurin, narrowing too intensely on the hand Laurin had on Candace’s bicep.
It wasn’t anything much, just a straightening of her back and a lifting of her head, but it was enough for Kate to look away.
“You’re all perfectly safe,” Jannie led with, but Candace stiffened and put her hand on Laurin’s, giving him an excuse to rub her back where no one could see it.
“But the network has decided to evacuate all non-essentials. There’s a weather emergency.
We’re safe here, but there’s a storm cell sweeping across the country that’s left a trail of gnarly tornadoes in the Midwest and messed up a bunch of flights, and now it’s looking like it’s about to wallop the Northeast. The network wanted to make sure they got as many people as they could home.
They couldn’t bring the judges in, either. ”
“We’ll be able to get you home, Patty,” Kate added.
“There’s an executive flight straight to Phoenix that will be taking off at seven tonight, so we’ll have you pack your bags while Candace and Laurin judge and get you out of here immediately after we’re done filming.
Candace, Zara, it’s not looking good for you right now.
They’re already starting to cancel flights into the tri-state area.
But don’t worry. We’re getting everyone back to civilization tonight.
They’re booking rooms for you in Atlanta.
Mike’s even got a few things planned out for you — promotional stuff — at the network offices downtown this weekend.
You’ll get paid, of course, with a food stipend and everything. ”
Jannie jumped in then, saying, “Lucy would love for you to guest-host an episode with her tomorrow, Candace,” and Laurin got the feeling from the tension still between Candace and Kate that Kate would have gladly omitted that.
The way Candace melted a little showed how much that meant to her, though.
Lucy and Candace had done a couple seasons together before Lucy got her own show.
It was a standard baking show, one of their afternoon fillers before their flagship shows hit primetime — which included reruns only of the Food2Love challenge, since the new episodes had been poached by their parent company’s major network — but it was still a big deal to Candace.
She needed this now, when she was still so weighed down by her recent scandal.
She needed someone from her past to show this kind of support.
Jannie and Laurin met eyes and gave knowing nods to each other. Candace had far more support than she knew.
“She’ll stay with me,” Laurin announced before correcting it to, “They, I mean. Candace and Zara. I have plenty of space at my place, and my family would love to host them for the weekend. I can get them down to the center, give them a tour of Atlanta, all that. You can see my little bakery. The network is welcome to send a cameraman up, too, if they could use that for more promos.”