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GRATH
Madeline went over to table eight and spoke to Shonda again. After a moment, she motioned him to come over.
“Okay now, Shonda’s oven is set at the temperature we need,” she told Grath. “We’re not allowed to use her oven because of the rules, but shecanopen the door a minute so you can feel the heat level. Will that help?”
“That’s fucking perfect.” Grath nodded.
“Okay then—just be careful,” Shonda said. She opened the door to her cooking unit and let Grath stick his hand inside.
After a moment, he nodded.
“Got it.”
“Okay, good. Thank you, Shonda!” Madeline gave her a smile and the two of them returned to table nine.
“Now, I know we can’t cook itusingthe oven, but I think it would be better to heat the cookies inside it anyway—to avoid any chance of fire,” Grath told her.
“But I thought you couldn’t, uh, flame up?” Madeline frowned.
“I can’t but that cloth on the table might catch on fire if we get it hot enough. And the table underneath it is wood,” Grath pointed out. “Besides, with the cookies on the metal rack in the oven, I can reach one hand over them and one hand under the rack and give them even heat.”
“Oh, good point! Okay, here.” Madeline slid the sheet with the cookie balls into the oven on the wire rack and Grath knelt beside the open door.
“Here goes,” he told her. “I’ll do the best I can.”
And he let the heat he always kept inside him, burning like a submerged river of lava, rise to his hands and fingers.
He just hoped this worked—he hated like hell to see Madeline disappointed!
TWENTY-TWO
MATTIE
Mattie watched anxiously as the big Hybrid baked the cookies with his hands. He had his fingers spread wide and was slowly moving them back and forth over the raw balls of dough. She could already feel the heat coming from the open oven—almost as though it was really on. But she knew the warmth was actually coming from Grath’s big hands—they were so hot they were glowing a dull red.
In a surprisingly short amount of time, the cookie balls began to take on a delicate tan color. A few minutes after that, Mattie asked Grath to pull the cookie sheet out for a minute so she could test one of them.
“Oh…they’re perfect!” she exclaimed as the delicate ball parted into two halves under her knife. “I can’t believe how fast you baked them!”
“Just doing my job as your assistant,” Grath rumbled modestly. “Now what, baby?”
“Now we’ll let them cool for just a minute and then we can roll them in powdered sugar and present them to the judges,” Mattie told him. She glanced at the large clock on the wall. “We should havejustenough time.”
“Perfect,” Grath growled. “I’m fucking glad—I would have felt terrible if I made you lose the contest because we both got distracted playing our parts.”
“Playing our parts. Right.”
Mattie sighed inwardly. So all that hot, dirty talk he’d been murmuring in her ear was just part of his act. Well, that was to be expected, she told herself. After all, up until yesterday, she and Grath had practically been mortal enemies. She couldn’t expect him to suddenly change his mind completely about how he felt about her.
Well, there was no time to fret about it now. She had just a few minutes to roll her perfect pecan balls in powdered sugar and get them to the judges table. Already the other contestants were bringing their own cookies forward. Shonda had a plate of perfectly delicious looking orange almost shortbread squares that were studded with slivered almonds and orange zest and drizzled with icing.
And Amanda had sugar cookies that had been shaped into perfect little Christmas trees and gingerbread men and decorated accordingly. They looked nice but Mattie was betting that her pecan balls would taste better. She hoped, anyway.
In short order, she and Grath had all the balls coated thoroughly in powdered sugar and she was able to put them on the special platter with its red and green Christmas wreath that her mom had provided, and bring them up to the judges.
“Very good, Ms. Porter,” Mrs. Kranst said, giving her a nod of stern approval. “I see you were able to work through your difficulties.”
“Yes, er—another contestant gave me some powdered sugar,” Mattie confessed. “I hope that’s all right.”
