“Is she sick?”
“I don’t know. She hasn’t called.”
Maggie and Jake exchanged glances, the kind that meant they were having a silent conversation about whether to say something. Brie turned back to her work before they could decide.
The second gingerbread house was smaller than the mountain but more intricate, with Victorian-style details that required a steady hand and perfect timing. She’d just positioned the main supporting wall when her phone rang. Sophie’s ringtone. Finally.
But when she grabbed the phone, it was the supplier again, calling to confirm she’d received the text.
She set the phone down harder than necessary and returned to the gingerbread house. The royal icing had already started to set, making it harder to achieve the perfect angle. She pressed gently, trying to coax the wall into position.
The wall collapsed.
Not just tilted or cracked. Completely collapsed, taking the adjacent wall with it in a cascade of broken gingerbread and ruined icing. Hours of work destroyed in seconds.
“Damn it!” The word escaped before she could stop it, loud enough that Jake and Maggie both looked over.
“You okay, boss?” Jake asked.
“Fine. I’m fine.” She stared at the wreckage. Without Sophie to mix new royal icing while she cut replacement pieces, this would set her back at least three hours. “I can’t believe Sophie didn’t show up or even bother to contact me. She knows this is our biggest week.”
She pulled out her phone and called Sophie directly. It rang once, then went to voicemail. Sophie’s cheerful voice asking callers to leave a message felt like mockery.
“Sophie, it’s Brie. I really need you to call me back. Please.”
She ended the call and immediately saw Hunter watching her from his table. When their eyes met, he looked away, but not before she caught something in his expression. Concern? Suspicion? She couldn’t tell.
As she began cleaning up the destroyed gingerbread, she noticed Hunter pull out his phone. He stepped outside to take the call, but through the window she could see his body language shift into something harder. His free hand gestured sharply as he spoke.
The federal agents had said Brennan was dead, that his body simply hadn’t been found in the wilderness. But Hunter’s tone today suggested he wasn’t convinced it was over.
She turned back to the ruined gingerbread house, pulling apart the salvageable pieces. Her hands shook from frustration as she worked.
The afternoon wore on. She cut new gingerbread panels while Maggie struggled through unfamiliar recipes and Jake managed the register. Every few minutes, she found herself checking her phone. Still nothing from Sophie. She better be in the hospital or have an equally serious excuse for this disappearing act.
Jake appeared at her elbow. “Maybe something happened to her?” he said quietly. “Like, really happened? This isn’t like Sophie.”
The defense of her absent employee made Brie’s irritation spike. She was exhausted, covered in flour and icing, three hours behind schedule, and the person she’d trained and trusted had vanished without a word.
“She could have at least called,” Brie said, hearing the sharp edge in her own voice.
Jake backed off, hands raised slightly in surrender, and he returned to the register.
Her phone buzzed. Text message. She grabbed it eagerly, but it was from the festival coordinator, asking about booth placement and setup timeline. Brie stared at the message, her hands still sticky with royal icing, gingerbread crumbs under her fingernails, and typed back a response she hoped sounded more professional than she felt.
When she finished, she opened her message thread with Sophie. All those unread messages stared back at her, a one-sided conversation growing increasingly desperate. She typed one more, not caring anymore if she sounded angry.
“This is really unprofessional. At least let me know you’re alive.”
She hit send and watched it show delivered. Like all the others, it remained unread.
Chapter
Twenty-Seven
The weightof Brie’s frustration pressed against Hunter. She moved through the apartment like a storm, flour dusting her hair, dried royal icing flaking from her apron with each sharp gesture. Her honey eyes had the look of someone who’d carried too much for too long.
“Jake kept saying there must be something really wrong with Sophie.” Brie yanked open the freezer, ice crystals swirling out into the warm kitchen air. “Like I don’t already know she abandoned me during the busiest week of the year.”
