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How much did the man know about her shady bakery undertakings?
“Let’s not get into specifics,” she replied, going for nonchalance. “And just as a side note—I absolutely haven’t had a child purchasing bonbons for me without my grandmother’s permission.”
Might as well cover her bases for the recent bonbon mischief.
“You mean Aria?” the man replied with a twitch of a grin.
“How do you know her name?” she shot back.
“I asked her. She’s been in five times in two weeks to purchase bonbons while you hide in the bushes. She’s a regular now.”
She felt her cheeks heat. “I wasn’t hiding in the bushes.”
The man removed a folded sheet of paper from his pocket and handed it through the half-open window. She straightened and mustered as much dignity as one caught mid-bump-and-grind could and unfolded the sheet.
“We have cameras inside and outside the shop,” Schuman said as she gazed at a lunatic, aka, herself, wedged between a pair of juniper hedges.
She had two choices: ‘fess up to being the bonbon bandit and apologize for her chocolate indiscretions or add a layer of sass to her demeanor.
“Well, my grandma’s not here, Mr. Sweet,” she huffed like a cantankerous child, choosing the latter approach. “So you’ll have to wait a few weeks to tattle on the singing bonbon bandit.”
“I’m not here to tattle on you,” the man answered.
“Then why are you here?” she asked, losing the sass.
“I told them we’re getting baked today, Uncle Schuman,” Tanner said, shifting the box and revealing a rather large bag of lollipops.
She could go for one of those.
“We’re not getting baked, Tanner. We’re baking,” Schuman corrected. “I’m the baking coach for theCelebrity Bake or Bustcontest,” the man replied through a yawn.
What the hell?
“You are?” Landon asked.
“I am, Mr. Paige. I’m sorry I couldn’t meet with you a few weeks ago. I was called away on an emergency.”
This must be a meet and greet to prepare for tomorrow’s challenge. Why hadn’t she put it together?
It made sense that Mr. Sweet would be their coach now that the Baxter Park bakery had joined the Cupid Bakery family, and that’s where they’d met with the Luxe lawyer. Then again, she’d seen Mr. Sweet less and less over the last few years. When she was a kid, he’d socialize with customers. Nowadays, not so much.
“Didn’t you see the emails from Luxe Media and Entertainment and the LookyLoo peeps? They moved up the first challenge to today,” Tanner explained.
“They did what?” she exclaimed.
Tanner shifted the box, and several lollipops trickled out of the bag. “They changed the date. That’s why I’m wearing these,” he added and tapped the glasses.
“You wear sunglasses when you bake?” she uttered.
“No, I wear them for audio-visual purposes.”
Her jaw dropped. “You’re recording us?”
“No,” the dude answered, stretching the syllable.
“Thank goodness,” she replied on a relieved breath.
“I’m livestreaming straight to LookyLoo.”
