“I haven’t watched it yet, but he swears by it.” Marian set the paper coffee cup in front of Ella with a lid, some sugars, and a small pitcher of cream. She slid her order pad and a pen from her apron pocket. “What’ll you have?”
“A Stede Bonnet, please. Hold the Pepper Jack.”
“You got it.” Marian scribbled it down, marked it as “to go,” and slid it on the order wheel.
Ella added cream to her coffee and cast a careful look at the pass-through window, where she saw a cook she’d never seen before working the line. Behind him, Mark cracked eggs onto the hot grill.
He looks tired. I should ask Gray what’s going on with him.
Mark looked up and their gazes locked. After an awkward second, he flushed and then turned back to the grill.
Her face heated and she glanced around, hoping no one had noticed. I guess I deserved that for staring at him. Sighing, she took a sip of her coffee. The brew was rich and slightly bitter, the cream soothing the edges. She had to admit, it was pretty good coffee. Maybe I should take a picture for Tiff to—
“Ella?”
She turned.
Mark stood at her elbow, still wearing his Moonlight Café apron. He managed an awkward, perfunctory smile. “Hi.”
Well. This was surprising. “Hi,” she returned politely.
He grimaced. “I don’t mean to bother you, but I wanted to thank you for taking Grandma to her doctor’s appointment.”
Which Ella hadn’t done. Oh, Angela, you owe me for this. “It was nothing.”
He flashed a wry grimace. “I don’t know that I’d call anything having to do with Grandma ‘nothing.’ ”
Ella had to smile at that. “She has a big personality.”
His gaze flickered over Ella’s face. “She’s a lot like you. I don’t think I realized that until now.”
“Thank you. I’ve always liked your grandmother. She’s one in a million.” Thank goodness.
Marian returned to her place behind the counter. She slid two more orders onto the wheel and then stopped to pour some coffees.
Mark eyed the orders hanging from the wheel. “I’d better get back on the grill. I just wanted to come out here because I—” He stopped as if struggling to find the words. Finally, he said, “I probably should have said this sooner, but I’m sorry.”
“Sorry? For what?”
He shook his head. “I… For everything. My family’s always thought the worst of you, but what you did for Grandma the other day, taking her to the doctor and not making a big deal of it, made me—”
“Mark!” The line cook used his spatula to point at the last two orders Marian had slipped into the wheel. “This says a number twelve with sausage. Which do I use? The pepper sausage or the turkey?”
“I’ve got to go.” Mark gave her a wry smile as he backed away. “Just… thank you.” With that, he turned on his heel and headed for the kitchen door.
She watched him resume his place at the grill and felt a flicker of guilt for misleading him about Angela’s whereabouts the other day. When he and Jules find out how much I’ve helped Angela cover up her big lie, they’re going to hate me even more.
That was a depressing thought.
“Here you go!” Marian set a white paper bag on the counter in front of Ella. “Ketchup for your hash browns?”
“No, thank you.” Ella paid and hurried to leave, careful not to look in Mark’s direction.
She arrived at her meeting with minutes to spare. Preacher Thompson was already there with Aunt Jo, who’d brought Moon Pie with her, as she always did. Ella was glad when the cute pug curled up under Aunt Jo’s chair and almost immediately started to snore.
Grace and Zoe showed up next, both dressed in suits more appropriate for a power lunch in Manhattan than a meeting in the Dove Pond Library, followed shortly after by Sarah, who immediately offered everyone coffee from the library break room.
Ella murmured a thanks and pointed to the to-go cup she’d brought from the Moonlight. Spared again.
Jules arrived last, wearing her usual blue jeans and T-shirt. Once everyone had taken their places at the table, Ella turned on her computer and linked in Tiff.
“I think that’s everyone,” Ella said as she turned her laptop so that everyone could see Tiff.
“Good morning!” Tiff said brightly. “First of all, I want to thank Grace and Preacher Thompson for putting me and the team in charge of the logistics for the bake-off. It’s given us a huge amount of leverage with the sponsors.”
“You’re quite welcome.” Preacher Thompson dipped his head.
Grace said earnestly, “We knew you’d do great. I wouldn’t have agreed to it otherwise.”
Ella knew Grace had been more than happy to hand the planning of the bake-off to Tiff. There were limits to what Grace and her mostly volunteer committee could accomplish on their own. Meanwhile, Tiff was a natural event planner.
Tiff beamed from the screen. “Thank you for your trust.” She rubbed her hands together and grinned. “Okay, then. Let’s get this meeting started. We’ve spent most of the last few meetings talking about advertising, contest setup, and awards. So today’s meeting will cover judging and logistics. I emailed each of you an agenda, along with diagrams of the various potential setups for the tent. We got the biggest one we could find, and will have room for one thousand forty-five attendees—”
Aunt Jo gasped. “Butter my butt and call me a biscuit! We’ve never had a turnout like that.”
Grace smiled smugly. “We had a great response from the online ticket sales, so Tiff and I decided to expand the audience size as much as possible.”
“Money in the bank,” Zoe said.
“We’ve already sold out at the higher number, too,” Tiff added. “We’ll have room for the audience, the stage with display tables for the cakes, and of course we’ll have a sound system for the judging. We plan on miking the judges during the event, although the mics should be turned off during deliberations. Grace has graciously allowed us to turn the town hall waiting room into a greenroom for the judges. Sarah has promised to get some of her library volunteers to stand guard and only allow judges and necessary others inside.”
Sarah beamed. “They are super excited to do it, too.”
“We’re so fancy,” Aunt Jo said approvingly.
“Oh, it’ll be fancy,” Grace said. “Tiff hasn’t mentioned yet that she’s ordered a refreshment table for the greenroom, with sandwiches and such, plus coffee and teas. She’s also arranged to have some makeup artists and hairdressers available.”
Aunt Jo leaned toward the preacher. “Forget what I said on the way over—I’ll be happy to judge again next year.”
Tiff looked pleased, which made Ella grin. “Tiff, do you want to tell everyone about the sponsors and what you’ve got them doing to support the event?”
“Of course.” Tiff shared her screen, pulling up a PowerPoint as she launched into an explanation of the free giveaways, paid media placements, and monetary contributions donated by each sponsor. Even Ella thought it an impressive list.
As Tiff spoke, Ella cut a glance at Jules, and realized that, for all her noninvolvement, the café owner was listening intently, and even nodding now and then. I wish I knew where that silly cookbook was. If I could find it, maybe Jules would lighten up some.