A Batter of Life and Death Read Online Free PDF Page A

seemed pleased by this fact and instructed Andy to leave him the bottle.
    Andy caught my eye. I shrugged, so Andy left the bottle with Marco who had already polished off his first glass.
    “Jules, would you stand, please?” Philip extended his hand in my direction.
    Heat burned on my cheeks as I pushed back my chair and rose.
    “Jules Capshaw, owner of this adorable shop, Treat, has graciously agreed to take a recently vacated spot.”
    “It’s Torte, ” I said.
    “Right. Right. Torte. She’ll be our final contestant this season. I know you all have been sampling her products, and I’m sure you’ll agree she’ll be a great addition to the show. She might need her own show. A pastry chef who looks even better than her sweets—whew, that could bring up our male demographic.”
    I caught Richard Lord’s eye. His face looked as red as mine felt. Lance sat back with his arms folded, grinning ear to ear, and my team all gathered behind the counter looked wide-eyed. Andy gave me a thumbs-up. What had I got myself into? Maybe I should have trusted my initial instinct.
    Sebastian cleared his throat and addressed Philip like I wasn’t in the room. “She is not a professional chef, non? She is a home baker.”
    “I assure you, she’s a professionally trained chef. She went to culinary school in New York and rose to fame on a world-class cruise ship before returning here to her hometown of Ashland.” He turned to me. “Did I get that right, Jules?”
    “Pretty much.” I sat down.
    Lance leaned in. “What’s with the uptight Frenchie?”
    “No idea.” I could feel Sebastian’s eyes on me.
    “He must have tried one of your croissants and is sweating it.” Lance nudged my waist.
    “Right.” I laughed. “That’s definitely it.”
    Philip scanned his phone. “One last intro. Where’s Elliot?”
    A young guy, who I’d peg to be in his mid-twenties, with a flashy Hollywood smile and perfectly spiked hair, made to look tousled, jumped to his feet. “Hey, hey, Ashland, happy to be here.” He made a clicking sound and shot imaginary guns with both hands.
    “You all know the Pastry Channel’s golden boy, Elliot Cool,” Philip said with a pained smile. “We’re thrilled to have Elliot on board as this season’s host. He’s got his own lineup of shows. The network had to pull some strings to get him here.”
    Elliot gave Philip another click of his finger gun. “That’s right. I’m happy to be here. Happy to sign autographs, take photos.” He passed around glossy headshots and brochures to each table. “Check out my Pastry Pop-Ups online. We’re doing cra-zie things with pastry, man.”
    I glanced at a brochure. Elliot’s shops had a disco vibe with neon-colored cupcake displays, strobe lights, and desserts constructed in funky geometric shapes.
    Behind the counter I watched Stephanie flush as Elliot wound his way in her direction. She handed Andy her phone so that she could pose with Elliot. While Andy clicked shots of her and the Pastry Channel star, Sterling looked less than pleased and busied himself wiping down the already spotless counter.
    “I love your shows.” Stephanie twisted her hair around her finger. “I’ve been watching them to get some ideas for working here.”
    “Nice. That’s awesome. We should hang out while I’m in town. I can give you some tips and stuff.”
    “Sure.” Stephanie tried to act nonchalant.
    Marco polished off the bottle of wine and began to sway slightly as Philip explained how the production schedule would work, kitchen assignments, and how the first challenge was to create a custom layer cake for the first round of judging, which would start tomorrow.
    “We’ll be shooting the introduction on set, so I need you to deliver your cakes directly to the theater. After tomorrow, my camera crew will be following you all over town, and getting footage of you at work in each of your respective kitchens,” Philip said.
    Nina and Sebastian would both be sharing