Page 5 of Royal Icing

“Oh,” Lisa exclaimed, turning away from the TV. “Wait until I tell you what her boyfriend did yesterday.”

Emma smiled. Her phone buzzed again—Maya. Was she still pissed about the muffin thing? Didn’t she have better things to worry about?

Lisa told a tale of missing condoms and mysterious credit card charges while Emma bustled around the kitchen. She pulled out the can of green beans to reveal a forgotten can of Spam that was in date. Protein was a luxury these days. She cubed it and added her ingredients to some water with a bouillon cube. A pauper’s soup, maybe, but soup nonetheless. Payday wasn’t for another few days, so she would have no choice but to pull grocery money from her savings. Every dollar withdrawn took her another step away from her goal, but she wasn’t about to let her mother go hungry.

Someone banged on the front door, causing them both to jump. Her heart flew into her throat, and the ladle crashed to the floor.

It couldn’t be him again. He was supposed to be in prison.

Cooper let out a low growl. Emma grabbed the metal baseball bat from behind her bedroom door and approached theentrance. Her heartbeat was hummingbird-fast as she pressed her eye to the peephole. Relief hit for an instant, then was replaced immediately by annoyance. Fuck.

She yanked the door open.

“Why aren’t you answering your phone?” Maya stood on the stoop, hand on a hip and irritation in her eyes.

Cooper poked his head out the door to stare accusingly at Maya. She offered him a hand to sniff, which he did not accept.

“I was making dinner. If it’s about the croissants—” Emma began.

“Forget the croissants. We’re leaving tomorrow.”

Those words made no sense. Leaving where?

“What do you mean?” Emma asked.

“You have a passport, right? We’re going to Lynoria. They need us for their anniversary party.”

Emma seriously considered slamming the door shut and cranking up her mother’s favorite Frank Sinatra album until Maya left. There was no way in hell she was leaving her mom alone to jaunt off to some country she’d never heard of. Tomorrow was the start of their twenty-five days of Christmas celebration. Besides, her mom couldn’t be left alone, and they couldn’t afford more than the six hours a day from a home health nurse that they currently had. Even if she wanted to go, she couldn’t.

“Are you even sure this is legitimate? There must be a million bakeries in their own country. Why would they want us? What if this is an elaborate human trafficking scheme?”

Maya shook her head. “I FaceTimed with the queen,” she said smugly. “I guess the princess had our espresso croissants last year while she was touring colleges and she was obsessed.”

Emma sighed. She did not have time to get caught up in Maya’s insane plans, and she certainly wasn’t about to getkidnapped by some alleged royals. “I can’t leave my mom. You’ll have to take Gaby.”

Gaby, one of the other bakers, was a little flaky but had a knack for making beautiful macarons. On the off chance that this was real, they would be fine by themselves.

Maya shook her head. “This is the big leagues. They want something amazing. Show-stopping. Something the entire kingdom will be talking about for years. It has to be you.”

Great, no pressure.

A wheelchair creaked in the hallway. “What’s going on?” Lisa asked.

“Maya is going to Europe tomorrow,” Emma said.

“How exciting,” Lisa said.

“And I need Emma to go with me for a life-changing opportunity.” Maya set her sights on Lisa.

“For how long?” Lisa asked.

“Ten days. Unless the extremely eligible king-to-be falls in love with me. Then I’ll be running the bakery from Europe.” She let out a haughty laugh.

Emma set her jaw. “I’m not going.”

Christmas was her favorite time of year in New York. The city went all out on decorations and festivities. She wasn’t going to miss the magic to bake cookies for some presumably morally questionable aristocrat. If they even existed.

“Yes, you are,” Lisa said.