At that point, Wendy barrelled through the café door. ‘Jessie, the next lot of amateurs are preparing to infiltrate my kitchen. The least you can do is be there to supervise them.’
I checked my phone. ‘We’ve got five minutes. I’ll be there in three.’
Before she could argue, a group of Outlaws appeared, pushing past her.
‘Jessie, we want to make a formal complaint about the results,’ one of the women whose name I didn’t know called out. ‘Angus was clearly the best.’
‘Glenda’s cheesecake wasn’t even baked!’ Helen, who’d thrown the ladle earlier, chipped in. ‘The clue is in the name. It’s abake-off.’
‘I think we can allow a cheesecake,’ Arabella tutted, strolling past. ‘After all, technically the base used pre-baked biscuits.’
‘What do the competition rules say?’ Helen bristled. ‘These things need to be made clear. Could Jackie have entered one of her ice-cream sundaes, if she’d sprinkled a few crumbs on top? What about a salad, withpre-bakedsupermarket croutons? Does it even have to be food? Maybe Ada could have stuck a chocolate finger in someone’s hair and entered that?’
‘Oh shut up!’ Veronica yelled. The hallway was starting to get congested, as more Outlaws who’d finished their lunch came to see what the commotion was about. ‘You’re just peeved because your boyfriend lost. If Mary Berry beat him you’d still find something to gripe over. How about showing a bit of grace and decorum for once?’
‘Decorum?’ Helen cried. ‘Me?Me show some decorum?’
‘Ruddy Nora, that’s what I said. No need to blather on about it.’ Veronica flapped her hands in a mean mockery.
‘Excuse me!’ Nora Montgomery interrupted, her face turning purple. ‘Tom and Pippa have already asked you, numerous times, not to use my name as a curse! It’s bullying and discrimination and I’ve had enough of it. Time for the bullied to fight back!’
Before anyone could stop her, she picked up her walking stick and poked Veronica in her rather hefty stomach.
Thankfully, because I was quite honestly not up for dealing with a mass brawl, my parents and Lance appeared. Leaving them to it, I fled into my office, bursting into tears as soon as the door closed behind me.
28
A second after I’d hidden in my office, the door opened and Elliot stepped in.
‘Oh, Jessie.’ He took three strides to where I was leaning against my desk, sobbing angry, frustrated sobs, and wrapped his arms around me.
A small part of my brain wondered for the hundredth time how the more I determined to stay away from Elliot Ollerton, the more I seemed to end up spending time with him.
After a minute or so of uncontrolled crying, I managed to calm down enough to pull away.
‘Oh, you’ve got a…’ I pointed to a pale streak on his blue shirt. ‘Was that me?’
Elliot reached out a slow hand towards the hair at the side of my face and carefully, as if scooping up a butterfly, wiped a grape-sized blob of cream onto the end of one finger.
‘That’s been on my hair the whole time,’ I said. Standing so close to him, I was suddenly aware of every hot pulsation of blood through my veins.
Elliot’s dark eyes fixed on mine, so tender and brimming with concern that it made me want to cry again. We stayed there, looking at each other, him holding his finger up, me not caring at all that I looked a complete wreck, because right then that was exactly how I felt.
The blob of cream plopped off the end of his finger onto the wooden floor.
‘Oh, right.’ I sprang away, grabbing a clump of tissues out of the box on Mum’s desk. ‘Sorry.’ I bent down to wipe the floor while he brushed at his shirt.
‘Here.’ He held the tissue out once I’d stood up again. ‘You’ve still got…’
‘Right. Yes. Thanks.’ I took a fresh tissue and did my best to wipe the remaining mess out of my hair.
‘Out there, that was… I don’t even know what that was.’
‘Savage? Chaos?’ I pulled a wry smile.
‘Worse than the competitive dads at football, that’s for sure.’ He frowned. ‘Are you okay? I mean, I know you’ve just been crying, so clearly not. But was this a particularly bad morning, or do they often reduce you to tears?’
‘Oh, no. That’s not why I was crying,’ I said. ‘Well, it was the icing on top of the many layered cake, that tipped me into tears. But it’s not the main reason.’
