Page 11 of Cuddling Carly

Keep dreaming, Carly. And in the meantime, go sell cupcakes!

Chapter Six

The county fair continued with Wade making appearances at Carly’s booth when he was there, though it made sense that he couldn’t just hang out all the time.

Owning a ranch was a full-time job. Someone had to be there to take care of the animals.

By talking to him, she knew he had a few ranch hands he employed, with Sam being his right-hand man. But still, he couldn’t just stay at the fair every time the gates were open. There was a lot of work to be done.

So, she enjoyed the times that she did actually see him, noticing how he always seemed to drop by her table and spend quite a while.

Kelly seemed to notice that, too.

As snobby as the other woman was, Carly was prepared to cheer for her when she won the cupcake competition. Kelly’s stuff really was good. Her ribbon would come fair and square.

On the last day, with everyone gathered in front of the podium on the main stage, Valley Spring’s mayor Maria Sanchez proudly announced, “And the winner of this year’s cupcake baking competition goes to…Carly Thedford! A first-time winner!”

The crowd cheered and for a moment, Carly couldn’t believe she’d heard correctly. But that look Kelly was shooting her from across the gathering, and the well-wishes and congratulations she received as she walked toward the stage to accept her ribbon, told her this was actually real.

“You know,” Mayor Sanchez told her after the ceremony had ended and all the awards had been handed out, “I’m looking to invest in a business opportunity with some property I own on Main Street. The town has matching funds, too, as part of the economic improvement initiative. Have you ever thought about opening your own bakery?”

Carly couldn’t stop grinning. “I’ve thought about it. But I don’t have any startup capital. Plus, to be honest, I never figured I was good enough to have my own place.”

The mayor put a hand on Carly’s arm. “These are the best cupcakes I’ve ever had. Carly, I think your bakery would draw people in from Llano and other towns around here—not just Valley Spring. And the bank is offering low interest business loans in an effort to help us attract more startups.”

Carly couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Owning her own place was a huge dream of hers! Could it actually be within grasp?

“I’ve never done anything like that,” she said, talking more to herself than Mayor Sanchez.

“Well, will you at least think it over? And we can chat more about it. Say, tomorrow afternoon? My office at 2:00?”

Carly shook the mayor’s offered hand. “Deal!”

As the last of the crowd was breaking up and Carly was walking off the stage, Wade was waiting for her and held out his hand to assist as she came down the steps.

“Congratulations. And well deserved.”

“Thank you. I’m so glad you were here.” She hugged him.

“Are you kidding? I wouldn’t miss it for the world. I had a feeling you’d win. I truly didn’t know which cupcake was yours when I voted, but as good as yours were selling, it was pretty obvious you were the clear favorite. Like I said, you deserve this, Carly.”

They walked a little toward the tent where her table had been set up. Around them, folks were tearing things down and packing stuff away.

“Thank you. But, eh, not everyone feels that way, I think.”

“Her?”

“Yep.”

Kelly was leaning against a tent pole ahead, scowling as Carly and Wade approached.

“Hey, Kelly. Congratulations on winning the bread bakeoff. I knew you would.”

There was no, “Thank you,” or “Congratulations to you, too,” as Kelly’s nostrils flared.

Instead, she simply turned and stomped away.

“Okay. That was weird,” Wade said.