Alex didn't often have bad days, but when she did, they were bad. And this particular bad day took the cake, no pun intended.

It hadn't started off bad, of course, but things had taken a sharp turn for the worst when she'd been in the middle of the first batch of gingerbread for the evening's festivities when the oven filament had stopped working.

When she'd called the hardware store in search of a replacement, she'd been told they would have to have it brought in from the next town and it wouldn't be there until the next day. Meaning, there was no way she could bake that day's cookies.

She knew that in the grand scheme of things, this was hardly the end of the world, but for someone who prided herself on doing her best work each and every time, not having cookies for the evening's guests felt like an enormous failure.

She was in the process of tidying up the kitchen – and silently steaming – when the kitchen door swung open and Emily lead in a man in a suit that had clearly cost more money than she made in an entire month...

She opened her mouth to ask Emily what was going on, but she was saved the trouble when Emily spoke first, "Alex, this is Mr. Rossi – an investment banker. Mr. Rossi, this is Alex, my baker."

"An... An investment banker?" Alex repeated as if the words were foreign to her.

Emily nodded, plastering on a smile that clearly begged her to play nice. "He's here to evaluate the ranch as a potential investment."

Gesturing over her shoulder, Alex demanded a conversation in private.

Emily offered Rossi an apologetic smile, then followed Alex out into the hallway where she came face to face with something she'd never seen before: Alex Miller in a fury...

"A little warning would have been nice," Alex snapped.

"I'm...sorry?" Emily apologized, though she wasn't quite certain why she was apologizing. "He just called me this morning, asking if he could come by – I didn't think it would be an imposition if he came before the guests arrived..."

Alex huffed, clearly annoyed. She shook her head. "You know, I was starting to think that maybe you'd changed your mind, that you were coming around to the idea of keeping the ranch. But clearly, I was wrong."

"We've been over this..." Emily said, almost pleading for understanding. "I can't manage something of this magnitude from London."

"This isn't just about you, though!" she snapped. "This is about Derek's livelihood, my livelihood..."

Emily held up her hands in supplication. "And I get that, I do, but..."

"But nothing!" Alex retorted. "You know, you didn't even ask what Derek and I wanted – you came in here, making all theses sweeping decisions without a second thought as to how it would effect us!"

Emily shook her head urgently. "That's not true, though," she insisted. "I've put a lot of thought into this and it's not easy, believe me, but..."

Alex shook her head. "You know what? Nevermind. Go back to your meeting," she said flatly, making it clear the argument was over.

"No, Alex...wait," Emily found herself begging.

She was done listening, though. She pulled off her apron and pressed it into Emily's hands before stalking off. There was nothing Emily could do but let her go...

"Miss Emily?" Ethan said quietly when he found her in the library. She was once again staring out the window, but this time forlornly rather than introspective. He climbed onto the window seat next to her and tapped her on the shoulder to alert her to his presence.

"Oh, hey, Ethan," she said in a lacklustre greeting. "Everything okay?"

He nodded, smiled, apparently blissfully unaware as to the interpersonal goings on. "Mom and I are going to make popcorn and watch Home Alone," he informed her. "You should come too!"

Emily grimaced. "I don't think that's such a good idea," she said.

"Why not?" he asked, perfectly innocent in his curiosity. "Don't you like Home Alone?"

"No, I do," she insisted, "It's just..."

He interrupted, "You don't like popcorn? Mom makes it so good! With caramel and salt and it's so yummy!"

Plastering on a smile, she shook her head once again. "That does sound delicious, but I just don't think your mom would be very happy to see me right now."

He scrunched up his face in confusion. "Why? Are you fighting?"

"A little bit," she said with a shrug. She wasn't sure it could be considered a fight, per se...really, it was more her fucking up and Alex being rightfully angry about it. But she couldn't exactly explain that to a child. "I think I've been behaving kind of thoughtlessly."

Ethan nodded sagely, as if he understood the predicament perfectly. "You should 'pologize," he informed her.

"You think so?"

He nodded again. "When I do something wrong, Mom makes me 'pologize. Then she gives me a hug and tells me she loves me, even when I make a mistake."

Emily hummed a note that was more skepticism than anything else. "Yes, well, she's your mom, so she'll always love you. But she doesn't have to like me."

Ethan scoffed.

Raising a brow, Emily fixed him with a pointed look. "What's that supposed to mean?"

He shot the pointed look right back at her. "It means sometimes grown ups are really silly."

"Silly?" she echoed.

"Mom likes you," he insisted.

"I really don't think..."

He interrupted her once again. "I'm just a kid, but I know it."

"Okay, smarty pants," she said, "If you know so much, what do I do now?"

He just shook his head with a dramatic sigh. Apparently, he wasn't about to give her the answer quite that easily – Emily wasn't sure whether she needed to bribe him or whether he was playing her, but either way, this wasn't going to be an easy fix. But then again, when had anything in her life ever been easy?