Page 61 of A Snowy Escape

My nose twitches.

Molasses.

Cinnamon.

Nutmeg.

A slow smile crosses my face.

“It’s gingerbread. Can I pull my hand down now?” I ask, bouncing on my toes. “Are we decorating gingerbread houses?”

I rip my hand away from my face and open my eyes without being given the green light.

In my defense, I’m super excited.

I haven’t decorated a gingerbread house since I was probably ten.

“Holy shit!” I squeak, clapping. “This is going to be so much fun!”

Bryant leans over the table, high-fiving Luka. “I told you she was going to love it.”

Luka smirks. “I retract my earlier statement. It was totally worth driving into town.” He winks at me. “Do you want to pick your house? There are two different styles.”

“Yes,” I agree, grabbing Lawson’s hand on my shoulder and dragging him to the table. “I hope you guys know how to assemble them because I sure don’t.”

“Ehh, we’ll figure it out.” Lawson guides me to take a seat in one of the chairs before taking the one next to me. “That’s what instructions are for.”

Luka ends up on my left while Bryant sits directly across from me.

Bryant pulls the lid off one of the boxes, holding it up for me to see. “This is the farmhouse, and it comes with a family of four in gingerbread form.” He chuckles, moving to one of the other boxes. “This one is more of a house you’d expect to find in a neighborhood, but it comes with two cool exterior trees. We have one of each, so we’ll have to work in teams, but we want you to pick first.”

I glance between them.

They’re both cute.

If I had to guess, I would say they’re from a bakery, since they don’t look anything like the mass-produced kits. Each says they include four colors of frosting and candies to decorate, along with a few other things that are too small for me to read from this far away.

“I’ll take the family,” I say, grinning.

“You got it.” Bryant slides over one of the boxes. “All right, who wants to be my partner?”

“I’m right in between, so I could work with either of you,” Luka says. “But based on where Law is sitting, I’m going to guess it’ll be easier for them to work together. I guess that means you’re stuck with me.”

“We’re judging these at the end to see whose house ends up looking the best,” Bryant says, smirking. “You’d better put your game face on, Law.”

Lawson simply grunts.

I laugh and stretch over, patting his thigh. “One of us had better read the instructions. I have no idea why, but I thought these things came already assembled.”

A booming laugh spills from Lawson.

“I’ll handle the instructions,” he says, sounding amused. “You handle the decorating. I don’t have an artistic bone in my body.”

“This is probably a terrible time to tell you that I don’t either,” I whisper, cupping my hand around my mouth. It won’t stop Luka and Bryant from hearing, but it’s all in good fun.

“Oh, we’ve so got this,” Luka says, laughing.

“Keep talking shit,” Lawson grumbles. “I just realized, we’re going to be eating gingerbread for weeks.”