Page 4 of Caught in a Christmas Conundrum

Kate

This is embarrassing.I shouldn’t have come. He acts like I’m really putting him out by asking for a truce, when all we really fight about is our aprons. And that’s just passive-aggressive stuff. Neither one of us have ever actually said anything about it.

I’m ready to turn around and walk out. I can enlist my mom and maybe my friends Allison and Lucy. Although, both of them have recently gotten very serious boyfriends and are spending all their spare time with them. I’ve noticed that this happens to people, even though it’s never happened to me, and while I’m sure that they would help me if I asked them to, I don’t want them to miss the opportunity to spend the day with someone they love, especially since they’ve probably been looking forward to it.

I’m still trying to figure out what I can do when Lucas says, “Sure. Tell me what you need me to do.”

“What?” I say automatically, even though I heard perfectly. I just haven’t processed his statement. I think he said he would help me.

“I said I would help. Tell me what to do.”

“Thank you,” I say, unable to keep all of the surprise out of my voice. If he is seriously going to help me, I might actually be able to pull this off.

“But on one condition.”

“What’s that?” I ask, immediately suspicious. I should have known it was too good to be true.

“I’ll tell you at midnight on Saturday night.”

My mouth opens. Then it closes. That doesn’t make any sense. “How can I agree to your condition when I don’t know what it is?”

“I promise it’s not illegal, it doesn’t involve hurting anyone, and it won’t be that hard.”

I am on the verge of telling him no, of course I can’t agree to do something without knowing what the condition is, then I think about my reputation in town and how this will spread and possibly kill any hope I had of ever having a successful catering business in Christmas Tree, and I decide that as long as it’s not illegal and no one’s going to die or get hurt, what harm can it do?

“All right. I agree.”

I feel like maybe I made a huge mistake when a slow grin spreads over his face.

He nods and then says, “Meet me at the church on Saturday night, and I’ll let you know.”

The church? I know I’m blinking at him with a flabbergasted look on my face, but I know he’s not going to do anything terrible if we’re meeting at the church, for goodness’ sake.

“All right. I’ll meet you.”

“Okay, tell me what you need me to do.”

It’s that easy?

Okay, then. “I already told you that I was going to need you to share some of your cooler space with me while we make some of the desserts and everything that we can possibly make ahead of time. My assistant is awesome, but she’s best for decoratingand detail work. She’s not very good at cooking, and I know you make really great macaroni and cheese.”

“I’m going to have to use your facility, because I can get some barbecue started, and my assistant can keep things going, if I just supervise every once in a while. But there isn’t going to be enough room for me to be making additional things over here.”

I feel like he’s messing with me. There’s plenty of room. In fact, his place is bigger than mine. But do I want to argue about that, or do I want to get it done?

That’s an easy answer. I want to get it done.

“All right. We can do it at my place. I am roasting Cornish hens, and while your specialty is barbecue, I’m betting that you can do that pretty well, and I have the ingredients for my sauce, but if you want to use yours, you can.”

I’m feeling very magnanimous, or I wouldn’t have offered to do that. But it makes him smile, and then he lifts a shoulder.

“It’s up to you. I don’t want to overshadow anything that you’re doing. I know this is a pretty big deal for you.”

He’s being so nice. He could have been nasty because I just admitted that I got the catering for both festivals. He surely put in a bid too. But he’s not holding it against me at all. I like that.

“You can definitely use yours. It’ll be fine. I actually like the taste of yours better on the hens.”

“All right.” He looks around and then says, “I need to finish up a few things in here, and then I’ll be over.”

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