Page 42 of Evergreen Christmas

Kandy turned then and disappeared into the crowd, leaving Nate standing alone among the cheerful bystanders. He remained motionless for several minutes, watching Roxie climb up onto the stage, wiggle her way in between Jordyn and Tucker, grab their hands and smile, and for the first time in all the years he’d participated in the Christmas competition, he felt as though he were on the outside, looking in.

Chapter Nine

Jordyn learned quickly that falling from grace was a painful experience.

Three days after winning the Terrible Tinsel Triathlon, she stood in the kitchen of her cabin, waving her arms furiously to dispel the black smoke that once again billowed through her home.

“Heavens! How did this happen?” she moaned.

The day had started well enough. She’d gotten up early, drank a hot cup of coffee, fed and petted Star before letting the mare out into the field to stretch her legs, then spent almost half an hour admiring the mountain range behind her cabin. Today was warmer and the sun was bright, casting a golden glow over the rolling foothills of Chestnut Ridge. She had taken a moment to breathe it all in, closing her eyes and inhaling the clean mountain air, standing beside Fabio Frazer, savoring the woodsy aroma of the beautiful tree and reminiscing over her first-place win in the triathlon days before.

It had been surreal hearing the cheers of Noel’s residents as she received her first-place ribbon. She hadn’t expected the moment to feel so thrilling. The applause, the smiles, and the admiring glances of her neighbors had filled her heart to overflowing and made her eager to tackle a new contest and emerge a winner again. For the first time since arriving in Noel, she’d truly felt as though she belonged.

So, after scrubbing off all the candy cane syrup and tinsel that still clung to her (which had taken a lot longer than she’d expected), she and Kandy had gone on a shopping trip to town that same afternoon, browsing the shelves in several local stores and gathering up various ingredients to create the tastiest—and most beautiful—Christmas cookies known to man.

After all, the Christmas Cookie Crumble was the next contest scheduled, and Jordyn had every intention of winning with the help of Kandy’s advice. And boy, did Kandy have a lot of advice—though she’d stopped short of physically helping Jordyn prep the ingredients, as Kandy considered anything more than verbal advice to be an act of cross-conspiring, which was against the rules.

After unloading a pile of ingredients, cookie sheets, and over a dozen recipes onto the countertops in Jordyn’s kitchen, Kandy had left her to it, leaving Chestnut Ridge and advising her to bake several test batches of cookies before preparing the final three dozen she would need to enter tomorrow’s contest.

“It’s simple,” Kandy had said. “Just follow the recipes.”

Yeah, right!

Jordyn, arms outstretched, coughed as she groped her way through the black smoke toward the window in the living room. Judging from the simple directions, Jordyn had felt sure that baking would be an easy endeavor. But she discovered pretty quickly that it took a lot more than stirring a few ingredients together and punching a button on an oven to create a batch of beautiful—and tasty—Christmas cookies.

Shoving the window open, she stuck her head out into the winter air and inhaled, filling her lungs with clean oxygen as she simultaneously waved clouds of smoke out of the cabin. She tugged her cell phone from the back pocket of her jeans and, once the smoke had cleared enough for her to be able to see, quickly dialed Kandy’s number.

“Merry Christmas, Jordyn!” Kandy greeted her over the line. “How’re things going?”

“Merry, indeed,” Jordyn grumbled, covering the phone with one hand briefly as another round of coughing overtook her. “I’m in a bit of a bind, Kandy.”

“What do you mean? Did we forget an ingredient? Or do you not like the recipes?”

“I don’t think it has anything to do with the ingredients or the recipes.” Jordyn continued waving smoke away furiously. “I think it has to do with me.”

“How so?” Kandy asked.

Jordyn sighed. “I told you I had no experience with cooking or baking. In all my twenty-five years of life, I’ve only cooked twice, and both times involved popping something in the microwave for less than five minutes. I really wanted to win this next contest, too, but I never imagined how difficult it would be to slap together a few dozen cookies. Quite frankly, I’m simply no good in the kitchen!”

“Oh, Jordyn,” Kandy said gently. “You mustn’t underestimate yourself. It takes practice to perfect a spectacular Christmas cookie—especially when you have little experience cooking. Just continue practicing like I told you and you’ll get it. You still have the rest of today to bake before the contest tomorrow.”

“If I put any more dough in that oven,” Jordyn said, “I’ll end up burning the house down!” A second round of coughing overwhelmed her. “As it stands, my cabin is already full of smoke for the second time since I moved in.”

Kandy gasped. “Oh, my! Did you forget to put the timer on?”

“No,” Jordyn sputtered. “I mixed the dough, kneaded it, rolled it into little balls on the pan then put it in the oven at exactly the right temperature. Every single batch has only been in that oven for five minutes before the dough bursts into flames. The cookies turn into crispy critters faster than I can haul them back out of the oven!”

A sound of dismay crossed the line, then Kandy said, “Oh, dear. Perhaps there’s something wrong with the oven.”

Jordyn frowned. “You mean like there was a problem with the fireplace? Oh, sweet Lord! I’m not sure how many more problems I can handle and still put on a decent performance in the rest of the Christmas competition.”

“Well, don’t panic. Every problem has a solution. We just have to think of one.”

“I’ve got a solution.” As the smoke began to clear from inside the cabin, Jordyn leaned her elbows onto the windowsill and inhaled a much-needed lungful of clean mountain air. “How about you come back over here and walk me through baking at least one batch of cookies to see if you can determine where the problem’s originating? Or better yet, how about I come over to your place and use your oven?”

Kandy tsked her tongue. “Oh, no. That won’t do. Not at all. I’m your mentor, not your teammate. My offering you anything other than advice—especially physical help baking those cookies—would violate the rules of the competition. I promised Carol Belle that I’d only mentor you, not engage in—”

Jordyn groaned. “I know, I know. No cross-conspiring, right?”

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