Page 62 of Puppy Love & Snowflake Kisses
“I’m sorry.” His voice held a conciliatory tone. “Your plan looks amazing. I just don’t know if I can help you build something so intricate. Sometimes, I’m all thumbs.”
“You’re right. It’s too complicated for the time we have to build it.” And time was ticking.
She had another idea. She pointed to the table. “Take all of the candies off that baking pan.”
As he followed her instructions, he asked, “Why?”
“You’ll see.” She grabbed the scissors and started to cut a portion of the paper tablecloth.
Parker gave her a puzzled look, but she ignored him as she continued to work. Once everything was off the metal baking pan, she turned it over. Then she smeared some of the white frosting on it before adhering the paper table cloth to it.
“What is this?” Parker peered at the beginning of her creation.
“This is going to be the yard for our gingerbread house. With only two hours to complete it, I can’t go all fancy with the house design, so I thought we could embellish the yard.”
“Are we allowed to do that?”
“She said we could use anything on the table, didn’t she?”
He nodded, but he still didn’t look convinced.
“Do you want me to ask Merry?”
He hesitated. Then he shook his head. “Let’s do this.”
Instead of debating the right and wrong of spending her evening with Parker, she just let herself enjoy the time. She already knew he was good in the kitchen, so it wasn’t a big surprise that he was helpful building the gingerbread house.
Although, there was a part of her that didn’t want to make the house too fancy. She found herself not wanting to win their bet. The thought of Parker avoiding her left a sour feeling in the pit of her stomach.
So, was it a total accident or did she subconsciously make a mistake when she cut the walls of the house? And then when she went to put the walls together, she didn’t use enough frosting, and the walls fell down. One of the walls cracked in half. Thankfully, they had more gingerbread.
These mistakes were so unlike her because she was good at cake decorating. But every time she glanced over at Parker, she would lose her train of thought, and her stomach would dip. She inwardly groaned. This was going to be a long evening if she had to redo every step.
Chapter Twenty-One
Nottoobad.
In fact, it was kind of cute.
As they finished the gingerbread house, Parker was truly impressed with what they’d done. Belle’s idea about creating a yard for the house was a great one. And when he’d glanced around at the other tables, he found that no one was doing anything like their concept.
Belle had done such a good job with the house that he wouldn’t be surprised if it took first place. And then he recalled their bet. If their house took the blue ribbon, Belle would win their bet, and he would honor their wager. But the thought of not spending time with her ruined his good mood.
As they continued to work together, he found Belle relaxing, and he did his best to hide the fact that he was worried about losing the bet. It wasn’t hard, because Belle was engrossed with decorating. He was totally captivated by her artistic skill. He could just sit back and enjoy watching her work her magic.
But he didn’t have time for that, because he’d been tasked with putting shingles on the house. He glanced around the table, trying to decide what to use for shingles. And then he had an idea.
He reached for a bowl of frosting and another bowl of red and white peppermint candies. After giving the frosting a stir, he smeared some on the roof panel. Then he reached for the candies. He unwrapped the first one.
“You could also use the red candy wafers.” Belle pointed to the full bowl.
His gaze moved between the wafers and the peppermint candies. He thought the peppermint ones were fancier. “Thanks, but I think I’ll stick with these.”
Instead of arguing her point, Belle merely nodded and went back to creating candy trees in the yard. “Maybe I’ll make a shrub with the red wafers.”
“That’s a great idea. You’re very creative.”
“Thanks. I have a stroke of genius every now and then.” And then she let out a little melodious laugh.
