Page 41 of Holiday on the Rocks
“You want to seal the deal?”
“Seal the deal?” Uh oh. My heart reminded me of the deep scars it had, but instead of using my intellectual mind, I told my heart to shut the bloody hell up.
He took my hands and pulled me to my feet while my nerves spun around like a pole dancer. Where would closure take me? What had I signed up for? As if reading my mind, he pulled me gently into his chest.
“What now?”
I squealed when in one swift move he had me over his shoulder. “Well, I believe you said Christmas cookies were on the agenda. Since the icy lake didn’t take me out today, we should celebrate with homemade goodies. I am very serious when it comes to holiday baking. Well, more like holiday eating.”
SIXTEEN
LEVI
CLOSURE
I stood staring down at her unable to comprehend what was happening.
She agreed to closure with me. She agreed to closure with me. If I’d told her what I really wanted, I’m pretty sure there’d be a Allie-sized hole in the wall. While I didn’t know how this thing would play out, the obsession I’d had for her never left.
I owe you, Dr. Phil.
I carried her to the kitchen over my shoulder and a lightness I hadn’t had in an eternity settled in my chest.
Best. Idea. Ever.
I set her feet on the floor, and she looked up at me. My hand went to her cheek, and her silky skin was begging to be touched. I’d been her person, her home back then, but I’d burned the bridge to Allie when I left. I was alive with hope for the first time in as long as I could remember.
“I believe it’s holiday treat time.” She walked to the stove.
After four dozen baked sugar cookies, I found out symmetrical sprinkles was a thing. Who knew?
I grabbed the bottle of tiny green Christmas trees. “Does it really matter if these candies aren’t perfect?”
Her cheeks were a warm pink as her mouth dropped open. “Of course it does. Nonsymmetrical cookie decorating could actually ruin a holiday.”
“That makes no sense, Langley.”
She narrowed her eyes at me. “I don’t want it to be this way, but it is. I mean if I’m opening Christmas gifts, and I know the cookies on the table are all wonky and stupid, it would take away from the Christmas spirit.”
I poured a thick layer of sprinkles on one side of the frosted sugar cookie. “So this would make you crazy?”
“I’d like to say no, but that’s all wrong.”
I grabbed one from the cookie sheet on the stove. “So if I just put a blob of frosting here.” I dropped a dollop in the corner. “And nothing more, would Allison motherfuckin’ Langley lose sleep over this?”
Her eyes rolled. “No, Levi motherfuckin’ Dawson, I would not.” Her eyes dropped to the table. “Because I would sneak downstairs in the middle of the night to correct the problem.” Her finger pointed. “And I think you’d be in trouble.”
“I like trouble.”
A giggle escaped her, and she remembered she liked it when they used to call us that. Teachers, parents, grandparents, along with the farmer at the edge of town who chased my truck out of his fields more than once because they were the perfect place for us to sneak off to.
She stirred some green food coloring into the frosting can.
“So tell me about your career.” I used my knife to spread red frosting across my cookie. I’d gotten off Instagram years ago. I’d done some ‘research’ and saw her face in one post, and it sent me into a spiral that lasted weeks.
Her brow arched. “That’s against the closure rules. We can’t talk about our lives now.”
“I think work talk is acceptable, don’t you?”
