by Lacey Baker
Brooke was already giggling as they walked toward her, and for the first time since he’d put this plan into play Adam felt a twinge of nervousness. This could either go perfectly right or horribly wrong. The possibility of the latter was making him a bit nauseous. After she’d spent that day taking care of Brooke, he’d wanted so badly to do something nice for her. He’d thought about it and planned for the last few days and couldn’t wait to get out of bed this morning to see that it all fell into place.
“What’s going on here?” Taylor asked as they came to a stop in front of Brooke and Jenny, but he didn’t answer right away.
“Hi, Taylor, I’m Jenny, Adam’s younger sister.” Jenny extended her hand to Taylor because while they each knew of the other, this was their first time actually meeting face-to-face.
Taylor shook Jenny’s hand. “Hi. Nice to meet you.” There was still a very skeptical look on her face. “Um, what are you guys doing here?”
“Just delivering Brooke to her dad,” Jenny stated.
Adam would swear he’d seen a look of relief flash across Taylor’s face at that moment. She nodded to Jenny and was about to speak again when she caught sight of something near the car parked in front of Adam’s truck.
“Nice Christmas tree,” she said. “Is that yours, Jenny?”
Jenny looked at Brooke, who giggled again and Adam continued to stare at Taylor, whose expression was now bordering on worry.
“What is everyone smiling about?” Her tone was still light, a tentative smile was in place, but she was clearly ready to know what was going on.
“Follow me, Taylor,” Brooke finally said, but couldn’t help giggling again.
It was a wonder his daughter was managing to keep the secret for this long. Brooke was ecstatic when Adam discussed the idea with her. They all walked through the gates leading toward the houses on Taylor’s row. Because Taylor’s was an end-of-the-row house, they headed to the side of the house where Brooke flicked a switch before yelling, “Ta-da!”
When all of the lights that had been strung around the outside of Taylor’s house lit up, Taylor stared in awe.
“What in the world?” She sounded incredulous as she looked around at all the lights: her front door, the front windows and the bushes in front of the house. There was a wreath filled with red, gold and green bulbs on her door and one in the center of the large window next to it. Along the gate of her tiny yard were red and white lights.
Relief and extreme pleasure washed over him the moment he saw her look turn from shock to sheer pleasure. He leaned over to whisper to her. “I told you, your house needed decorating.”
She looked over her shoulder to him and then back to the house. “But I—”
“And don’t you worry, we had tons of leftover decorations,” he interrupted.
“And the tree’s for you,” Brooke added.
“Oh, you didn’t have to do all of this.” Taylor turned to him. She was shaking her head as if she really could not believe what she was seeing. If he could describe the way her eyes danced and her voice wavered on that last word, he would call it joy—Christmas joy.
“Sure we did! You needed to have Christmas at your house, too!”
Brooke was absolutely right: this was something they had to do as a special thank-you for what she’d done for them. Jenny smiled at Taylor, but then looked at him. “Okay, Adam, can you please help me get the tree off my car?”
“Sure,” Adam replied.
“You have fun, kids, I’m heading out to a Christmas party,” Jenny told Brooke and Taylor.
“Enjoy the party, and thanks so much, Jenny,” Taylor told her.
When Adam returned with the tree, Taylor and Brooke were holding hands while still staring at the lights. If the tree hadn’t been so heavy, he might’ve paused to enjoy the sight. Instead, he pressed on until Taylor unlocked her front door. The three of them managed to get the massive tree through the doorway and inside Taylor’s living room.
“It looks perfect right here,” Brooke pronounced.
“I have a stand in the basement,” Taylor said and immediately left the room.
“Do you think she really likes it?” Brooke asked Adam when Taylor was gone.
He’d been taking the opportunity to look around her place and answered, “Yeah, I think she really likes it.”
And she definitely needed it. If Adam thought the outside of her house lacked any Christmas spirit, the inside was totally dying. Sure everything was neat and clean, but it was all white, brown, beige or some otherwise bland color. It was a good space with a clear view from the living room to the dining room and kitchen: ultra-modern and sleek, just the way she’d designed the gingerbread house. But there was no Christmas, no photos, no treasured items, and definitely nothing out of place as there often was at his house. Only a few paintings, which were lovely, but they didn’t do much to warm the place up.
Taylor was single, neat and orderly. All good traits that may not exactly work with a child and a baker.
“We need popcorn and Christmas carols,”Adam stated when Taylor returned with the tree stand. “You two take care of that while I get the tree set up.”
Brooke pulled the packets of popcorn she’d brought from home out of her coat and asked, “What about bulbs? We only have lights and garland left.”
“I have a couple of boxes in the basement with ornaments and stuff,” she replied. “You wanna help me bring them up?”
“Sure!”
Adam worked on getting the tree stabilized while Taylor and Brooke disappeared. He had a little trouble because the trunk needed to be cut to fit properly into the base. He went out to his truck to see if he had a hand saw. By the time he’d returned, there were two boxes in the center of the living room floor with the word “Christmas” written in green magic marker on top.
“This is a great Christmas playlist,” Taylor was saying from the other side of the room where she had an entertainment center. “My co-worker Josephine plays it all day at the office.”
“Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer,” the version by the Temptations, began playing and Brooke immediately started singing. They both headed to the kitchen and Adam hummed along with the music as he finally got the tree situated in the stand. He started going through the boxes, finding some things that he could use to liven up the place while the popcorn popped.
Minutes later when they joined him in the living room again, “It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas” began to play and Taylor smiled. “This song is so appropriate,” she said as she looked around the room.
“Glad you like it,” Adam said, because he was genuinely happy to be here doing this for her.
She stood in front of the tree looking at him, and Adam continued to stare at her. It occurred to him that this felt very real and extremely normal.
“Let’s decorate the tree,” Taylor said abruptly.
Adam was grateful for the reprieve. He went to the bowl that Brooke was holding and took a few pieces of popcorn.
“We won’t have enough to string if you eat it all, Dad,” she told him, repeating the same words he told her when they were decorating their tree.
Adam popped it into his mouth and grinned.
“All right, I knew they were down there somewhere,” Taylor said as she came back into the room with another box.
She opened the box and removed a hunk of red tissue paper, unwrapping it slowly before lifting the white frosted bulb into her hand.
“It’s beautiful,” Brooke whispered.
Taylor twirled the white bulb in her hand. “It’s hand blown crystal from Prague. My parents lived there for two years. They have an amazing Christmas Market in the old town square with giant trees and vendors. There’s people and music and lots and lots of Christmas.”
“Oh, look at this one,” Brooke said to him when she very gingerly lifted a
red bulb from the box.
“Be careful with it, sweetheart.” Adam issued the warning even though he could tell she was doing her best to handle it delicately. “It’s beautiful.” He was initially looking at the bulb but soon found his gaze traveling to Taylor.
For a few moments Taylor stared back at him but then she switched her attention back to Brooke. “Go ahead, put it on the tree.”
When all the popcorn had been strung and hung on the Balsam fir, and every bulb from Taylor’s boxes also dangled from its branches, Adam figured it was time for them to leave. He could try to bring up dinner or some other reason to stay, but in the time that he’d been with Taylor today he’d felt an overload of emotions that he’d thought long buried.
“Thank you so much for everything,” Taylor said to him when they were all standing back admiring the finished tree. “Oh and um, Adam, I wasn’t entirely truthful when I said I wasn’t missing a traditional Christmas at home. ‘Cause all of this…is pretty amazing.”
She said exactly what he was thinking, but he refrained from saying those words as she smiled warmly at him.
“Let’s grab our coats, honey,” Adam told Brooke.
“I’ll get them!” Brooke ran into the dining room where they’d hung their coats on the backs of the chairs.
“I love this tree,” Taylor said when they were alone. She wasn’t just smiling at this point, but practically beaming as she spoke. “And I really love that you and Brooke were here to decorate it with me.”
Adam stepped closer to her. He pushed the strands of hair that were brushing against her cheek away. Her skin was so soft, her brown eyes even prettier up close than he’d imagined. “I’m more pleased with the smile that tree has put on your face,” he admitted.
Brooke returned with their coats at that moment and Adam stepped away from Taylor. After getting her coat on, Brooke hugged Taylor. “We’ll see you tomorrow,” she said happily.
Adam waved at her as they walked out the door, moving down her driveway already thinking about exactly what Brooke had just said—seeing Taylor tomorrow.
Chapter Twelve
The next day, it was back to work on the gingerbread house. Everything was going according to the plan Taylor had mapped out. As she looked at how far they’d come with the frame matching her plans and all the gingerbread baked and cut into the precise size sheets they needed, she felt like happy-dancing around the exhibit stage. Of course she didn’t do that. It would not be appropriate for her team to see their manager goofing off in that way. But she was humming Christmas carols as she moved around checking all their supplies for today’s work.
A loud thump caught her attention and she looked around to see if someone on her team had fallen or broken something. Thankfully it wasn’t their team, but someone on the teachers’ team. The frame they’d cut and nailed together for their chimney had fallen to the floor. One of the teachers—the one with the long braids and great boots who usually came early in the morning and in the evenings to work—stomped her foot and groaned as she looked down at the mess.
Even though they were the competition, Taylor felt a tinge of sadness, because she would be livid if something like that happened to them. Ready to resume her work, she glanced over to the other side of the stage and saw that Bradford and Annabelle had watched what happened as well. The look on their faces wasn’t nearly as sympathetic as Taylor felt and she immediately frowned.
She had no idea when Bradford had changed, but since going over to Crestford, he hadn’t been the same cheerful and helpful guy she’d gone to school with. Truth be told, there’d always been a spark of friendly competition between the two of them. That spark just ignited into a full-blown flame once he switched companies. But this was a competition and everyone entered was here to win.
“Careful,” she said to Adam while holding sketches of what the final house would look like in her hand. “A sugar plum dropped from that height could put someone in a sugar coma.”
She was keeping things light with him now. After last night when they’d been standing by the tree he and Brooke had bought for her and she’d sworn he wanted to kiss her—a kiss she would’ve definitely welcomed—Taylor knew she had to take a step back. Not only were they working together, which could cause all kinds of problems if they were to become romantically involved, but she’d given up on long-term relationships.
She’d told him that over sandwiches in his dining room a few days ago. And she’d reminded herself more than once a day since then.
“Good point,” Adam replied. “I’ll be careful. Royal icing works like glue.”
Josephine and David were watching and doing the same thing as Adam—painting the royal icing onto the beams where they would be hanging the gingerbread.
“How come they call it royal icing? Did a king invent it?” Josephine asked.
“Not exactly, but when the bakers were making Queen Victoria’s wedding cake they used icing and confection sugar. That’s when they found out how strong this stuff really is,” Adam told them.
While they talked, Taylor glanced again toward Annabelle and Bradford’s team. They hadn’t begun hanging their gingerbread yet, but this time she was thinking more about the man she’d seen with Annabelle a few days ago. The man that Adam had watched so intently. Adam hadn’t said anything about it and she hadn’t asked, but today she was wondering.
“All right, guys, we gotta pick up the pace so we can start decorating,” she said by way of getting herself back on track.
“Hey, Taylor,” Bradford called to her. “Never thought we’d be doing something like this back in architecture school.”
He was right. She never would’ve guessed she’d design a giant gingerbread house.
“That makes two of us. And just like in architecture school, we’re still competing.”
“Well,” Bradford said with a shrug. “May the best team win!”
Adam began talking, drawing Taylor’s attention back to him and their project.
“There’s two things we need before we start decorating,” he said while walking over to her.
“What?”
He smiled. “Inspiration and Brooke.”
Taylor wasn’t totally sure how they were going to find inspiration about their decorating, but she was game for seeing Brooke again. It seemed the little girl had become as much a part of this project as Adam had…and she wasn’t complaining. Not one bit.
Taylor rode in Adam’s truck—something she was getting quite used to doing. They picked up Brooke from the after-school program and then drove to a residential neighborhood bustling with people. Again, she wasn’t sure what was going on, but she’d been trying hard to relax, as Adam was always suggesting. When he parked the truck and stepped out and Brooke followed, Taylor did the same. She immediately put on her gloves and thanked the heavens she’d worn her beret again today. “Why are we here? Are we visiting someone?”
“We come every year,” Brooke offered.
“Lots of people in the city like to visit this neighborhood because they have the biggest and most creative light displays,” Adam explained as they walked across the street with several of those people.
“Wow, that sounds serious.” She’d never heard of this but as she looked around she noticed all the cars pulling up and parking across the street. There were already groups of people walking along the sidewalk of the cul-de-sac, which confirmed that it really was a big deal.
They stepped up onto the sidewalk and began at the end looking at houses on the right side.
“This year’s theme was Vintage Christmas,” Adam said as they walked. “They announced it on the news a couple weeks ago and there were flyers in the local newspaper.”
“Wow. I can’t believe this. Oh look, they have a horse and carriage covered in Christmas lights.” She pointed at the display in one of the large front yards just as the little boy in
the group ahead of them did. She let her arm fall back to her side but continued to stare in awe at the cool display.
Brooke pointed to the next house. “And all of those Santas!”
There must have been at least three dozen vintage Santa light-up statues in the next yard. There was even a Santa in his sleigh with the reindeer on top of a roof.
“Amazing, huh?” Brooke asked while they continued walking.
“Or, the perfect idea to get inspiration. All these lights.” Adam’s tone sounded just as excited as Brooke’s.
Just as excited as Taylor felt. She could not contain her grin and admitted, if only to herself, that she had not experienced this level of happiness and anticipation in a very long time. Way back when she was a young girl, before her parents began moving around. While they hadn’t walked around any neighborhoods looking at the Christmas lights, they had gone caroling with their church. Singing those great Christmas carols while families stood in their doorways and listened had always made Taylor happy.
“Well, what do you see that you would like to add to our gingerbread house?” Adam asked when they’d walked by the next four houses commenting on the different parts of the themes they saw.
Brooke pointed again. “Window boxes.”
“Oh, I like those too,” Taylor replied to Brooke. “So maybe we give the gingerbread house window boxes but with candy canes instead of flowers.”
Brooke happily nodded. “And for lights we string together colored lollipops.”
“You are a natural,” Taylor said. “So how about inside the house?”
“A gingerbread house inside of a gingerbread house,” was Brooke’s quick reply.
Adam agreed. “And a welcome mat, that says ‘Home Very Sweet Home.’”
Taylor glanced at him and whispered, “Perfect.”