by Lacey Baker
An hour and a half later he was standing in the bakery’s kitchen sliding in his first batch of new, thicker, gingerbread. By seven-thirty he had more batches finished and cooling on the racks when he heard Taylor tapping on the front door.
He greeted her with a smile. “Good morning, Future Ice Skating champ.”
She chuckled. “Good morning, Future Bakery Owner.”
Adam’s smile grew wider at those words, and when he closed and locked the door behind her he thought again of the idea regarding his future he’d had earlier. He would find some time to implement it later today.
“I made some hot cocoa. Let me get you a cup,” he told her and moved to the kitchen.
She took off her coat and followed him back.
“I finally bought something else besides cup of noodles from the grocery store and actually made myself a cup of cocoa last night.” She sounded very proud of herself.
But when Adam turned to her with the two glasses of the hot frothy drink she grinned while shaking her head.
“Mine didn’t look like that.”
“And I bet it didn’t taste as good either. This is made with the best cocoa powder and fresh vanilla, plus the extra whipped cream on top makes it divine,” he said.
They walked back out to the front of the shop and sat at one of the tables. Taylor grabbed her designs and spread them out. He didn’t waste a minute, but pulled the pencil from his apron pocket and began looking at them. Taylor picked up her cup and sipped.
She groaned, and Adam looked up at her to see her close her eyes while savoring the taste.
“This is magnificent,” she told him with her tiny whipped cream mustache.
He didn’t tell her it was there mainly because he liked how cute she looked with it. Instead he returned his attention to the design.
“I think it’s totally doable. And it won’t take a lot of work to redesign the frame. All we need to do is change up the booth, add the flower boxes and go with bricks. What do you think?” she asked after a few more sips of cocoa.
“I like it,” he said while checking out the lines and angles of the roof. “How did you come up with the very traditional and Christmassy design?”
The quick knowing look followed by her warm smile said she recalled him saying those same words to her the first day they’d looked at her sketches. “Actually, I dug up a sketch I made when I was little and kind of went from there. Call it inspiration.”
“Really? You still have your old sketches?”
She nodded. “My mom started this scrapbook for me so that I’d remember all our travels together. There are photos of me everywhere doing all kinds of things. The pictures I drew are peppered in. I found one that I’d drawn when I was eight. I’d given it to my mom when we moved into our new house, and she’d kept it hanging on the refrigerator for a while. We were only there for ten months before we moved again, but that very next Christmas she pulled the picture out and put it on the refrigerator in our next house. And then every year after that, no matter where we were, I would hang my stocking and my mom would hang my picture on the refrigerator.”
Adam smiled because she was smiling, a sharp contrast from the worried look she’d been wearing yesterday.
“Seems like your family traditions and the holiday spirit are coming back to you,” he said.
“I guess so,” she replied. “So what do you think?”
“I love it.” There wasn’t a moment of hesitation or doubt. “But I thought you were committed to doing something cutting edge?”
“Well, it won’t be the design Linda asked for. But she’ll be cheering the loudest when we win.”
“Then we’d better get to work. I’ve already started a few batches but we’re gonna need a lot more.”
Hours later they were still at the bakery. Ray and a few other staff members had come in and they were doing the normal business of the day. Adam had just put four more trays up to cool and Taylor was in the kitchen working at the table wearing a bakery apron just like the rest of the staff.
“All right, I will get this rolled out and cut it into bricks,” she told Adam just as Ray came in.
Adam nodded his agreement and went to stand by Ray to see what he wanted.
“She caught on to baking pretty quick,” he whispered to Ray who had been watching Taylor from the doorway until he finally decided to come in.
Now Ray turned his back to where Taylor was working. Adam did the same. “And how are things going outside of the kitchen?” Ray asked.
“Well, we had a big setback, but we have a new plan for the house,” Adam replied.
“I wasn’t talking about the gingerbread house. I mean how are things going with Taylor?”
Adam didn’t want to answer that question. Instead, he shook his head and elbowed Ray playfully. Ray laughed and walked away.
Adam went back to do what he did best. He and Taylor worked with the practiced rhythm they’d developed over the past few days, moving around each other and doing exactly what needed to be done when it needed to be done. He wasn’t joking when he said she’d caught on quickly. She knew how to mix the batter, roll out the dough and cut it exactly the way they needed it cut. She’d mastered the timing so that they had no more burned batches as well. And by four o’clock that afternoon they had enough bricks cooled to get started putting up the frame and decorating.
When they took the last batch out of the oven Adam caught Taylor doing a happy dance move. He joined her and they laughed together like long lost friends or possibly something more.
Later that afternoon, ll of their volunteers were finally gathered on the exhibit stage again, and they began assembling the new gingerbread bricks. Ray even agreed to have another staff member from the bakery bring over the remaining bricks that were still baking and cooling so that Adam and Taylor would not have to run back and forth.
“David and I will start with the roof,” Adam announced. “You work on the icing while Josephine and Wendy get the bricks up for the walls.”
Taylor gave a mock salute and turned to see Brooke right beside her.
“I’m ready to get to work so we can start decorating,” she said.
Taylor smiled. “I am too.”
“Okay, there are some pastry bags over there. You two fill them up and bring them over to us,” Adam instructed them.
When neither responded he looked back to see that Taylor had begun stirring one of the tubs of icing and Brooke had poked a finger into the tub bringing it up to her mouth to taste. His little girl rubbed her belly and said, “Yum!”
Taylor grinned and mimicked Brooke’s action, but she wasn’t as fast and as she brought her finger to her mouth icing dripped onto her chin and down the front of her sweater. The two of them laughed, but the sight made Adam think of the first day he and Taylor met at her office when he’d smudged icing on her plans and that same icing had somehow ended up on her face. The memory warmed him as much as seeing her and his daughter so easily bonding.
“This is going to be a great contest,” David said to Adam when they were close to each other lining the bricks up in preparation for the icing. “Have you done them before?”
“No, this isn’t usually my type of event, but I have to admit I’m having fun.”
“Me too. I thought I’d be trapped in the office for the next few weeks making coffee or running errands, but this is so much better.” The guy sounded so young and enthusiastic.
Adam recalled his meeting with Nick Brexley months ago—the meeting that hadn’t gone the way he had planned—and wondered if he’d sounded young and enthusiastic like David. In the midst of everything else going on, he’d tried not to think too much about seeing Nick and Annabelle together, but in the back of his mind it felt as if that union meant the door was permanently closed as far as getting Nick to invest in him again.
“And Taylor
’s so good. I was happy when I found out I’d be working with her. The way she turned this design around so fast is miraculous,” David continued.
“Yeah.” Giving himself a mental shake, Adam agreed. “She is pretty fabulous.”
He looked over his shoulder again and saw Taylor and Brooke carrying three pastry bags full of icing. Brooke delivered her bag to the side where Josephine and Wendy were working while Taylor walked toward him. The way his stomach went all jittery watching her coming toward him, Adam would have thought he was watching her walk down the aisle with a bouquet in hand on her way to take her wedding vows. The thought made him a little lightheaded, and when he turned to step down off the ladder, he did a little wobble.
“Oh, wait a minute, I got you,” Taylor said coming up beside him and wrapping her free hand around his waist.
Adam steadied himself and avoided putting all of his weight on her, but he did look into her face and consider if this wasn’t some type of fate in play.
Whatever it was left him feeling extremely embarrassed. “Sorry about that.”
She shook her head. “Oh no, it’s the least I could do for as many times as I fell all over you yesterday at the ice skating rink.”
He nodded. “Yeah, I forgot about that.”
“Here’s your icing,” she told him. “I can stand here to be on guard just in case you get wobbly again.”
She was joking. He could see that twinkle that appeared in her eyes when she was amused.
“I think I’m better now,” he announced and with the pastry bag in hand turned back to the ladder.
“Okay, well, don’t say I didn’t offer my help.”
“Your help is getting more of those pastry bags filled. We’re going to need lots of icing to get this house set up.”
Taylor went back to work, and Adam did his very best to focus on the building of this gingerbread house and not the feelings for Taylor that were slowly, but surely, taking hold of him.
A few hours later they had the entire front half of the house up, icing was piped through the crease of each brick, the white mixing with the dark red bricks of the roof. Taylor and Brooke had even started piping some of the white icing decorations onto the front of the house and assembling the window boxes.
“What number should it be?” Adam asked when he held the address block that Brooke had glued green and white gumdrops around.
“What’s the number of the house you grew up in?” Taylor asked in reply.
“Twenty-seven.”
She nodded. “Then that’s the address.”
“Cool.”
Adam went to the back of the house where the tables holding their extra bricks and other decorations were set up. He cut out the numbers 2 and 7 and used more icing to stick them to the address block. Taylor was still working at the front of the house when he returned and she stood back to watch him assemble it.
“All right,” she said when he was done. “We may have missed half a day, but we are almost on track. Tomorrow we’re going to have to pick up the pace.”
Adam nodded. “Works for me. Brooke, honey, it’s time to go. We’re going to give Taylor a lift home.” Adam looked back at Taylor. “And there’s something we want to show you on the way.”
It was an impromptu idea, but it was something he was certain she would like.
“You have to cover your eyes,” Brooke said the moment Taylor stepped out of the truck.
“What? Is she for real?” she asked Adam.
He was coming around from the driver’s side of the truck. “Yes. Totally for real. Cover your eyes.” He reiterated that direction as if he thought his words were even more convincing. And when she didn’t immediately comply, he lifted her gloved hands up, positioning them in front of her eyes.
Her laughter did nothing to decrease the nervous curiosity now bubbling inside. There was a call for snow tonight and her plan had been to get home before it started. Now, she was standing outside with her hands covering her eyes in a place that had looked like a park or some kind of gathering place when they pulled up.
“Now come on, we’ll help you.”
He held onto one of her arms, while Brooke took the other.
“Okay, if you say so.” Taylor decided to trust them and took the first tentative steps.
It was bitterly cold—perfect for any snowfall to stick and accumulate. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if this year there was a white Christmas in Philadelphia?
“I don’t know what you two have up your sleeves this time.” She had to say something because she was feeling pretty anxious right now, and she really wanted them to hurry up and tell her what was going on.
When the only response that came was a giggle from Brooke, Taylor really didn’t know what to expect.
“All right, don’t tell me. I guess I’ll find out soon enough.”
A few steps later they stopped walking and Brooke said, “Okay. Open.”
Taylor let her hands fall from her face and was amazed by what she saw. Snow from the previous snowfall seemed almost untouched here, except for the pathway in front of them. The white blanket stretched along the sides where only a few leafless trees now stood with twinkle lights hugging their branches. Lanterns lined the pathway that stretched another twenty or so feet ahead and at the end was a structure that looked like the frame of a chapel. More lights hung all around the frame with a huge wreath in its center. Six different size trees stood in the front of the structure, two of them decorated in all gold, two decorated in all red and the biggest two decorated in red, gold and green. There was a bench inside of the structure and outside to the left were life-size wire reindeers covered in more lights.
“What is this?” Taylor asked unable to mask the awe in her voice.
“It’s a landing strip for Santa’s reindeer and sleigh,” Brooke replied.
Adam chimed in. “Each year the city uses this part of the park as its way of making sure that even if there’s a blizzard Santa can find us. It’s one of our biggest holiday attractions.”
“And it always works. I’ve even seen a reindeer’s print in the snow when we come here on Christmas Day,” Brooke added.
“Is that so?” Taylor had never seen anything like this before. It was such a unique and pleasant idea.
“Come on. I’ll show you where you can leave a snack for the reindeer in case they get hungry.” Brooke walked ahead of them and Taylor looked at Adam.
“Okay,” she agreed when he didn’t say anything.
He did reach for her hand, and she accepted it before stepping up onto the walkway. They moved gingerly down the path just as they had when she was on the ice skates last night.
Before they could get to the framed area, Brooke turned to Taylor.
“Let’s go over here to see if anyone has left any snacks yet. Sometimes they start to leave them well before Christmas. But Jordan said that other people might take them if you put them down too early and then the reindeer might starve. So let’s just check and see,” she said as she walked to the left.
Taylor and Adam followed Brooke to a trough made of cinderblocks that had been built right beside a tree behind the lighted reindeer.
“Nope, no snacks yet,” Brooke reported.
Taylor moved in closer to see that she was right. There was nothing in the trough except a thin layer of leftover snow.
“Well, we don’t have long for Christmas now, so I guess that means we’d better come back in a couple of days to leave some snacks,” she said.
Brooke nodded enthusiastically. “Right!”
“When I was a little girl I used to leave cookies and milk for Santa to eat while he was at the house. And then I’d also draw him a picture of me playing with all the gifts I’d asked him for to take with him because I wanted him to always be reminded of how happy his gifts made me.” The memory came clearly, leaving her brea
thless with that giddy excitement children held at Christmastime.
“I used to wonder if Santa would be able to find me since we moved around so much,” she continued. “But each time I left the cookies and milk I woke up in the morning and saw that not only had he found me but that he’d also taken the picture I left for him.”
“Santa loooves Daddy’s cookies, but this year we’re going to leave him brownies too. With lots of walnuts.” Brooke giggled as she glanced at Adam. “There are never any cookies left when I get up on Christmas morning, so this year we’ll see if he likes the brownies, too.”
Taylor also looked at Adam, who grinned mischievously.
“So what do you think?” he asked her.
“I think this is pretty amazing,” she replied honestly, knowing deep in her heart that she wasn’t only talking about Santa’s Landing. As if on cue, fluffy flakes of snow began to fall.
“It’s snowing! Yay, it’s snowing!” Brooke said and tilted her head back before sticking out her tongue to catch the flakes. She was twirling around catching all the snowflakes she could while Adam and Taylor stood there alone.
Was she watching a movie? How could this feel so perfect? The words tumbled out as her chest constricted and pleasure pulsed through her veins.
“Adam, I just want to thank you.”
“For what?”
She was staring up at him now, unable to hide the smile that seemed so natural whenever they were together. “For the first time in a while, I feel like I’m home for Christmas.”
He closed the space between them reaching out a hand to brush snowflakes from her hair. “I’m glad,” he whispered.
When his other hand came up to frame her face, Taylor moved in to him and Adam leaned in touching his lips ever so lightly to hers.
“It’s snowing! It’s snowing!”