Jeff popped another gumdrop into his mouth and grinned at Haley.
Haley fought back a laugh. “I think you’re giving me an impossible job, Laura.”
As Laura exited the dining room, Jeff was already reaching for more marshmallows. Haley swatted his hand away. “You heard Laura: more decorating, less eating of the decorations.”
Laura reappeared just in time with a big tray of cookies. She had brought the round sugar cookies Haley had just made as well as some of her own specialties—sugar cookies in the shape of Christmas trees, stockings, and stars. “This should keep you two busy,” she said as she put the tray down.
Haley’s eyes grew huge. “We don’t have to decorate all of those, do we?”
Laura laughed. “Don’t worry. I’m going to round up some of the rest of the crew to help you while they’re taking turns baking their own cookies.”
Haley let out a sigh of relief.
“I can’t wait to see what you two come up with,” Laura said as she was leaving the room.
Once she was gone, Haley turned to Jeff. “Is this really one of our activities?”
He nodded.
Her eyes narrowed. “Now what are you eating?”
Jeff just shrugged innocently and continued chewing as he handed her a bowl of frosting.
Chapter 22
Jeff picked up one of the stars and handed it to Haley. “You heard Laura. She’s expecting great things from us.”
Haley laughed and handed the star back to him. As she watched him she realized it was happening again. She was having fun. Not wanting to think too much about what that meant, she picked up one of the round sugar cookies. “Well, if you’re wanting to see great things, then I better start with basics. Now, if I remember right, with these Christmas Camp cookies, all I need to do is add some white frosting and some of those candy-cane pieces, right?”
“So, you have been paying attention,” Jeff teased. “You’re right, but it’s not just any frosting. You haven’t tried one yet. One that’s been decorated?”
Haley sighed. “I swear, between you and Gail, I might as well just forget about cutting back on sugar. I’ve been trying to be good.”
Jeff frowned. “But being good is so bad, especially at Christmas. Here, let me show you.” Taking the round sugar cookie from her, he grabbed a knife and dipped it into a bowl of creamy frosting. “One of the secrets is we always use cream-cheese frosting, not just ordinary white frosting for our Christmas Camp cookies.”
“Why is that?”
“Because cream-cheese frosting was my grandpa John’s favorite. He loved carrot cake, mainly because of the cream-cheese frosting so he didn’t see any reason why we shouldn’t also put the same frosting on our Christmas cookies, and he was right! Wait until you try it.”
Haley held out her hand for the cookie.
Jeff laughed. “Not yet! We haven’t even put the other secret ingredient on.”
“Seriously?” Haley threw up her hands and fought to keep from laughing. “How many secret ingredients do you have in these things?”
“Uh, that would be a secret.”
This time Haley didn’t even try to hide her laugh. “Okay, so show me.”
“The trick is to not be stingy with the candy-cane pieces.” He picked up the container of crushed candy-cane pieces. “The more you can fit on the cookie the better, just don’t pile them on top of each other. You need to spread them out, just like this.” When he held up his cookie, Haley could see that almost every inch was covered with the cream-cheese frosting and the candy-cane pieces, without one candy-cane piece overlapping.
“Nicely done,” she said.
“Thank you.” Jeff puffed up his chest, joking around. “I’m sorta the superhero of Christmas cookies.”
“Wait, wait. Is that even a thing?” Haley laughed.
Jeff started laughing, too. “I don’t know. I just made it up. But it could be. It should be. Anyway, now you can try the cookie. See what you think.” He held out his perfectly decorated cookie for her.
Determined to look at the cookie and not into his eyes, Haley inched closer, took a small bite, and shut her eyes, enjoying the way the peppermint flavor added to the taste of the rich cream-cheese frosting. She smiled a slow, satisfied smile.
Jeff was watching her closely. “So, you like it?”
Haley gave him a look. “Does anyone not like these? They’re amazing. Wow!” She took another bite and looked like she was in heaven.
Jeff seemed pleased with her response. “Everyone loves them, so I’m glad you do, too. We have a reputation to uphold and all.”
Haley laughed. “Of course you do, but I don’t think your secret Christmas Camp cookies have much competition. I’ve never tasted anything as good. But now we have a big problem.”
“What?” Jeff asked, looking concerned.
“My sugar addiction is officially back, so you better hide these. Otherwise, I can’t take responsibility for my actions.”
Jeff laughed. “I’ll warn Laura.”
“You better,” Haley said as she took another bite.
Jeff smiled, watching her. “You know I can still remember the first time I decorated cookies with my mom. I was probably around six or seven. She put out all these same bowls on this same table, just like we have here, and she let me do whatever I wanted. There weren’t any rules or any wrong ways, she just told me to decorate from my heart.” When he picked up a bowl of frosting, he smiled, remembering. “So, I ended up with this cookie that was piled so high with frosting you couldn’t even eat it.”
“Because . . . ?” Haley asked.
“Because I really loved frosting.” Jeff laughed. “So, once I got as much frosting as I could onto the cookie, I was so proud, and I gave it to my mom to try.”
Haley covered her mouth with her hand. “Oh no.”
“Oh yes, and you know what? She took the cookie from me like it was the best cookie she had ever seen, and then somehow she managed to take a bite and told me she loved it. I still remember how excited and proud I was.”
“Sounds like she was a wonderful mom.”
“She really was . . .” As Jeff’s voice trailed off, Haley could see the sadness in his eyes. So she picked up a cookie, put a huge mound of frosting on it, and handed it to him. “Your turn.”
Jeff, his eyes still sad, looked confused when he saw all the frosting. “What do you want me to do?”
Haley handed him the bowl of frosting and the knife. “You know what to do.”
Jeff finally got it and added even more frosting to the cookie until it had so much frosting it was about to break. “Yup, this looks like how I remember it. Now what?”
“Uh, take a bite.”
Jeff shook his head. “No way. I’ll be in a sugar coma for a month.”
“But I thought Christmas Camp was all about traditions. This is your tradition, so go for it. Come on. What happened to your Christmas spirit?”
Jeff laughed. “Okay, here it goes.” When he took a big bite and got frosting all over his face, Haley couldn’t stop laughing.
When he passed the crazy-frosting cookie to her, she quickly shook her head and backed away. “Oh no, this is your family tradition not mine. This is all yours, frosting boy. You leave me out of it.”
“Really? You’re going to leave me hanging?” He gave her a mock-serious look. “My mom tried it when I made it.”
“Oh no, you did not just bring your mom into this. Have you no shame?”
“Fine.” Haley made a face, took a big bite, and got more frosting than she did cookie, with most of the frosting covering her nose. “Eww!” she exclaimed. The more she tried to wipe it off, the more frosting she got all over her face.
Laughing, Jeff grabbed a napkin. “Hold still, let me get it.”
“It’s going up my nose.”
This just made Jeff laugh harder. “Come on, I’m trying to help you. Just sit still . . .”
Finally, Haley stopped wiggling around a
nd let Jeff help her. In a few seconds, he had gotten most of the frosting off her face. “You know you’re supposed to eat it, not inhale it.”
“Funny,” Haley said. She was still rubbing her hand over her nose, making sure all the frosting was gone.
Jeff took her hand. “You’re good. You look great.”
For a second Haley’s heart stopped as Jeff held her hand and looked into her eyes. The look was back, she thought. It looked like he wanted to kiss her. Not wanting to risk disappointment a second time, she pulled away and stood up. Flustered, she struggled for something to say and quickly picked up a container of gold sprinkles. “We’re almost out of these.”
“We are?” Jeff looked confused. The container was almost full.
“Well, I mean we’re going to be, because gold sprinkles are my favorite, so I’m going to get some more. I saw some in the pantry earlier. So that’s where I’m going. To the pantry . . .” Haley knew she was babbling but couldn’t shut up, so she rushed off to the kitchen. When she got into the pantry, she shut the door behind her and put both hands up against her racing heart. Breathe, she told herself. Just breathe. She wasn’t sure what was going on. Maybe it was just all in her head, and Jeff didn’t feel the same things she was feeling, but she knew whatever it was, she had to pull herself together. She only had a few days left at Christmas Camp. She was so close to getting everything she ever wanted. Right now what she needed was sprinkles. She just needed to find the sprinkles. She knew she had seen them earlier when she was making the cookies.
So she retraced her steps and found the flour and sugar and that’s when she spotted something else for the first time. A box wrapped like a Christmas present was on the bottom shelf. It looked familiar. She pulled it out to get a closer look. Her eyes widened when she realized it was the same box Ben had put all their computers and cell phones in. She opened it up, and sure enough, it was filled with all their electronics.
Excited, she dug through the box looking for her computer and phone. This was exactly what she needed to get back on track. Work had always calmed and centered her, and she knew she’d feel a lot better and a lot more in control if she could just quickly check her email and make sure there weren’t any fires she needed to put out.
But when she turned on her phone, saw she had six missed text messages, and the last one from Kathy said 911 and to call back immediately, she panicked. It was only ten in the morning. She couldn’t wait all day to call Kathy back. They only used the 911 text when it was a real emergency. So she peeked outside the pantry to make sure the coast was clear and was about to call Kathy when she heard someone enter the kitchen.
“Oh no,” she whispered as she stuffed her phone into her apron and rushed to put the box back. She took a deep breath and hurried out of the pantry, fully expecting to see Laura, but instead found Max. He was sitting in her path, staring at her like he knew what she had done. She pointed a finger at him and then to her lips. “Shhhhhh.”
“Hey, did you get lost in there? Do you need some help?” Jeff’s voice called out from the dining room.
“Coming!” Haley fought to compose herself and walked into the dining room smiling.
“Everything okay?” Jeff asked.
Paranoid, she overcompensated by laughing. “Everything’s great.”
“So where are the sprinkles?”
Haley looked down at her empty hands but refused to panic. “You know I couldn’t find them, but I just remembered I told Gail that I would bring her some . . .” She desperately looked around for something, anything, that could help with her lie. Her eyes landed on a plate of cookies. “. . . Cookies. I told her I’d bring her some cookies. So, I’m gonna go and do that, and I’ll see you later.”
“But we haven’t even started decorating yet,” Jeff called out after her.
Haley didn’t answer and just picked up her pace. By the time she got to her room, she was already calling Kathy on FaceTime. Kathy picked up almost immediately. She looked stressed out.
“Finally,” she said. “I’ve been trying to call you all morning.”
Haley looked into the phone, equally stressed. “I’m sorry. I know. But they take away our phones in the morning. So, what’s going on? I only have a few minutes. I stole my phone, and I can’t get caught.”
“So you haven’t checked your emails this morning either? You didn’t get Larry’s email?” Kathy asked.
Haley started pacing around her room. “No. I haven’t gotten anything, yet. So, what’s going on? Just tell me.”
“The Tyler Toys pitch just got moved up. You have to pitch the day you come back to work.”
“What? That’s impossible. I’ll never be ready.”
“It has something to do with the Tyler Toys execs. I don’t know the whole story but knew you’d want to know. Look, just send me everything you have now, and I’ll get started putting the storyboard together for you and pulling any other visuals you need, videos, or images. Just tell me what you want.”
Panicked, Haley stopped pacing. “I can’t send you anything because I don’t have anything yet, except a few ideas . . .”
“What? What do you mean you have nothing?” Kathy asked, looking freaked out. “What have you been doing there this whole time? You’re at Christmas Camp; isn’t this place supposed to give you all these great ideas?”
“Well, yeah, in theory, but I’ve been so busy with all these Christmas Camp activities they make you do. I mean, Jeff had me chopping down my own Christmas tree, and we had to make snow angels last night, and I just snuck away from him downstairs, where we were decorating Christmas cookies . . .”
Kathy’s eyebrows arched. “Wait, Jeff, the hot guy, the owner’s son? The one you like?”
“I don’t like him!” Haley glared into the phone.
This had Kathy looking even more suspicious. “You so like him. Oh no, what have you done?”
Haley collapsed onto her bed, fell back, and stared up at the ceiling. “I haven’t done anything. I don’t know. It’s a big mess.” She grabbed an angel pillow and put it over her face.
“Does he know how you feel about him?”
Haley pulled the pillow away. “I don’t even know how I feel about him. It might just be all this sentimental Christmas stuff that’s getting to me. But I promise you, nothing has happened.”
“Yet,” Kathy said.
“Yet,” Haley agreed. “I need help, Kathy, I really do. Forget about Jeff. I need help with this campaign pitch. I don’t know what I’m going to do.”
Kathy took a deep breath. “Okay, we just need to calm down. I’m sure you’re just tired and freaking out. I know it’s hard to come up with a brilliant idea when you’re so stressed out, and whatever is happening with this guy, I’m sure, isn’t helping.”
“I told you,” Haley said, her voice full of determination. “Nothing’s happening with Jeff. I won’t let it.”
“Okay, good. So look,” Kathy said. “You still have a couple of days. I’ve seen you create entire campaigns in a few hours. You got this. Just try to relax, and stay away from anything or anyone who is stressing you out, and if this Jeff guy is a distraction—”
“I know, I need to stay away from him.”
“Exactly, and you know I’m all about romance and hot guys, but as your friend, I’m telling you, you’ve worked too hard to let anything get in your way of this promotion. So, you know what to do.”
Haley stood up. “I do.” She assumed the position. Her superhero power-pose position. “Thanks for the pep talk. I got this. I can do this, and I will do this! The Tyler Toys account is mine.”
Kathy grinned into the phone. “Now, that’s the Haley I recognize! Go get ’em!”
“I’m on it!”
“Oh, and you’ve something on your nose; it looks like . . .”
Haley wiped her nose again. “Frosting . . .”
A knock on the bedroom door interrupted them. Haley covered her mouth with her hand and then whispered, “I gotta go.
Someone’s at the door . . .” She then held a finger to her lips so Kathy wouldn’t say anything, waved, and hung up quickly.
“Haley, it’s Jeff . . .”
She frantically stuffed her phone back into her apron pocket and hurried to get the door. She tried to act as normal as possible when she opened it and saw Jeff standing there.
“Hey, what’s up?” she asked. She hated that her voice sounded a little too high.
Jeff looked concerned. “Is everything okay?”
She faked a smile. “Everything’s great.”
He held up a plate of cookies. “You said you needed to take cookies to Gail, but you didn’t take any, so I brought these up for you.”
Haley quickly took the cookies and put them on her dresser. “Thanks.”
Jeff peered inside her room. “Were you just talking to someone? I thought I heard someone else?”
Haley could feel herself start to sweat. She shook her head. “No, no one’s here. Just me.” She grabbed the plate of cookies. “I should get these to Gail. Thanks for—” But before she could finish, her phone rang. She froze. She then turned around slowly to face Jeff, and the incredulous look on his face made her cringe. Without a word, she gave him the plate of cookies, reached into her pocket, and took out her phone. It was Kathy calling back. She quickly turned it off and looked back up at Jeff. “I can explain . . .”
She was fully expecting Jeff to be furious, but when she looked into his eyes, it was much worse. He didn’t look angry. He looked disappointed. Before she could say anything more, he had already started walking away. Haley hurried to catch up to him. She held out her phone.
“I really can explain. It was a work emergency. See! Look at my text, right here. It says 911. I was in the pantry looking for the sprinkles when I found my phone and thought—”
Jeff stopped and turned around. “And thought what? That you’d just take it and then lie about it? If you had a real work emergency, you could have just told me. You’re not in jail here, but instead you just lied about it. What else are you lying about? Why should I even believe this story? Maybe you’ve had your phone all along.”
Christmas Camp Page 18