Chapter 30 Gabriel
GAbrIEL
“Sunshine, I think winning this competition is going to be harder than we thought.”
Lily paused icing one of the sides of the gingerbread house and looked up at me, brows furrowing. “Why?”
I blinked and then gestured around the room filled with screaming children. Happy screams, but screams, nonetheless. “Uh, because we’re competing against a bunch of kids who are building skyscrapers, dragons, and god knows what else with their gingerbread.”
The gingerbread house making competition was in a small assembly room within the town hall, which was one of the buildings off Main Street.
There were three plastic tables covered with red tablecloths set up for the competition.
On the tables was everything we needed: gingerbread, icing packets, and plenty of edible candy decorations.
At least I assumed the candy was edible…
I had no idea how long it’d been packaged or if someone would break their tooth on one of the gumdrops.
Lily raised her brows, an amused smirk forming on her lips. “Sounds like we need to get more creative. Channel some of your Grinch energy into inspiration.”
I huffed a laugh and shook my head, picking up a gingerbread piece with one hand and the bag of icing in the other. “Funny,” I deadpanned. “What do I do next? You seem to like bossing me around.”
“I do. It’s becoming one of my favorite activities,” Lily chirped, attaching the final piece to finish off the base of our house.
She then turned her attention toward me.
“You’ll want to put icing on the two shorter sides, attach it to the base, and then do the same with another piece to make the roof. ”
On our walk over, I’d shared with Lily that I’d never made a gingerbread house.
When she heard that, Lily was determined to make sure I had the best and most festive experience.
So far, it hadn’t been too bad. Dare I say I was enjoying myself…
but that was likely more due to the company than what we were doing.
Once we had the house built, it was time for decorating. A few moments into adding various chocolates onto our house, we heard our names called out.
“Lily! Gabe!” Tiffany’s daughter Maddie came running over, waving wildly, with Tiffany trying to keep up with her. “I was hoping I’d see you! Oooh, a gingerbread house. Can I help?” she asked sweetly, looking between us and her mom.
“Honey, remember we were going to grab two of the kits to go so we could make them with your brother at home,” Tiffany said to her daughter before looking over at us with a warm smile. “Good to see you both. Merry Christmas.”
“Please, Mommy?”
Tiffany tried to hide her smile, and she looked over at us, trying to gauge if we didn’t mind Maddie joining.
“We do need some help decorating,” I offered with a shrug.
Tiffany rolled her lips and nodded, a gentle laugh leaving her. Meanwhile, Maddie looked up at her mom with the biggest puppy dog eyes possible.
“Okay, ten minutes, and then we’re heading home. Do we have a deal?” Tiffany said to her daughter.
“Yes!” Maddie jumped, clapping her hands. She then turned her attention toward our house. “Can we add a unicorn? Oooh, what if we made the house into a unicorn!” she exclaimed with wide eyes.
Lily and I looked at each other with a grin. “That’s a wonderful idea, Maddie,” Lily said. “Where should we begin?”
I wasn’t sure how we were going to turn a gingerbread house into a unicorn, but luckily, Maddie had a vision.
As a team, we frosted the sides of the house and added eyes to the front and a horn to the top that was decorated solely with pink M&Ms. Maddie’s hands got messy with frosting pretty quickly…
which she then got on her face and hair, but hey, that didn’t stop her from directing us on what to do next.
“It looks soooo pretty!” Maddie beamed.
“You’re a good project manager, Maddie,” I complimented. “We couldn’t have done this without you.”
Maddie tilted her head to the side. “What’s a project…” She trailed off, twisting her lips as her brain worked on how to pronounce the word.
“A project manager is someone who plans and organizes how to do something. They assign tasks to other people on their team and make sure the project is done on time.”
Maddie nodded slowly, taking in the words but not quite understanding.
I tried again. “Like how you told me to work on the front of the house while you and Lily decorated the unicorn horn. Then we all worked on the roof together.”
Understanding dawned on Maddie’s face, and she nodded. “I liked how we all worked together! This is the most fun I’ve ever had building a gingerbread house.” Maddie looked between us. “Did you have fun, Gabe?”
“The most fun,” I responded without giving it a second thought, and it was true.
There was something about the complete and utter joy on Maddie’s face as we brought her vision to life that warmed my heart.
Not only that, but the screams and squeals from the surrounding kids warmed my heart, too.
It was clear how much fun they were having.
I looked first at Maddie and then shifted my gaze to Lily, locking eyes with her, trying to convey without words that I had fun because of her. As if she read my mind, Lily’s expression softened.
“What about you, Lily?” Maddie turned and gently tugged on Lily’s coat to get her attention.
Lily looked down at the little girl. “I had the most fun, too. I’m so glad you were able to help us. We wouldn’t have been able to do it without you, Maddie.”
“I heard there’s some gingerbread houses for me to take a look at,” a low, booming voice sounded from the entry way.
A chorus of “Santa!” and squeals rung through the room, bouncing off the walls.
In came Hal dressed in a classic crimson Santa suit with a hat, black boots, and beard.
I shook my head with an amused laugh, bringing my hand up to cover the shit-eating smile I had on my face. “Does he do this every year?” I asked Lily, keeping my voice low so none of the kids would hear.
“Duh, it’s Santa. That’s kind of his thing,” she teased with a twinkle in her eye but then shook her head.
“Only for the last couple of years. He tries to keep busy during the holidays.” What Lily didn’t say but that was implied was that this had been since Vera’s passing.
“Because he’s Hal, one of his favorite ways to stay busy is bringing a smile to people’s faces. ”
I looked around, and that’s the only expression I saw. Kids, parents, and community members were grinning at the sight of not only Hal but how excited and happy the kids were, including Maddie, who had run up to Hal with her mom following behind.
When Hal looked out into the crowd and spotted me and Lily, his beard-covered smile only widened, followed by a wink.
“It means a lot to him that you’re here,” Lily said softly, and I nodded.
“It means a lot to me, too. It’s been”—I looked over at Lily, the corner of my mouth tipping up as I tried to diffuse some of the emotional tension that was building in my chest—“the most wonderful time of the year.”
She gasped, her eyes wide as she leaned over to grab my arm. “Did…did Mr. Grinch himself quote a classic Christmas song?”
“Maybe I did. What’re you gonna do about it?”
Lily didn’t need any time for her witty response. “Tease you incessantly.”
I playfully narrowed my eyes at her. “You were going to do that anyway.”
She innocently shrugged before turning her attention back to Hal and the kids. I did the same but not before setting my hand over hers and giving it a squeeze.
Not long after that did Hal—ahem, Santa—judge the various gingerbread houses. We didn’t place in the top three, but we won “best teamwork.”
Turned out, Lily and I worked better together than I realized. I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or if it meant I was completely and utterly fucked.