Chapter 20
Chapter Twenty
MATTHEW
“It’s a little dramatic, don’t you think?” I ask, my eyes glued to the gazebo in front of me.
Two couples stand huddled together, hands clasped as Cal and McKenzie stand in front of them, wide smiles on their faces. If this was anything other than a Christmas competition, they would almost look like they were enjoying snuffing out the candles inside the lanterns.
“I mean, did you really expect anything different?” Avery whispers back. “I mean, this whole town sorta feeds on dramatics.”
“I guess not.”
Cal continues to rattle on about the intensity of the games and how, while unfortunate, there needs to be eliminators in order to crown the winners.
“In the spirit of Christmas, I would like to think this isn’t an extinguishing of light, but rather a way to allow those remaining to burn brighter.
By the end of the week, one lantern will remain, burning brighter than ever. ”
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I murmur under my breath. Or maybe, I only think I do.
An older couple in front of me that I vaguely recognize turns around and shushes me, their stern looks letting me know I wasn’t as quiet as I thought.
Avery snickers beside me, earning glares of her own.
“Sorry,” she says, trying—and failing—to appear serious.
The couple glares a little longer before turning around in time to see the biggest metal candle snuffer I’ve ever seen appear in Cal’s hands.
Like a winterized Vanna White in her light pink ski jacket, white trim, and boots that eat up most of her legs, McKenzie opens the first door, standing to the side and waving her free hand underneath the hanging lantern, making sure everyone knows which couple is the first to be eliminated.
I resist the urge to bite my clenched fist as the need to laugh is overpoweringly strong, but I can’t risk being another distraction.
Avery bumps into me slightly, showing she’s fighting the urge just as much as I am.
“Trish and Everett,” Cal continues, holding up the laughably oversized snuffer, the cover barely fitting through the lantern door. “Please don’t see this as an end for your love, just for your journey in this year’s Yuletide Games.”
With that, he reaches the cover in and extinguishes the light, before moving to the next one, leaving the downhearted looking couple alone on their side of the gazebo.
“Oliver and Sasha,” Cal declares as McKenzie rushes over to find her new place, stumbling slightly as she stops abruptly, making sure to steer clear of the snuffer.
“The extinguishing of your candle does not dim the light of your love. Please take your light and continue to shine throughout Gingerbread Grove.”
Avery’s eyes flash open as our gazes meet. She silently mouths, “Is he for real?”
I shrug, biting my lip.
Must. Not. Laugh.
“Hey, do you want to sneak away before the snowman competition starts?” Avery whispers, her eyes focused on the older couple in front of us, seemingly to make sure we don’t draw their attention again.
“It’s going to start in a few minutes,” I answer, watching in an almost curious horror as members of the town counsel remove the lanterns and carry them in a procession down the gazebo’s steps. “You know what? A few minutes away might be a good idea.”
“They’re only missing the dark cloaks,” Avery chuckles, grabbing my hand as she leads me through the crowds.
“Don’t give them ideas,” I joke.
“Maybe they need to watch some more ‘White Christmas’ and less ‘It’s a Wonderful Life.’”
“You’re not joking.”
Reaching the edge of the crowd, I link our hands more firmly together before turning to her, watching Cal and McKenzie shaking hands and laughing with members of the crowd over Avery’s head.
“So, I need your opinion,” Avery starts, giving my hand a squeeze.
“If it has to do with lanterns or cookies with ginger, you’re out of luck.”
“Oh no, I was hoping you would help me bake lantern shaped cookies for our gingerbread house entry.” Avery replies dramatically.
“Only as long as we include a book cookie snuffer,” I joke back.
Avery laughs and her eyes twinkle in the fading light.
“While I do feel like we need to incorporate this into our design if we make it that far, it’s not what I wanted to ask you.
I was wondering if you could help me get a 3D printer to make some items to put into the baskets for our families.
I don’t even know if it’s possible this close to Christmas… ”
“What sort of items?” I shift to block out the scene in front of me.
For the first time since we met—other than the ride from the airport, that is—Avery has asked me for something. All week she’s dropped her life for me, and now I feel a sense of pride—and relief—that there’s something I can do for her.
“I was thinking of starting simple. Cookie cutters, ornaments, maybe some small decorations. I know there’s only a couple of days…”
“Leave it with me,” I say with a smile. “Okay?”
“Okay,” she says with a smile back at me. Not just any smile. Her smile. Her smile for me.
“Contestants, take your positions for The Frosty Showdown!” Trevor’s voice echoes through the square as it comes out of the speakers.
“I guess it’s our time.” The words come out of my mouth, but there’s no actual intention behind them. Instead, I stand with my hand linked with hers, gazing into her beautiful blue eyes.
“So, what’s his deal? Is he gunning for Cal’s job as mayor? Is he his lackey? Like head elf to a power-hungry Santa?”
I don’t hold back my laugh this time; every one of her suggestions is more ridiculous than the last. “No, or at least I don’t think so. From what he tells me, he’s just on the counsel and volunteered to help run things since Cal and McKenzie decided to enter so last minute.”
She tilts her head. “Last minute? How last minute?”
“I, uh, don’t know.”
“Hmm.” She puts a finger from her free hand to her lips, tapping as she looks off into the distance.
“Last call for all contestants! Any late entries will be automatically eliminated,” Trevor announces.
“We don’t want to be eliminated!” Avery exclaims.
“Or, this is our easy out,” I reply.
“Matthew! You can’t be serious!” She playfully whacks me on my chest. “We have to win this!”
“I don’t think a simple snowman is going to win this, anyway.”
“Oh, there will not be anything ‘simple’ about our snowman, I promise you.”
My eyebrows draw together. “How…?”
“Leave it with me. Okay?” She repeats my words back to me.
“Okay.”
Even though I have a hard time blindly following someone, I know that with Avery, I’m going to be okay.
“Are you sure this is what you planned?” I stand back, observing the mound of snow Avery is packing together.
“Trust me, this is exactly what I want it to be.”
My foot hovers above the ground, frozen in indecision of whether continuing would be a good idea or not. We’ve been packing snow for half an hour, and while everyone else’s entry looks more like the classic frozen mascot, we still resemble a snow pile.
“Can you do me a favour and pass me the wooden dowels in the bag over there?” she asks, her hand waving at a blue shopping bag to her right.
Crossing the snow-covered path, I reach down and rifle through the contents. “I don’t see any dowels. Just a lot of fabric.”
Brightly coloured felt-like fabric that doesn’t resemble anything that would go on a snowman.
“Are you sure?” she asks, brushing the snow off of her gloved hands.
I look again, feeling through the fabric. “No, nothing like that in here.”
She appears at my side, looking through the bag with me. “I know I put them in here. The same with the pinecones and painted rocks. They’re just…gone.” Her voice is laced with bewilderment as she looks around the ground, retracing her steps back to where the bag was on the ground.
“I’m sure they’re here somewhere,” I add reassuringly, although I can’t see where they would be.
“I put the bags at the side of the gazebo while they were doing the lantern…I don’t even know what to call that. And then I picked it back up right after we came here. I’m sure I put it all in there. I checked it twice.”
“Just like a good elf,” I add with a smirk.
She stops searching and looks up at me with a sigh and a smile. “Yes, it’s what we elves are trained for,” she chuckles. “You know what? It’s fine. We’ve got this. We can still make the best snowginger Gingerbread Grove has ever seen.”
“A…what?”
“Gingersnow? Snowgingerman?” she whispers, taking a step closer to me and looking around, making sure no one can hear. “I haven’t worked out the name yet.”
“Okaaaay,” I reply, drawing out the word. “And what is that, exactly?”
“A gingerbread man made out of snow, of course.”
“Of course,” I repeat back, bewildered. For the first time since picking her up outside the airport, I question the situation I’ve found myself in. She might as well be speaking some secret elf language with the words that she’s saying right now. “And how are we doing this?”
“We’re just going to have to make do with that we have. You’re right, I’m an elf and we elves make the best of any situation.” She stands up straighter, turning to me with a mischievous look on her face. “And being my partner makes you an honorary elf.”
Holding up my hands in surrender, I take a step back. “Woah, I don’t know about that.”
“Come on, have faith and a little Christmas cheer.” She takes one of my hands, lacing her fingers with mine, and pulls me back over to our snow mound. She lowers her voice as she tucks herself into my side. “It’s going to be a gingerbread man jumping out of a present box.”
“You said your design wasn’t that complicated.”
“It’s not…not really. I mean, not compared to what I could have come up with if I had more time.” She turns back to the mound. “How much time do we have left?”
I look down at my watch. “An hour.”
“Oh no,” she gasps. “We have to get to work. Why don’t you go look for branches that I can use to prop up the arms and I’ll finish the present box.”
“That’s what we’ve been building!”
“Shhh,” she hushes. “We can’t let anyone in on this.”