Page 73 of When in December
Was this Aaron Hayes happy?
Wow. And it only took my baking demise.
“Well, it’s a good thing that we aren’t going to eat them,” I said to the kids. “We’re going to be making gingerbread houses. We’re going to cover all the bits with icing and gumdrops if you’d like to participate.”
“And glitter?” Liana lit up, clasping her hands together in front of her heart.
“Absolutely,” I agreed. “All the glitter.”
“I’m going to make a princess castle.”
“All right, but remember, these are the walls we have,” I said, reaching for the radio playing holiday music and turning it up another notch. “This will be a turret-less castle.”
“What’s a turret?”
“A tower, Gavin,” Liana scoffed.
Gavin glared but started to smear icing everywhere.
Liana looked less than impressed, barely noticing her brother’s displeasure. “I’ll just pretend I’m making the castle after a fire.”
That was one way to look at it.
Looking over my shoulder, Aaron stood under the rounded archway leading into the living room. I thought I might’ve caught something there.
Something that looked like a smile.
sixteen
. . .
Aaron
From what Iknew of the homemaker, she was all business.
Only right now, I wasn’t so sure if that assessment was correct.
I watched from the archway to see what the usually uptight homemaker would do. Every step of the way, Poppy managed to surprise me. She had come into the house and got straight to business, pulling the previously irritated Liana off her tablet. Then, she’d corralled the two kids into the kitchen like it was some kind of parade.
Now, there was a mess everywhere. Icing was on faces. Powdered sugar sprinkled the floor like a freshly fallen layer of snow. Would she immediately jump into action with wet wipes and try to wipe it away?
Before I could jump in, not for the first time today, Poppy shocked me.
Poppy opened her mouth wide, as if in horror. But instead of a scream, she laughed.
The laugh was high-pitched and rang with the utmost delight. The sound was like wind chimes or the bells playing inthe background of Christmas music, echoing through the empty house.
The three of them continued to work on their gingerbread houses. There was no time set for the activity. No one seemed to mind. The gingerbread houses were taking up most of the day, but if anything, the kids were all too pleased about it. Gavin stuffed another broken piece of cookie into his mouth, smearing white and cheery red and green icing over his face without realizing.
After a while, Liana pointed at her brother’s face.
“You look like Rudolph.” Liana giggled.
“No, I don’t! No, I don’t!” screamed Gavin across the table. “Rudolph has a red nose, stupid!”
I moved to step in even though I wasn’t sure what to do.
Poppy put a hand down between the gingerbread houses before we had a disaster on our hands. “Hey, be nice. Gavin is right. Rudolph does have a red nose. He’s clearly a rare Gavin reindeer.”