Page 72 of Cabin Fever Baby
“Faith talks about nothing else since you did them two Christmases ago.”
“Glad I made an impression.” I ruffled my niece’s hair. “Where’s Cara?”
“Secret wrapping session with Grandpa,” Faith answered. “I’m not allowed.”
My mom rolled her eyes at Faith. “Because she’s wrapping your presents, you goof.”
“I wrapped hers days ago.”
“Well, you’re ahead of the curve. I still have all mine to wrap.” She glanced at me. “Check the icing. I think I made it right.”
I picked up the bowl and gave it a whisk. It needed to set for a few more minutes but would give me time to do some food coloring.
“Hey, find me a photo of Gwen so I can make sure I get her hood right.”
“On it!” Faith reached for the iPad on the counter and dragged it forward.
I was pretty sure she was nearly as proficient with it as I was. Then again, she’d never known a life without tablets or information at her fingertips.
I had a vague memory of theSpider-versecartoon movie and was glad I wouldn’t have to think too hard for a little bit.
“You done moping?” My shoulders stiffened at my brother Finn’s voice.
“I’m not moping.”
Finn snorted. “Funny, you kept me up all damn night with your tossing and turning. You’re hitting the couch tonight if you keep it up.”
He’d arrived last night, just after Cal had picked me up from Ocean’s cabin. We were bunking in the spare room together. It was better than trying to sleep on the floofy daybed that Faith had in one of the other bedrooms.
My parents’ new house wasn’t terribly big. They’d spent most of their money on the view and wanted to keep it small with a split ranch. Most of the living space was on the upper floor with a full basement on the lower level that had been converted into an entertainment/playroom for Cara.
They were literally next door to Cal’s house and the girls were so close in age that they each had sleepovers on the regular.
Cal’s second kid, Evander — aka Evan, was barely six months old, and evidently, he was in something called a sleep regression.I wasn’t sure what that was, but it sounded like my older brother was perpetually tired.
One night of sleep deprivation and I was ready to murder, so I didn’t know how he did it.
Not that I’d been getting a ton of sleep at?—
Could I get a freaking moment where I didn’t think about her?
“Here, uncle H!”
I gave Faith a quick smile and took the iPad. I propped it up against the sea glass tile backsplash. It was a relatively easy draw, but I was distracted enough that I needed to double-check a few times before I got the rhythm of decorating down.
Faith was so delighted with the design that I ended up doing a few more characters from the movie. Cara showed up and couldn’t be left out, so Rapunzel fromTangledwas added to the pile.
My mom came up behind me to smooth a hand over my back. “You’ve been at it for hours. Why don’t you go sit down? Dinner’s almost ready.”
I glanced at the fleet of sugar cookies that had been decorated. The girls had lost interest as only four-year-olds could and were watching Spiderman instead of watching me draw him.
“Sorry. Kinda got crazy.”
She hooked an arm through mine and eased me away from the counter, then she pushed me into a chair near the sliding back doors leading to the deck. She set a mug of hot cocoa in front of me with a mound of her homemade whipped cream.
I must be in a real ugly state if she made whipped cream with everything else going on in Christmas prep.
She craned her neck to make sure the girls were still entertained. Finn was sitting between them as they explained the movie in their animated voices.