Page 59 of Season's Schemings
It’s cute to see Maddie blush as everyone oohs and aahs over her cookies. They really are spectacular. She’s managed to capture the most amazing details—mine is wearing a #19 jersey and skates, Dot’s is sporting a blouse and a low bun, Mr. Grainger’s is smoking a cigar, Jax’s comes complete with arm tattoos and is wielding an ax…
And Elizabeth’s has a huge brown blob on her shirt and glitter in her frosting hair. Which may or may not have been my doing.
Maddie looks at the cookie made in the likeness of herself, and traces its mouth. Like I was doing tohermouth minutes ago. She looks lost in thought, her eyes glazed and her expression far away.
She must press the cookie a bit too hard because she mutters, “Oops, I smudged my lipstick.”
I give her a heated look, and I’m gratified to see those green eyes darken once again. “That’s a look I’d like to see more often on you.”
22
MADDIE
Just like that magical Christmas when I was six, this one keeps getting better and better as the day goes.
After Seb’s sexy little performance in the pantry—there’s a sentence I never thought I’d say—I’m filled with renewed belief in myself. Confidence in the way I want, and should, be treated by my family.
So much so that when my mother pulls me aside after brunch, I’m ready.
I’m out on the balcony, sipping on ginger and lemon tea and gazing over the postcard-picture-perfect snowy scene—and reflecting on Adam’s hilariously puzzled facial expression when I presented him with a double-broken-footed, Seb-voodooed cookie. And that’s when my mom chooses to step outside.
She walks up next to me, leaning on the wooden balcony railing, and follows my gaze. In the clearing beside the cabin, Jax and Seb are chopping firewood.
Wait. Did I say I was looking at the pretty snow?
Yeah, I was lying.
Seb is glorious to watch. Every time he swings the ax, muscles rippling, face angled in concentration, another butterfly escapes my stomach and flutters into my throat. Men don’t have any business being this hot.Nobodyhas any business being this hot.
He splits the huge log clean in half, then wipes his brow with the sleeve of his sweater and turns to say something to a flannel-clad Jax. My brother laughs.
“He’s really something,” my mother says after a few beats of silence. “A professional athlete with a face like that. I’m sure he’s a hot commodity.”
“He is,” I say dreamily.And he’s all miney mine mine…
Well, for now.
But it’s Christmas. Those details can wait until tomorrow.
Mom crosses her arms. “So, Madelyn. What’s the catch?”
My eyes reluctantly move from Seb’s immaculate wood-cutting form to my mother. She doesn’t have a coat on, for some reason, and her lipstick is perfectly matched to her cardigan. Pearls adorn her neck and wrists, and she has heeled pumps on her feet.
She looks perfectly put-together… and poised for battle. I was beginning to wonder why she hadn’t ambushed me, but now, I see that she was picking her moment. Both Seb and Jax—my allies in this fight—are out of earshot and otherwise occupied.
“No catch,” I say lightly.
“And you expect me to believe that you’re suddenly blissfully in love and married, when not a month ago, I spoke to you on the phone and you were reeling at the thought of even looking at Adam after what you did to him?”
“WhatIdid to him?” I choke.
“Pulling that dreadful, childish move on television, of all things.”
“Mother,” I hiss. “He humiliatedme. For the entire country to see.”
“Oh, please.” She waves a hand. “If you hadn’t pushed him like you did, the whole thing with that stupid girl would’ve been a brief affair that passed in a breath, andyouwould’ve been the woman with the ring on your finger.”
I stare at her.