Despite herself, she laughed, and the sound startled her. He made it too easy. Too…fun.
She shook her head quickly and tried to steer the conversation back. “Look, whatever we build, it has to wow the town. This isn’t just about your shop or mine. Mistletoe on Main is going to bring tourists, foot traffic, and oodles of attention. The better the gingerbread house, the better the turnout—for both of us.”
Marshall nodded, that warm smile still lighting his face. “Exactly. And you know, it might be fun to sort of…show off our differences.”
“I actually think that has potential,” she said. “Let’s go big in size, scale, scope…and our competitive edge.”
“Okay. How?”
“Forget a house, let’s do a gingerbread bakery,” she said as a mental image took shape. “Two doors, two entrances. Maybe two buildings we creatively connect. One with your green-and-white awning and the Craving Clean logo. The other with my wooden sign and frost-encrusted windows. Big, maybe two feet tall. Side by side but…different doors.”
For the first time, Marshall didn’t immediately tease. His eyes sparked with something like admiration. “Well, now I see where your genius son gets his brains. That is a stinking brilliant idea, Gracie.”
And…of course, she blushed. A gusher that no doubt painted her cheeks scarlet. She tried to ignore it and cleared her throat.
“So…uh, you’ll get your protein shingles, and I’ll get my gumdrops. One side modern, one side classic. It could work.”
“It could,” he agreed. “It could be amazing.”
And for one breathless moment, she let herself picture it—not just the gingerbread house, but the two of them working on it.
Marshall with his sleeves rolled up, her with a piping bag in hand, standing close enough that she could smell that maddening mix of vanilla and clean soap that seemed to cling to him.
She shoved the thought away before she melted like his seventy percent cacao topping.
“My kitchen or yours?” he asked, yanking her back to reality with the question.
“Mine’s bigger, but you’ll surely get sugar shock just by walking in.”
“I’ll wear my armor,” he said. “Yoursisbigger and I’ll do a lot of my work ahead of time. What day is this event?”
“The sixth and my calendar is crazy, but I’ll make it work.”
By the time she left, after more brainstorming, banter, and a schedule they could both meet, she realized she’d completely forgotten to be nervous around him.
She also forgot that she hated him. On the contrary, she liked him even more.
It was going to be a long gingerbread season this year, that was for sure. Long and not…horrible. Not horrible at all.
“Okay, Cindy, honey, walk me around.” Dominique Parrish had a warm voice, but she spoke rapid-fire, like Cindy imagined everyone in New York did, forcing a person to really have to concentrate to follow. “Give me the full fantasy.”
Cindy raised her phone so the camera could capture the view on the FaceTime call. This was her big chance to wow the woman who owned Aisle Files, and Cindy wanted to seize the moment.
They’d exchanged some small talk and Dominique reiterated what she was trying to accomplish with this feature, then Cindy took the phone into the Starling Room for a virtual tour.
She hoped it looked as good on a three-inch screen as it did in real life.
“I’ll start with the view because it’s second to none,” Cindy said, turning her phone toward the bank of glass to her right. “This row of French doors lines one side of the room, with tall windows above and on each end to bring in more light. Just look at those mountains!”
“Pretty.”
Pretty? That vista was breathtaking! Cindy tried to balance her phone in both hands, her own screen glowing with thecheerful, perfectly made-up face of a woman in her mid-forties with a striking appearance that the camera surely loved.
But all that mattered was that the camera loved the view, so Cindy zoomed in.
Outside, the November twilight slanted across the mountain peaks, painting the snow-dusted ridges in brushstrokes of lavender and rose. She’d timed the call to get this moment, and prayed the woman appreciated what she and MJ often called “pink mountains.”
“Are you able to see how beautiful that is?” Cindy asked.
