Olivia smiled approvingly. “See? You’re catching on.”
“I’m catching the flu,” he said dryly. “The Olivia strain.”
She dropped her paper onto the table with a satisfied sigh. “So, are you in?”
“In what? Trouble? Yes, I’m going to be if we pull any of these stunts.”
“Benny’s mom was very specific, Olivia,” Red said. “He is under strict orders not to meddle in grownups’ personal lives.”
“There you have it,” Benny said, gesturing toward Red. “That’d be a big fat no, Olivia.”
“We’re not doing anything wrong!” she protested. “No one is getting hurt or tricked and you won’t get in trouble, Benny. All we’ll do is add a few outside elements to help what we both know is going to happen anyway.”
“We know that?” Benny asked.
“My dad hasn’t talked about anything but this project and your mom since they had that date the?—”
“They went on adate?” Benny’s voice rose with disbelief.
“Well, not exactly. Just coffee after the town meeting, but…” She lifted a shoulder. “I haven’t heard him hum so much since the Steelers made the playoffs last year. So, yeah, we’re just going to help Mother Nature.”
“Except…Mother McBride is going to be mad at me, and I can feel that iPhone slipping out of my hand.”
She just laughed. “I’ll persuade my dad to bring me to your mom’s shop, Benny. I’ll have to leave Kat at home because that dog cannot be trusted in a bakery. But we can do homeworktogether and”—her eyes flashed—“observe our subjects. I’ll bring the vanilla. If you’d rather stay home, then I will conduct this experiment alone, but we’re such a good team, Benny. Don’t let me down.”
She stood and smiled at Red, who looked the way he did when someone beat him at Monopoly and he never saw it coming. “You’re quiet, Mr. Starling. Do you have anything you think we should consider?”
“I think you should consider trying to get your own TV show, young lady. I’d watch.”
“Maybe I will,” she said, folding her paper and stuffing it into her coat pocket when she bundled up to go back outside. “Gotta go back to Craving Clean. See you guys!”
With that, she blew out of the snack bar, leaving Red and Benny in stunned silence.
“Wow,” his great-grandfather finally said. “She’s…a force of nature.”
“Exactly. A destructive, catastrophic, Christmas present-killing tsunami of bad ideas.” Benny shook his head and gave a quizzical look. “What should I do, Grandpa? Let her do this alone or…supervise? I don’t want Mom to get mad.”
“No, you don’t,” Red agreed.
“But Olivia’s right—it’s not really anything that could hurt anyone. Plus, if I don’t keep an eye on Olivia, she’ll have the smoke alarm blaring, the vanilla extract flowing, and then they’ll get locked in the storeroom havingeye contact.”
Red snorted. “Yeah, she needs supervision.”
“Plus, she’s my best friend,” he said quietly. “Kids like us don’t play sports or have a ton of friends. And Olivia is fun. I mean, she can drive me crazy, but she’s fun.”
Red took a long sip of coffee and eyed him. “You know, Benny, if her plans work out, you two could end up as siblings.”
He felt a smile pull. “I think it would be cool to have a sister,” he said. “And…” He let out a heavy sigh. “A dad.”
Red’s shoulders dropped as though they carried a little too much weight. “I get that.”
“So, should I help her?”
“Yup.” He put down the cup. “You do what a brother does and keep her out of trouble.”
It might get himintrouble, but he knew it was the right thing to do for his friend. And, hopefully, for his mom.
The front lights of Sugarfall were dimmed to a cozy glow, the cases polished to mirrors, the chalkboard menu wiped clean except for a single snowflake. Olivia had drawn that while Benny helped Marshall transport a partially made gingerbread house across the street.
