“Oh, yeah,” Benny said, remembering Mom had talked about that and how she didn’t have time to bake and build such a thing, but had to.
“Do they both have to make one?” Olivia asked. “Because my dad’s probably won’t be, you know, regular gingerbread. Unless you don’t mind almond flour and dried fruit instead of gumdrops.”
“Whatever he wants to make.” Mrs. Locke laid her clipboard on the table, eyeing their work. “The houses will be displayed along Main Street during Mistletoe on Main.”
“Wait. What?” Olivia’s big brown eyes grew to the size of chocolate cookies. “Did you saymistletoe?”
Oh, boy. Here she goes with the kissing again.
“It’s our newest festival this year,” the woman said excitedly. “We’ll have an ice rink holiday extravaganza performance, all the snow globes that Park City is famous for, and every retailer up and down Main Street will display something festive—gingerbread houses, Santa’s workshops, specially decorated trees, and, of course, mistletoe on every door.”
“Of course,” Olivia crooned, that goofy look in her eyes again.
“It’s a little redundant on this block,” Mrs. Locke said, making a squishy face. “Since these shops are both bakeries, I’m sure they’ll both want to do gingerbread houses. I doubt either owner would prefer to do a tree.”
“My mom might?—”
“Maybe they could do one giant gingerbread house…together.” Olivia slid Benny a look that was about as subtle as a space shuttle takeoff.
Together? Was she nuts?Yes, he recalled, she was nuts. About this.
“Oh, my. That would be…” Mrs. Locke frowned. “I really wanted one for every retailer.”
Olivia narrowed her eyes at Benny as if she wanted support for this spectacularly bad idea. He offered none.
“I’d have to think about it,” Mrs. Locke said. “And I have one more favor to ask, and this one is probably something you could help me with, Benny.”
“Sure. What do you need?”
“The gentleman who is skating as Santa Claus with the troupe that’s performing at the rink during Mistletoe on Main has thrown out his back. That’s a problem, since we billed it as ‘The Skating Spectacular with Santa,’ so we must have one. I know Red Starling is the best Santa in town and he got so famous being Grumpy Santa last year.”
Thanks to Benny and his insane social media skills.
“I need him to ice skate,” she finished.
He almost laughed imagining how Red would feel about that. “He’s kind of a sleigh Santa,” Benny said. “I’m not so sure he’d get on ice skates.”
“Of course, but all he’d have to do is push some toys across the ice, he wouldn’t have to dance or anything.” She pressed her hands together. “Would you ask him? We’re desperate.”
“How desperate?” Olivia asked.
The woman chuckled. “Well, we could find a Santa, but there’s only one infamous Grumpy Santa! He put your lodge on the map.”
Actually, Benny had done that, but he just nodded.
“We want the original Grumpy Santa, so would you test the waters—frozen as they may be—and see if he’d be interested?”
“I doubt he’d?—”
“For a price,” Olivia chimed in, making them both whip around to look at her. Now what was she up to?
“A price?” Mrs. Locke asked, fighting a smile. “Our troupe doesn’t get paid.”
“Oh, no money will exchange hands,” she assured the woman. “But Benny’s great-grandfather doesn’t do favors for just anyone.”
Her shoulders slumped.
“Except me,” Benny added, knowing that if he wanted something bad enough, Red would move heaven and earth for him. But did he want this? He wasn’t sure where Olivia was going.
