“I want to.” He reaches up, and for a heart-stopping second, I think he’s going to touch my face. Instead, his thumb brushes my cheek. “Flour.”
My skin tingles where he touched me. “I was making biscuits earlier.”
His mouth curves. “Hope I get to try one.”
Before I can respond, Avery’s voice echoes from the dining room. “Ho, ho, hold everything!Christmashas entered the building!”
Gabriel steps back as Avery bursts through the door, her arms full of boxes, blonde curls bouncing, wearing a cherry red sweater with an actual light-up reindeer and green velvet leggings that jingle when she moves.
She stops dead, looking between us with barely contained glee. “Well, hello, Gabriel. Don’t you look official in your firefighter’s outfit.”
“Avery.” He nods, fighting a smile. “Nice reindeer.”
“Thanks. It has three settings.” She clicks a button and makes the nose blink in different patterns. “I’ll just, um, put these in the dining room. Don’t mind me.” She waggles her eyebrows at me behind his back before disappearing.
“She hasn’t changed,” Gabriel says, amusement warming his voice.
“She’s gotten worse,” I say. “Last week she wore an elf hat that played ‘Jingle Bells’ whenever she moved.”
“Sounds about right.” He sets down the clipboard, rubbing the back of his neck. “Listen, I know this is random, but would you maybe want to go ice skating tomorrow? With me?”
“Ice skating?”
“Unless you don’t skate. Or don’t want to. Or?—”
“I skate,” I blurt, which is technically true if you count flailing and praying. “Yes. I’d like that.”
His smile could power the massive Christmas tree in the town square. “Great. I’ll pick you up at seven?”
“Seven’s perfect.”
He nods, heading for the door, then pauses. “Noelle?”
“Yeah?”
“Save me one of those biscuits.”
After he leaves, I slump against the counter, my knees jelly. Avery materializes instantly, like she’s been waiting just outside.
“Ice skating?” she practically squeals.
“How did you?—”
“I heard everything.” She grabs my hands, eyes sparkling. “This is it! Your Christmas miracle!”
“It’s just…”
“Nothing isjustanything when Gabriel Frost looks at you like you’re a Christmas cookie he wants to tasteeverybite of.”
“Avery!”
“What? I have eyes. That man is gooooone for you.” She starts unpacking decorations. “We need to make this place magical. Set the scene for romance.”
“I’ll be gone after Christmas,” I remind her, the words heavy. “If I get the Harvest & Hearth job…”
“But you haven’t heard from them yet?”
I shake my head. “Even if I don’t, I have to go back to my life in the city.”
