Do what you know. How many more times would she come to his rescue? First the show, then renting his shop, then she’d wriggled her way into his mind and soul. She was like a dream that was too good to be true. And at midnight tomorrow, the other shoe would drop. She’d be flying home and he’d be stuck in Seattle.
Instant guilt coursed through his entire body.
Niko wasn’t stuck, not in the traditional sense. Not a single member of his family would fault him if he left, except for himself. He would never abandon them for any reason, nor leave Chloe at such a critical juncture of her treatment.
He allowed his chocolate to harden while he set the temperature of the oven. This thing, whatever it was with Alice, would transcend distance, or it simply wasn’t meant to happen.
A depressing fact of life.
Rolling the dough on the countertop, he shaped them into Santa instead of the traditional round cookie, and placed two large almonds in place for eyes. This had been Hallie’s idea way back in the day.
Tonight, he put every bit of knowledge he’d learned as a child into the baker’s dozen. One always needed an extra for good luck. He smiled at the little bit of wisdom his dad had imparted. The advice was about getting an extra cookie more than any real superstition. Once they baked up, he’d decorate Santa’s beard with powdered sugar and grab some edible red dust for the hat.
Perhaps he’d save the thirteenth for Alice.
His rectangles had set and he rolled the sheet until it created a three inch tube. It killed him that she hadn’t caved and eaten more of his chocolate. Ego on his part? Probably.
Taking four rubber bands, he secured a cylinder, starting with the center and working the bands out to the ends, making sure to distribute the pressure evenly. He repeated the same action until all of the chocolate was rolled. Putting them on a sheet, he slipped them into the refrigerator to harden.
He looked up at the clock on his way back and his stomach sank. Where had the time gone?
Shit. He finished forming his cookies and shoved them into the oven. After shutting the oven door, his apron caught on one of the dials. He tugged the material loose while he heard Chloe’s voice broadcast over the set.
On the television set above the judges’ table, Chloe was holding a reindeer ornament and was laughing at something Grace said. She pretended to make it fly and then like a flicker of a flame, her happiness faded and sorrow flooded her eyes. She’d let the brave face fall. The vulnerable child beneath showed through, the one who sat on his lap after chemo, too sick to raise her head. The girl who clutched her baby blanket to her chest and counted the threads in an effort to breathe her way through the nausea. In a matter of heartbeats, she caught herself. She smiled her adorable gap-toothed smile and put on the mask she wore so well.
Niko stood, frozen, unable to stomach the pain in that brief moment in time.
“Chloe is one of our guests tonight. Wave, Chloe,” Grace said, wiping at the corner of her eye, a noticeable wobble in her voice.
The camera spotlighted Chloe in her red Christmas dress, a headband with a holly branch and bells on her head. She beamed at the camera, his precious little girl.
“Niko, something’s burning in your station,” Diana called out.
Niko whipped his head around and spied the smoke billowing from the oven. He grabbed up an oven mitt and dragged out the smoking cookies. Holy shit, the oven was on broil, not bake. How the hell did that happen? He left the stove door open, hoping to cool it off some. He rushed back to the pantry to grab another round of ingredients, calling his thanks to Diana as he snatched up four plates before he returned to his station. With time at a premium, he’d have to use a cookie cutter mold in lieu of shaping the dough. It seemed like a cop-out except he didn’t have much of a choice. The oven beeped and he put the new batch of cookies in, setting the timer for twenty minutes.
“Thirty minutes contestants.”
Damn, he was cutting this close. He mixed the whole milk, cayenne pepper, and chocolate before he put them on the stove to boil.
In honor of Chloe, he’d make her favorite Christmas drink. After she was started on chemo, Chloe could only eat bland food, no dairy. She wouldn’t be able to have this dish on Christmas Day but she had something better, her wish for him to be on the show fulfilled.
Thanks to Alice.
He ran the boiling hot chocolate to the blast chiller and retrieved his cups from the refrigerator. The cookies might have been a fiasco but his chocolate was perfection. He laid out four square plates decorated with a pinecone pattern and placed them on a baking sheet.
For Niko, creativity was the ultimate high. He loved the thrill of creating something from nothing and Alice’s proposal for his own show would mean he could share his love with the world. He’d never considered a career in television. Perhaps he should start. 3Square was turning out to be fun, if not also stressful has hell.
Chapter Forty-Three
“Visit Niko’s station and check his progress, Grace.” Alice sat on the edge of her seat and tried to calm her nerves by tapping her foot. He’d invited her to stay the night at his parents’house and then to stay for dinner on Christmas Day. Richard had invited her countless times and she’d always said no. But she wanted to hang out with Niko’s family, to be part of them, if just for a day.
Pathetic.
Grace leaned her hip against the counter in Niko’s station and eyed the deconstructed pieces of chocolate. “How are you doing over here? For a minute, I thought you were going to burn the house down.”
“Me too.” Unwrapping the plastic wrap, Niko pealed the molded chocolate off the saucer and placed it on one of the square plates. “I’m not sure how it happened but I worked it out.”
“Your apron caught on the knob.”
