Spencer comes running out behind me with the small house in his hands, he yells a loud ‘thank you’ to the ladies at the front desk and we throw everything into the back of the truck as quickly as possible.
I hold out my fist to Spencer as soon as we get ourselves situated back into the truck, he fist bumps me, and the smile he gives me could battle the brightest of Christmas lights.
“We’ve got to move faster, Spence!” I yell as we barrel down the main road to town, my legs bouncing uncontrollably in my seat. It’s 4:50 PM, and we are about 5-ish minutes away from the main square downtown where all the floats are supposed to line up at. My Dad texted me an hour ago and said he would meet us there to make sure we get our float clocked in on time.
“If I go any faster then I risk the top of our gingerbread house flying away,” he says through gritted teeth while pressing down lightly on the gas.
We’ve worked nonstop all day to get this float done. It’s not perfect, but from afar, she’s a beauty. We spray painted the house a light brown to make it all match, then Spencer stapled the white felt to the roof and laid some in the bed of the truck, so it looks like the house is on top of snow, with some snow on the roof, too. I used the garland to make windows, and then used the battery powered Christmas lights to line the roof and all of the makeshift garland windows. A red pool noodle makes up the arched door, and we used a small paper plate that I painted to look like a peppermint candy as the doorknob. We threw on some more random holiday decor, and I painted more plates to look like various types of candy to decorate the rest of the house and the outside of Spencer’s truck.
It’s not perfect, but for only having a few hours, it’s pretty dang great.
And the best part is that I found gingerbread man and woman onesie pajamas at Walmart, which Spencer and I will be wearing during the parade. Spencer has agreed to drive the truck while I toss little goodie bags of candy to the crowd.
Our gingerbread house float may not win, but I’m so proud of us that I don’t even care. I’ve had so much fun with him today. We’ve spent all day laughing and decorating, throwing paint and other stupid decor at each other while putting the float together. There was no awkwardness, no strained feelings, at least none on my end now that I know what I want.
Just endless laughter and effortless fun.
The only sort of tension that filled the room was the good kind of tension…if you know what I mean. All I want to do is scream to the rooftops about how much I want him, need him, crave him entirely. But, I promised myself last night that I would wait until this competition was over before I shared my true feelings with Spencer.
And I’m really, really hoping that night is tonight.
I fly back to New York after Christmas, which is only two days away. Depending on what Spencer feels, this could be my last trip to the Big Apple.
I don’t want to get too excited about what could happen, right now I need to focus on the parade, and then finally, hopefully, making Spencer mine. The rest will work out the way it’s meant to.
Spencer taps my thigh, jarring me out of my fantasy.
“Hey, there’s your dad. We just barely made it with no more than a minute to spare,” he smiles brightly at me as he pulls into the parking lot with most of the other floats.
I jump out of the truck and give Dad a hug.
“What do you think?” I ask him, nervous as all get out because Dad doesn’t like to sugarcoat things. “About the float I mean. Do you like it?”
Dad crosses his arms and takes a lap around the truck, inspecting everything with his keen eyes and no-nonsense posture. He stops back at my side, and I leap with joy when I see the small smile sneaking over his lips. He likes it.
“It looks great, Pheebs. I can’t believe you two pulled this off in just a few hours. You really are some sort of dream team,” he grins knowingly at me and throws his arm around me as he gives Spencer a firm handshake. “Good job kids. A gingerbread house is the perfect addition to the parade.”
“Thanks Dad. We actually had a great time putting this together, and I can’t wait to see what the others are working on,” I tell him.
He chuckles as he pulls his arm off of me. “You two got about an hour to kill before everyone has to get lined up for the parade, why don’t you go grab a bite to eat or something to kill the time. I’ll call you when it’s time to come back.”
Dad kisses my head and gives Spencer another handshake before he turns and heads back towards the other floats.
It isn’t a far walk to the Christmas market, so I loop my arm through Spencer’s, and we both head towards the main road together. I think this might be what I love most about being with him. I don’t have to force myself to fill the silence, because even in our silence, I don’t feel alone.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Spencer
IswearI’veputsome sort of curse on myself.
The moment I decided that I needed to do the right thing, and stop this nonsense of practically begging Piper to tell Phoebe the truth, I cursed myself. Ever since then, Phoebe has made it damn near impossible to stick to my guns. All day we’ve been stealing subtle touches, and heated glances back and forth.
It’s like she woke up this morning and decided she didn’t need the truth anymore, almost as if she’s chosen to just let the past stay in the past, and just be with me the way we should have been from the start.
But that doesn’t happen in the real world, and even if today she decided to let it go, days, weeks, hell months from now, she would inevitably bring it up again and we’d go back to where we started.
It’s torture.
