“I'm an adult!” he said, puffing his chest out. Jack and I doubled over laughing.
“Why don't you drink and stir this batter,” Holly said, handing me another bowl. It smelled like gingerbread.
“I'm going to serve some of these as is,” Holly said. “The others I'm using to make gingerbread rum balls. So if you have any rum on hand, give it up!”
I found several bottles and put them on the counter, shoving Oliver out of the way.
“He doesn't even have a palate refined enough for this rum,” Jack scoffed.
Holly took a batch of sugar cookie dough out of the fridge and started rolling it out.
“You can help decorate in a little bit, Oliver,” she said. “I'm making a ton of cookies. We have over a hundred people coming over for the Christmas party.”
“Half of them are the Svenssons, I'm sure,” I said.
“I invited the Holbrooks too!” Holly said with a grin.
“You didn't!” Jack said, horrified. “There is going to be a real fight, not a cute icing fight.”
She laughed. “Kidding! I don’t know the whole story, but I know enough that they probably shouldn't be in the same room for long periods of time.”
When the first batch of cookies came out of the oven, Jonathan snagged one.
“They aren't even frosted,” Holly chastised.
“Still amazing.”
After the cookies had been baked and stacked to cool, Holly made cheesy potato gratin for dinner along with herb-crusted beef tenderloin with horseradish cream sauce and green beans.
“Something smells amazing!” Chloe called out. “Hi!” She and Holly hugged.
“This is Jack's almost-fiancée,” I said. In my mind, I was thinking,I'm totally proposing to Holly before Jack does to Chloe.
“I brought some Christmas cupcakes and mini pies I made,” Chloe said, holding out a box. “I didn't bring any savory food, though, so hopefully the boys don’t starve!”
Holly giggled. “Don't worry, I made dinner!”
“Did you decorate too?”
“These are left over fromThe Great Christmas Bake-Off.”
“I didn't know you were living with the contestants, Owen,” Chloe said.
“I wasn't living here during filming, thankfully,” I replied.
We ate while watching the final episode ofThe Great Christmas Bake-Off. My brothers laughed whenever I was on the screen.
“Believe it or not,” Belle said, “these are actually his more intelligent comments.”
“I hope you're all good and inspired,” Holly said, “because we have towers of cookies that need to be frosted.”
“Heh. Frost Tower,” Jack said with a laugh.
“You're a Neanderthal,” I told him.
“Chloe, you can drink wine and watch,” Holly said. “I'm sure you're tired of dessert and decorating cookies.”
“Honestly, not really. I've been doing administrative work lately,” she said. “It's really relaxing to bake and decorate cookies. I even came prepared.” She pulled out a monogramed canvas bag embroidered with cookies and holiday wreaths. She unpacked it, revealing several icing tips and a mini icing gun.
