"Your dish is so cool," Oliver said.
"Yeah, you should have won," Matt agreed.
"My friend Nina won. Besides, I can't complain. I have a restaurant now, apparently." Jack smiled at me. "So I have everything I want—family, friends, good food, and the ability to keep doing what I love."
Dinner was coming along, and the cookies had cooled.
"Dinner will be ready soon," I told them. "Why don't you all help me decorate these cookies? The pork chops need to slow cook a bit in the oven first. Then it won't take long to fry them up and make some gravy."
The Frost brothers all washed their hands then settled down at the table. I laid out the icing piper and several other tools for decorating.
"Do you even know how to use that?" Oliver asked Matt as he picked up the icing piper.
"Of course I do!" He squeezed the handle, and icing shot out all over his brother's face.
"You two can use the knife," Jack said, mopping icing off the walls and their faces.
"I'm an adult. I can clean my own face," Oliver said, trying to push off Jack's hands.
"Can you? Because you looked a little rough when I picked you up from the train station," Jonathan said. "Almost as if you hadn't, oh, I don’t know, showered or bathed or even washed your face in days. It's no wonder neither of you has a girlfriend."
"You don't have a girlfriend either," Matt shot back.
I couldn't help but laugh at their antics. I'd always wanted a big family, and now I sort of had one.
While they joked around, I spooned the buttercream frosting and the royal icing into piping bags for them and showed them how to carefully outline the cookie with frosting then fill it in for a clean, even look.
"I'm putting theFortnitelogo on my cookie," Oliver said.
"You're supposed to put Christmas themes on the cookies," Owen chastised them. He was carefully drawing an intricate geometric pattern on his snowflake cookie.
"Wow, Owen," I said, "you need to come work for me at my restaurant. This is a beautiful cookie."
Owen looked smug. "See, Jack. I'm the smartest, most gifted Frost brother. Look at that cookie. That's a work of art."
"I think you got some art on your suit," Jack said.
Owen cursed and looked down at the icing on his expensive clothes.
"I'll grab a rag," I said.
"Your cookies look like garbage," Jonathan said to Jack as I dabbed at Owen's suit.
"I think I cleaned off all of the frosting, but," I said, pulling out a frilly apron. His brothers all roared in laughter. "I think you need to wear this. We don't want to ruin that suit."
"Don't laugh, Jack," I said. "I have one for you too. This is why I wear a crappy old T-shirt when I'm baking for real and not taking an Instagram picture. It can be messy."
Jack tied the apron around himself. It was red with ruffles and said KISS THE BAKER. I kissed him on the mouth.
"Yum, you taste like cookies."
We finished the cookies. Rather, I finished them, and the Frost brothers tried their best.
"I don’t know if we should serve these," Owen said. His cookies looked the best of all of them. He had only been able to finish two, though. None of the cookies Jonathan had decorated made it onto the platter. He had eaten them all. The cookies Oliver and Matt had made were just a straight-up mess. They were dripping with frosting and looked like a knockoff Jackson Pollack painting. Jack's were okay. His frosting job was a little wobbly, but he more or less stayed in the lines. The rest of the cookies I had decorated.
"Don't worry," I said. "These are just for dessert tonight. I'm not serving these for the party."
"Wow, vote of no confidence," Jonathan said.
