Page 28 of A Gift for the Hopeful Cowboy

“You’ll see,” she shouted over her shoulder. Thankfully, she’d had enough butter in her fridge. Pippa dumped the bag onto the counter just as Rob entered her kitchen.

His chuckle wasn’t as amusing as she would have thought it to be if she wasn’t stressing out.

Pippa motioned wildly to a knife on the counter nearby. “Hand that over.”

Rob picked up the paring knife and held it away from her, a smirk on his face. “Whatever’s going on, I assure you don’t have to resort to violence.”

She gave him a flat look. “I need to open the sugar.”

“Well, what did it ever do to you? It’s innocent in all of this.”

A groan escaped her lips and she spun around to grab a steak knife instead. “If you’re not going to be any help, then you might as well leave.”

“You haven’t told me what’s going on. How can I help if I don’t know what you need?”

“I needed that knife,” she said.

“Okay, okay,” he laughed, “I get it.” He glanced around and his eyes landed on the table, where she’d set out dozens of cookies on cooling racks. “Oh,” he drawled. “I get it now.”

Pippa wiped a stray strand of hair from her face with the back of her forearm. “Yeah. It’s a mess. I don’t know what I was thinking when I agreed to make the cookies for the Christmas party at Molly’s school.”

“You were probably thinking you wanted to help your niece. Besides, you’ve probably had this figured out all month long. You’re frazzled because you didn’t have the sugar.”

His voice was probably supposed to be calming, but it only confirmed that she’d made a mistake. Pippa shot him a look, and that was all it took for him to realize what had really happened. She didn’t even have to tell him that she’d offered to help on a whim.

“No,” he said with a chuckle. “You’re kidding.”

“I haven’t said anything,” she muttered under her breath.

“You didn’t have to. Please tell me that the woman who plans everything down to the tiniest detail didn’t actually sign up for something on short notice.”

She glowered at him. “I mean it, Rob. If you aren’t going to help, you might as well leave.”

“What do you need?”

Pippa glanced at him once more, surprised by his willingness to jump in though she was acting so unhinged he’d be smarter to pass. She pointed to the butter she hadn’t unwrapped yet.

“I need you to put three cubes of butter into the stainless-steel bowl over there and then we’ll add the sugar little by little. We’ll need a quarter cup of milk and some vanilla.”

“I’ll be honest with you, I’m not sure what vanilla is.”

She gaped at him.

“Kidding!” He laughed again, earning himself another dark look.

Pippa got all the ingredients mixed up and started adding the colors. She had Christmas trees, stars, candy canes, and Santa hats to decorate before tomorrow morning. It was going to be a long night.

During the next hour, Rob made himself useful by taking the trays of completed cookies and transferring them to the pastry boxes she’d had him assemble. They worked it out to where they became a well-oiled machine. There wasn’t a moment when she was left waiting for a spot to put her next cookie or when he didn’t have something to keep him busy.

Every so often, she’d catch herself staring at him from across the kitchen. If she wasn’t so worked up, she might have chuckled at the way the strong cowboy gently handled her cookies. Each one was placed with care and not a single one was ruined.

The more they got done, the less stressed she became. She was able to ease up on her pace. During a lull, she paused and glanced in his direction.

“Thank you.”

He looked up at her and she saw something familiar filter through his expression. “Any time.”

“Were you really at the grocery store when I called you?”

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