Page 20 of Mountain Gift

I pause my work on the cookie to think about it.

"I've always liked cars. Growing up, I lived down the road from a junkyard. My brother, Paul, and I would walk down there after school and look at the new cars they brought in. I always liked figuring out how they worked. Cars were a good distraction back then. I liked working with things that I could understand. In a car's engine, everything makes sense. Every piece has a purpose."

Out of the corner of my eye, I see her nod. "Why are you opening a shop now?"

I chuckle at her question. "You mean, why was I in the military for so long if my real passion was for cars?"

Caroline grins. "Yes, I guess that was my real question."

"Well, I guess I'm just like you. Other, steadier work got in the way of my passion."

Another blush touches Caroline's cheeks, but she doesn't duck away this time. Instead, she frowns slightly.

"But why make the big switch now?"

"Because I realized I'd spent more than half my life in the Marines. And as great as it was, work like that eats you away over time. The longer you're in, the harder it is to get out."

Her eyes drift downward, and she nods, understanding exactly what I mean.

"Besides, it was time for a change. Sometimes change can be good," I continue.

But this only brings her frown back.

"You really think so?" Caroline asks. "After all the drama you've dealt with just trying to put your shop together?"

"I do."

Caroline looks away from me and twists the hem of her sweater between her fingers.

"I don't know," she replies. "Sometimes I think it's better not to take risks. If you never put yourself out there, you'll never get hurt."

My heart aches again. I understand where she's coming from. Life has a way of dealing harsh blows when you least expect them.

"I guess that's true," I say gently. "And you're right, not taking risks means you won't get hurt. But it also means you might miss out on a whole lot of wonderful things."

After almost fifteen minutes have passed, I finish my bell-shaped cookie. It's a bit rough, and the sprinkles didn't really land where I thought they would. But I still think it has its charms.

Then I turn to look at Caroline's plate. I shouldn't be surprised that she's so good at all this after seeing everything else she can do. But still, I stare down at her plate in awe.

In the time it took me to make a whole cookie, she's made five, each of them more beautiful than the next.

There's a snowflake cookie with white frosting and little white edible pearls at each joint. There are two bell cookies, and a mistletoe cookie frosted perfectly. And for all of them, she's used sanding sugar as shading and powdered sugar as snow.

And in her hands is one of the few reindeer cookies, which also looks amazing. Somehow, she mixed together the white and the chocolate frostings to make the perfect shades of brown for the fur and antlers. And while I watch her, she's carefully placing a little red candy where the nose should be.

When she gets it just right, she stops to smile proudly at her work. And I watch her face. The beautiful grin she gets when she knows she's done a good job.

"That's amazing, Caroline," I tell her, making Doris and Eileen stop their conversation to look at it too.

"It definitely is," Eileen agrees.

"Though I'm not surprised," Doris says. "After all, art is in Caroline's blood."

Turning to smile at Caroline beside me, I say, "Yes. It definitely is."

Shyly, she smiles back. My stomach twists into knots inside me again. My eyes drift down to her lips for a moment, as pink and soft-looking as spring petals.

I press my own lips together, imagining, despite my better judgment, what it would feel like having hers against them.

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