Page 23 of A Curvy Carol

We got to work, and pretty soon, we had made our very first candy canes.

We got faster as we went along, and by the end of the class, we each ended up with several candy canes to take home with us. They even had ribbon to tie around the candy canes to give as gifts if we wanted to.

I snapped a quick picture of us at the end of the class. Then we set our candy canes aside and transformed back into humans.

As we stepped out of Candy Cane Co., I looked at Carolynn. “That was fun.”

“Yeah,” she said. “It was. And we got a ton of candy out of it too.”

As we made our way toward Cider Center, I got an idea. “I kind of want to take this candy back to the kids at the lodge,” I said.

“That sounds nice,” she said, walking beside me.

“Want to come with me?” I asked, hopeful. I wasn’t ready to be done spending time with her for the day. I tried not to think what it would feel like for Christmas to be over, our list all crossed off.

She smiled. “I’ll tag along.”

It was a longer walk back to the lodge, but we talked the whole time. I took in the sights, asking Carolynn about them as we went along. She explained that a statue of a guy riding a reindeer wasn’t Santa but the town’s founder. Hearing about a guy who’d created such a legacy made me smile. I wondered where we’d be without him.

Finally, we made it to the lodge. Just as I predicted, there were tons of kids around outside, playing in the snow. As soon as they saw me, they ran up to me.

I’d helped them make snowballs the other day, which apparently made me their hero.

“Whit! Look at the snowman I made,” one boy told me. It was a little lopsided but solid.

“Nice work, Roger,” I said, giving him a high five.

About five more kids were trying to talk to me at once. And I tried to sort it out in my head to respond.

Carolynn laughed. “I thought you didn’t have any friends in town yet.”

I grinned and shook my head. “I have you,” I quipped. I saw her cheeks turn pink, which gave me butterflies.

I turned back to the kids, secretly pleased with myself. “Who wants some candy?” I asked, holding up the bag.

That practically had the kids launching themselves at me.

Carolynn and I started handing out candy canes, making sure every kid got one.

“Can I have one for my sister?” Roger asked Carolynn.

“Why, of course,” she said, giving him an extra one. “That’s very kind of you.”

I saw his chest puff up with pride before he stuffed it in his coat pocket. Carolynn might have had a tougher outer shell around me, but around these kids? She was effortlessly warm and caring. It made me like her even more.

The kids ran off, already opening their candy. Carolynn and I turned to each other. “I’d call that a success,” she said.

“For sure,” I said, unwrapping my last candy cane for her. “What should we do next?”

13

CAROLYNN

Mom texted me, asking if I wanted to grab a bite to eat at Scrooge’s. So Whit and I decided to take a break for lunch and meet up again after.

It was a quick walk to Scrooge’s, but I enjoyed walking around town anyway, even if I didn’t always like doing all the Christmas things.

My stomach grumbled by the time I met Mom there, and we headed inside.

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