Page 48 of Merry Kissmas

Everyone scatters, reaching for icing, knocking elbows, and I sit back and watch the scene unfold.Brynn’s got it handled for both of us.

“Do you have any ideas?”she asks once she’s amassed all the supplies she wants.

I nod at the cookie.“Do your worst.”

She smiles and lowers her attention to the cookie.

“You coming to the gym tomorrow, Pierce?”Tre asks.Most of the men in the partnerships aren’t contributing to the cookie contest.Not even Abe.

“I think I overdid it with the workout and then skiing all day yesterday.”I sit up and stretch my back the best I can.“The sofa bed isn’t helping.”

Brynn glances up from the corner of her eye but doesn’t say anything.

“Come on, Brynn, you’re all ‘independent woman, hear me roar.’Why aren’t you guys swapping every night?”Carter asks.

Brynn grabs a red cinnamon candy and throws it at him.It hits his eye.

“Damn it, my eye.”He covers his eye.

Brynn looks at Tre, sharing some type of understanding I assume has something to do with Carter when they were growing up.

“I take it you won’t be at the gym?”Tre asks Carter.

“I think Faith and I are sleeping in tomorrow.So, no wake-up calls.”

Tre turns back to me, disregarding his brother who keeps blinking as if Brynn did permanent damage.“I like the stretching routine you do before you work out.”

We continue to chat about how I like to stretch for a good twenty minutes before I work out to loosen everything up.Tre’s pretty cool and doesn’t bug me with questions or sexual innuendos about his sister and me, which is refreshing.I’m not sure how he’d be if we were actually dating though.

“Brynn, come with,” Tre says.

“I’m on vacation.”She doesn’t look up from her cookie, making perfect squiggly lines across the sweater cookie.

“Well, you’re not getting any other exercise if Pierce is on the sofa bed.”Carter laughs.“Ouch.Fuck.”He reaches down and rubs his leg.

“Language, we have little ears around,” Gwen says, concentrating on her cookie just as much as her daughter.

Abe is with the kids in the corner area with the toys now.He’s a great grandpa, always spending as much time with Ryah as he can.

“So, you’re a baker?”I ask Tessa.

Tre puts his arm around his wife.“The best.”

Gwen clears her throat but laughs after.No one else says anything, and I feel as if it’s an inside joke I’m not part of.

“Actually, I got a call from my business partner today, Brynn.She thinks we need to work on getting more social awareness and wondered if when you got back to Portland, maybe you’d have some ideas.We’d pay you.”Tessa puts down her icing, sits back, and slides the plate toward Tre.“Make it ugly for me while I pretend to ignore what you’re doing.”

Everyone laughs because her cookie has an ugly sweater, but the piping and decorations look too good to eat.

Tessa must notice me looking because she says, “Curse of the day job.”

“You’re very talented,” I say.

“Isn’t she?”Brynn says, sitting up and staring at her cookie as if she’s inspecting it.“I’m super jealous of how artistic she is with sugar.”

I put my arm around the back of Brynn’s chair.“Everyone has their own talents.You’re brilliant at making people want to buy something.”

Her cheeks turn pink, and it feels good to pull a blush out of her.

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