Page 116 of He's The Reason Why

“The best kind,” Piper said. Her mouth was salivating inanticipation. “What flavor?”

“These are chocolate chip,” Carrie said. “I already did oatmeal raisin and snickerdoodles.”

Carter appeared in a blue sweater with a big abominable snowman face spewing real candy down the front. He was in his last year of college now, and he’d filled out a lot since his freshman year. Being on the football team had been good for him.

“These things are fantastic,” Carter said through a mouthful of cookie.

“Get out of the doodles!” Carrie scolded. She wore an apron with gingerbread men all over it that said Oh Snap. “They’re for the prize basket.”

“You can have some of these after dinner,” Lizzie said as she pulled her tray out of the oven.

Jingling bells sounded from the doorway. Della appeared, wearing a Christmas-tree-shaped mini-dress covered in bells and multicolored bulbs that flashed an eye-bending pattern of red and green. She looked like she’d been front and center when the North Pole exploded.

“I’m with Carter. Life’s too short to eat dessert last,” Della said, waving a cookie at them.

“That’s the ugliest dress I’ve ever seen,” Piper told her.

“I know,” Della beamed. “I’m pretty sure I win.”

“I didn’t go nearly far enough.” Piper looked down at her own poor attempt. “Mine doesn’t even light up.”

“I have a feeling Ben will give you both a run for your money,” Carrie said. “He’s been working on it for weeks in secret. Every time he mentions it he cackles like a maniacal villain.”

“We haven’t seen Mattie’s or Adam’s, either,” Lizzie pointed out. “Adam’s is probably over the top.”

“Where are they? I’m hungry,” Carter said.

“You just had cookies,” Mark told Carter.

“They were having trouble navigating the stairs,” Della said,sounding amused.

“We’re here,” Mattie called out from the doorway. “When’s the judging start? We can’t stay in this forever.”

“Sure we can,” Adam said. “I love this outfit.”

“Of course you do,” Mattie sounded exasperated. “I still can’t believe your mother made this.”

“She loves Christmas,” Adam said without an ounce of shame.

They shuffled awkwardly into the room. Mattie’s cheeks were bright red with embarrassment, while Adam looked like a particularly proud peacock.

Piper burst out laughing, along with everyone else in the room.

The sweater was made for two people to squeeze into together, with two necks but just two sleeves. The chunky red yarn looked hand-knitted by an expert hand, which meant Mattie had had nothing to do with it. As far as Piper knew, Mattie didn’t sew, knit, or crochet.

The sweater was covered in cotton “snowballs,” with a giant upside-down snowman on Adam’s portion that had a carrot nose protruding just above his, well, package, while two big snowman faces were planted right over Mattie’s boobs like hood ornaments.

She could only imagine where Adam had placed his other hand. Judging by the way her sister kept twitching, it was cupping Mattie’s butt cheek.

“Dude,thatis epic.” Carter snapped a photo with his phone. “I bow to the masters.”

Adam grinned in appreciation. Mattie hid her face against his shoulder.

“That has to be the strangest thing I’ve ever seen,” Mark said.

“Wait for it,” Adam said. “Come on, babe, turn around.”

“Do we have to?” Mattie groaned.

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