Page 63 of Wild Nights

"Do you bake cookies with your family?" Oliver asked me as we got started.

I carefully iced a snowman. "I usually do it."

"You don't make a family day out of it?" Marcus asked.

"I've tried, but my mom and sister aren't as interested in making cookies. Just eating them."

Oliver chuckled. "That sounds like me."

"But you're decorating them now." My mom and sister had never participated in making or decorating cookies for the holidays.

"It's part of the experience, right? Joey loves this, and I love him." His words warmed my heart, and I followed his gaze to where Joey was pouring way too many tiny green tree sprinkles on his cookie.

"Save some for the rest of the cookies, bud," Marcus said with affection.

Joey nodded. "Right. Yeah."

Oliver and I exchanged an amused look. It was different doing these kinds of activities with a child. They got so much joy out of it. It wasn't a chore. It was fun.

Then I saw Oliver's Santa. You couldn't tell the shape of the cookie anymore. He'd smothered it in white icing. "What did you do to him?"

Oliver looked at the cookie. "This isn't my thing. Clearly."

"Do it like this." I picked up another cookie from his tray and carefully smoothed the icing on. "I can't do what Marcus is doing. But I can slap some icing on."

Marcus was using a piping tool to line the cookies. It was intricate and detailed. It looked great but outside of my skill set.

Oliver took a large bite of his Santa. Over his full mouth, he said, "All that matters is that it tastes good."

I made a face. "Isn't that too much icing?"

Oliver swallowed. "It was sweet."

I grabbed a glass of water and handed it to him. "Here. Drink this."

"You guys are slowpokes," Joey said from his perch on the stool. He'd managed to cover his tray of cookies with icing and sprinkles. It wasn't pretty.

"That looks great," Oliver managed to say with a straight face.

"Thanks," he said. Then his tongue stuck out while he iced a cookie on a new tray.

Oliver winked at me, and I laughed. This was nice. I enjoyed being here with him, Joey, and Marcus. I'd held on so tightly to my family, not letting myself get close to anyone else. I always thought my sister, mother, and I had a special bond. No one had ever been through what we had. But they'd moved on, and maybe I needed to as well.

I wasn't sure I could forgive my father. But I was starting to see that maybe I could move on and be happy. The only problem was that my life wasn't in Colorado.

Marcus lifted his piper and said to us, "If you want to go sledding again tonight, you'd better focus on decorating."

"We're working hard," Oliver said.

"More like hardly working," Marcus mumbled, and I couldn't help but burst out laughing. Oliver joined in, and Joey looked over at me. "What's so funny?"

"Marcus," Oliver said. "He's grumpy."

"Especially when you lick your fingers when you're baking," I said.

Marcus paused and put a hand on his hip. "You didn't lick your fingers, did you?"

Joey remained silent, but his guilty expression said it all.

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