Page 20 of Soldier's Chrismas Hope
“She was a big help,” River told Nora honestly. “I can see she’s had training. She knows what she’s doing.”
“She knows her way around a kitchen,” Nora said,nodding, her dimples popping. “Her mom taught her well, and we’ve been practicing a lot lately, right, Pixie?”
Pixie nodded up and down, looking too proud to speak.
“Shall we cut them out and bake them?” River asked.
“Me,” John-John said. “I want to cut them out.”
River turned to Pixie, expecting her to argue and already wondering how he might resolve it.
“Okay,” Pixie said, smiling at her brother.
That was unexpected. Pixie had helped with the hard part of the preparations. River would have thought that cutting out the biscuits would be the fun part, and she wouldn’t want to give it up. At her age, he and Edward certainly would have put up a fuss.
“Why don’t you both help with the cutting?” he suggested. “You can take turns.”
“Okay,” John-John said.
“That’s a good idea,” Pixie said, looking pleased.
River glanced over at Nora, who was giving him a grateful look.
He wondered if maybe this type of scenario was normal between the kids. He could always ask Nora about it later. For now, it was time to make biscuits.
“How can I help?” Nora asked.
“Oh, we’ve got this, right kids?” he said. “Your job is to fix a cup of coffee and watch.”
That earned him a brilliant smile.
He grabbed her a mug and got the milk out of the fridge for her just to have a reason to stop noticing those blue topaz eyes.
A few minutes later, she was sitting at the table with asteaming mug of coffee, smiling as she watched him show the kids how to use a glass to cut out a perfectly round biscuit.
“Do you have a cutter?” Pixie asked.
“Well, my mom’s got one at her place,” River said. “But I haven’t bought one yet, and this works just as well. You just have to be careful since it’s glass.”
“I can be careful,” John-John announced.
“Okay,” River said. “I thought so. But let’s have your big sister test out the first one.”
John-John nodded, and Pixie beamed and stepped up onto the crate to give it a shot. She made a perfect biscuit on her first try, and they all admired it.
Then John-John got up on the crate for his turn. He didn’t press down hard enough the first time, so River had to help him a bit, but they wound up with another great-looking biscuit to add to the tray along with Pixie’s.
Before he knew it, they were putting the tray in the oven.
“Now what?” Pixie asked.
“Now I need to scramble up some eggs as fast as I can,” River told her. “That way they’ll be done at the same time as the biscuits.”
“Can I help?” Pixie asked.
John-John had gone over to cuddle on Nora’s lap, so River figured there was no harm in letting Pixie try and help out.
“Have you ever cracked an egg before?” he asked her.
