Page 32 of Fire and Ice
He looked thoughtful. “You’re going to need help getting all these cookies to the soup kitchen.”
“I’ll have plenty of help.” She waved off the thought. “My sisters are helping me in the afternoon, when I leave my shop.”
“Are you sure you don’t need me to carry the boxes?”
“We’ll be fine.” She smirked. “But you do have to deliver the box to the guys at the fire department.”
He smiled. “First thing tomorrow.”
“Be thinking about what to do on Friday and Saturday.” He grasped his orange juice cup. “Man, this week is going by way too fast.”
“It sure is.” Chelsea leaned back and stretched her arms. “Next, the cookie-making workout.”
After they had eaten, Grady cleaned up the breakfast bar and loaded the dishes into the dishwasher while Chelsea prepared to make cookies.
Spot picked one of her large rugs and settled onto it. He looked like a prince on a throne.
Chelsea turned on an all-Christmas streaming channel to listen to holiday music as they worked. She got out all the cookie-making and decorating supplies and bakeware.
“I bought enough ingredients to make cookies for the soup kitchen, the fire department, my brothers and sisters, and us.” She blew out her breath. “I figure around 260 cookies. Each batch makes twenty-four, and we can fit twelve cutouts per sheet. They’re big sheets.”
“What have I gotten myself into?” Smiling, Grady braced his hand on the countertop. “So, we’re talking eleven batches and twenty-two sheets of cookies.”
She nodded. “That’s about right.”
“Thanks for thinking about the guys at the fire department,” he said. “They’ll appreciate it.”
“Of course.” She flashed him a smile. “Those hard-working men deserve a cookie too.”
She grabbed two aprons that covered her from chest to thighs. She handed one to Grady. “You don’t want to get flour and icing all over your clothes.”
He looked amused as he held up the apron that had a ruffled hem and read the saying out loud. “‘I call this recipe eat it or starve.’” He chuckled as he looked at her. “Did you wear this when cooking for your brothers and sisters?”
“Yep.” She tied on a burgundy apron.
He read the words scrawled across her apron out loud, “‘Given enough coffee, I could rule the world.’”
Chelsea adjusted the apron so that it was straight. “Just a little more coffee and then I’ll graduate from princess to queen.”
He swooped in for a kiss, stealing her breath. “You’re already my queen.”
Her face heated. “Gotta start somewhere.”
He grinned at her and pointed toward the well-worn recipe card on the island. “You still use paper?”
“It’s on my phone, too, but I’ve used this card my mom left behind since the time I made my first batch.” Chelsea measured the ingredients as she spoke. “I think I was seven, and she helped me make a few dozen that lasted through the holidays.” She stirred the flour, baking powder, and baking soda in a small metal bowl. “I could make these cookies blindfolded.”
“My mom made them every Christmas.” Grady put the oven on preheat. “I helped her sometimes. I liked working with my mom in the kitchen now and then.”
Chelsea used her large red KitchenAid mixer to beat the sugar and butter. “Did any of her cooking or baking skills rub off on you?”
Grady shook his head. “Not even a little bit.”
Chelsea laughed. When the ingredients were well blended, she added egg, almond extract, and vanilla. After the mixture had been prepared, she added flour a little at a time until it no longer stuck to the beaters and was ready for the next step. “I taught myself how to cook when I had to take over raising my siblings.”
She shrugged and continued. “They wouldn’t have minded surviving on mac and cheese, pizza rolls, chicken nuggets, and ramen, but I wanted them to have good meals and for us all to sit down together.”
“Mom felt much the same way.” Grady washed and dried his hands, then followed the instructions Chelsea gave him and lightly floured the silicone mat she’d set out. “At least one kid always helped her. There was more than enough of us to go around.”
