Page 67 of Dreaming About Forever

“How do we get the icing onto the cookies?” he asked.

Alicia’s eyes widened. “Are you kidding me? I thought you knew what to do. I don’t know either!”

Jordan pressed his lips into a thin line as he tried to swallow the grin threatening to make an appearance.

“Jordan, we have to win. Get your head in the game.”

His mom stepped up to their table and handed them a tiny cluster of toothpicks. “You two ready?”

“No. Not even close. We just realized we’re both clueless,” Alicia said, flopping her hands out to her sides.

Jordan’s mom looked at him as if she were waiting for an explanation.

He lifted his hands. “I never claimed to be the best partner choice for this.”

His mom tsked. “When you’re ready to start, cut a tiny hole in the point of the bags. Tiny. Then, start by outlining the cookie. Don’t go all the way to the edge. Just get close. Then, fill it in. If you want the other colors to flow together, add them before the icing dries. If you want the next color to sit on top of the base color, let it dry first.” She held up the toothpicks. “Use these to help push your icing to the edges where you don’t want to get too close while piping it out of the bags. Got it?”

“Got it,” Alicia said with a stern nod.

Jordan didn’t answer because one or both of the women were going to throttle him if he told the truth. His mom’s instruction might as well have been Greek.

“You have ten minutes until the timer starts running,” his mom said. “Use it to decide on your ideas. The judges are looking for neatness and creativity.”

“Thanks,” Alicia said as she started grouping the cookies with colorful bags of icing.

“I feel like I should apologize in advance,” Jordan said.

Alicia pointed to the cookie in front of him. “Can you draw a snowflake?”

“Um, maybe.” He’d never regretted skipping art class in high school as much as he did right now.

“Make the base light blue, wait for it to dry, then put a white snowflake on it. I’ll start filling these in with green, and I think we could make a Christmas tree out of them.”

Jordan looked at the set of round cookies in front of her. “I think the shape is off.”

“They’ll all connect to make a tree. Do you have any better ideas?”

Jordan shook his head. Alicia was scary when she was in boss mode. “Nope. That sounds like a good idea.”

Connie raised a hand and whistled to get everyone’s attention. “Thanks for coming to the tenth annual cookie decorating contest. This is one of our best fundraisers of the year, and all benefits go to the Redemption Ridge Fire Department.” She flicked a piece of paper in front of her. “A few housekeeping points first.”

Alicia wrung her hands beside him as Connie read off the rules. Jordan leaned closer and whispered, “Relax.”

“I’ll relax when we win.”

Jordan bumped her shoulder with his. “If you want to win, I’ll make it happen. Don’t worry about it.”

“Easy for you to say.”

“It is. Don’t you trust me?”

Alicia looked up at him, and the force of her gaze hit all the way to his gut. He’d do anything she wanted, and winning a cookie decorating contest just became his top priority.

Her gaze flicked to his mouth, then back up again. “I do.”

Man, his body’s reactions to a single look from her were unreal. He felt the wave of that look all the way to his toes.

“Let the games begin!” Connie shouted.

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