A Mountain Springs Christmas

Chapter 5

five

KATIE

This was probably the seventh time that Katie had done the Santa Hat activity with a date as her partner. But as they hurried to grab out the bags of groceries, laughing and bumping shoulders with Noelle and Jack as the four of them all tried to go through the door first, she realized it was the first time she was going into it with confidence that her teammate was as dedicated to winning as she was. Maybe they actually had a chance.

For a moment, she internally rolled her eyes at the thought. She’d chosen the Dinner paper, after all. Maybe if they’d drawn anything else. She never would’ve guessed that Connor Greene, of all people, would make her feel like she had someone who was very solidly on her team.

They laid out the groceries they bought for Jack and Noelle to use on one end of the long table. It had all the leaves in it, ready to seat all twenty-two of them. Jack and Noelle set out all the food items they’d bought on the other end. Then they swapped sides to see what they had to work with.

Both she and Connor started moving items around on the table, pulling things together that seemed like they fit, and it didn’t take long to see a theme. There was a turkey breast, a big can of pumpkin pie mix, heavy cream, cranberry sauce, and mini marshmallows, like the kind they always put on top of yams. Did Jack & Noelle think they could make a Thanksgiving dinner in— she looked at her watch— twenty-seven minutes? The turkey breast was thawed and boneless and the ovens were both pre-heated, but still, twenty-seven minutes wasn’t enough time.

Katie and Connor had chosen for Jack and Noelle a bunch of random ingredients that they didn’t think would go together. But Jack and Noelle seemed to be leading them along a theme that they couldn’t possibly pull off in the amount of time that they had.

She picked up a head of cauliflower and a bag of Lay’s potato chips and, loudly enough to be heard at the other end of the table, said, “Really? Are we supposed to mash potato chips into cauliflower to make it taste like mashed potatoes?”

Noelle patted her pregnant belly and said, “What can I say? The baby loved Thanksgiving and wants it again. But we’re not telling you what you have to make at all. Besides, can you really complain when you gave us…” she picked up two items, “Hot dogs and gummy worms?”

“Fair enough,” Katie said, and couldn’t help the smile on her face. She was pretty sure that she and Connor had bought some pretty difficult ingredients to use together.

Then, in a quieter voice meant only for Connor, she said, “Seriously, though, how are we supposed to make Thanksgiving dinner in such a short amount of time?” She pulled together the other ingredients that didn’t seem to fit the theme— red and green bell peppers, Reese’s Puffs cereal, flour tortillas, and a can of pineapple chunks. She couldn’t even imagine how to use them.

Connor just looked at the ingredients for a small moment, hands on his hips, a focused expression on his face. Then he said, “The theme is just to throw us off. To keep us from thinking of other things.”

Katie eyed her sister and her brother-in-law. “Clever.”

He started moving things around, putting them in different groups. “We have pineapple and peppers. Can we use any additional ingredients besides what’s here?”

Katie nodded. “Yes. Salt, pepper, seasonings, oils, and condiments. But we have to use all the ingredients they bought for us.”

“Okay, we have pineapple chunks. We could make something similar to sweet and sour chicken but use turkey instead. Then we can cut it into small enough chunks to cook in time, and maybe use the cauliflower as rice. To make the sauce, we can use marshmallows instead of brown sugar, some of the juice from the pineapples, and I’m sure your parents have ketchup, soy sauce, and cornstarch.”

“Oh, wow,” Katie said, feeling a bit impressed and in awe. “You’re actually pretty brilliant.”

“I can’t say that is the most frequent compliment that hockey players tend to get.”

Katie picked up the box of cereal, thinking, then grabbed the marshmallows. “Rice Krispies treats!”

Connor paused a second before he grabbed the can of jellied cranberry sauce. “We can use this in the sauce for sugar instead of the marshmallows.” Then he grabbed the potato chips. “Maybe crumble some of these up with the Reese’s Puffs? It could be a sweet and salty treat.”

“I’m not sure if that will make it awful or awfully tasty. I say we find out.”

Connor pulled the final two ingredients toward them— the pumpkin pie mix and the flour tortillas— and Katie gasped. “We can make mini pumpkin pies in a muffin tin! We’ll use the tortillas as a crust, and we can whip the cream.”

“That’s perfect.” As they quickly gathered all the ingredients into their arms to haul them over to the counters, Connor said, “But we need a side. Our plan gives us one main dish and two desserts.”

“We can call the pumpkin pies a side.” When Connor shot her a look, she said, “What? Pumpkin is a vegetable, right?”

They were down to twenty-three minutes remaining, so Katie hurried to put a skillet on the stove and turned the burner on, and they quickly divided up who was going to work on what item first. Connor cut the turkey into cubes, dredging them in corn starch and putting them into the skillet as he went, while Katie cut up the peppers on a second cutting board beside him as fast as she could.

“Coming up with what to make out of random ingredients is one of the hardest parts of drawing the Dinner paper.” She glanced at him as she worked. She had to admit that the guy was creative. “Yet you came up with something pretty great.”

“Wow. A second compliment in three minutes.” He didn’t look away from his slicing— which was good, because they were in a hurry— but said, “I guess when your parents start to have a falling out that lasts the better part of a year, then your dad leaves completely and your mom is left dealing with a myriad of struggles, you tend to get plenty of opportunities to figure out how to make things from random ingredients that resemble meals.”

Katie did actually stop slicing peppers for a full five seconds to just look at Connor. She wasn’t sure what she thought of him, exactly, but she was definitely intrigued. Plus, he had that strong jaw and the hair that curled over his ear just a bit that was rather attractive.

Stop being attracted, Katie , she reminded herself. She had a plan and was going to stick with it.

She finished cutting the peppers before Connor finished the turkey, so she started grating the cauliflower. Her parents had two ovens, but they had to share the stove with Noelle and Jack, so they only got two of the burners. Things were going to get tricky, so she got out another pan to cook and slightly toast the cauliflower.

Before long, Katie found herself cutting the tortillas into triangles and working to get them to sit right in the muffin tin right next to where Noelle was layering Greek yogurt, gummy worms, crushed pretzels, and a drizzle of cranberry sauce in nearly two dozen clear cups at one end of the long island counter. Connor was at the other end, mixing ingredients into a bowl for the sauce, taste-testing it, and then making adjustments. Jack was keeping an eye on… Katie wasn’t sure exactly what on the stove while mixing stuff in with the spaghetti.

Without glancing up, Noelle nodded her head toward Connor. “Things between you two don’t seem as tense as when he first got here.”

Katie used the back of her hand to rub her forehead and took a quick look at Connor. “I can forgive the guy who ruined the dance and my dress.”

“ My dress.”

“ Your dress. It was a very long time ago. What matters is what he’s like now.”

A bit of yogurt fell from the spoon as Noelle was scooping it, falling onto the apron covering her big belly. Noelle just looked at it, sighed, and kept going. “And what is he like now? Dateable?”

The old her would’ve said yes. The new her didn’t. “I don’t have enough info yet.”

“But you do think he’s very attractive, right?”

Katie smiled. “That, he is.” She glanced at him again as he took the sauce to the stove, gave both the cauliflower and the turkey a stir, then added the peppers to the turkey skillet. “As far as the rest goes, though, I’m withholding judgment for now. I’m sure I’ll find out what he’s really like as we’re filming.”

“Come on, Katie. He’s been great while he’s been here. You can’t tell me that you haven’t been thinking about what it would be like to date him, even if it’s only for fun and not for anything long-term.”

“Okay, I have.” Because he kind of got her heart fluttering quite a bit. She placed the final tortilla triangle in the last of the two muffin tins and grabbed the can of pumpkin pie mix and a can opener. “And I also haven’t. I decided I make decisions too quickly when it comes to men to date, and I made a goal to be more skeptical. Now, I slow down and get more information first. I don’t use my initial gut reaction anymore. That thing can’t be trusted.”

She exhaled as she opened the can of pumpkin. “Besides, even if he does end up being great, when would I ever fit in dating? Christmas is in a week. I have to film Connor at three activities. Then I have to edit all that footage and get it sent in.”

As she put dollop after dollop of pie filling in each spot in the muffin tin, moving as quickly as she could, all the things she needed to do outside of tonight moved just as quickly through her mind. “I need to finish filming our family’s video and edit it, and I have to do one for the Waldrops’ Christmas party in a few days, edit that, work at my other job because this time of year is always crazy for Emmalee, and finish last minute shopping. On top of all our regular family traditions. Plus, I don’t even really know what he’s like yet. And I’ll only see him through Christmas, anyway.”

“You’re right. It’s good to know when to admit defeat, call it quits,” Noelle said as she drizzled the last bit of cranberry sauce on her crazy creations in a flourish.

“You’ll never get me to admit defeat. Like everything, I’m in this to win it.” She was pretty sure she was talking about the dinner competition now.

Katie put the mini pumpkin pies in the oven, and then Connor dipped a spoon in the sauce on the stove and held out the spoon. “Taste this. Does it need anything?”

“Oh, wow,” Katie said, wiping a bit of sauce off her lip with her knuckle. “That is amazing.” He seriously made that using random ingredients and cranberry sauce. Was she impressed? Maybe. Was she going to let herself be attracted, based on that impressiveness? Nope. She was going to stick to her plan.

“What’s left to do?” Connor asked.

“Whip the cream and make the Rice Krispies treats.” She glanced at her watch. “And we’ve only got seven minutes left!”

Without discussing what they were each going to do, Katie got out a pot and started melting the butter and marshmallows, and Connor pulled out a bowl and started measuring Reese’s Puffs cereal and crushing the potato chips into it. As she mixed the melted marshmallow mixture into the cereal, he whipped the cream. When she reached for something in his space, he leaned away the perfect amount. When one of them needed a utensil that was closer to the other, they handed it to the other person before they even asked. Almost like they’d rehearsed everything ahead of time.

And it was extra surprising that they were working so well together given the fact that they were working against the clock. She had done the Santa Hat activity with plenty of different dates over the years, so she knew how much the time limit could bring out not only the stress but annoyance with each other.

(Unless they drew the Entertainment paper. It was easy to go with the flow when it came to a skit, because no one knew if you were following a script or making it up as you went, anyway. Dinner , though? That was a completely different beast.)

As Noelle tended to whatever hotdog concoction they had going on at the other burner, from the corner of her eye, Katie saw that Noelle was smiling at their in-syncedness. If she felt the need to bring it up, Katie could always bring up the “loading frosting bags and getting some on my cheek so he has to wipe it off” incident that happened in this very kitchen between Jack and Noelle that Katie had a front row seat to.

Wait. That eventually led to the two of them getting married, so maybe it wasn’t the best comeback.

They were down to almost no time left when she dumped the Reese’s Puffs treats into a pan and the two of them pressed it out together. Katie pulled the remaining bit of it from the spoon she’d used, divided it in half, then put half in her mouth and half in Connor’s. Her eyebrows shot up just as Connor said, “Oh! This is actually quite good. I didn’t think it would be.”

She playfully punched him in the shoulder. “Weren’t you the one who suggested it?”

“Yes. I like taking risks. It doesn’t mean that they always work out.”

With less than a minute to go, they hurried to cut up the treats, which were still too warm to be cut in a pretty way, so it took a little finessing, pulled the mini pies from the oven, and barely had time to get everything on a sample plate to show before the air horn sounded from where her parents were coming up the stairs from the basement. All her siblings, their spouses, and their kids descended on the room that was a combination kitchen, dining room, and family room, all seeming pretty excited about whatever they’d prepared.

Katie took a deep breath and stood next to Connor, but the nerves that had popped up the moment that horn had sounded stuck around. While she and Connor had been cooking, she’d forgotten about her curse when it came to the Dinner card. There was one other time she had, too, and that was when she and her partner had spilled the pot of soup everywhere. She leaned in closer to Connor. “If anything needs to be picked up and moved at all, I need you to do it.”

He didn’t question it— he just nodded and lifted one of the arms crossed over his chest enough to form a fist, so she bumped it with hers. “We’ve got this,” he said.

When she’d leaned in to bump his fist, they’d gotten close enough that her entire upper arm was pressed against his, and she didn’t move. It made it feel like they were an unstoppable team. She could really get used to having a teammate who was as dedicated to winning as she was. And had she ever enjoyed a teammate this much before? The same fluttering happened in her chest again.

But maybe it was just the nerves.

Once everyone was gathered, her dad announced that it was time for both teams to present their meals. She and Connor presented their sweet and sour turkey over riced cauliflower, the “vegetable” side in the form of a mini pumpkin pie, and the Reese’s and Lay’s treats for dessert.

And then Jack and Noelle presented their grilled and sliced hotdogs smothered in a root beer reduction glaze with a touch of honey mustard, served on a bed of quinoa, with radish garnishes cut to look like flowers, a side salad of spaghetti noodles tossed with creamed corn and topped with crumbled pretzels, and the layered dessert in a glass. Which kind of still sounded gross, but looked pretty good, somehow smelled tasty enough, and was definitely impressive, given the ingredients she and Connor had bought for them to use.

As everyone sat down to try the foods, Katie pulled out her video camera to get everyone’s reactions for the family Christmas Eve video.

After eating her fourth bite— surprisingly— of the glazed hot dogs and quinoa, she leaned closer to Connor and said, “Theirs wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it would be. And judging by the fact that you’ve finished yours, I’m guessing you felt the same.”

Connor nodded. “And ours is better than I guessed it’d be.”

“It’s the sauce,” Katie said, taking another bite. He should seriously submit the recipe to a cooking blog.

“I don’t know,” he said, picking up their dessert. “The Reese’s / Lay’s treats are pretty tasty. We made a good team.”

As everyone finished eating, she managed to pull a couple of people to the side for interviews, like she did every year. Then they all gathered on the couches to watch the skits, and she filmed some more of everyone laughing and aww -ing.

Which was totally warranted, because her parents performed a skit about Christmas in space, with her dad wearing a colander as a helmet and her mom wearing slinkies on her arms like a space suit. They wandered a new planet to try to find a Christmas tree but ended up wrapping some flashing Christmas lights around a “space rock” that was really an upside-down bucket.

And then Julianne and her family pretended to be on a Christmas cooking show, with their seven-year-old as the host, the baby as the audience, and Julianne, her husband Ben, and her four-year-old all pretending they didn’t realize they were using a collection of tools that would be more at home in a garage instead of the ones meant for a kitchen.

She filmed some more as Hope and her family presented their three-foot-tall Christmas tree decorated with a lollipop-theme, and Becca and her family presented theirs decorated with the aquamarine and navy blue of the Glaciers, complete with popsicle stick hockey sticks and hockey pucks made of chocolate Oreos as decorations.

Then they all voted on the winners, and she was looking through the video camera when her mom said, “And the trophy for Best Dinner goes to… Katie and Connor!”

She nearly dropped the camera. “We won?” She turned to Connor and shouted, “We won!” He picked her up and swung her in a circle with her fist held high in the air. When he set her back on the floor, she still felt like she was floating. And, well, connected to Connor in a way that she hadn’t experienced with any previous Santa Hat date. She wasn’t going to let herself think about that, though. She gave Connor a high-ten, which was a medium-ten for him because the guy was seriously tall. “I can’t believe we won!”

Her dad handed her the trophy, and she hugged it tight to her chest for a moment. Not only was their dinner edible, but they had won Best Dinner ! Her curse was lifted. She passed the trophy to Connor so he could hold it, too.

He looked at the trophy, which had a wooden base with a slightly charred, very worn oven mitt, painted with gold spray-paint, and mounted on the base along with a very mismatched salt shaker and pepper shaker just in front of it. The front of the plaque read “Best Dinner.” “ This is the trophy we were competing for?”

“Hey, don’t knock it. It has lots of history and stories and sentimental value.”

“Do you have a special place on the mantle all picked out for it?”

“You know it.”

As everyone was getting ready to leave and Connor was thanking her parents for inviting him, she noticed Becca’s two oldest kids, nine-year-old Erika and seven-year-old Sadie carrying between them the Glacier-themed Christmas tree.

Once Connor finished talking to her parents, the girls approached him, and Erika said, “Our mom said that your hotel room is probably sad because it doesn’t have any decorations, so we want you to take this Christmas tree with you so it’ll be happy.”

Connor immediately crouched down so that he’d be closer to the girls’ heights, told them how much he loved the tree, how touched he was that they would let him take it with him, how amazing it was going to make his hotel room look, and how honored he felt to be able to put the tree in his room.

Her nieces were absolutely beaming. When Katie glanced at her sister and brother-in-law, she saw that they were, too. She looked back in time to see Connor stand again, checking out the details of the tree, looking like he genuinely appreciated it.

Was she being swept off her feet? Seeing hearts? Maybe a little. He had been pretty fantastic today. But anything could be faked for a day. Her feet were going to stay firmly planted on the ground and the hearts brushed away from her vision because she was determined to keep that skepticism in place for a little while longer.