The Christmas Cookie Crush (Arcadian Falls Christmas #4)

Chapter 5

CHAPTER FIVE

Austin

I stand rooted to the spot for at least a full five minutes, staring at the place where Nora’s green-velvet clad back disappeared behind a door into the staff-only area of the ChristmasFest.

That … did not go as planned.

Were we really that terrible, though, Dylan and me? Does she hate him as much as she clearly hates me?

I mean, we were kids. It was ages ago. How is she possibly still mad?

Finally, I take a deep breath, looking down at the bag in my hand. I’m not sure what to do with this now. Part of me wants to leave it here, but it’ll be stale by morning, especially just wrapped in a pastry bag. Stale scones aren’t much of a peace offering.

Why do I even care? She doesn’t want a peace offering. Peace is the last thing on her mind .

But it rankles.

Turning back toward the Give and Cake stand, I puzzle over why. And it basically boils down to two reasons—she’s a familiar face in my age bracket, and she’s pretty. Especially in that clingy elf costume, showing off her petite frame and round little ass swaying as she marched away. My fingers itch for a pencil, knowing exactly how to capture that with a few strokes of charcoal. A figure drawing class I took had a section focused on movement, and it was one of the most fun things I’ve ever done. Nora, with all her stomping and storming around, is the perfect subject.

It’s clear she can’t stand me, though. I should leave her alone.

Should.

The proverbial devil on my shoulder thinks I should mess with her, though. I mean, she expects me to, after all. Why shouldn’t I? My teachers always put “exceeds expectations” on my report cards. If I’m being cast as the villain, I might as well lean into it, right?

A plan forming, I turn and head back to gather my things and head home, a wicked grin on my face. This is going to be fun.

It takes a couple days before I can start implementing my evil plan. At first it’s because we had a big snow fall—eight inches overnight and then six more while I was working—and I spent all my free time shoveling. Grampy tried to get me to use the snowblower, but I enjoy the meditative quality of shoveling. I always feel like firing up the snowblower breaks the spell of quiet cast by fresh snow. I’ll use it if I’m in a hurry, or if there’s a lot of area to cover, but their driveway isn’t that big, and the sidewalks are quick and easy to do. And since I spend nearly all my time standing behind a counter, it’s nice to get some kind of exercise in.

It’s good that I can’t do what I’m planning right away, though. Nora’s suspicious. I’ve caught her watching me on her break a few times. I always smile and give her a cheerful wave, which only makes her narrow her eyes, scowl, and flounce off.

The flouncing is my favorite.

She always has her dark brown hair braided. It was tucked up under her hat when she came by Give and Cake, but the last few times I’ve seen her, it’s been hanging down her back. And when she whirls around, it flies out, landing in front of her shoulder, then she flings it to her back as she marches off.

It’s the highlight of my day. And I’ve managed to squeeze in a few sketches to capture her moods before I collapse from exhaustion at the end of the day, grinning as I draw, even if it’s only for five or ten minutes. It feels good to draw again. I haven’t done it much since graduating, and while coming here was supposed to be to help my grandparents, I feel like it’s helping me in unexpected ways. Despite the fact that I’m pretty sure Nora wants to slap me every time she sees me, I feel more alive and more myself than I’ve felt in a long time.

When it becomes clear to me that waiting to go to the store until I’m not exhausted means waiting until after Christmas, I make time to scour the candy aisles for everything sour, adding a few packs of licorice for good measure.

That’s when things get tricky, though. Because I don’t want anyone to see me leaving the candy. And I also don’t want anyone other than Nora to find it. But between her parents being Santa and Mrs. Claus and the other elves, it takes another day of observing the North Pole area before I figure out a plan.

The answer comes in the form of a school friend’s older sister who comes in with her toddler and stops by Give and Cake for a little treat. “Austin!” she exclaims when she sees me. “I thought I heard you were back in town, but I hadn’t seen you, so I figured you were just visiting your grandparents.”

“Sienna? Wow. So good to see you. I haven’t seen you in a long time.”

She grins. “Parker, my husband, and I moved back to Arcadian Falls a couple years ago. We wanted to start a family, and he fell in love with the town when we’d come back to visit Mom and Dad. He’s teaching at the middle school. And little Amelia and I came in to see Santa.” She hefts the toddler on her hip, her blond curls styled in perfect tiny pigtails, a small red bow on each one that matches her dress. She stares at me owlishly, her finger in her mouth.

“Hey,” I ask, lowering my voice as I take the payment for the scone she ordered and leaning over the counter, “can you help me out with something?”

Sienna’s eyebrows lift, curious. “Um, sure? If it doesn’t take too long. The line’s already a mile. Hence the scone.” She nods toward the case. “We need something to keep our spirits up while we wait to see Santa. Don’t we, munchkin?” She says the last in a baby voice, looking at her daughter and bouncing her on her hip.

The little girl grins and nods. “Tweat!”

“It’s easy, I promise,” I reassure her. “It won’t take any extra time at all.” After placing the pumpkin scone in a pastry bag and passing it to her, I drop a few Warheads into another pastry bag. “Do you remember Nora Daniels? Dylan Daniels’ little sister?”

“I think so?”

I nod toward the North Pole. “She’s one of the elves. You’ll see her when you get to the North Pole. Can you give her this?” I hold out the pastry bag.

Sienna’s eyes twinkle when they meet mine. “Why don’t you give it to her yourself?”

Grinning, I shake my head and gesture at the line behind her. “No time. Too busy.”

She doesn’t look like she entirely buys my excuse, but she accepts the bag. “Okay. I’m assuming this is a sweet gesture? Or some kind of inside joke?”

I nod, elation filling me. “Something like that.” Nora’ll probably view it as more of a prank than a joke, but tomato potato.

Sienna still has her eyes narrowed with suspicion, but she just shrugs. “How long are you going to be in town for?”

“At least through ChristmasFest. Beyond that, I’m not sure. It depends on how quickly Grampy recovers from surgery.”

Sympathy fills Sienna’s face. “He’s recovering well, though?”

“From what I can tell. He has a walker, which he doesn’t like, and I think that motivates him to do everything his physical therapist tells him to so he can get rid of it as soon as possible.”

“Well, I hope he succeeds.”

The thought of Grampy never getting away from the walker hits me like a punch to the gut. I’m not sure why the idea hadn’t occurred to me before, but I suppose that’s a real possibility, isn’t it? No wonder he’s so pissed off about the whole thing.

That’s another weird thing about this visit—beyond the obvious. Grampy’s always been cheerful and funny and full of stories and jokes. This time, he’s quiet and terse more often than not. Sure, sometimes he puts on a show of his old self, especially when I get home from work. But I see the way he interacts with Nana. It’s not at all like what I’m used to. I just chalked it up to recovering from surgery. And it’s not that that’s wrong, but maybe it’s incomplete. Maybe he’s worried about if he’ll make a full recovery at all.

For someone as independent and active as Grampy’s always been, that’s gotta be hard to swallow.

“Me too,” I manage to say, hoping my voice doesn’t sound too choked.

Sienna flashes another smile and gives an awkward wave with her hand full of pastry bags. “See you around!”

I want to watch her until she gets to the North Pole, but I don’t have a clear line of sight from the cash register, and I have a long line of customers, and every time I serve one, two or three more add themselves to the back of the line.

I’ll just have to wait to find out how Nora reacts.

Grinning to myself, I turn to the next woman in line. “Merry Christmas! What can I get for you?”