Tied Together (The Cade Siblings Duology #1)

43. Alana

CHAPTER 43

Alana

After Alex’s many surprises for me these last few weeks, I figured it was time I stepped it up. I secretly grabbed two gingerbread house kits at the Christmas market we went to last night, and I plan to set them up for the ultimate competition tonight.

The last week with Alex has been a whirlwind, and I hope it never ends. I would have thought the moments of fear and anxiety would be more frequent, but the truth is it all just feels right. My concerns about it being too fast seem silly now that I’m in it. We’ve known each other for enough time that this feels so natural.

We’ve cuddled together on the couch all morning, sipping coffee and reading the day away, stealing kisses here and there. It was a scene straight from a movie, the room bathed in sunlight and the glow from the tree in the corner giving it warmth.

I kicked Alex out of the living room about a half hour ago, and now I’m almost ready for him to come out and see the masterpiece I’ve put together out here. Usually, these gingerbread decorating competitions get brutal between Charlie and I. We used to do it with just the two of us, but a few years ago Cami started joining us and now we make a whole day out of it.

Typically we’ll go shopping for special things to add to the houses and then spend all day decorating. I went ahead and did some of the shopping earlier this week, and now I’ve pulled out all of the decorating items.

Square cereal pieces, HERSHEY’S KISSES, candy canes, broken up chocolate bars, marshmallows, coconut shavings, M&Ms, cookies, gumdrops, and various sprinkles are all scattered around the table in bowls. We also each have two bags of icing, already loaded into a piping bag with a few different icing tips. I made a special themed cocktail, and I pick Alex’s up before heading to the bedroom door.

“Knock, knock,” I say as I push open the door to our room. “Ready?”

“Well, what do we have here?” He stands and crosses the room before taking the drink from my hand and placing a sweet kiss on my lips. He takes a sip and hums happily. “This is fantastic, what is it?”

“A Mistletoe Manhattan,” I say with a proud smile.

“Cute.” He smiles and as I turn to walk him into the kitchen, he reaches out and tugs on the tail of the braid I’ve thrown my hair into this evening. I turn back to glare at him. He just laughs.

We make our way to the table, where I’ve set everything up, and he stands looking down in awe.

“You like it?”

“Like it? This looks incredible. I am so going to wipe the floor with you.”

I scoff. “Yeah right, you’ve never seen me in action. I’ve won this the last three years against Charlie.”

“Well, I’m about ten times better than Charlie in all aspects of life, so we’ll see how this goes.”

I giggle at his casual mention of my brother and it warms my heart. Charlie told me the last time we talked that he and Alex had started talking more frequently ever since he enlisted his help with the list. Knowing that they’re friendly eases something inside me that I didn’t realize was unsettled. Charlie doesn’t really have friends and that worries me. He isolates himself too much.

We sit and get started decorating. I teach Alex how to use the boiled sugar to glue the house pieces together, because he hadn’t ever used that technique, and I tell him it’s the only free tip he’s getting from me.

Once the houses are physically assembled, we get to work on the decorating. I use the cinnamon cereal squares and glue them to look like shingles on the top of the roof. I sprinkle coconut shavings on top for the snow, and then get to work decorating around the house. I add icing to all of the edges and use different piping tips to make it look a little more fancy.

I peek over to see Alex intensely focused on getting a peppermint to stick to the door of his, and it keeps falling. Eventually he frowns in frustration and tosses the peppermint somewhere behind him. I giggle.

We work in near silence for a few hours, both concentrating on this more than we have been on anything lately. Finally, I announce I’m finished and look over to see Alex is putting the finishing touches on his as well.

His house looks great for a rookie, but not as good as mine. He’s added gumdrops as a path to the front door and made use of the piping tips as well to add icicles to the edges of the roof. His is colorful and fun, but a bit messy, just like us I guess.

“Okay so who judges?” he asks me as he washes his hands.

“I’ll take a picture of both of them and post them on my Instagram story. We’ll add a poll and let people vote, then check it in a few hours and see who won.”

I move the houses carefully to sit on the mantle of the fireplace and take photos of each of them, then add them to my story. We decide to watch The Holiday while we wait for the vote and I’ve nodded off by the time the credits roll.

“Hey, Lanie,” Alex whispers softly. He nudges my shoulder a few times and I groan, wanting to stay asleep in the warm position I’m in. “I want you to sleep and normally I’d just move you to the bed, but I gotta know who won. It’s killing me.”

I laugh and pat around my lap for my phone before pulling up the app and checking the story, then holding it up for him to see.

“A tie? That’s unacceptable.”

“I guess we’ll never know.” I’m pretty sure I hear him mutter something like A tie is a joke, I absolutely won , but he picks me up and carries me into our room, setting me on the bed and climbing in behind me. For the first time in many years, I couldn’t care less who won.