Spoonful of Christmas (2 page)

Jake pulled her hand to his mouth for a quick kiss. “I know. We’d have to move. But just think—you could branch out, open a second cupcake shop there, create your own nationwide chain of stores.”

“Leave Rachel and Kim?” Andi’s heart slammed against her ribs with a jolt that was downright painful.

Then she looked at the eager expression on Jake’s face and realized her own dreams of opening the cupcake shop would never have come to fruition if it weren’t for his support. Now—especially as his wife—shouldn’t she return the favor and support his dreams, too?

“I told the senior editor I had a family and would need to discuss the offer with you,” Jake told her. “But he’d like a decision by the first of the year.”

Andi thought of her first marriage and how badly it had ended—with her deadbeat husband running off and leaving her to support Mia on her own. She’d been blessed to meet Jake, who had lost his wife to cancer and was also a single parent.

But could she pick up and move away from the rest of her family and friends, the people with whom she’d spent her whole life? She’d never lived outside Astoria, Oregon. It was all she knew. And unlike her adventurous sister, Kim, it was all she had ever cared to know.

“Promise me you’ll think about it?” Jake asked.

Andi swallowed hard and nodded. “I will.”

Chapter Two

Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love!

—Hamilton Wright Mabie

R
ACHEL SPUN AROUND
in front of the mirror, the skirt of her white fairytale wedding gown swishing past the others’ knees in the crowded back bedroom of her mother’s house.

“What do you think?” she asked, giving them a big smile as she turned first this way and then the other.

“You look fat,” Kim teased.

“I do not!” she said, scrunching her face. “Except for Thanksgiving dinner, I’ve been eating nothing but salad for two whole weeks.”

“You’re beautiful,” Andi affirmed. She held still while Rachel’s mother, Sarah, stuck pins into the hem of her holly green bridesmaid dress. “Mike will be mesmerized the moment he sees you walk down the aisle.”

“Don’t you mean hypnotized?” Sarah joked, as she pulled a loose thread off her daughter’s sleeve. “Like the poor souls who fall victim to his magic tricks?”

“I think he’s the one who must have hypnotized Rachel to convince her to break her two-date-only rule and marry him so fast,” Andi said, breaking into a grin.

“Mike’s too busy driving the Cupcake Mobile and working on his miniature models for the movie studios to perform any magic tricks these days,” Rachel informed them.

“What about when he kisses you?” Kim asked, her face etched with mock innocence. “Didn’t you tell us his kisses were magical?”

“One of a kind,” Rachel agreed. “Mom, when will the bridesmaid dresses be finished?”

“Unless something goes wrong, I’ll have them stitched together and hemmed next week.”

“Nothing can go wrong,” Rachel said, twirling in front of the mirror again.

“I hope you’re right,” Andi said, looping an arm around her shoulders. “But not everything always goes as planned. Remember how it rained on my wedding day back in September?”

Rachel nodded. Andi’s wedding had been full of last-minute changes due to the weather. The ceremony, set to take place on the waterfront dock, had to be moved to an inside pavilion. Jake’s daughter, Taylor, and Andi’s daughter, Mia, both six, soaked the fancy shoes dyed to match their dresses when they jumped in a puddle. And the umbrella’s donated last minute by the Fish ’N’ Nets cafe for the bridal party were imprinted with tiny dancing shrimp.

Andi and Jake had been so much in love that none of it mattered to them. But Rachel couldn’t fathom what she’d do if something like that happened to her.

She wanted
her
wedding to be perfect.

K
IMBERLY
N
ICOLE
B
URKE
dipped a paintbrush into the can of green paint she’d perched on the top of the ladder. Then, using broad, sweeping strokes she created the branches of an evergreen tree on the glass of the large six-by-six shop window. A small dab of blue on the snowman’s button, a red swirl on the lollipop sticking out of the stocking, and there! Her window decorations were finished.

She was leaning back to admire her work when Andi came out the front door, bundled in her coat, carrying a coiled strand of multicolored Christmas lights.

“Ready for these?” Andi asked, lifting the bundle of bulbs up to her.

Kim nodded. “I want to decorate the whole shop and have a good old-fashioned Christmas like we did when Mom was still with us.”

“That would be nice,” Andi said, her voice soft. “You never know when it might be our last Christmas together.”

Kim thought of Nathaniel, his blond hair, his Swedish accent, his cute, quirky ways. Before she met him, she’d spent several years alone. And if he wasn’t as committed as she was to their relationship, she might be alone again by this time next year.

“Ja,”
Kim said, mimicking his lilting Scandinavian tone. “You never know.”

“Careful you don’t fall off the ladder,” Andi warned.

Kim laughed. “After I’ve flown to Sweden, bungee jumped in Italy, hiked to the top of Mount Hood, and parasailed in the Bahamas, you’re worried about me falling off a
ladder
?”

Rachel came out the front door, carrying an air pump and a blow-up Frosty the Snowman. “That’s Andi for you, always worrying about everyone’s safety.”

“You have to admit, I’m not nearly as OCD as I used to be.” Andi smiled to herself. “Especially now that I’m married to Jake.”

“Yeah, Jake has had a calming effect on you,” Kim replied. “Except for the past week or two. Are you fighting?”

Andi jerked her head backward. “Of course not. We’ve just been busy. First we had Rachel’s birthday and then Thanksgiving. Now we’re decorating for Christmas, and I still need to shop—”

Both Andi and the “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” carol playing on Kim’s portable radio were disrupted by the rattling, tinkering sound of the Cupcake Mobile turning the corner. The 1933 antique bread-loaf-shaped truck parked next to the curb, and Mike Palmer climbed out, followed by Nathaniel Sjölander.

“They got the tree!” Kim climbed down the ladder and hurried to Nathaniel’s side. “Smells fresh.”

“We cut it down less than fifteen minutes ago. The best tree in my nursery,” Nathaniel said as he helped Mike carry the blue spruce toward the front door.

“Sjölander’s is the best.” Kim’s heart swelled as she thought of all the wonderful flowers she’d received over the past year as a result of dating the owner. “Your brother didn’t mind running the business and tending to the gardens while we were off on our adventures?”

Nathaniel slid her a quick glance. “Well, no, but Fredrik’s glad we’re back.”

Kim was glad, too. Her dream of having her passport filled with stamps was great, but she’d missed her friends and family—and being a regular part of the cupcake shop.

She never thought she’d say this, but this year she looked forward to spending the holidays . . . at
home
.

“O
W
!”
M
AX
H
OLLOWAY
raised the hem of the white, floor-length tablecloth and stuck his head out. “You kicked me!”

A young girl with blond hair and enormous blue eyes peered down at him. “What are you doing under the table?”

“None of your business.”

“You need a haircut.”

Max swiped a long strand of his shaggy brown hair out of his eyes. “That’s none of your business either.”

“How old are you?”

Max scowled, wishing he’d kept his location a secret. “Twelve. And I don’t talk to little kids.”

“I’m not little,” the girl shot back. “I go to school all day now. I’m in the first grade.”

“You are, too, little,” he argued. “Go away.”

She lifted her chin. “This is my snack spot.”

Max glanced at the brown paper lunch bag in her hands and thought he could smell peanut butter. “What kind of snacks do you have?”

The girl raised the bag out of his reach. “What’s your name?”

He could also smell some kind of fruit candy, and his mouth started to water. Maybe he could convince her to give him some.
If he was nice.

“Max.” He glanced around the interior of the shop to make sure no one else had spotted him. “My name is Max.”

“I used to have a dog named Max. He’s gone now. I’m Mia.” The first-grader opened the bag and dug in. “Do you want some crackers?”

Max snatched the peanut butter sandwich crackers from her hands. “Yeah, thanks.”

“Why are you hiding?”

Max ripped open the plastic wrapper holding his treat. “I’m not hiding, I just want to be alone.”

“I hid from my mom once, but she found me. Where’s your mom?”

Max shoved the crackers into his mouth, wishing Mia would stop asking him so many questions. “I don’t have a mom.”

“What about a dad?”

Now she was bothering him. “I don’t have a dad.”

Mia leaned her head closer. “Who packs your lunchbox for school?”

“I have foster parents,” Max said, motioning toward the brown bag for another treat. “But they don’t care about me.”

Mia waved an open bag of Gummy Bears in front of his face. “Why not?”

Max tried to reach for the candy, but Mia pulled it away and giggled. Frustrated, he replied, “They just don’t.”

Her eyes widened. “Were you bad?”

“No! I’m just not—theirs. All they care about is the money they get for giving me a place to stay. They fight all the time. I think they’re going to get a divorce.”

“My mom got a divorce,” she said and handed him the fruit-scented Gummy Bears. “Then she married Jake. Now he’s my dad.”

Mia pointed to the front of the cupcake counter, where a woman in an apron waved a wooden spoon at a guy with a newspaper tucked under the arm of his blue sport jacket. “There they are.”

Max watched the couple as they drew toward each other for a hug. “Do you ever see your real dad?”

Mia frowned, as if confused. “I was like you. I didn’t have a real dad until Jake.”

“Do you like him?”

She laughed. “Of course. Jake’s fun.”

Fun?
Yeah, right
. Not possible. He’d never known
any
parent to be fun. But what did Mia know? She was just a child. He’d even bet his At Athens Alone drumstick the girl still believed in Santa Claus.

“H
OW IS MY
lovely wife today?” Jake asked, taking the wooden spoon from her hand and setting it on the counter.

“Mrs. Hartman is busy,” Andi said, and tried to turn away from him.

It didn’t work. Jake stretched his arms around her from behind and covered her eyes with his hands. “I have a surprise for you. In the kitchen. Just walk forward, and I’ll guide you.”

Okay, she
did
love surprises—as long as they were good. She heard the double doors open and then Jake’s voice telling their three college-age employee’s to man the front of the shop for a few minutes. Their footsteps shuffled past her as Jake’s strong arms led her a few more feet. Then they came to a stop, and a mixture of cream cheese frosting and pine assaulted her nose.

“Okay, open them.”

Andi opened her eyes and looked up. A sprig of mistletoe hung from the ceiling overhead. “Mistletoe Magic?”

Jake kissed her, and images of the first time she met him floated in her mind. She’d run all over town searching for a cupcake for Kim’s birthday when she found one in Jake’s possession at the Captain’s Port. However, convincing him to let her have it wasn’t “a piece of cake.” She’d thought she might have to shanghai him to get her hands on the treat.

The Captain’s Port was famous for the trapdoor through which drunken customers in the past had often been shanghaied into becoming crew members at sea. For a brief moment, she had entertained the notion of shoving Jake down the hatch and refusing to let him out until he said the cupcake was hers. But in the end she hadn’t had to use such drastic means. He’d agreed to split the cupcake with her. And thus began their romance.

Jake pulled his mouth away and kissed her on the end of her nose. “I’m sorry, Andi. I’m a better writer than I am a speaker, and I shouldn’t have worded the news about my job offer in D.C. that way. Nothing is set in stone. You know I won’t take the job if you don’t want me to.”

“I’m sorry, too,” Andi admitted. “The way I’ve been avoiding you is unfair. I’ve only been thinking of myself. And I don’t want anything to ruin our first Christmas together.”

Jake kissed her again. “I don’t either. Have you told Rachel and Kim?”

Andi shook her head. “Not until we make a final decision. But, Jake, can’t we wait until
after
Christmas?”

“Of course,” Jake agreed. “If we decide to move, we don’t want to upset Rachel before her wedding, or upset Kim and the girls. I hadn’t thought about Mia’s and Taylor’s reactions.”

Andi walked over to the cupcake tray rack and brought Jake one of her newest creations. “I baked these this morning.”

Jake took a bite of the red velvet cupcake set in the candy cane-printed wrapper, iced with white icing and topped with a Hershey’s kiss and a green sprig of mint candy. “Mistletoe Magic cupcakes?”

Andi smiled. “You gave me the idea. Everyone says they ‘taste as good as a kiss.’ ”

Jake pulled her against him with his free arm. “Close. But I still think a real kiss from you is better.”

He drew his mouth toward her again, and Andi melted into him, glad Jake brought her into the privacy of the kitchen.

“I love you, Jake.”

“I love you, too, Andi.”

“I won’t let anything ruin this Christmas,” she promised.

“I won’t either,” Jake vowed. “Let’s make this the best Christmas we’ve ever had.”

Andi gave him a big smile. “Sounds like a plan.”

T
HE NEXT MORNING
when Andi got out of her car, she noticed that the snowman Rachel had inflated outside the shop the day before lay in a heap on the ground. Maybe it had a leak?