Lily didn’t even need to look up to know who it was. She let out an annoyed huff. “We’re fine. Thanks for asking. And was it still a kids event when you were making out with Jules earlier?”
“In our defense, there was a mistletoe!” A brunette woman with rosy cheeks walked up next to Wesley. Jules, who I’d met earlier today at Purrfect Blend while helping Lily with the holiday orders, was holding two hot chocolates.
Wes extended his hand, first helping Lily up and then extending his hand to me, too. Once Lily and I were both standing, I tried to push how close we’d been out of my mind. “Nice to see you both,” I said to Wes and Jules.
“Good to see you, too, Gabe!” Jules grinned. “Hopefully you’ve been enjoying your time in town and at the festival. Hard not to when you have the best tour guide.” She nodded to Lily.
“I couldn’t agree more. Lily has made my time in Golden Falls really welcoming…and eventful,” I said with a chuckle. “There’s never a dull moment with her.”
The corner of Wes’s mouth twitched. “That’s one way of putting it.” Wes took one of the hot chocolates from Jules and then used his other hand to pull her into his side.
“Where are you two heading next?” Jules asked.
“We’re going to enter the gingerbread house competition,” Lily said with a grin. “What about you two?”
“We’re getting ready to wrap up for the night. The hot chocolate was our last stop. It’s my prize for beating Wes in a snowball fight,” Jules said proudly. “Okay, I know he let me win, but still.”
I hadn’t been around much genuine love in my life, but even I could tell that the connection between Wes and Jules was as real as it got.
“We’ll see you two tomorrow for Christmas, right?” I asked.
Jules nodded eagerly. “Yes! It’s my first Christmas in Golden Falls, and I suppose it’s your first one here, too. It’s going to be a great time. We’ll see you both then. Enjoy the rest of your night, and good luck with the competition!”
Wes gave us each a nod before the two of them turned and walked away from the festival.
“Sounds like we have a competition to enter,” I said, amused.
Lily beamed. “Not just enter—win.”
30
GABRIEL
“Sunshine,I think winning this competition is going to be harder than we thought.”
Lily paused icing one of the sides of the gingerbread house and looked up at me, brows furrowing. “Why?”
I blinked and then gestured around the room filled with screaming children. Happy screams, but screams, nonetheless. “Uh, because we’re competing against a bunch of kids who are building skyscrapers, dragons, and god knows what else with their gingerbread.”
The gingerbread house making competition was in a small assembly room within the town hall, which was one of the buildings off Main Street. There were three plastic tables covered with red tablecloths set up for the competition. On the tables was everything we needed: gingerbread, icing packets, and plenty of edible candy decorations. At least I assumed the candy was edible…I had no idea how long it’d been packaged or if someone would break their tooth on one of the gumdrops.
Lily raised her brows, an amused smirk forming on her lips. “Sounds like we need to get more creative. Channel some of your Grinch energy into inspiration.”
I huffed a laugh and shook my head, picking up a gingerbread piece with one hand and the bag of icing in the other. “Funny,” I deadpanned. “What do I do next? You seem to like bossing me around.”
“I do. It’s becoming one of my favorite activities,” Lily chirped, attaching the final piece to finish off the base of our house. She then turned her attention toward me. “You’ll want to put icing on the two shorter sides, attach it to the base, and then do the same with another piece to make the roof.”
On our walk over, I’d shared with Lily that I’d never made a gingerbread house. When she heard that, Lily was determined to make sure I had the best andmost festiveexperience. So far, it hadn’t been too bad. Dare I say I was enjoying myself…but that was likely more due to the company than what we were doing.
Once we had the house built, it was time for decorating. A few moments into adding various chocolates onto our house, we heard our names called out.
“Lily! Gabe!” Tiffany’s daughter Maddie came running over, waving wildly, with Tiffany trying to keep up with her. “I was hoping I’d see you! Oooh, a gingerbread house. Can I help?” she asked sweetly, looking between us and her mom.
“Honey, remember we were going to grab two of the kits to go so we could make them with your brother at home,” Tiffany said to her daughter before looking over at us with a warm smile. “Good to see you both. Merry Christmas.”
“Please, Mommy?”
Tiffany tried to hide her smile, and she looked over at us, trying to gauge if we didn’t mind Maddie joining.
