Page 59 of Meet Me on Mistletoe Lane

Something he has made abundantly clear.

“Gianna,” Nona said, waving a hand in front of my face. “Did you hear him?”

I blinked. “Sorry. What? Who?”

Nona laughed and wiped her hands on her apron. “Sam came over to borrow some butter for Gram. Could you spare two sticks?”

“Oh, sure.” I hurried over to the fridge and grabbed two sticks while Sam crouched over by the table, listening intently to Leo explain everything we were still planning to do for our gingerbread Market.

“This was a genius idea, little man,” he said, ruffling Leo’s hair.

“That’s what I said.” I smiled at them both.

Sam stood and tugged on his hat as I held out the butter. “Thank you,” he said.

“No problem,” I replied. “Did you guys enter this year?”

“No, Gram’s been feeling a bit tired lately, so she wasn’t up to it.”

“Tell Suzie I said to make a large Amaretto and then go to bed,” Nona said, waving her spatula at Sam. “She has all winter to bake.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Sam saluted Nona with the butter sticks and then turned back to me. “Oh, you have something just there.”

Sam brushed the end of his sweatshirt sleeve against my cheek. “Powdered sugar,” he said, his voice low.

Shivers moved down my spine and all the way to my Christmas-slipper-socked toes.

“Always a mess, Mouse,” he said, grinning.

I dipped my finger in red frosting next to me and bopped his nose. “Whatever, Rudloph.”

He wiped the frosting off with his thumb before sucking on it.

My goodness.

I braced my hand on the back of the closest chair and tried to think of the non-sexiest things I could.

Marco’s armpit stink after hockey practice.

Nico’s drool when he remembered to wear his retainers.

Nona cleared her voice loudly, making us both startle. “Don’t forget to tell Suzie what I said.”

Sam nodded and zipped up his coat before hurrying out of the kitchen.

Once the front door opened and closed, Nona chuckled and went back to mixing more frosting before she said, “Crack open a window, will you, Leo? It’s quite warm in here all of a sudden.”

Tell me about it.

While we waited for everything to set, Leo and I grabbed our new outdoor Christmas lights to wrap around our front bushes and surprise Mom. But just as we stepped onto the front porch to start detangling them, my phone rang with a call from James.

I swiped it open and put it on speaker so Leo and I could keep working. “Hey!” I said. “How’s the gingerbread construction going?”

“Uh, not great,” James said. The sounds of clanging pots and pans echoed around him.

Leo stopped untangling lights and stood up. “Oh no, what happened?”

“I can’t move!” Mr. Bailey shouted from somewhere nearby.