A Gingerbread Romance

by Lacey Baker

  Taylor whirled around in her chair and hurriedly typed and sent the memo. She was out of the building and outside hailing a cab about fifteen minutes past her planned time to leave, but she was on her way. In just a short time she would walk into school looking for the little girl that made her smile. The little girl who did not have a mother.

  It had been a long time since Taylor had been in an elementary school building. Everything seemed so tiny: the lockers, the chairs and desks she peeped inside each classroom, and even the students. That thought made her chuckle as she walked down the hallway toward the auditorium. The nice secretary in the office had given her directions, but Taylor was too engrossed in the artwork taped to the walls, the colorful lockers, and a particularly intense conversation between a group of girls who looked to be no more than seven or eight about which dollhouse was the absolute best for Santa to leave under the tree.

  Each little girl wore a lovely holiday dress, which meant they were probably in the concert with Brooke. She wondered why they were in the hallway instead of the auditorium and prayed she hadn’t missed the entire event. With a worried look at her watch she saw that it was only a little after four. Adam told her it started at four, so she couldn’t have missed it.

  “Are you lost?” one of the girls asked her.

  “Ah, no. Well, I don’t know,” Taylor told her. “I’m trying to find the concert taking place in the auditorium.”

  The little girl nodded knowingly. “It’s this way. We’re going there now. You can follow us.”

  This was said in such a mature and matter-of-fact way that Taylor almost felt chastised.

  “Oh, okay. Thank you,” she said and did what she was told.

  Taylor walked happily behind the four little girls who continued their chat about doll houses and everything else they were getting for Christmas. It was a cheerful conversation that sparked a memory of when she’d been in elementary school and had a group of friends. That was before the first move. Eva and Melinda were their names; the two girls that Taylor spent time with either playing at their houses or having them come over to hers. In the years that followed she never let herself connect with other classmates, because she wasn’t sure when she would be leaving them too.

  As soon as Taylor walked into the auditorium the lights dimmed and a woman dressed in a gorgeous red gown stepped up to the microphone to announce that they were about to begin. Taylor picked up her step and tried to find a seat before the children came on stage. She spotted a few seats close to the front and walked in that direction.

  “Psssst! Psssst!”

  Taylor turned at the sound and immediately smiled when Adam stood and waved her back to the row she’d just passed. She excused herself as she eased down the row to the seat he’d saved next to him.

  “You made it,” he said as soon as she sat down.

  “Of course,” she told him when her purse was settled in her lap. “I told Brooke I would be here. I wouldn’t let her down.”

  He looked like he was about to say something else, but the curtain opened and on the stage were about forty of the cutest children she’d ever seen. Their first song was “Frosty the Snowman.” Before the show was over, Taylor and many of the parents in the audience were rocking and singing along quietly with the children.

  “I think you’re having more fun than the children,” Adam said when it was over and they stood.

  She shrugged. “It’s been a long time, but I still remember school plays and concerts. They weren’t always the best for me, but this was really nice. They sang so well.”

  He walked beside her as they headed to the back of the auditorium. “Yes, they did, and Brooke really likes to sing. Her mother sang in the church choir, so I guess Brooke gets that from her.”

  “Oh really? Is she in any other choirs? Maybe she should get formal lessons,” she suggested. “When she sang her solo part in “Silent Night” I almost cried she was so good.”

  And Taylor was talking way too much. Yes, she was telling the truth but she’d tried to be covert and act as if she were fixing her hair when really she’d used a finger to staunch the tears in the corner of her eyes before they could fall.

  “No. Her mother and I talked about them before…but now, I’d have to coordinate that with Jenny’s schedule and I don’t want to impose on her too much. She has her own life to live,” Adam said.

  “Oh.” For a minute Taylor had forgotten that working at the bakery most likely had pretty demanding and unusual hours, especially early morning hours. It was a shame because she really thought Brooke would be fantastic with formal training. And she hadn’t missed the hint of sadness in Adam’s tone that he hadn’t been able to let her do it.

  “Taylor!” Brooke yelled as she ran up the aisle toward her. “You came!”

  “I sure did,” Taylor said catching the girl in her arms and hugging her close. “I wouldn’t have missed this for the world. And it’s a good thing, because you were fantastic!”

  Brooke beamed when they ended the embrace and she looked up at Taylor. “You think so?”

  “Absolutely. You were the best soloist in that choir.”

  “She’s right, honey, you were really good.” Adam leaned down and kissed her forehead.

  He loved her so much. It was so easy to see in everything that he did, every sacrifice he made for her benefit. Taylor felt like she might cry again. It was the oddest thing. She’d never been prone to overactive emotions.

  “Oh, Mrs. Jones is going to announce the winners of the contest right after the concert, so we have to get to her classroom right away,” Brooke said. She took Taylor’s hand and pulled her along. “Grab Daddy’s hand so he won’t get lost, Taylor.”

  Taylor looked at Adam, unsure about whether they wanted to do the hand-holding thing again. They’d done it on their walk after viewing the houses last night, but neither of them had spoken a word about that.

  “C’mon!” Brooke insisted.

  Taylor grabbed Adam’s hand without another thought and they were on the move. They arrived in the classroom with time to spare and Brooke walked them over to the table where her diorama had been set up. Then they waited patiently while Mrs. Jones made the announcement.

  “And first place in this year’s Heart of Christmas project is Brooke Dale!”

  Adam lifted Brooke into his arms and hugged her while Taylor clapped until her palms felt sore. A few parents were looking at her strangely. She didn’t care. Her daughter had won—

  She stopped mid-clap and let her hands fall to her side. Brooke wasn’t her daughter. She looked over at Adam. He’d put Brooke down and was now taking a picture of her standing next to her project, holding the 1st Place ribbon in her hand.

  This wasn’t her family. The thought made her sad, but it was true. They weren’t hers to keep.

  “Come on, Taylor, you take a picture with me because you helped,” Brooke said and once again pulled Taylor by the arm.

  Taylor couldn’t pull away from her, but she wanted to. She wanted to run from this room and this school because this right here was the dream she’d put aside, the one she’d decided she could never have. And as excited as that thought made her, the burning in her chest signaled what the reality was: she still couldn’t. Because the gingerbread competition and the job in Paris were waiting.

  Adam didn’t know what to do. Brooke was very excited that Taylor was here. She was ecstatic that she’d just won this competition for a project that Taylor had worked on with her. And he knew that Brooke was becoming attached to Taylor. He’d known it the moment he’d stood in her doorway last night, listening to her saying her prayers.

  “Thank you for sending Taylor to us. She’s nice and pretty and I think you picked the right one. She’ll make a great mom.”

  Brooke had climbed up into her bed at that moment and Adam had stepped inside.

  “Ready for a
story?” he asked. It was their normal nightly ritual.

  “Not tonight, Daddy. I want to talk.”

  His baby was only ten, but she sounded like an adult.

  “Okay,” he told her and sat on the edge of her bed. Taylor had sat in this same spot days ago as she’d nursed Brooke through the stomach virus. “What do you want to talk about?”

  “You and Taylor.”

  “Me and Taylor working in the gingerbread competition.”

  She lay on a stack of pillows covered in lavender polka dot pillowcases. Her head moved from side to side in response. “You and Taylor as a couple.”

  “We’re not a couple, Brooke.”

  “You could be.”

  Hope resonated through her soft tone and wrapped tightly around his heart.

  “You should get some rest. You’ve got a big day tomorrow.”

  “Promise you’ll think about it,” she said before he could stand.

  Adam didn’t know how to say he’d thought of little else in the past days.

  “Go to sleep,” he’d said and leaned down to kiss her cheek. “Sleep tight.”

  Brooke had smiled up at him. “All night.”

  Adam had woken up that morning with that scene playing in his mind. And now, combined with the way he’d just seen Taylor acting with her, he was more conflicted than ever.

  “Hey! I know I’m late but I finished up at school and then had to run over to the store to answer some questions about a project,” Jenny said as she came up behind him and tapped him on the shoulder.

  “Hey,” he said looking back at her.

  “Oh boy, what’s wrong?”

  “Nothing.” He ran a hand down the back of his neck. “Brooke just won first place for her project. She’s over there celebrating.”

  Jenny followed his gaze to where Brooke and Taylor were talking to Jordan and Jordan’s mother. They looked like mothers and daughters talking about possibly going to lunch together, or maybe to the park. Adam looked away.

  “So when are you going to tell her?” Jenny asked.

  “When am I going to tell who what?” he asked.

  Jenny shook her head. “You’re always a day late and a dollar short,” she joked. “You like Taylor.”

  “I work with Taylor.”

  Nodding Jenny said, “And you like Taylor.”

  “I like working with Taylor, yes. There’s no question about that. And there’s also nothing else to it.” He told her sternly what he hadn’t been able to say to Brooke last night.

  Jenny took a step back. “Okay, don’t bite my head off about it. I’m just sharing my observation because I don’t see you going over to Ray’s house to put up Christmas lights for him.”

  Before Adam could respond Jenny walked across the room to join Taylor and Brooke. Adam watched them, his family and Taylor. With a heavy sigh, he let the truth sink in. He liked Taylor.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Four Days Until Judging

  “I could have done that, you know,” Adam said a few seconds after Taylor had bent down to reach into the bucket of icing.

  She shook her head and took the spatula out of his hand. “Nope. I can do it. You’re not the only one who can stir.”

  He gave her that look that said she was being over the top. He’d been giving her that look most of the morning while they’d worked transporting the gingerbread sheets from the bakery to the Marketplace.

  “Okay, guys, you can start bringing out the gingerbread now,” she told the volunteers.

  There were tables lined across the back area of the exhibit stage. That’s where they’d stored the gingerbread and the volunteers were going to bring it up to the frame so they could start attaching it.

  “Whoa, that’s a lot of icing,” Brooke said.

  She’d been there all day helping too and had been sticking pretty close to Taylor.

  Taylor agreed with her. “Well, we’ve got a lot of gingerbread.”

  David rolled out a cart with a few slabs of gingerbread on it. He took one and so did Wendy and Josephine. Taylor stood and pushed the tub of icing closer to them so they could attach it to the frame. She remained on the side watching the process and Adam stepped in to supervise.

  Taylor was just about to see if Brooke wanted to go and get a snack, but before she could she saw Linda coming toward the stage.

  “Good morning, I’m just stopping by with treats for this hard-working team,” Linda said as she stepped up onto the stage carrying a tray of coffee and a box of donuts. She set them down. “And I just thought I would check in and see how things are going with the project.”

  “Excellent!” Taylor replied in a tone that may have been a little too exuberant. “The gingerbread’s baked and will be up by the end of the day.”

  They were right on schedule, and Taylor was glad about that. She wasn’t rushing the process, but after yesterday she was starting to feel like the sooner this was over with, the better for all of them.

  “Oh, and ahead of the competition from the looks of it,” Linda said looking over to the other teams’ platforms and then back to Taylor. “Good work, Taylor.”

  Taylor had seen that as well, and was feeling pretty proud of it, too.

  “Oh, no,” David said.

  Taylor turned to look at where he was crouched down inside the frame of the house, staring at a sheet of gingerbread. “Oh, no?”

  Adam kneeled down and examined the gingerbread from the outside. “It’s cracking,” he stated and looked up at her.

  Taylor stepped closer. “No!”

  “This is what I was worried about. These thin sheets of gingerbread are too fragile,” Adam insisted.

  “And I told you that thin sheets are what works best with my design, remember?”

  Taylor did not want to go through this again with him. She thought they’d already hashed out all their issues with the gingerbread.

  “And remember I told you if it’s too thin they’re gonna crack,” he countered.

  Linda stepped between them. “Well it looks like we’ve got a problem,” she said and looked pointedly at Taylor. “You better figure that out. Because the clock is ticking. Not much time until Christmas Eve. But I know you’re up to the task.”

  Taylor met Linda’s smile and quiet demand with a smile of her own and a nod of confidence she definitely wasn’t feeling right now. But when Linda walked away, Taylor’s smile faltered and she turned back to Adam. He was staring at her but not saying anything, which meant he’d pretty much said what he needed to already. And as if that weren’t bad enough, when Taylor looked in the other direction Annabelle was also watching her. Had she been listening this whole time? Of course she had. Taylor frowned.

  “Come with me for a second.” Adam touched her arm as he spoke.

  She looked back at him and gave a curt nod. Then she followed him off the stage and over to where the Santa was taking pictures with the children.

  “I think we need to bake the gingerbread thicker, more like bricks,” he told her once they were alone.

  “Look, I know you warned me about this, but big bricks won’t work with my design.” She knew she’d designed a great house—a house that could win.

  “Well Taylor, maybe your design needs to change,” he replied.

  “We have to build on what we’ve done, not start over from scratch.” She huffed and looked back at the frame just as another piece of gingerbread cracked and fell to the floor.

  “Look,” Adam said from behind her. “My sister is coming to pick Brooke up and she’ll have her for the rest of the day. My mom always taught me, if you can’t solve a problem right away, you go and do something else because that’s when you figure it out.”

  Taylor’s instinct was to work through her problems, not run away from them. That’s how things had always worked for her in the p
ast.

  “Do you know how much work we have to do? We don’t have time to just ‘go and do something else,’” she insisted.

  She lifted a hand to rub her temples as she definitely felt a headache coming on. They couldn’t start over and they couldn’t go forward if all the gingerbread was going to crack and fall. What was she going to do?

  Adam took her hand. He laced his fingers through hers and said softly, “Come on.”

  Taylor wanted to say no. She wanted to stay and figure this out. Try to maybe double the gingerbread or…she sighed. “Okay.”

  After they’d waited for Jenny to pick up Brooke and sent the volunteers home, Taylor and Adam got into his truck and went for a short drive. When they arrived at an ice skating rink Taylor frowned at him.

  “Ice skating? Really, Adam? We do not have time for frolicking. We’ve got a lot of things to figure out,” she told him.

  But Adam wasn’t listening. What he was doing was leading her across the parking lot, similar to the way Brooke had led her around at the school yesterday.

  “Remember I told you that you needed to learn how to have fun?”

  She opened her mouth to answer but he touched a finger to her lips. The action both shocked and warmed her at the same time.

  “For just a little while we’re going to relax and focus on something other than cracked gingerbread houses. Trust me.”

  He was waiting for her answer. Even though he’d brought her all the way over here to go ice skating, apparently, if she said no, she wanted to get back, Taylor knew that he would take her. But he was offering to help, and even though she didn’t think it was going to work, she figured the least she could do for his effort was to try.

  They entered the skating rink and went to the front desk to rent skates.

  “You’ve never had on a pair of ice skates?” Adam asked when they were still sitting on the bench while Taylor fought to get her skates on.

  “I got a pair of ice skates for Christmas when I was eight, but then we moved to Hawaii before I could use them. Years later, I needed another pair of skates, of course. I put them on, but it wasn’t a successful event.”