Chapter Ten

Snow

I looked down at the long list of sweets that needed to be baked between now and Christmas Eve, and I could feel a headache coming on.

Seventeen eggnog pies.

Fourteen coffeecakes.

Six Yule logs.

Ten dozen peppermint patties.

Thirty-seven dozen decorated sugar cookies.

Twelve dozen gingerbread men.

Eleven dozen snowball cookies.

And to top it all off, seven salted caramel cheesecakes.

Good lord.

I had enough sugar cookie dough made for Cheryl’s big order, but that was just the tip of the iceberg. Today, I needed to bake the cookies, make a mountain of icing for decorating those cookies, tackle Cheryl’s regular order, and maybe get a jump on the peppermint patties and gingerbread men. Next week was going to be pure madness, and I wasn’t quite ready to think about it. Right now, I just had to focus on this insane pile of cookies.

Right now, the furthest I had gotten was to pull the cookie dough from the fridge and turn the oven on.

A knock on the back door pulled me from my reverie. I glanced at the clock—way too early for any deliveries, so I wasn’t sure who would be stopping by. I wiped my hands on my apron, made my way over to the door, and opened it to find Bones standing there with a smile on his face.

“Hi,” I chirped, surprised.

“Good morning, Sugar.” His deep voice had a rough edge, the kind that would make anyone a little weak in the knees. “I was just stopping by to see if you had any deliveries today before I headed out for a bit.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Are you volunteering to be my delivery boy?” I laughed.

Bones shrugged. “It’s not that bad of a gig. I did get a free coffee yesterday.”

My eyes widened as I suddenly remembered that I hadn’t even thought to pay him for helping out with the deliveries. “Oh my god, I didn’t pay you anything! Let me grab my wallet. Will twenty be enough?” I started turning to grab my purse as guilt filled me. Bones wasn’t my regular delivery driver, and he’d been doing me a huge favor.

“No, no, no.” Bones quickly reached out, grabbed my arm, and stopped me in my tracks. His grip was firm and warm through the fabric of my sleeve. He was looking at me like I was crazy. “You’re not paying me anything, Sugar. I do things because I want to, not because I think I’m going to get paid.”

My eyes dropped to where his hand was still on my arm, and the heat of his touch somehow went right through me. My heart kicked up a notch and made my voice come out just a bit breathless. “Um…”

“You’re not paying me,” he repeated, and this time, he softened his grip but didn’t let go.

I tipped my head back to meet his eyes, which were dark and just a little too intense. “Um, okay,” I whispered, unsure why my voice came out like that. His gaze had a way of scattering my thoughts like powdered sugar, and now all I could focus on was how close he was standing.

He seemed to notice it, too, as his hand slid just a bit down my arm, like he was weighing whether to let go. “Do you have any other deliveries today?” he asked, his voice low and rumbling, a touch closer than before.

I shook my head, desperately trying to get my brain back on track. “Uh, no. I just need to bake and decorate my butt off today.”

A crooked grin spread over his face. “You sure?”

“Yep.” I nodded, more to convince myself that I wasn’t flustered than to answer him. “Next week is when I’ll have a ton of deliveries while I’m baking my butt off, too.”

“Careful, Sugar, or you aren’t gonna have a butt left after this holiday,” he teased, his gaze dipping down just enough to make my cheeks burn.

I scoffed and rolled my eyes to hide the fact that my face was probably turning cherry-red. “It’d take a lot more than baking to work my butt off, Bones.”

He let out a low chuckle, and his eyes flashed with amusement. “Well, I’ll be keeping an eye on it just to make sure it doesn’t disappear on me.”

The heat that had been creeping up my face flared instantly. “W-what?” I stammered, caught completely off-guard.

Bones just smirked and leaned a little closer. “Just making sure all your hard work doesn’t take away one of my favorite things to look at.” His tone was smooth as honey, and I couldn’t tell if he was joking or not.

“Oh, um…” I felt like a fish out of water, with my mouth opening and closing as I tried to think of a response. His words had short-circuited my brain, and now all I could do was stare at him, completely flustered.

“You always get this red when someone compliments you?” he teased as his fingers brushed my arm just enough to send a little spark through me.

“N-no,” I managed, feeling my blush deepen. “I just—well, I mean, no one really… uh, talks about my… um, butt.” I cringed as the words left my mouth and wondered how I could make this less awkward.

Bones laughed, low and warm, and I could feel his amusement as much as I could see it. “Maybe they should. It’s a damn good view from behind,” he added, his eyes trailing me in a way that was both completely shameless and somehow still charming.

I ducked my head and tried to compose myself. “Shouldn’t you be… you know, working on your bikes?” I mumbled and tried to put some distance between us and get my pulse back to normal.

“Not today,” he said and stepped forward until he was so close I could practically feel the heat rolling off him. “Today, I’m just here to see if you need anything before I take care of something.”

I swallowed and desperately wished my heartbeat wasn’t pounding so loudly in my ears. “No deliveries. I, uh… just the decorating,” I managed.

“Good. Then maybe once I’m done, I can bring lunch over.” His eyes never left mine, and for a second, I forgot all about the mountain of cookies waiting for me to bake and decorate. All I could think about was the way his hand was still on my arm, grounding me while making me feel completely untethered at the same time.

“That’s, um… yeah, that’s fine,” I whispered, trying to sound casual, though I could barely keep my voice steady. On big baking and decorating days, I was not good at finding time to eat. Most of the time, it was just a few cookies and coffee until I was done.

Bones chuckled again, clearly pleased with my reaction. “Well, then, Sugar, get to work, and I’ll be back in a couple of hours.”

I nodded dumbly and was still a little stunned that he was actually bringing me lunch. “I… I will do that.”

With another low chuckle, he finally let my arm go and left a trail of warmth in its place. “I’ll be back, Sugar,” he promised with a grin as he opened the door and headed out.

I stood there for a moment and pressed a hand to my chest in hopes of calming my racing heart. What on earth was going on? Bones was bringing me lunch—like, actually taking time out of his day to come back here just to eat with me. My brain tried to process that little fact, but it didn’t seem to compute.

Bones was coming over for lunch .

Crazy.

The sharp ding of the oven snapped me out of my trance and reminded me it was preheated and ready to go—unlike me, clearly. I should have had at least three trays of sugar cookie cutouts lined up and ready, but they were still just lumps of dough waiting to be rolled out.

And here I was, staring off into space, thinking about Bones instead.

I shook my head and forced myself to look away from the door where he’d left.

Focus on the cookies, Snow.

If I kept daydreaming about him, I’d be lucky to get a single thing done today.

The sooner I got back to work, the sooner I’d be prepared for whatever came next—including Bones showing up again with that charming smile and something warm and delicious for lunch.

I took a deep breath to steel myself and got to rolling out that dough.