Christmas Kisses with My Cowboy - Diana Palmer Page 0,71
the county has power.”
Her forehead was still pressed to the stove. “I need power to bake my ginger bear cookies. If I don’t have power, they won’t be ready in time for Saturday.”
“Hopefully the power will come on in a few, but if not, you can skip the wrapping party to finish up.”
She could, but she didn’t want to. Because that meant missing girl time. And she loved girl time—almost as much as chocolate.
“Oh God.” Faith’s head snapped up and she looked around her mess of a kitchen, wondering what she’d gotten herself into.
The panic was back. Only this time it stemmed from disappointment. Not hers, but Ester’s. The sweet great-grandma-to-be, with her apple cheeks and generous spirit, counting on her to bring the gingerbread.
A Christmas bake sale was not a Christmas bake sale without gingerbread.
“Otherwise I’ll have to bake them tomorrow. And if I bake them tomorrow, then I’ll have to wait until they are fully cooled before I can frost them. And then the frosting will have to harden before I can put them in their individual wrappers, which are then tied with a bow. That’s six hundred cookies to frost, and harden, and tie up with a cute little bow! Six hundred—”
“Breathe,” Shelby ordered. “And count to ten, or you’re going to spin yourself right into a crazy lady.”
She hated that her friend was right. Faith was already a little crazy by nature. If she spun herself any tighter, she’d snap. Followed by a total and complete meltdown. Two things that did not fit into her already overly crowded schedule, so she took a few deep breaths.
One.
Two.
Three. Four.
Five six nine ten! “What the holly am I going to do?”
“How about a generator?”
“Actually, I haven’t gotten around to buying one. I’ll add it to my shopping list. Right under NEW FERRARI and TRIP AROUND THE WORLD.”
“I’ll let that go since I know you’re stressed,” Shelby said primly. “But I was actually talking about ours. Cody keeps a spare one in the barn. It will take him twenty minutes tops to get it over there and hooked up.”
“That’s so sweet, but I don’t know . . .” Faith wasn’t used to people going out of their way to help her. She didn’t like the thought of putting someone out.
“I know you hate admitting that you need help.”
“I do.” Even saying that made her uncomfortable.
“And I hate when a friend is struggling and won’t let me help. So this can go down a few different ways, and you get to choose.”
“Lucky me.”
Shelby ignored her. “One, you don’t let me send the generator over and I bring you here, to Ms. Luella’s kitchen, where we finish your cookies.”
“Next.” Faith would rather clean Molly-Mae’s toilets than cook in Ms. Luella’s kitchen. The woman ran that house with an iron rolling pin.
“Two, you let Cody hook up our generator and finish your cookies there.”
“Next,” she said with a noticeable lack of confidence.
“Or three, you miss the party Thursday and stay up all night preparing while we laugh and eat all the chocolate.”
“Now you’re just being mean.” Faith thought of her helpless bears in the oven and their misshaped hats and—
Why was she arguing? She needed help. Ester was counting on her and, in the end, her word was more important than her pride.
“Fine, but are you really going to make me say it?”
“Nope. That you thought it is enough,” Shelby said, and Faith could all but hear her friend high-fiving herself. “One generator is headed your way.”
“Fine, but you have to let me pay you back somehow.” Faith didn’t like owing people.
“How about after the holidays you take JT so Cody and I can catch up on some of that quiet time?”
“Deal.”
Fifteen minutes, a hoodie, and a pair of pajamas she blindly pulled from the dryer later, Faith saw headlights through her front window. She secured her hair back with a hair band right as a firm knock sounded at the front door.
Not wanting Cody to stand in the rain longer than necessary, Faith padded through the front room and swung open the door. “You are my hero. Seriously, I so owe you and—”
Faith froze, because standing on her stoop, wearing a tool belt, a dark gray Henley, and looking for all the world like a sexy husband-for-hire, was Noah Tucker. And no amount of breathing was going to save her now.
His eyes ran the length of her, and he grinned. “So I’m your hero, huh?”