on the stove and set to work, hoping he was doing the right thing.
Chapter 17
Faith
Faith got lost in the task of sorting Christmas decorations. Some held memories that were foggy and just out of reach; others smacked her in the face and had her gripping the box for support. One of the things she struggled with was that if her dad wasn’t the bad guy, did that make her mom the bad guy? Or was she somehow the villain?
None of the answers made sense or settled into her heart, and she grew frustrated.
She was staring at a paper wreath made from her handprints when she could have sworn she smelled fresh-baked cookies. Strange. She sniffed the wreath, but it smelled of construction paper and not much else. Sniffing the air, she followed her nose to the ladder. Looking down, she found Caleb smiling up at her, waving his hand over the top of a cookie sheet filled with freshly baked chocolate chip cookies.
“What are you doing?” She couldn’t help the smile that filled her face. The sight of a man in an apron and wearing an oven glove was pretty amazing. She hadn’t known she had a thing for men who could cook, but by the way her heart raced, she must.
“Fishing,” he replied.
“Fishing?”
He pointed at the tray. “Bait. Looks like I caught the most beautiful woman in the house.”
She flushed. “I’m the only woman in the house.”
He beckoned her to come down. “Doesn’t make you less beautiful. Are you ready for a break?”
She nodded. “Let me hand you down a couple boxes.”
He nodded and went to set the cookies down.
She grabbed the ones that didn’t cause a typhoon of emotions, and her stocking, leaning over to allow Caleb to get a good grip on them before climbing down herself.
He looked through what she’d selected while she went to the kitchen to wash her hands. There was a plate of cookies as well as the cooling tray. He must have been busy—though she didn’t see any baking supplies. One of the reasons she rarely made desserts was that she was the only one who ate them. Either she gorged herself and then hated the scale for three weeks, or she ended up throwing half of them away. At least with Caleb here, she wouldn’t have those problems.
Huh. The idea of him staying a couple days with the reindeer wasn’t as scary as it had been that morning. In fact, she was settling into the situation rather quickly.
The cookies were warm and soft and melted in her mouth, making her moan with pleasure. Caleb walked in just as she was opening her eyes from the moment of ecstasy. “If you bake like this, I’ll stop complaining about you staying over.”
He laughed as he reached into the fridge and then poured her a glass of milk. “I have it on good authority that Santa’s favorite cookie is chocolate chip.”
“That’s funny, because I could have sworn Nabisco said it was Oreos.” She took the milk and gave him a look of challenge.
He leaned against the counter and crossed his ankles, more at ease in this kitchen than she was—even after living there a week. “Perhaps it was. It changes every year.”
She wrinkled her nose. “Why?”
“Can you imagine eating the same cookie at every house you deliver presents? She must get sick of them after a while.”
Faith paused in her chewing. “She?”
Caleb coughed into his fist. “Yeah. Uh—let me grab one of those boxes and we can start decorating.” He hurried out and came back in, a huge smile on his face. “This is the fireplace one. It shouldn’t be too hard to set some things on the mantel.” He started unwrapping the figurines, finding carved olive wood statues of Joseph, Mary, and Jesus.
“These are really pretty. I wonder how Dad got them.” She glanced at the bottom. “Look, they’re stamped ‘Made in Jerusalem.’ I didn’t know he traveled out of the country.”
“He didn’t. We have the same set given to us by a mutual friend.”
“Oh, who is that?”
“The, uh, Kringle family.” Caleb hyper focused on arranging the manger scene. Every line in his body said he didn’t want to talk about the Kringles.
She’d shook her head. “I’ve never met them.”
Caleb set his hand over hers, and warmth spread up her arm and filled her chest. “If you stick around long enough, you just might.”
“We’ll see about that. What’s that thing?” She pointed inside the box. He pulled out a pair of candlesticks. “Those