Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 86632 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 433(@200wpm)___ 347(@250wpm)___ 289(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 86632 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 433(@200wpm)___ 347(@250wpm)___ 289(@300wpm)
“She’s got some banana bread!” I said, grabbing Gavin’s arm. “She has banana bread!”
Once everyone had gotten a taste of Cadie’s now-famous banana bread, you were lucky if you ever got any, period. It sold out early every single day.
Gavin chuckled, asking Katherine, a bakery employee, for two loaves of banana bread.
“Why two?” I asked.
“One for my mom.”
My stomach flipped, and it wasn’t the baby this time causing the little flutter. It was the handsome, kind man standing next to me. “I love that you think of your mom. I should give this other one to my mother.”
I stared at the loaf in my hand, reminded once again about how damn good this bread was.
I shrugged and said, “Nah, she can make her own banana bread.”
Gavin laughed as he reached for my loaf and put them both in a bag Cadie had given to us.
Harper handed us a map listing all the booths and their products. “There are a ton of cute little booths. I’ve already made the rounds,” Harper said.
“Did you see Evelyn’s booth?” I asked.
Harper and Cadie exchanged a look before plastering on smiles. “We did.”
“What’s she making?”
“Um,” Cadie started, before Harper interjected.
“I think you need to be surprised.”
Gavin’s eyes narrowed. “That doesn’t sound good.”
Harper and Cadie both shrugged. A customer stepped up, so Gavin and I got out of the way. I said goodbye to my friends and we started on our way. The booths were typical for this close to the holidays, consisting of handmade ornaments for Christmas and Hanukkah, cute gifts, or food. I was digging the food booths, and I know Gavin was as well, since he was currently eating a giant turkey leg.
As we walked along, I said, “I can’t wait to see what Evelyn’s selling. I wonder why she hasn’t mentioned doing crafts before now?”
“No telling with Evelyn,” Gavin said, before taking another bite of his turkey leg. We stopped at a few booths where we knew the people selling their wares, bought a few ornaments for the tree we planned on getting later in the day, and sampled more food.
“Oh. My. Gosh.”
Glancing at Gavin, I asked, “What is it?”
He was staring straight ahead. “I see Evelyn’s booth.”
I quickly followed his gaze. “Where is it? What is she selling?” I asked, my tone enthusiastic.
Gavin gave me a look. “I wouldn’t get too excited, Bry.”
Frowning, I asked, “What do you mean? Why not?”
The corners of his mouth twitched with a hidden smile. “You’ll see. Come on.”
He gently tugged me to follow him, and it wasn’t long before I was practically blinded by a bright neon-green wreath with giant red bows and…
“What is that on the wreath?” I asked in a lowered voice.
Gavin cleared his throat. “I think…I think…it’s a skull.”
“What kind of skull?”
“Deer.”
I stopped and spun to face him. “What?”
He gently took my arm. “She’s looking this way. Smile.”
Forcing a smile, I let Gavin take my hand in his and we started toward Evelyn’s booth.
“Hi, guys!” she said, standing up and making her way around the table. She hugged me, and then did the same to Gavin.
Turning, she motioned toward the booth with a wave of her hands. “What do you think?”
I wasn’t sure what I was looking at. There were wreaths, and also some kind of ceramic items painted by what looked like a five-year-old.
“Wow!” Gavin and I said in unison.
“I know!” Evelyn cried with a wide grin on her face. “Who would have thought I’d be selling crafts at the winter festival?”
“Not me,” Gavin replied as he surveyed the table. “What is this?”
Evelyn picked up the ceramic piece. “It’s a reindeer, silly!”
Gavin stared at it for a beat too long before I elbowed him in the side. “Oh, right! A reindeer. I see it now.”
Setting it down, Evelyn turned to Denny, who was doing everything he could to hide in the corner. “See? I told you it looked like a reindeer.”
Denny and Gavin exchanged knowing looks.
I glanced down at the wreath and noticed, for the first time, that it was made with bright neon-green duct tape.
Forcing myself to smile naturally, I said, “You used duct tape on the wreath…how clever of you!”
Evelyn beamed with pride. Poor thing.
“Yep! I used pool noodles and duct-taped them together. Green tape for the bows and then red touches added to them. It makes it look Christmasy!”
I nodded. “And the…um…the deer skull?”
“I wanted something woodsy, and I remembered there was one on the back of our property, so I looked up how to clean it, and I was lucky enough to find its antlers as well!”
“Yeah, we lucked out on that one,” Denny deadpanned.
Gavin pretended to cough to hide his laugh.
“Here’s another that a lot of people have been looking at. I think I might have them priced too high because I’m getting tons of people stopping to look, but no one’s buying.”