Approximately Yours (North Pole, Minnesota #3)(25)

Danny filled Holly in on everything from who was hooking up with whom in town to the drama between her grandma and the town’s baker, Nancy—both of them liked Frank from the hardware store. Frank was a player! Holly had told Danny to check out a Netflix documentary about the Mitford sisters from the book she was reading.

And she’d forgotten to tell Elda to study up on the rest of their conversation.

“Totally fascinating.” Danny was on his sixth gingerbread person by now. “You were right. I did some digging on the Mitford sisters last night. Who do you think was the worst one?”

Elda would not have an answer for this question. She knew nothing about the Mitfords.

Holly broke off the head of her current gingerbread figure on purpose, to create a diversion. “Oh, no!” she cried.

“What happened?” Danny craned his neck to see their station.

“One of our cookies broke.” Elda held up the headless cookie to show Danny. She patted Holly on the shoulder. “It’s okay. We’ll get a new one.” She turned back to Danny. “And obviously Diana was the worst sister.”

Good save, Elda. Though she should’ve spoken up before Holly went and destroyed one of their cookies.

Elda, still taking charge, raised her hand and caught the attention of the mayor. “One of our cookies broke.” She put on a pouty face that had probably gotten her out of many a traffic ticket.

The mayor shook his head. “Sorry, ladies. Twelve cookies each. That’s all you get. Make sure the ones you have left are perfect.”

“Shit,” Holly said. She never would’ve sabotaged a cookie if she had known.

“I’ll give you one of mine.”

Both girls’ heads swiveled over to the table on their other side, the not-Danny side. Dinesh was there, still in his arcade uniform. He brushed an errant black curl off his forehead and handed Elda a clean cookie. “I’m going to lose anyway,” he said with a wink.

“You’re our hero, Dinesh,” Elda said, and he waved her off, turning his attention back to his remaining eleven cookies. “That was super nice,” Elda whispered to Holly. “Maybe you should go out with him. He could be the fourth in our double date.”

Shrugging, Holly focused on her current cookie. Dinesh was cool. He’d come to her rescue twice in the past two days. But he’d given up one of his gingerbread figures to help his rival. He didn’t care about the competition. Danny hadn’t offered the girls one of his cookies—he’d probably never even considered giving them one of his cookies—because he knew what it took to win, and he understood that all was fair in love and gingerbread. Holly respected his competitive spirit. Still, “Dinesh is better than that Brian guy for sure. Set it up.”

Elda squeezed Holly’s wrist. “I’m on it.”

Holly peeked over at Danny, who was piping a delicate pattern on one cookie’s tummy. “Tell him you like his filigree technique.”

“What?” Elda whispered.

“Just do it. He’ll eat it up.”

Elda skirted around Holly so she was on Danny’s side again. “Your filigree technique is really something.”

Grinning, Danny held up the cookie he was currently working on. “You think?”

Elda nodded. “Super good. Very nice.” Holly was fairly certain Elda had no idea what she was talking about. Actually, “fairly certain” was an understatement.

“Thanks.” Danny’s whole face lit up as his eyes met Elda’s. Holly had to look away as the two of them exchanged goo-goo eyes. She turned toward Dinesh instead, whom she caught also staring at Elda, because of course he was. Groaning, Holly pulled yet another gingerbread figure toward her and started piping.

This was what she’d signed up for. She repeated it in her head like a mantra.





Chapter Seven


DANNY: OMG Craig’s cookies.

ELDA: I didn’t see. What? Were they good?

DANNY: They were the Starks.

ELDA: (gif of Jon Snow frowning amidst a blizzard) ELDA: Of course he’d do Game of Thrones cookies.

DANNY: (gif of priestess ringing the “Shame” bell) ELDA: For two people who hate Game of Thrones, we sure have a lot of gifs at the ready.

DANNY: Something to think about. Ask not for whom the SHAME bell tolls, it tolls for we!

ELDA: (crying laughing emoji X 10)





Chapter Eight


At the end of the first round, the mayor and two other judges took their time surveying each team’s gingerbread cookie entries. Danny’s heart was in his throat as the three jury members swanned around the Joyeaux Noel dining room. He’d done well; he was positive of that. Danny had been worried about his rusty piping skills, but today’s competition was like riding a bike. His filigree technique was on point, and Elda had noticed.

The room was full of talented decorators, like Tinka Foster. She was Nancy Gold’s assistant at the bakery, and sweet stuff was her whole life. Her piping was perfectly straight and uniform, as if every decorative line had been produced by a machine. Craig wasn’t the most talented piper, necessarily; but what he lacked in raw skill, he made up for in creativity.

And then there were the Page girls. Elda possessed the perfect mix of talent and artistry. Each cookie she decorated had a unique little flourish, like different hairstyles or argyle sweaters. Not only that, she had to decorate all twenty-four cookies herself, because Holly was not up to the task, what with breaking the head off of one cookie and glopping on her frosting with the finesse of an elephant on roller skates.