‘Dad, you said you would help us,’ said Seth as Marc walked in and started to make coffee.
The boys were sitting at the table with Paul, with plates of what looked to be coloured modelling clay.
‘Yeah, Dad, you said,’ Ethan echoed.
‘Yeah, Marc, you promised,’ Paul said, mimicking the boys, and Marc laughed as he kissed the boys on the tops of their heads.
Christa was rolling the gingerbread out on a marble slab, looking up briefly to smile at him and then back to her work.
‘I did promise, I know, so what are we making?’ he asked sitting down and moving his coffee to the side.
The boys didn’t answer, instead Seth held up a green triangle-shaped blob.
‘Does this look like a tree?’ he asked him. ‘We need one hundred and twelve trees for the driveway.’
‘I don’t think we need to do the whole drive,’ said Christa. ‘Just a few dotted around the house is fine.’
Marc looked at her and she made an alarmed face and mouthed the number of trees at him.
‘That’s probably the best idea,’ said Marc looking at Paul’s plate of coloured clay.
‘Is this edible?’ he asked, picking up what looked to be a fence that Paul had made.
‘It’s marzipan,’ Christa answered.
‘Don’t break my fences, I spent ages putting that up,’ Paul stated, taking the lopsided object from him. ‘I did a lot of work with my therapist, highly recommended by Cher actually, to create boundaries, so I won’t have some random billionaire crashing through them.’
Marc saw Christa giggling as she rolled some marzipan in front of her.
The kitchen was warm and cosy, and he took some brown marzipan and started to sculpt what he hoped would be a deer. It wasn’t so bad when he finished and he let it stand on Paul’s plate.
‘Dad, that’s so good,’ Ethan cried.
Christa walked over and peered at the little creature. ‘That’s actually very good.’
‘Actually? You’re surprised?’ he teased her.
‘It’s a hard thing to do, so yes, actually it’s very good.’
She went back to the bench and he watched her put the gingerbread into the oven.
‘Your dad is in charge of all woodland and farm creatures now, boys,’ she said.
‘We need chickens, and a peacock and some more deer and Meredith the dog,’ Ethan instructed. ‘Do you want me to text you a list?’
Marc laughed. ‘No I think I can remember.’
Peggy walked into the kitchen then and stood in the doorway, staring at Paul. He held up a tiny marzipan fence. ‘Boundaries must be respected,’ he said and Marc watched as Peggy snorted and turned and left the kitchen.
Marc raised his eyebrows at him. ‘What was that about?’
‘She put my pinecones outside. I spent a long time collecting those.’
‘Oh no, not Peggy and the Pinecones,’ Christa said with a laugh. ‘What did you do?’
Marc started working on more deer for the gingerbread display while Paul spoke.
‘She put my pinecones outside and told me they were filled with creatures and that she wouldn’t have creepy crawlies around the house even if it ruined the aesthetic.’
