Katie put the mini pumpkin pies in the oven, and then Connor dipped a spoon in the sauce on the stove and held out the spoon. “Taste this. Does it need anything?”
“Oh, wow,” Katie said, wiping a bit of sauce off her lip with her knuckle. “That is amazing.” He seriously made that using random ingredients and cranberry sauce. Was she impressed? Maybe. Was she going to let herself be attracted, based on that impressiveness? Nope. She was going to stick to her plan.
“What’s left to do?” Connor asked.
“Whip the cream and make the Rice Krispies treats.” She glanced at her watch. “And we’ve only got seven minutes left!”
Without discussing what they were each going to do, Katie got out a pot and started melting the butter and marshmallows, and Connor pulled out a bowl and started measuring Reese’s Puffs cereal and crushing the potato chips into it. As she mixed the melted marshmallow mixture into the cereal, he whipped the cream. When she reached for something in his space, he leaned away the perfect amount. When one of them needed a utensil that was closer to the other, they handed it to the other person before they even asked. Almost like they’d rehearsed everything ahead of time.
And it was extra surprising that they were working so well together given the fact that they were working against the clock. She had done the Santa Hat activity with plenty of different dates over the years, so she knew how much the time limit could bring out not only the stress but annoyance with each other.
(Unless they drew theEntertainmentpaper. It was easy to go with the flow when it came to a skit, because no one knew if you were following a script or making it up as you went, anyway.Dinner, though? That was a completely different beast.)
As Noelle tended to whatever hotdog concoction they had going on at the other burner, from the corner of her eye, Katie saw that Noelle was smiling at their in-syncedness. If she felt the need to bring it up, Katie could always bring up the “loading frosting bags and getting some on my cheek so he has to wipe it off” incident that happened in this very kitchen between Jack and Noelle that Katie had a front row seat to.
Wait. That eventually led to the two of them getting married, so maybe it wasn’t the best comeback.
They were down to almost no time left when she dumped the Reese’s Puffs treats into a pan and the two of them pressed it out together. Katie pulled the remaining bit of it from the spoon she’d used, divided it in half, then put half in her mouth and half in Connor’s. Her eyebrows shot up just as Connor said, “Oh! This is actually quite good. I didn’t think it would be.”
She playfully punched him in the shoulder. “Weren’t you the one who suggested it?”
“Yes. I like taking risks. It doesn’t mean that they always work out.”
With less than a minute to go, they hurried to cut up the treats, which were still too warm to be cut in a pretty way, so it took a little finessing, pulled the mini pies from the oven, and barely had time to get everything on a sample plate to show before the air horn sounded from where her parents were coming up the stairs from the basement. All her siblings, their spouses, and their kids descended on the room that was a combination kitchen, dining room, and family room, all seeming pretty excited about whatever they’d prepared.
Katie took a deep breath and stood next to Connor, but the nerves that had popped up the moment that horn had sounded stuck around. While she and Connor had been cooking, she’d forgotten about her curse when it came to theDinnercard. There was one other time she had, too, and that was when she and her partner had spilled the pot of soup everywhere. She leaned in closer to Connor. “If anything needs to be picked up and moved at all, I need you to do it.”
He didn’t question it— he just nodded and lifted one of the arms crossed over his chest enough to form a fist, so she bumped it with hers. “We’ve got this,” he said.
When she’d leaned in to bump his fist, they’d gotten close enough that her entire upper arm was pressed against his, and she didn’t move. It made it feel like they were an unstoppable team. She could really get used to having a teammate who was as dedicated to winning as she was. And had she ever enjoyed a teammate this much before? The same fluttering happened in her chest again.
But maybe it was just the nerves.
Once everyone was gathered, her dad announced that it was time for both teams to present their meals. She and Connor presented their sweet and sour turkey over riced cauliflower, the “vegetable” side in the form of a mini pumpkin pie, and the Reese’s and Lay’s treats for dessert.
And then Jack and Noelle presented their grilled and sliced hotdogs smothered in a root beer reduction glaze with a touch of honey mustard, served on a bed of quinoa, with radish garnishes cut to look like flowers, a side salad of spaghetti noodles tossed with creamed corn and topped with crumbled pretzels, and the layered dessert in a glass. Which kind of still sounded gross, but looked pretty good, somehow smelled tasty enough, and was definitely impressive, given the ingredients she and Connor had bought for them to use.
As everyone sat down to try the foods, Katie pulled out her video camera to get everyone’s reactions for the family Christmas Eve video.
After eating her fourth bite— surprisingly— of the glazed hot dogs and quinoa, she leaned closer to Connor and said, “Theirs wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it would be. And judging by the fact that you’ve finished yours, I’m guessing you felt the same.”
Connor nodded. “And ours is better than I guessed it’d be.”
“It’s the sauce,” Katie said, taking another bite. He should seriously submit the recipe to a cooking blog.
“I don’t know,” he said, picking up their dessert. “The Reese’s / Lay’s treats are pretty tasty. We made a good team.”
As everyone finished eating, she managed to pull a couple of people to the side for interviews, like she did every year. Then they all gathered on the couches to watch the skits, and she filmed some more of everyone laughing andaww-ing.
Which was totally warranted, because her parents performed a skit about Christmas in space, with her dad wearing a colander as a helmet and her mom wearing slinkies on her arms like a space suit. They wandered a new planet to try to find a Christmas tree but ended up wrapping some flashing Christmas lights around a “space rock” that was really an upside-down bucket.
And then Julianne and her family pretended to be on a Christmas cooking show, with their seven-year-old as the host, the baby as the audience, and Julianne, her husband Ben, and her four-year-old all pretending they didn’t realize they were using a collection of tools that would be more at home in a garage instead of the ones meant for a kitchen.
She filmed some more as Hope and her family presented their three-foot-tall Christmas tree decorated with a lollipop-theme, and Becca and her family presented theirs decorated with the aquamarine and navy blue of the Glaciers, completewith popsicle stick hockey sticks and hockey pucks made of chocolate Oreos as decorations.
Then they all voted on the winners, and she was looking through the video camera when her mom said, “And the trophy forBest Dinnergoes to… Katie and Connor!”
She nearly dropped the camera. “We won?” She turned to Connor and shouted, “We won!” He picked her up and swung her in a circle with her fist held high in the air. When he set her back on the floor, she still felt like she was floating. And, well, connected to Connor in a way that she hadn’t experienced with any previous Santa Hat date. She wasn’t going to let herself think about that, though. She gave Connor a high-ten, which was a medium-ten for him because the guy was seriously tall. “I can’t believe we won!”
