The Tension of Opposites by Kristina McBride

Author:Kristina McBride
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: eBook ISBN| e9781606842911
Publisher: EgmontUSA
Published: 2010-03-26T16:00:00+00:00

Saturday,

December 5

14

Get a Grip

I knelt on the cold, hard ground, staring through the viewfinder of the Nikon. The miniature house before me was made up of nothing but sugar. I could hardly see any gingerbread under the colorful gumdrops, M&M’s, Red Hots, and licorice. White icing glued the candy in place, piped around each piece in looping circles, cementing the chocolate-covered pretzels that stood side by side to form the little picket fence that wrapped around the entire green rock-candied yard.

“I can’t believe I won,” Darcy said as she shifted her position for a picture.

“I can,” I said. “Look at that thing. How many hours did it take?” I snapped a shot just as three moms wearing fuzzy scarves stepped into the background, blocking the CHRISTMAS IN CENTERVILLE’s 10TH ANNUAL GINGERBREAD HOUSE COMPETITION poster that I’d intended as Darcy’s backdrop.

“I lost count after twenty-three.” Darcy adjusted the silver star on top of a large coconut-covered evergreen in the front yard. She had decorated it with crushed pieces of peppermint candy. “After I lost to Eden Pertly last year, I knew I had to step up my game. But let’s get to what’s really important—are you guys having fun?”

I nodded. Tried not to smile.

“I knew it!” Darcy clapped a couple of times, the sound muffled by her thick mittens, before I reached out and dug my fingers into her arm.

“Calm down,” I said. “It’s really nothing. We’re just hanging out, okay?”

“No.” Darcy breathed her strawberry breath into my face. “It’s not nothing. It’s totally a date. Your very first ever, if I’m not mistaken.”

“Yeah, but if I think like that I might freak out,” I whispered. “So, for tonight, it’s nothing.”

“Oh, whatever.” Darcy patted my cheeks with her mittened hands. Her brown hair fell forward over her shoulder, and she flung it out of her face. “I feel like your big sister, you know? And you’re spoiling my moment, Tessa.”

“Kind of like my dad spoiled mine.” I grunted, remembering the uncomfortable moments of introductions when Max had picked me up.

“Oh, no.” Darcy laughed. “Did he give Max a lie-detector test? Force him to submit fingerprints?”

“Practically.” I ducked my head. “Let’s just say that my parents have all of the Kinsleys’ phone numbers.”

“How embarrassing.”

“Tell me about it.” I nodded toward the gingerbread house. “Enough about my humiliation. I need another shot of you and the masterpiece. Some admirers got in the way earlier.”

Darcy leaned down again, her hand perched beside the tray holding her first-place masterpiece, and blew a huge pink bubble with her gum. I snapped just before she sucked the wad of Strawberry Splash into her mouth with a big pop.

“Come on,” I said. “You ruined the picture.”

“I thought I was adding some panache.”

“One piping hot cup for you,” Max said, stepping to my side and handing me a Styrofoam cup, “and one for the Master of Gingerbread.”

“Mmm,” I said as the hot chocolate warmed my throat and chest. I licked my top lip, tasting sweet, melted marshmallows, and thought of Noelle.

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