Chapter 19

“I keep falling for you, Baily.” Del looked up at us. “Falling around you, I mean.”

“I figured.” Baily stood and offered a helping hand. “We should head inside for dry clothes.” With a hearty yank and two quick loud exhales, Del was against him.

“You’re wet, too,” he noted.

“Uh-huh.”

“Does my nose still look like Ginger’s, now that we’re so close?”

“More like Rudolph’s. It got red.”

“Like your cheeks.”

“The cold will do that.”

“Cold. Yeah.”

“M’row.”

“You chilly, Ginger?” Baily had turned toward me immediately. “I think we should get him indoors.”

“Lead the way,” Del said.

Christmas just ten days off, the humans were finally set to tackle cookie dough later that same week. As for me, I watched, as they moved back and forth from the cupboard to the countertop, the fridge to the sink, the pantry to the oven, only interested, really, for what I might get to put in my belly.