Snowed In [#JustWriteIt]

Chapter Twelve

"I am never doing that again," Sydney said, once she was sufficiently warm.

"That, my dear Syd, would be a very smart idea," Dion turned back from the chairs he was stacking and offered her a lopsided smile.

"Where do you think it came from?" she asked.

"I have no clue."

At that moment, a knocking came from the closed door. Sydney and Dion exchanged horrified looks.

"He's back to kill us," Dion rasped dramatically as he raced to check the door. "Or not!"

There was a man at the door, wringing his hands worriedly.

"Hello sir! How may I help you?" Dion asked cheerily.

"Hi son, this might sound weird but have you seen any loose reindeer around? My fence broke a few miles up the road and a few reindeer escaped. I'm still missing one of them."

Dion's mouth dropped as his eyes spotted the trailer attached to a huge pickup in the parking lot. "Errr... yeah, my friend let one of your reindeer into the café and eventually... it left... with the help of some gingerbread cookie," Dion's voice lowered at the last part.

"Well, his name is Gingerbread. He happens to like the cookie a lot. We don't feed it to him often. Sometimes a small piece at Christmas. How much did you give him?" the man asked, chuckling lightly.
Dion grinned, "Syd gave him two cookies. I hope he'll be okay?"

"He'll be fine. Thank you for your help. Gingerbread didn't cause too much harm did he?"

"Ah... it was alright."

"Thanks again!" the man waved and walked off towards his truck. "Merry Christmas son!"

"Merry Christmas sir!"

Dion returned to the café and grinned. "Well Sydney, I figured out why we found a reindeer wandering around the town."

"Yeah?" Sydney looked up from her drink.

"Yeah. There's a man who owns some reindeer, he lives a few miles down the road and they escaped through a broken fence."

"Oh."

"Yup! Oh and his name was Gingerbread because he likes eating gingerbread cookies."

"And I guess that explains why he liked me so much," Sydney said with a little smug smile.

"So... you're a reindeer whisperer?" Dion asked, grinning innocently.

Sydney shot him a glare and he simply laughed in reply.

<<∞>>

"Do you need any more help?" Sydney offered once the rest of the Gallenger family got home.

"Yes, one more thing!" Kaila chirped enthusiastically. "Sugar cookie decoration. And then, we eat a few things to sample it and make sure it tastes fine."

"By that she means, eat as much as you can and screw dinner," Dion whispered into Sydney's ear. Sydney's eyes widened and she shot away from Dion faster than a speeding bullet.

Kaila and Dion both laughed at her response and Sydney shook her head, trying (and failing) to stop the blush from rising in her cheeks.

"You scared me, you ass," Sydney grumbled.

"Oh yeah Syd, did you like my creation?" Kaila asked suddenly. Sydney offered up a curious look. "The red paint spill? I turned it into something else."

Sydney glanced over at the floor by the mural she had helped paint. True to Kaila's words, the red paint splotch on the ground was something else entirely. She had painted a Santa Claus hat on the ground. A big, fat, slightly disproportionate Santa Claus hat.