Making rounds beside her was seven year old Liam Miller, Christmas Wishes' Head Elf in Training. Liam was one of Molly’s second grade students. She watched him over the holiday season as a favor to his parents, but secretly she loved having him there to help her with the store.
“Check,” she replied, fixing a loose ornament on the shelf.
Liam marked the list on his clipboard and grinned up at her
“Rudolph and the reindeer?”
“Check.”
“Snowflakes?”
“Check.”
“Cookies and milk?”
“Chec—” Molly cut off her own sentence as she stared down at an empty cookie platter. “Wait. No check.” Molly held the empty platter out towards Liam. “Liam, did you eat all of these cookies?”
“No way. I’d get so sick.” Liam imitated a queasy expression before pushing the platter back towards Molly. “Maybe Hannah didn’t make any this year?”
Molly frowned as she thought about her best friend forgetting to bring the shop’s signature cookie platter. She'd never forgotten before. Hannah Johnson was the town’s resident baker and owned her own shop just a few doors down.
“Hannah wouldn’t forget. She might be a little late, but she’d never—”
“I’m so sorry! I almost forgot!” a voice said from outside. Hannah burst through the doors of Christmas Wishes as she raced to lay down her boxes of fresh baked, chocolate chip cookies on the counter. “There was such a rush at Sweetness & Light. I got sidetracked crafting a gingerbread house for Ms. Vincent’s church recital and—”
“Don't worry about it,” Molly assured her. “I'm just glad you're here.”
Hannah smiled and let out a sigh of relief before opening one of the boxes. “I got these done just in time. Careful! They’re still super hot.” Hannah directed her words towards Liam, whose hand was already dipping into the box.
“Thank you so much, Hannah,” Molly said, moving to give her friend a hug. “I know how busy you get this time of year.”
“Anything for Molly Carmichael,” Hannah replied with a grin. “My favorite elf in the whole wide world.”
“Hey!” Liam interjected, even though his words came out mumbled through his cookie bites.
“Oh, that’s right. Sorry, Molly. Liam is my favorite elf in the whole wide world.” Hannah bent to give Liam a napkin from her jacket pocket. “But you’re definitely a close second.”
“I’ll take it. He's a cuter elf than I am, anyway,” said Molly. She chuckled as she also took a cookie into her hands. “Speaking of you baking cookies, how’d that competition thing go? The one where they made you send in that submission tape?”
“Oh, gosh. I’ve been so busy I totally forgot to tell you all about it,” Hannah replied with wide eyes. She grinned at her friend. “I won first place. You’re looking at BakeTown’s Baker of The Year.”
Molly almost dropped her cookie on the ground, but Liam was quick to catch it.
“Hannah! That’s amazing.” Molly couldn’t stop herself from letting out a loud squeal of delight as she jumped up and down in place. “You’re going to be on the front of a magazine! Sweetness & Light is going to be on TV!”
“It’s amazing, alright. Amazingly stressful,” Hannah said with a groan. “I think I bit off more than I can chew, Molly. What if I’m not ready for all of this?”
“Hannah Johnson, if there’s one thing I know about you, it’s that you can literally do anything. I’m pretty sure you could actually fly if you wanted to,” Molly told her. She gave her friend a warm, genuine smile. “And if you ever need a helping hand in the kitchen, I’ll be right there.”
“You? Molly Carmichael? A helping hand in the kitchen?” Hannah's eyebrow raised skeptically.
“Hey! I could’ve been BakeTown’s second pick, you never know.”
“BakeTown’s second pick? Okay, first of all, you didn’t enter the competition.” Hannah said, ticking off one finger and then another.“And second of all, the last time you tried to help me bake, you lit the cake on fire. You you ended up burning off half your hair. You had to wear a hat for weeks.”
“It was not that bad,” Molly insisted. “And besides, that was back in middle school! I’ve gotten a lot better since then.”
“Right.” Hannah rolled her eyes but smiled at her friend. “But, thank you for the offer. And don’t be surprised if I do actually take you up on it. If I keep getting orders like this, I’m going to need as many hands as I can possibly get.”