Jessica's Fate

Chapter 119

Fall in Paris was just as lovely as spring and summer. I'd impressed my chef with my creative spin on macarons, even if he'd shuddered before the first time he'd tried the chocolate bacon version.

He'd asked me to make a batch specifically for him every week ever since.

But now that it was November, damn it was cold. Far colder than it had been in January when I got here and I was freezing all the time. I spent most of my time after work in layers, leggings under sweats and at least three shirts under Cam's sweatshirt if I wasn't hanging out in the kitchen. We'd discovered that our rooms had some pretty severe drafts at the windows and despite our vows to fix the situation, we never had time or more accurately, we never remembered that we needed to take care of them on weekends. So we kept the heat down, shut the doors, lit fires in our fireplace when we were home and had spent more than a few nights cuddled up together on the couch.

I think Eiffel thought it was the best thing ever. She had both her parents to cuddle with overnight as we slept on the couch in an effort to keep our heating costs down and conserve some body heat by being cuddled together.

I'd been lucky enough to get some shopping and baking done so that I could send a box home with presents to mom. Yes, it was mid November and I was sending the presents home already. The baking would be long gone before Christmas but the presents would be secured. I just didn't want them to get stuck in holiday international shipping.

But now I only had two things on my agenda for the month.

How to celebrate Thanksgiving in Paris and Cam's birthday. Well, maybe there was three because I wanted to try and figure out a good balance of holiday traditions to have our Christmas together be one of the best ever. I had just over six weeks until Christmas so hopefully I'd get some ideas. I was absolutely delighted to partake in Parisian holiday traditions and we were planning on a visit to Disney to take in some holiday magic in a way that only Disney could bring but there were going to be plenty of times that we'd be home and needing to make our own traditions.

Even if they were only for this year.

Cam got home as I was working with bread dough. We were probably going to be plump butterballs of our own doing by the end of the year. The kitchen stayed warm while I was making, proofing and baking bread. And we tended to eat a lot of bread after it was done.

Hot and fresh from the oven.

Couldn't beat it with French butter. And cheese. Bottle of wine.

"Hey." I smiled over my shoulder at him as he slid his arms around my waist, hugging me. "Good day today?"

"Meh." He pressed a kiss to the top of my head before moving to check the fridge. "It was okay."

"Uh oh." I raised an eyebrow at him.

"What? No uh oh." He shook his head and grabbed a beer.

"You're drinking beer before you change your clothes." I stated. "You haven't asked what's for dinner or anything, just straight into the drinking."

"Like you're any better." He retorted, nodding at my half full wine glass.

I rolled my eyes at him. "Dude, I've been home for three hours." I sprinkled the board with flour and turned out the dough to begin kneading it. "I've changed my clothes, got dinner and bread dough started. What happened?"

He rolled his neck, smiling slightly when his neck cracked. "Entitled American tourists." He grumbled.

I laughed. "Oh, come on, they couldn't have been that bad."