When they got back to his, his house was the only one in their street with all their lights still on. As soon as Luke opened the front door, they could hear Leanne and Mrs. Shelton in the kitchen, singing along to the radio as they baked. "Hey, you're back," his mother said when she noticed them. "Did you have a good day?" she asked their guest.
"Yeah, it was great. It was definitely a full day," Becca said, feeling the many steps she'd taken that day finally catch up with her as she put her couple of shopping bags by the stairs to go up later.
"What did you go see?" Leanne asked curiously.
"We did a chocolate tour, some shopping, a river cruise, then we had some dinner," the brunette started listing their activities. "And we went for a walk to the park."
"And we did the carriage ride," Luke said softly, putting his hands on his mother's shoulders. He felt her stiffen a little, but she soon carried on with mixing the last batch of cookie dough.
"I'm glad," she said eventually, patting her son's hand. "Did you like it?" Mrs. Shelton turned towards his 'girlfriend'.
"It was so beautiful," Becca answered as she joined them in the kitchen, giving both her and her son a sweet smile. "Can we do anything to help?" she asked, looking around the kitchen and saw a couple of batches cooling down and some bowls ready to mix different colors of icing.
"Oh well… actually, if you wouldn't mind… I'm really beat," Mrs. Shelton said as she stopped mixing now. "There's just this one last batch to go into the oven and then they all need decorating. Would you two mind finishing up?" she asked, and they had to admit that she did look and sound tired.
"What about Leanne?" Luke asked, a little suspicious.
"I've been doing this all evening," his twin responded, sounding a little brattish but only just enough to get her point across without being too obvious or getting their mother involved. He glanced at her, not sure if he believed her, before he turned back to his pretend girlfriend.
"It'll be fun," Becca told him with a smile; she really didn't mind doing it.
"Okay, sure," he agreed now.
"Thank you," his mother said gratefully, giving them both a big smile. She cleared a few things away in the dishwasher with Leanne before her daughter headed upstairs and she handed things over to the other two. "Can I trust you Becca to control my son enough so there's still cookies for the rest of us in the morning?" Mrs. Shelton asked before she left the kitchen.
"Of course," Becca smiled, fighting back a laugh when she saw Luke's indignant look.
"This is such a fun tradition," Becca said as she and Luke rolled out the last batch of cookie dough to stamp out the cookie shapes. "How do you resist eating the cookie dough?" she asked curiously, pressing the cookie cutter into the batter and passed them over to him to put on the baking tray. She'd been okay so far, but as they got to less and less of it left she couldn't promise she wouldn't just eat the last bit.
"Because they're so much nicer once they're baked," Luke answered with a chuckle. His family had been doing this for ages and his mom's cookies were definitely nicer baked.
Once that batch was in the oven, they started making the frosting and icing for the ones that had already cooled down. "Are there any other traditions I need to know about?" Becca asked as she started adding the white icing to the snowmen cookies. He was going to finish them up with the black scarves, eyes and coal buttons. She would add the orange for the carrot nose and some red or blue for little mittens, after she'd finished all the white icing.
"Nothing much," he said with a shrug as he took the first white snowman cookie from her. "Oh, except watching the Muppet Christmas Carol and the Grinch," he remembered.
"Tonight? Will I get a chance to get any sleep before my flight?" she asked surprised, figuring she was going to be extremely tired by the time she got home.
"Eh, yeah, sure," Luke nodded. Chances were one of them would fall asleep during one of the films anyway, and she didn't need to be at the airport until 2pm at the earliest. "These are looking like some of the best cookies yet," he commented, looking at the first one he finished with something akin to pride.
"Well of course, I helped," Becca said with a cocky chuckle, making him laugh as well. He threw a pinch of flour in her general direction, making her laugh when it didn't get anywhere near her.
As soon as they finished the snowmen cookies, she took a picture of a plate of them. She hadn't really posted many pictures of her trip so far, but quickly put a few together in a post and tagged him in it. Most of the ones she did choose were of the things they'd seen, rather than the two of them. She put her phone away and picked up one of the cookies to eat. She'd barely taken a bite when he looked at her incredulously. "What?" she asked innocently. "She only said about controlling you. She didn't mention controlling me," she said, grinning cheekily as she took another bite.
"You sneak," Luke reacted, chucking some icing sugar at her now.
"Hey, stop throwing stuff at me," she objected, throwing the last little piece of her cookie at him.
"Right back at you," he said, picking up a few chocolate chips up to pelt her with.
"Okay fine, you can have one seeing as I had one too," Becca conceded as she held one out to him. They still had a lot of cookies to decorate and she didn't really want to have to clean the kitchen just because they'd had something akin to a food fight. He grinned as he took one, biting the snowman's head off with a "Mmmm, that's good." She laughed as she rolled her eyes, taking one more herself before she turned her attention towards the next batch of cookies.
"No, you can't have a second one," he told her off sternly.
"I'm your guest, of course I can," she grinned now, jumping when he grabbed her from behind to tickle her. "Luke, stop! Okay we'll share!"
It took them another hour to finish decorating all the cookies and to start putting them away. As she cleared a few more things, Luke started preparing to watch the two movies; some popcorn and a big glass of coke each.
"Movie time," he said, holding the two films up.
"Where are we watching these?" Becca asked, not seeing the provisions he'd just gotten ready in the living room.
"Downstairs. We'll be less likely to wake anyone up that way, and the couch down there is actually way more comfortable than the one up here," he told her, which she found hard to believe as the living room couch was one of the comfiest she'd come across. When she was taking too long for his liking, he grabbed hold of her hand and led the way down. "Come on, this was your favorite room, right?" he said teasingly. She rolled her eyes to herself as she followed him, surprised to see that he'd already set up a couple of blankets, knowing she'd probably get cold or want to be more comfortable. "Which one first?" he asked as she started settling herself in.
"Muppets, no contest," she answered, seeing him smile; it was his favorite too.
"Can I ask you something, about the photos?" Luke asked, having quickly checked his phone and seen what photos she'd posted. And more obviously which ones she hadn't.
"Sure," she nodded as she grabbed a handful of popcorn.
"How come you've not put up any of the photos of us together?" he asked, not looking at her as he tried not to sound off or nervous. He could feel her eyes on him for a few seconds.
"Oh… well. It's no one's business," Becca answered, knowing even as she said it that it didn't make any sense as part of their agreement. It was completely contradictory, as the whole point was of course to let Derek know how together and happy they were. "I like them, obviously, but I dunno, I guess… I like them being for just us," she said, not sure how else to put it, even if it didn't quite add up. She glanced at him nervously now, worried about his reaction.
"Yeah… that makes sense," Luke nodded at her. "And I like the sound of that," he smiled as he pulled her in for a hug. "Can you send them to me?" he asked, feeling her nod before they both focused back on the movie.