Spritz Cookie Showdown

By Melanie Hoffer

In eleventh grade, Shane Brooks gave Tara Smith her first hot kiss under the bleachers. The next day, Shane broke up with Tara after she beat him in a baking contest. Over ten years later, Tara accidentally agrees to attend an unofficial high school reunion Christmas party, complete with an ugly sweater theme and another cookie baking contest.

She makes her infamous spritz and finds out the party may not be a snooze fest after all. Shane Brooks will be at the party, upping the pressure and he is newly single. Will Tara win best cookie or will she find out the real reason why she was invited?

The Spritz Cookie Showdown starts at nine o'clock sharp!

• Language: Unknown
• Publisher: The Wild Rose Press
• Release date: Dec 8, 2021
• ISBN: 9781509239238

Melanie Hoffer

I'm a marketing analyst by day, writer by night. I've always wanted to pursue this passion of mine and finally had the guts to do it. I've lived in New York outside New York City my entire life, and it will be always be home. I live with my husband and our two kitties.

Book preview

My mother knocks on the doorjamb to my room. Have a great time tonight, hunny. You’re going to look hilarious.

Thanks, I think. I roll my eyes.

You’ll be fine. By the way, I texted Shane’s mom. She said he is going to the party. He has been home for a few weeks because of a bad break-up. Now you have something in common with him!

Mom! I yell, dropping the contents of my makeup bag onto the floor.

At least my mother can read between the lines of my death stare. She whispers an apology and shuts my door.

I kneel and throw my scattered makeup back into the bag. My gaze gravitates toward the crossed-out section on my old bulletin board hanging on the back of my door. There used to be hearts around Shane’s name. I drew over a hundred of them the night he kissed me. The next day, I used my black eyeliner, then a permanent marker, and made all those hearts disappear.

Shane’s attendance changes everything about tonight, and I will be stuck wearing an ugly sweater listening to a crap ton of ‘How have you been for the past ten years’ game on repeat. I only want to hear stories from him and then slap him in the face for giving me the best kiss of my life.

He better show up tonight. We have unfinished business.

Other Titles by Melanie Hoffer

published by The Wild Rose Press

FALLING FOR TWO

Spritz Cookie Showdown

by

Melanie Hoffer

Christmas Cookies

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales, is entirely coincidental.

Spritz Cookie Showdown

COPYRIGHT © 2021 by Melanie Hoffer

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the author or The Wild Rose Press, Inc. except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

Contact Information: [e-mail]

Cover Art by The Wild Rose Press, Inc.

The Wild Rose Press, Inc.

PO Box 708

Adams Basin, NY 14410-0708

Visit us at www.thewildrosepress.com

Publishing History

First Edition, 2021

Digital ISBN 978-1-5092-3923-8

Christmas Cookies

Published in the United States of America

Dedication

To my mother.

I couldn’t have done this without you.

Chapter One

After baking five trays of my specialty Christmas cookie, all I want to do is crawl back into bed. Not tonight, though. I opened my big mouth and RSVP’d to my unofficial ten-year high school reunion. The extra icing on the cake is the theme. An ugly sweater party with a Christmas cookie competition. The party better have strong drinks.

The sweet aroma of freshly baked spritz cookies wafts through the kitchen. I inhale the delicious air and smile. I scoop up the last batch, green Christmas trees with red sprinkles and layer them into the last holiday tin. I only need thirty cookies for the contest, but they are getting all fifty of them whether they like it or not.

Don’t forget to soak the cookie press in warm water and take the metal discs out of the sink, my mother adds from her spot at the kitchen table. She peeks over the mound of wrapped Christmas presents, inspecting my cleanup.

I sigh. The cookie press is in the sink, and I already washed the discs. They are in the box over there. I point over at the drying tray.

"All right, just making sure,