Homemade from the Heart

by Bru Baker

  He’d ordered the supplies for the ornament wreaths months ago and they didn’t have any extras. Grant didn’t think Aubrey would mind the nontraditional colors he’d brought for her from his own stash. He loved Christmas, but green and red were so limiting. Thank God Mel was out of town—he didn’t even want to think about the ribbing he’d take if Mel knew he’d dipped into his private craft stash for Hot Divorced Dad and his adorable offspring.

  He’d just finished cutting out the base for his demonstration wreath when the sleigh bells tinkled. Aubrey tumbled through the door laughing, and Josh was hot on her heels. He had a coffee carrier balanced precariously in one hand as he caught the door in his other.

  “Hellspawn,” Josh said sternly after he’d safely made it into the shop. He made a show of putting the coffee down carefully on one of the low tables. “What do we say about holding doors open?”

  Aubrey cocked her head and scrunched up her nose thoughtfully. “If you don’t do it, you’d better be faster than the person you closed it on?”

  “You think you’re faster?” The growl in his voice shattered Grant’s carefully gathered composure. Aubrey squeaked, and Grant barely restrained himself from making the same noise. She darted away and hid behind Grant, who found himself face-to-face with a playfully irate Josh.

  “I apologize. I thought we’d raised her better, but apparently not. The daily floggings will continue.”

  Aubrey’s laugh was almost as musical as the bells over the door. She didn’t sound the slightest bit scared—just delighted. Grant took a deep breath and tried his hardest to look amused instead of aroused by Josh’s proximity. Having Aubrey’s arms wrapped around his waist helped with that. The whole tableau felt homey and comfortable, which was a problem itself. He could tell they did stuff like this all the time, and it was concerning how easily he could see himself inserted into it.

  “What’s a flogging?” Aubrey asked, the words muffled because she’d pressed her face into Grant’s back.

  “Where you don’t get ice cream for an entire week because of your insolence,” Josh said solemnly. “Or maybe it’s when I take all your screens away.”

  Aubrey gasped. “Mercy! Mercy!”

  Josh laughed and took a step back. Aubrey remained plastered to Grant, moving with him as he eased toward the table with the coffee on it. There were three cups, so he didn’t think he was being presumptuous.

  “Did you bring me something, half-pint?” he asked, and Aubrey let go and jumped up and down.

  She preened at the nickname. “Coffee! Peppermint coffee. Because it’s Christmas, and we’re doing Christmas crafts. I have a peppermint hot chocolate.”

  Josh smiled. “You seem like a flavored latte kind of guy. There’s a plain one too. You don’t have to take the peppermint mocha.”

  Grant was absolutely a flavored coffee kind of guy. Especially when it was delivered by a gorgeous man and his sidekick.

  “I love all the seasonal lattes,” he admitted sheepishly. “You nailed it.”

  Josh’s eyes widened, and Grant burned his throat on his first sip of coffee by swallowing too quickly when he realized what he’d said. The saucy wink Josh gave him didn’t help things. Aubrey whacked him on the back when he let out a strangled cough.

  “Was it too hot? Sometimes I have to wait forever to drink mine because it’s too hot.” She picked up her hot chocolate and flounced over to the table full of supplies.

  “Does she ever just walk somewhere?” Grant asked, watching her over the rim of his drink. Aubrey was a safe topic, but he still didn’t dare meet Josh’s gaze again.

  “Never,” Josh said, his tone fondly exasperated. “She’s kind of a force of nature. Just like her mom.”

  The mention of Josh’s ex did more good than changing the subject. Grant needed to stop entertaining these ridiculous fantasies that Josh was bi and interested in him. Other than a few winks and smiles that were probably Josh being good-natured and kind, he’d never given Grant any indication he might swing his way.

  “Are we decorating ornaments today?” Aubrey asked as she held up a vibrantly chartreuse frosted-glass ball. “Like putting sparkles on them or something?”

  “Better,” Grant said, throwing himself into teaching mode. “We’re going to glue these together to make a wreath you can hang up. And if we have enough time we may do a little Christmas tree, too.”

  “A Christmas tree made of ornaments?” Josh asked, his lips quirking into a smile Grant hated to admit was endearing. “How meta.”

  Aubrey must have misread his sarcastic tone as dismissive because she immediately jumped to Grant’s defense. “I think it’s going to be beautiful,” she said. She put the ornament back into the basket. “How come we’re making them with Easter colors?”

  Grant hadn’t thought about it that way, but she was right. All the colors in the basket were bright and saturated in a way that reminded him of spring. “There are quite a few gold and silver ones in there too. If you want something more Christmassy you could use those.”

  “Oh no,” she said, running a reverent finger over the curve of a sapphire-blue piece that had caught Grant’s eye when he’d bought them. “I like these.”

  Josh picked up a smaller frosted ornament and turned it in his hand, inspecting it carefully. “You know who’d love this, Aubs? Your aunt Jo.”

  Aubrey started gathering all the frosted ornaments. “She has lots of glass in her apartment like this. Can I make one with just these?”

  “Sure, but you might want to experiment with mixing different colors and types before you settle on anything. We’ll make sure you have the pattern you want before we start gluing them together.”

  Aubrey reached across the basket and sent three ornaments skittering over the table. Josh lunged for them and managed to catch two, but the third rolled off the side and hit the floor.

  “I should have mentioned before that these are plastic,” Grant said when both Aubrey and Josh flinched, obviously bracing for a shatter. “They handle the heat of the glue gun better, and they’re safer for kids to work with.”

  Josh shot him a wry look. “Yeah, telling me that earlier would have saved me the small heart attack I just had. Thanks.”

  Grant took another drink of his coffee and shook his head. “If your heart’s that fragile, you might want to consider cutting back on the caffeine.”

  “Caffeine is one of the only vices I’m allowed anymore,” Josh muttered.

  Try as he might, Grant couldn’t help but envision what those other vices might be. His gaze flicked up and down Josh’s body. Josh coughed out a laugh.

  “That’s one of ’em,” he said. He nodded toward Aubrey, who was diligently working on laying out her wreath. “I love her dearly, but I have her every weekend. Doesn’t exactly leave me a lot of time for hookups.”

  Aubrey didn’t look up from her task, but she was clearly listening. “Mom says you’re too old for hookups, and you need to get serious and settle down.”

  Josh’s eyes widened, and color flooded his cheeks. “Your mom shouldn’t be talking to you about stuff like that, Aubs.”

  Aubrey did look up at that. With her hip cocked and her eyebrow raised, she looked like a tiny unimpressed adult. Grant wondered if she looked like her mom. “Then maybe you shouldn’t be talking about it in front of me either.”

  Grant had to hold back a laugh at the sassy retort, and from the way Josh’s lips were pursed, he figured Josh was having the same problem.

  “You’re right. I shouldn’t talk about my relationships in front of you. Or at all.”

  Aubrey made an indelicate noise that she probably also learned from her mother. “What relationships? Mom says monks get more action than you.” She paused and tilted her head. “What’s action? I know what a monk is, but I don’t understand what she means.”

  “Who was your mom talking to about this, Aubrey?”

  “Nana.”

  Josh ran a hand through his hair and exchanged an exaspera
ted look with Grant.

  “Christ,” he whispered. He shook his head and looked up at her. “Don’t eavesdrop on other peoples’ conversations. Especially ones they shouldn’t be having in the first place because it’s none of their damn business.”

  Aubrey looked delighted. “I’m going to tell Mom you cursed.”

  “Oh, you don’t need to worry about that,” Josh said, his tone flat. “I’m going to do some cursing with your mom myself.”

  Why would Josh’s ex and her mother be so interested in his relationship status? Maybe she wanted to rekindle things with him? They had a child together; it made sense. And from the fond way he talked about her, things must have ended amicably. All the more reason to steer clear, Grant told himself.

  Time to get things back on track. He rooted around in the basket and found the set of glittery rub-on letters he’d put in earlier. “You said you were giving the wreath to your aunt, right, Aubrey?”

  Aubrey shifted her focus to him without missing a beat. “My aunt Jo.”

  “Well, if you think she’d like it, we can monogram the wreath with her initials. I think it would look great with the frosted ornaments you’ve picked out.”

  Aubrey squealed, “She’d love that!”

  “Okay. Well, once we get your wreath glued together, we’ll put these letters on the three ornaments in the center. What do you think? Top or bottom?”

  Josh made a choking noise from the next table, where he’d sunk into a chair with his coffee. Grant looked up, startled, and then caught the accidental innuendo. Instead of backing away from it as he should have, he dug in deeper.

  “If it was for me, I’d say bottom. It’s my favorite position. It’s always better on the bottom.”

  Josh’s coffee sloshed when he put it down abruptly, spilling over his knuckles as his coughing fit continued. Grant didn’t know if that was a good thing or not, but at least he’d tried.

  “I want to put them at the bottom,” Aubrey said, blessedly oblivious to the undertones. “Monograms are the things with the letters from her name, aren’t they?”

  Aubrey’s wreath was all arranged, so Grant turned on the glue gun to warm it up. He’d gone with an assortment of bright colors for his, laid haphazardly. It was a big contrast to Aubrey’s carefully organized pattern of understated colors. They looked great next to each other. He’d have to take a photo for the studio’s Instagram when they were done. And maybe a few with Aubrey and Hot Divorced Dad for his own personal scrapbook of students with their art.

  “You can do monograms two ways. You can do the first letter from her first and last name only, or you can add her middle initial too,” he told her. Josh had recovered from his coughing fit and was watching them with a veiled expression, his long legs splayed as he lounged in a chair meant for someone much smaller than him. Grant’s knees were practically touching his ears, so he could sympathize.

  Aubrey studied her wreath. “It would be nice and centered if we do the one with three.”

  The kid had great instincts. Grant hoped she’d become a regular, and not just because Josh came with her.

  “We’ll do three, then. You’ll need to find her initials in capital letters.”

  Aubrey talked to herself as she chose the letters.

  “Josephine Clarke.” She frowned and looked over her shoulder at Josh. “What’s her middle name?”

  “Lynn,” Josh said without hesitation.

  This aunt Jo must be his sister. Between the shared last name and his certainty about her middle name, it made sense.

  “Hmm.” Aubrey dug through the basket and found an L. “Mom’s middle name is Lydia.”

  “And mine is Leonard,” Josh said.

  Aubrey giggled. “So you all have the same monogram?”

  Josh’s ex hadn’t changed her last name. How cute was it that both of their names started with J? They’d probably had one of those weddings with their initials engraved on everything. It would have been adorable. Grant kind of hated her for that.

  The light on the glue gun clicked off, signaling it was ready to use. Was Aubrey ready to handle it on her own? Grant flicked his glance from the glue gun to Josh, who shrugged.

  “She’s used one before, but I don’t know how closely Jill supervised.”

  So the ex’s name must be Jill. Josh and Jill. It’s too adorable to hate them. Ugh.

  “I’m allowed to hold the pieces together,” Aubrey said. She waved a hand dismissively. “You have to put the glue on.”

  Well, that settled that.

  Two weeks until Christmas

  “I HOPE you realize I am here under duress,” Krista said as she collapsed into the chair across from Grant and put her head down on the table. “It’s obscene to be out this early.”

  Mel poked her with a laminated menu. She raised her head sharply and growled at him, but at least she was upright.

  “It’s eleven,” Grant said.

  “In the morning,” Krista said. She took the mug of coffee Mel poured for her from the carafe and held her face over it, breathing in the steam. “And on my only day off. Like I said, obscene.”

  “Whatever, I’m literally leaving for the airport from here,” Mel said, nodding toward the duffel bag on the seat next to Krista. “Suck it up, buttercup.”

  Krista mumbled something unintelligible but didn’t take the bait. She’d never been a morning person, but this was extreme. Grant took in her messy, unwashed hair and her outfit, which he was 90 percent sure had been slept in.

  “Did you have a hot date last night or something?”

  “No,” she muttered, still hovering over the coffee. “Maybe.”

  Grant shared a look with Mel who, being the braver of the two, pulled the coffee away from Krista. “No or maybe? Which is it? Spill.”

  She made grabby hands until Mel slid the full mug back across the table. “You know I went out for drinks after we closed a few nights ago, right?”

  He knew Krista had hit it off with the new painting instructor they’d hired, but he wasn’t sure where this was headed. “Maggie? Last I knew you didn’t swing that way.”

  Krista flipped him off with the hand that wasn’t holding her mug. “We went to the new bar on the corner and met some of her friends. It was snowing too hard to walk home afterward, so I shared an Uber with a guy who was heading the same direction.”

  Mel raised an eyebrow. “Is sharing an Uber what you crazy heteros call it these days?”

  Krista sighed. “Remind me why we invite you?”

  “We’re a package deal,” Mel said, pointing at Grant. “I’m his baggage. Plus I’ve known him longer than you, sweetheart. Technically you’re the one we invite.”

  “He doesn’t need more baggage. He’s already pining after a straight man and thinking with his dick instead of the studio’s bottom line.”

  “He’s thinking with his bottom line,” Mel said with a wicked grin. “How’s that going, by the way?”

  Grant ignored them in favor of stacking the little rectangles of jelly into geometric patterns. He had plans for the creamers next.

  “Ah, come on, Grant,” Krista whined. “You dragged me out for breakfast at this unholy hour because you’re canceling brunch again. You can at least dish about Hot Divorced Dad.”

  “I thought we were talking about whoever kept you up late last night,” he said sweetly as he placed the last rectangle on his masterpiece.

  “Maggie’s friend and I hit it off at the bar, and in the Uber—which he stayed in after I got out, thank you very much, Mel—he asked if he could see me again. We went to the movies last night. There’s a cute little theater in Rogers Park showing old holiday movies.”

  “And then you shared an Uber home?” Mel asked, snickering. Krista threw a packet of sugar at him.

  “Yes, you perv.”

  “Gonna see him again?”

  Krista hadn’t dated much in the time he’d known her, so he was glad to hear she was dipping her toe back in.

  “Yes.
I really liked him. I’m going to see him again before I leave for Wisconsin. He has family in New York state, so he’s going to be gone for Christmas like me. Maggie’s having a New Year’s Eve party, and we’re planning to go.” She squinted at him thoughtfully. “You should come. We can set you up with someone who’s actually attainable.”

  “You’re already at the royal we stage where you try to set up all your single friends? This guy moves fast,” Mel said dryly.

  “We meaning me and Maggie, asshole,” she said, her gaze still locked on Grant. He squirmed under the weight of it. She wasn’t going to be deterred from her mission. “Because there’s no future with Hot Divorced Dad. You get that, right, Grant?”

  She wasn’t saying anything he hadn’t already told himself. Not that it helped. Maybe a good lecture from Krista was what he needed to get his head on straight, so to speak, about Josh. Mel just liked to egg him on, so he’d been no help.

  “He talked a little about his ex last week,” he said, dropping her gaze to look at the table. “It kind of sounds like she might want to get back together.”

  “See? You need to let that go. It’s not healthy,” Krista said firmly. “Stop wasting your time on someone who isn’t into you.”

  She picked up her menu and scanned it. Their usual haunt didn’t open until noon on Sundays, so they’d had to settle for a diner instead. Grant didn’t mind, but he knew Krista preferred the fancier offerings at their regular place. And the mimosas. He was kind of missing those himself at the moment.

  “We only have two more sessions, counting today. I think I can contain my big gay love for that long. I won’t get cooties on the straight guy.”

  Krista put her menu down with a slap. “You know that’s not what I mean. I couldn’t give a shit about him. It’s you I’m worried about.”

  “You do tend to sulk when these crushes don’t work out,” Mel said. “Normally I’m all for them, but Krista might have a point here. He’s a student’s dad. I know he flirts back, but you should tone it down.”