Dream by the Fire: Winter Magic

by Editor: Michelle Puffer

  I wanted him to kiss me.

  I wanted him to kiss me until we both lost our breath, and I badly wanted to feel the silk of his hair underneath my fingertips. Would it feel as soft as it looked?

  He leaned towards me, and I couldn’t have moved away, not even for all of Geraldo Maxwell’s baking secrets. “Do you think…”

  “Yes?” Maybe it wouldn’t be too bad to look desperate.

  He reached out a hand and skimmed the curve of my cheek.

  “You’ve got flour on your face,” he said, apparently deciding not to finish his first thought.

  Well, there went my fantasy of being kissed breathless—right out the door and into the night.

  “Oh. Yeah. Thanks.” I tried not to let my disappointment show as he inspected a mound of gingerbread cookies. “It’s an occupational hazard, you know, the flour getting everywhere.”

  But still. I’d felt something when he touched me. It was not a physical something, but it was something. Or maybe I was being pathetic, making a big deal over nothing.

  He laughed ruefully, running a hand through the hair that was swiftly becoming the object of my obsession. It was either that, or his eyes that were driving me completely insane. “Damn, I feel like I’m back in high school.”

  “High school?”

  At that moment Tania appeared, like the portent of a bad dream. She carried a tray of muffins, the smell of blueberries pervading throughout the bakery.

  “He means that he wants you to go out with him. Like, he wants to jump your bones.” She rolled her eyes. “I swear, you two are both adults and acting like pre-pubescent kids. Look, it’s Christmas, ok? Julia, you’re not taken, and if Mister Mysterious doesn’t have any attachments, maybe you guys could go and have a shakedown.”

  My face blazed at Tania’s blatant speech.

  “Honestly.” Huffing out a breath, she brushed past us on her way back to the kitchen. “You two are responsible, mature adults. Try acting like it for once.”

  I couldn’t meet his eyes. Dear God, just let the earth open up under my feet and swallow me whole.

  The silence stretched between us, unbearably long, until he scratched the back of his neck, a sheepish look on his beautiful face. “Wow. She’s pretty forward, isn’t she? I’m guessing she works here?”

  “She won’t for much longer if she keeps doing that,” I muttered, more to myself than to him.

  This was his cue to make a swift and graceful exit.

  But he didn’t.

  “I don’t know how this going to sound.” The tips of his ears turned a delicate pink. Now, that was interesting. “I mean, I just got here. I don’t want to come off as being forward, or act like an ass.”

  “Oh, no, no, no,” I said quickly. My heartbeat accelerated. “Trust me, you’re being a total gentleman.”

  He snagged another madeleine from the display.

  “I sort of figured…if a woman can make a sponge cake taste like angel food, well, I was trying to say, that, you know, that is to say…,” he stammered and then sighed, as if thoroughly disgusted with himself. “God, I’m an idiot. Julia?”

  My fingernails dug into my palms from the tension. “Yes?”

  “I guess I’m just not very good at this.” He grinned at me. “Seeing as how I spend most of my time in kitchens, I’m definitely much more relaxed around a pot and ladle. I probably should have paid more attention to women than recipes. Would’ve come in handy right about now.”

  “You’re a chef?”

  “Of the ordinary kind.” He inclined his head rather graciously. “But, that’s not the point right now.”

  “What is?” Even to me, I sounded breathless. The sensible me would’ve rolled her eyes at my flustered state.

  He looked away for a moment and then turned back to me, the blue of his eyes catching the soft lights of my shop.

  “I’d like to ask you out.” He coughed, shifting his feet. “I mean, that is, if you don’t mind. I know it’s a bit soon, I just got here, after all, but I was thinking that—”

  Tania re-entered, this time with a pan of fresh-baked bread loaves. “Julia says yes.”

  That little shrimp was really asking for it now. “Tania, I think I’m fully capable of answering for myself, thank you very much.”

  She shrugged, popping her gum loudly in the most obnoxious way possible.

  “So? The way I see it, you two are so embarrassed about asking each other out, and I felt like if I didn’t say anything, you’d be here until Doomsday.” She reached out for his hand, grabbed mine, and clasped them together. I didn’t know if I should have wrung her neck or kissed her. “This might be a bit too soon, but what the hell, it’s the twenty-first century. Besides, Julia’s turning thirty in less than seven months, so I’m thinking it’s way past time for her to get hitched.”

  “Tania!”

  Definitely wringing her neck.

  He laughed, but did not let go of my hand. If anything, his hand tightened around mine, and to be honest, I couldn’t remember when something had felt so right.

  “Now you two go and have a good time,” Tania called from the front counter, hands at her miniscule hips. “Mind you, Mister Mysterious, I want to see her back here in time for closing, you hear?”

  “Yes, ma’am, I hear you loud and clear,” he said, still chuckling under his breath. Then he turned to me, and I couldn’t stop smiling.

  “Shall we?” He tucked our hands into his jacket pocket, and warmth spread through my body, making me feel weightless.

  This was it.

  It was him. I knew it.

  This was the man I’d been waiting for.

  This was the Christmas gift that I’d never received.

  I shucked off my chef hat and tossed it to Tania.

  “Yes,” I said, sending a silent prayer of thanks to whoever it was above.

  Thank you. Thank you so very much.

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