She’d been up half the night obsessing over their kiss because it had been the single-most earth-shattering experience of her life. Not only had she spent plenty of time fantasizing about such a thing, but Mason was as good at kissing as he was at everything else.
But more than just the quality of the kiss, she was stunned by the emotional whirlwind it stirred up inside—like a huge gust that scooped up not only her excitement and pleasure but all her fears, insecurities, and buried wounds, then swirled them together till she couldn’t make sense of any of them.
Unfortunately for Mason, it resulted in her taking him up on his joking offer to take her revenge. And though she’d never hit anyone in her life, the tornado inside her had blown away her impulse control.
Even though she’d been completely exhausted, she hadn’t been able to sleep in as late as she usually did on Sunday. After eating breakfast and showering, she spent an unholy amount of time getting dressed for the day.
Usually she couldn’t do more than throw on the first clean clothes she could put her hands on and sweep her hair in a ponytail if she was going to be to work on time. Lately she’d managed to put on a little makeup as well, but today, for some reason she didn’t want to examine, she spent two hours trying to look better than usual. Facial masks, curling irons, and an eyelash curler all came out.
Wearing faded skinny jeans, suede ankle boots, and a dark, olive green sweater with her hair curled and makeup on-point, she thought the effort had paid off. Now she just needed to call Mason.
With all the courage she could muster, she called his number, but when no one answered and it went to voice-mail, she hung up. Sighing, she put her phone down on her kitchen counter. It would be par for the course of her life if she got all dressed up just to eat lunch at home by herself. But then her phone rang. Mason was calling her back. She grabbed for it so quickly she accidentally knocked it flying off the other side of the counter. It clattered on the floor and her stomach clenched. It kept ringing as she ran around to the other side of the counter.
Grabbing it up, she almost melted with relief when she saw she hadn’t broken the screen. “Hello?”
“Ruth, hey. Sorry, I was playing basketball with my nephew and didn’t get to my phone in time.”
“Oh, that’s okay. I didn’t mean to interrupt anything.”
“You didn’t. What’s up?”
“Oh, I was going to ask if you wanted to get lunch with me since we aren’t working, but don’t worry about it.”
“No, wait. Yes, let’s go to lunch. Let me text you the address to my parent’s house. If you’ll meet me here, I can finish up my game with David.”
That’s all it took for Ruth’s stomach to change from a hard knot of nerves to fluttery excitement. “Great. See you soon.”
As soon as the address came through text, she grabbed her keys and headed for the door.
The weather in Arkansas could never make up its mind. In December, it could be anywhere from balmy to cold-enough-to-freeze-your-eyeballs. Today, it was in the fifty’s so she threw a jacket in her car but didn’t put one on.
Apparently, Mason was feeling the warmer temperature too. When she pulled up at his parents’ house, the first thing she saw was Mason without a shirt on.
It surprised her so much she threw her car in park before it had come to a complete stop. The resulting jerk surprised a squeak out of her, but she didn’t take her eyes off the unbelievable sight before her.
She was familiar with the set of his shoulders and after their embrace last night, she shouldn’t have been surprised by the tight, corded muscles of his biceps and deltoids, but seeing them unveiled in the afternoon sun, she was gob smacked.
And then he turned.
When she saw the glory that was his chest and abs, her throat tightened, restricting her breath, and her jaw clamped tight. Sure, a surge of pure attraction shot through her, but so did an avalanche of other feelings—frustration that he could eat so much chocolate and still look like that, sharp, stinging disappointment from the painful reminder that he was completely out of her league, and the suspicion that he was doing this to her on purpose. Frozen with confusion, she sat in her car, not moving.
Mason grinned, passed the ball to the young boy she recognized from the group that had come into her store the day before, and jogged over to her. She closed her eyes to block out the pure poetry of the sight. She jumped when he knocked on her window.
“Ergh…” Reluctantly, she rolled the window down.
He leaned down and braced his arms on the open window, so that she was inches away from his shining arms and shoulders. His scent surrounded her—fresh and woodsy and—salty? She knew the really good smells were likely from his deodorant, but for the first time she realized that sweat could smell good
“Are you getting out of the car?” he asked, laughter warming his voice.
“What? Yes. Of course I am.” She tried to sound like he was being ridiculous, not her. She rolled the window back up and got out of the car.
As she shut the door, he said, “I’m one away from winning.”
Ruth raised an eyebrow. “You’re playing a kid.”
Mason laughed. “Yeah, but we’re playing horse, and I lose if I get to horse, but he only loses if he gets to hippopotamus. Which he will if he misses one more shot.”
He walked beside her up to the driveway but stopped when they were still a ridiculously long way from the basketball goal at the other end. “Hey, David. Ball.”
“Oh, man. I can’t make it from there,” David complained.
Mason grinned. “That’s the point, buddy. My date is here.”
David passed him the ball. Mason caught it, dribbled three times, and shot a perfect, arching shot. The ball sank through the hoop while barely disturbing the net. Rebounding the ball, David dribbled over to the spot where he had to take his next shot, and Mason stepped out of the way, coming closer to her.
David crouched low and jumped up as he shot, using his legs to get as much power as he could. He actually got enough distance, but the ball went a few feet wide of the goal.
“Hippopotamus,” Mason shouted triumphantly. “But that was a great shot, and it took me longer than I thought it would to beat you.”
“Can we play again later?”
“Maybe. We’ll see.” While David went back to shooting the ball, Mason turned and picked up a t-shirt that was draped over the fence. “Do you mind coming in while I clean up a little? You’ve already met everyone here.”
Ruth nodded. “Sure. Does your family hang out a lot?”
“On weekends and holidays we do. It’s one of the things I really missed the last six years.”
As they walked inside, she looked around curiously. The front door opened into a large living room with a big Christmas tree in front of the window and stockings hanging on the mantle over the fireplace. Since no one was in there, she took her time looking around at the pictures on the wall and all the other decorations.
“I think Lori and my mom are in the kitchen if you want to wait in there.”
She felt a little nervous being around his family, but they’d been nice, even if overwhelming, when they came to buy cookies the other day, so she didn’t hesitate to nod. When they walked in, she saw they were busy making cookies and relaxed. This she could handle.
“Hey,” Lori said, looking up and smiling at Ruth. Then her eyes shifted to Mason. “Oh, good grief. Put a shirt on.”
He grinned. “I’m going to after I clean up. I didn’t want to get it sweaty since we’re going out.”
Lori rolled her eyes. “Oh sure. It didn’t have anything to do with wanting to show off for Ruth.”
Mason grinned at Ruth and winked. “Not completely. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
She had to bite her lip to keep from grinning back at him. He was so shameless and utterly charming that what had annoyed her just minutes ago made her want to laugh now. And after all, it was definitely flattering. Turning back
to Lori and Mason’s mom, she said, “Do you need any help?”
Lori waved a hand, brushing away her offer. “No doubt we should jump on your offer since you’re a professional, but it’s your day off.”
“Oh, I don’t care about that.”
Mason’s mom smiled. “Just sit down and munch on a cookie if you want.”
“They won’t be nearly as good as yours,” Lori warned. “Which were amazing by the way. It was shameful the way I kept sneaking bites of the kids’ cookies when mine was gone.”
Ruth laughed and sat down on a stool at the bar. “I haven’t done my job until you’re addicted to my cookies.”
“Mission accomplished then.”
Just then the oven timer went off, and she turned to take out a pan of cookies. These were chocolate chip and smelled amazing. She watched as Lori moved them onto a cooling rack and realized her mouth was watering. Maybe she would eat one.
Mason’s mom turned to her then. “Actually, there is something you could do to help me. Would you mind unwrapping these Hershey’s kisses? I’m about to put these peanut blossoms in the oven.
“Sure!” Ruth went over to the sink and washed her hands before sitting at the counter to unwrap the kisses. The bowl Mason’s mom had given her to drop the chocolate in was nearly full when Mason came back in.
She let herself glance at him just long enough to see that his hair was damp and spiked and that he wore his t-shirt again. It fit tightly enough that she could still see the definition in his chest, and now that she knew exactly what he looked like underneath, it was tantalizing. Not wanting to further inflate his ego further, she turned away.
“Ready to go?” he asked.
“Let me finish these kisses for your mom.”
“Sure. You want to give me one?”
Rolling her eyes, she put one in the palm of his hand. Lori groaned across the counter as if she couldn’t handle the cheesy joke either
“Are you sure you want to eat that?” Ruth asked. “It’s not gourmet.”
He took it. “I’ll take a chance on it since no kiss from you could ever be bad.”
Lori threw a cookie at him. It bounced off his forehead and fell on the counter. “Can you just stop already?” Then she got a curious look on her face. “Wait, have you kissed her?”
Ruth jumped up. “Well, it’s been fun. Let’s get going, Mason.”
She grabbed his hand and pulled him away. Behind them Lori called, “I’ll find out eventually.”
When they were outside, she dropped his hand and elbowed him. “That was embarrassing.”
He grabbed her hand again, threading his fingers through hers. “Don’t worry about it. The only way she’ll know about our kisses—”
She threw him a look.
“—or lack of—is if she sees one. And that’s not going to happen.”
“Especially since kissing is still in the box.”
He sighed. “Yeah. My car or yours?”
Chapter Twelve
Ruth was always beautiful. With her hair pulled back, no makeup, in an icing-streaked apron, and with a smudge of flour on her face, he couldn’t keep his eyes off her.
Seeing her in a curve-hugging sweater with her dark hair curled, and makeup drawing attention to her eyes and lips? Well, he was in trouble. As he drove them to a Greek restaurant she recommended, he had to force himself to keep his eyes on the road.
The food was great and the conversation between them was natural and easy. As they lingered to talk over coffee and baklava, he felt something shift inside him. He’d always known he wanted to spend time with her and get to know her, but the more he did, the more he realized he wanted…more.
The realization sank deep inside him. It was warm and pleasant but scared him just the same. He was falling for her but had no idea if he would ever get her to relax and take a chance on loving him.
“Thanks for lunch,” Ruth said as they left the restaurant. “I still say you should have let me pay since it was my idea.”
“Don’t worry about it. I wanted to.” He opened her car door for her then went around and got in before saying, “What I’d really like to do is cook dinner for you sometime. What do you think?”
Ruth smiled at him, her eyes wide with excitement. “I’d love that. Are you sure?”
“Of course. Surely you’ve figured out by now that I like to show off.”
She laughed and sat back in her seat. “I’ll say. Okay, so how about Sunday?”
“My family is having a get-together Sunday evening. How about if I cook you lunch instead and then you can go over to my parents with me?”
“Sounds fun, except, do you think Lori will—”
“Be annoying? Probably. I’ll tell her to knock it off, so don’t worry about that. Now, what are you going to do with the rest of your day?” He hoped she’d say nothing so he could figure out a way to keep her with him.
“I usually spend Sunday night doing my books and planning out my calendar for the week. Otherwise, I get into the store on Monday morning and panic because I don’t know what to do first.”
Mason nodded. He understood, so he’d try not to be selfish.
When they pulled up in front of his parents’ house again, they got out of his car and began walking slowly over to hers. The front door of the house opened and his parents and Lori’s family came out, all wearing jackets and nice clothing.
“You’re back,” David called, running over to them. “Are you going to go with us?”
Mason took Ruth’s hand so she wouldn’t run off to her car without him. “Depends on where you’re going.”
“To a Madi’s choir concert. I don’t want to go, but Mom says I have to.”
Mason laughed. “But you want me to go?”
“It will be more fun if you’re there.”
“Yeah? Lucky for you, I’d love to go to Madi’s concert.” He looked across the yard at Lori as she came towards them. “Why didn’t anybody tell me about it before now?”
“I did,” Lori said. “I knew you’d probably forgotten, and when Ruth called to ask you to lunch, I figured you wouldn’t want to be reminded. But since you made it back in time…” As her unfinished sentence hung in the air, she turned to Ruth. “Would you like to go with us?”
“She’s got work to do tonight,” Mason said, trying to spare Ruth from having to excuse herself.
“Actually, I’d love to go,” she said. “I love music.”
Mason looked down at her in surprise. “Really?”
She grinned. “Unless you don’t want me to.”
He put his arm around her and tugged her against him. “Of course I want you too. Are you sure?”
“Yeah. I’m in the mood to procrastinate on work stuff anyway. And I make Christmas cookies all day, every day right now. I’d like to actually enoy the season myself.”
“There’s room in my van if you want to ride along,” Lori offered. “It might be a squeeze, but parking will be crazy down at the church.”
“Sounds good,” Ruth said. “Let me grab a jacket out of my car. You’d better get one too, Mason.”
A few minutes later, Mason found himself crammed into the back seat of a van with old happy meal boxes around his feet in a space no man of his height should be forced to squeeze into. Of course, he was also pressed against Ruth, so that wasn’t too bad, but all of her attention was focused on his niece Layla in the booster seat on her other side. He had to admit that she was adorable playing with the toddler and he loved that she was such a good sport about everything, though. Much better than he was.
Lori was right about the parking. They had to park almost two blocks away. It was getting colder as night fell, especially with a brisk north wind sweeping past them in gusts.
“Wow,” Ruth said. “It’s freezing out here.” She cuddled up closer to him, gripping his hand.
“Have you seen the forecast? This north wind is going to cool things off all week, maybe even bring some snow with it.”
“Whatever. They always put snow in the forecast because people like to see it in there this time of the year. It usually doesn’t happen though.”
“I’m hoping it does.”
Silence fell between them as they walked. They’d fallen a little behind the rest of the group, so Mason took the chance to enjoy the moment. The houses behind the church were all trimmed in lights and the church itself was decorated with white lights, green garlands with big red bows, and a lit-up nativity scene that was almost life-size. They stopped to look at it for a moment.
“My last cookie display is going to be a nativity, complete with a gingerbread stable,” Ruth said. She took her phone out and snapped a picture of the display. “This one is beautiful. I love the tender expression on Mary and Joseph’s faces.”
“You’re going to try to recreate that with icing?”
She grinned. “Just wait and see. It’s going to be amazing.”
Mason smiled back and took her hand again after she put her phone back in her pocket. “I have no doubt. It’s just impressive.”
“What amazing art will you be doing with chocolate this week?”
He had no idea. Where Ruth liked to plan and prepare ahead of time, he liked to wing it and see where things took him. But his competitive spirit wasn’t about to let her think she had an advantage over him. “You’ll have to wait and see. It’s top secret.”
She rolled her eyes and shook her head as he led her inside to find a seat. “You know, we should be hearing back on our bids for the Candy Cane ball any time now. Probably by the end of the week.”
Mason frowned. How would the bids affect their relationship? It was so new. He wasn’t even sure what it was.
For the first time, he started to hope he wouldn’t get the job. When he’d submitted it, he’d been driven by the success of his business. And while that was still super important to him, he realized that having Ruth in his life might just be more important.
“Ruth, whatever happens, I hope it doesn’t affect things between us.”
She squeezed his hand. “No, it won’t. I’ve already told myself that I can handle the disappointment. I promise I won’t resent it if you win. At least—if I do—I won’t let you see it.” She laughed, but there was a hint of strain in it, as if she was still trying to convince herself.
Sugarplums and Mistletoe Page 7