The Christmas Gift

Chapter 1

A/N: Wow, it seems like forever since I've written anything! Oh, yeah! It has been, lol! Hope everyone has been enjoying the season; I certainly have; but I've been itching to write, so here's that Jake/Lucy short story I promised. It will maybe be three, four chapters only. I hope you-all enjoy, and let me know with votes, follows, and comments!           

He never grew tired of watching her. Whether she was snapping out orders in the kitchen, joking with customers, or figuring out the bottom line, Lucy Parker drew Jake Dalton’s attention like a honeycomb beckoned a hapless bee. Jake could sit and stare at Lucy throughout whatever chore she tackled. Like right now. Right now the love of his life talked to an elderly couple as they finished up their slices of apple pie and Colombian coffee. Lucy leaned on the hardwood surround of the customers’ booth, long, dark hair captured in a messy ponytail, rimless glasses sparkling from the twinkling Christmas lights that Jake had nearly lost his life from dangling around the room, and her crisp, white apron snugging those dangerous curves that never failed to get Jake all hot and bothered. Like at this very moment. No, Jake never tired of studying the woman who’d ensnared his heart so many months ago.

 “Earth to Jake.”

 Jake’s eyes slew away from Lucy, mind bouncing back into the present instead of into his near future, where he’d been fantasizing about peeling his lady love from her clothes as carefully as the Marine Corp. Color Sergeant unfurling the President’s flag. His gaze landed on the owner of the voice.

 “Audrey.” Although his eyes lit up with genuine pleasure, Jake’s heart sank. Audrey Campbell resided as the cupcake queen from across the plaza. Her decadent desserts seriously cut into The Two Hearts Café’s bottom line, for many customers chose Audrey’s concoctions after partaking of Jake’s and Lucy’s sandwiches. And Jake thought his pies were head and shoulders above a palm-sized pile of cake topped with two-inches of saccharin overload. After all, pies at least had some food element to them, like real fruit, whereas Audrey’s cupcakes threatened every consumer with a diabetic coma. Besides, how much blood, sweat and tears went into dropping a blob of cake mixture into a muffin pan and then slapping a tablespoon of colored sugar on top? No skill!—

 “Well, now that we have our names out of the way…”

 Shit! Time to make nice with the local competition. With one last, longing glance at Lucy as she laughed at something the old gentleman in the booth said, Jake plastered an interested look on his face as he met Audrey’s sultry gaze.

 Sultry? As in, take me, I’m yours? When had Audrey Campbell started looking at him as if he were one of her cupcakes? That she could consume him in one, large, unladylike gulp? And why hadn’t he noticed her attention earlier? But Jake already knew why. Because he was too busy following Lucy Parker around like a wounded puppy, eyes glued to her like a six-year-old’s paste project! Jake narrowed his gaze on the comely Ms. Campbell, taking in the red hair swept up in some fancy bun-thing that left strands falling about her face artfully, framing that heart-shaped face with its Cupid’s bow mouth like a gilt frame borders a work of art.

Rousing from the belated realization that his neighbor might have the hots for him, and not wanting to go there right now in his thoughts, Jake trained his focus on the lovely Ms. Campbell and queried, “Well, well, well. What brings you across the Plaza, Audrey? I’m still not giving you my pie recipes, no matter how much you hound me.”

Her tinkling laugh, bubbling out of a swanlike throat, drew everyone’s attention within the restaurant, and one person’s in particular as Audrey reached out and touched Jake’s arm intimately. Jake started at the familiar caress, glancing down at the flame-tipped fingers resting on his rather impressive bicep before sending Lucy an SOS to help extricate him from the competition’s well-painted clutches. His lady-love frowned, but remained where she was, wrapped in her own conversation. Well, hell. There would be no help from her quarter. She didn’t even seem worried to find Audrey Campbell coming on to him! What exactly did that say about their relationship?