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“I do a lot of experimenting and taste tests. I have the best job in the world.” She sighed with a dreamy smile, then took another sip of her beverage.
A quick glance over the shape of her body, and he wondered without mentioning it how she stayed so slim being surrounded by all those sweets and experimenting with them too.
“You’re aunt said she was going to come to my shop today. It’ll be nice to see her again.”
Nicholas finished chewing the bite in his mouth. “Yeah, she can hardly wait.” He set his brownie down and rubbed his fingers together to get the chocolate fudge off of them.
“I’m sorry. I forgot to grab napkins.” Anna shot up, pulled a napkin from off a counter, and handed one to him before sitting back down.
“Thank you.” He wiped his hands and mouth. “I think I need to warn you. My aunt Savia doesn’t do anything small. If she likes what she sees, or in this case tastes and sees, she’ll put in a huge order and give them away as gifts.” He wanted to ask if she was prepared to handle such a large order, but he didn’t want to offend her.
“This time of the year we get a lot of large orders. That’s why I have the girls come in early. I have another crew that comes in around eleven. You didn’t meet them the first night you were here because they had come in earlier that day to help fill orders so I sent them home early.”
“Well, you may have to keep them a bit longer after my aunt shows up.” A glance at his watch and even though he hated to say goodbye, he knew he needed to get going. His uncle wanted him at this particular meeting.
He popped the last bite of brownie into his mouth. “Well, as much as I’m enjoying this, I really have to go.”
“Yeah, I need to get back out there too. Cailyn and the girls can handle it, but I don’t like leaving them shorthanded for very long.”
They both stood. Nicholas gathered up their trash and tossed it into the trash bin by her desk.
“How late do you have to stay this evening?” he asked.
“I’ll probably be here until ten at least. I have a lot of paperwork to catch up on.”
“When do you sleep?”
“Sleep? What’s that?” She laughed.
“I hear you on that one. Sometimes if I get five hours of sleep, I consider myself fortunate.”
“Same here. Especially around the holidays. There’s always something that needs to be done. So it’s hard to take time off even for such things as sleep.”
“And yet you took time off to go with me to my aunt’s party.”
“That was a rare occasion for me.”
“Well, I’m glad you did. I really like you, Anna.”
“I like you too.” Her eyelids lowered.
Glancing behind him to make sure no one could see them, he leaned over, cupped Anna’s chin, and tilting it upward, he kissed her. His lips lingered longer than he had planned for them to, but he wasn’t complaining. He enjoyed the feel of her soft lips under his. Several heartbeats later, he ended the kiss and gazed into those beautiful blue-gray eyes that had a dreamy look to them. He could relate. “Well.” He stepped back. “I really have to get going. Would you mind if I came by this evening around eight or so and brought you dinner? You like Chinese?”
“Yeah, but I like hamburgers and French fries even better.”
He laughed. “Okay. Hamburgers it is. Any particular place you like better?”
She named a place, and he made a mental note of it.
“Okay. I’ll see you then.”
They walked out together, and as they walked past Cailyn she said, “Don’t be such a stranger. Come back anytime. Anytime… soon.”
Anna narrowed her eyes at Cailyn and then smiled up at him. “She’s even more incorrigible than you are.”
“Nah.” His focus shifted to Cailyn. “We’re just both on the same mission, right, Cailyn?”
Cailyn glanced over at Anna and back at him. “Yes, sir. We sure are,” she said with a wink and nod in Anna’s direction.
Needing to get back to work, Nicholas left Sweet Treasures with a smile and with only one thing on his mind. And it had nothing to do with business. “Lord, You know how I feel about Anna. She’s an amazing woman, and we have so many things in common. She possesses many of the qualities and things I have prayed for in a wife. Show me what to do, Lord, because I really believe that You have put us together just by the things You have shown me and by the peace in my heart every time I’ve prayed about Anna. I didn’t have that peace with any other woman.”
Nicholas shook his head at just how much peace he really did have concerning Anna. “Never before, Lord, has my mind been so preoccupied with another person like it is with her. In fact, it’s downright uncanny how often I think of her. I think of her when I wake up, when I go to sleep. When I’m working, when I’m relaxing. In fact, she’s on my mind constantly, and I could easily see myself falling in love with her. Only problem is, Lord, I don’t have a clue how things could ever work out for us.”
