A Christmas Date (2 page)

Sean hurried into the
kitchen with a towel and was lovingly rubbing Lillian’s hair dry for her, while
Lucas quickly stacked another log on the fire and Angelina hurried over to warm
up beside him. As the fire crackled back to life he peeled off his coat, a
snowball fell out, his eyes met hers and he grinned. It was the very last one
she’d tossed at him as they ran for the stairs to reenter the warmth of the
apartment building.

“Good shot,” he
allowed.

“Thanks. You were an
easy target,” she chuckled merrily.

Lucas
snorted, holding his hands out to the heat. Standing side by side with her,
closer than they had been all evening, the damp and heat from the fire caused
her perfume to waft in his direction, she smelled soft. Well, not soft exactly,
nobody smelled soft! She wore a delicate fragrance, it was nice, pleasant. Not
chokingly harsh and expensive like the perfumes worn by the women he’d been
around for the past few years in Europe.

“You’d better get out
of that wet sweater Angie,” Lillian said joining them and brushing off the last
of the snow that lingered on her friend’s shoulders.

Angelina shivered. “I
am a little cold.” She followed Lillian into her bedroom to change. Sean barely
restrained his laughter at the expression on Lucas’s face when Angie walked out
in one of Lillian’s sweaters, it was obviously too small, it pulled tight over
her breasts and unlike the large bulky sweater she’d worn earlier, it
emphasized her curves. She wasn’t thin, not by any means, but she was shapely,
not round at all. She had a great hour glass figure.

Very
Marilyn-
esque
.

“Do you want to change
too, Luke?” Sean finally reverted back to using Lucas’s childhood
nickname,
it suited him better now that he was finally
starting to relax. Luke had had a tough couple of years of all work and no
play. Sean was pretty sure eventually they’d see the old Luke reappear.

Luke and Sean were
similar in size if not temperament, Luke returned to the living room without
his expensive attire, clad in a jolly St Nick Christmas sweater and a pair of
jeans. Angelina’s eyebrows shot up, he almost looked human.
Except
for those glacial blue eyes.
Sean and Lillian sat down next to each
other on the sofa, leaving the two to share the loveseat. They sat, each trying
hard not to lean too close to the other.

“All we need now is a
game of twister!” Lillian joked. Sean made as if to get up to fetch it.

“No!” all three
chorused at the same time. He sat down laughing.

“The
roads should be cleared by morning, but for tonight, why don’t you both curl up
here on the couches and get comfortable? It’s not worth the risk of getting
stranded, even if it does begin to clear a little tonight,” Lillian said
smiling sweetly, and producing a pile of soft warm blankets and pillows. How
could they refuse? Angie thought. That was the problem, it was hard to refuse
Lillian anything,
she
was such a sweetheart, that’s
how they’d ended up in this mess. She hadn’t wanted to come here tonight
knowing there was probably going to be a set up, and neither had Lucas. Or Luke
as they now seemed to be calling him.

They stared at each
other for a moment after their hosts had retreated for the night.

“I’ll sleep on the
floor you can take the couch,” Luke said, rising to his feet.

“No, I’m fine right
here on the loveseat, thanks anyway, go ahead and keep the couch.”

“Are you always this
difficult?”

“I’m not being
difficult. I’m trying to make sure we both get a good night’s sleep! I was
trying to be nice,” she replied indignantly.

“So was I! So, I guess
we’re not such a bad pair after all?”

“Pair?” she exclaimed.

“Figure of speech,” he
qualified, with a straight face, but he was finally beginning to unwind and
finding this whole scenario kind of amusing. “Even so, don’t say it around the
two notorious matchmakers in there.” He nodded toward the closed door of Sean
and Lillian’s bedroom.

Angie
groaned as she settled back onto the small loveseat and covered herself with a
soft warm blanket and plumped up her pillow. Maybe he wasn’t so bad after
all,
there might even be a hint of humor under that glacial
façade. The lights were out, and only the glow of the fire remained. “Do you want
to chat?” she asked.

“Sure.”

Silence.

“Well?” she prompted.

“You
first.”

“Fine,” she sighed. He
couldn’t even make this easy on her, they’d spent the whole evening sparring
and barely shared more than a few words over dinner. “I’m twenty-eight.”

“Wow, a glut of
information, watch out I might steal your identity!”

Angie snorted and
tossed a pillow at him. “Thanks!” he said and tucked it behind his head.

“Hey, that’s mine!”

“So come and get it.”

“What is this, a
teenage sleepover?”

“Feels
like it. In that case,” he said, hands folded across his middle, stark jet
black hair contrasting against the white of the pillow, and blue eyes
glittering in the firelight. “I’m going to need a forfeit.”

Angie
hopped up from the loveseat and starred distrustfully down at the man who had
gone from cold and austere to warm and…almost playful. Then abruptly turned
around and jumped back into her makeshift bed.

“Chicken,” he laughed.

“How
much did you drink tonight?”

“Half
a glass of mulled wine.
It was terrible stuff!” he groaned.
“It smelled great, but tasted like cough syrup, or worse.”

“Tell me about it!” she
exclaimed.

“Want a glass of
brandy?” he offered. “I know where they keep it.”

“Sure.”

Luke rose and padded barefoot
into the kitchen and grabbed two small glasses, he poured them each a hefty
shot and when he returned to the living room she was seated on the rug by the
fire. He handed her the glass, and clinked his own to hers.

“To
our well-meaning friends?”

“Our well-meaning
friends!” she agreed.

Chapter Three

Lucas awoke to the
aroma of fresh baking and coffee, something he definitely wasn’t used to.
During his time in Milan, he’d always simply walked down to the nearest café on
his way to work in the morning for a double espresso and a croissant.
 
He rarely stocked his kitchen, he had no
interest in cooking, and the women he’d known who’d occasionally stayed over at
his place, weren’t exactly the homely, cook his breakfast type. He wondered if
Angelina
was?
He was strangely sorry to find her gone
when he awoke.

She’d loosened up and
talked to him for a while last night mainly about her new business, a florist
shop, but he could tell that she was still wary. He wasn’t proud of his
arrogant dismissive behavior when she’d arrived but he’d wanted to merely nip
this thing in the bud. But now, somehow, he was kind of wishing he hadn’t. Not
that she’d expressed any interest in him, but still…

“Good
Morning!” Lillian said cheerfully walking in with a plate of fresh homemade
cinnamon rolls. Sean sat down beside her on the loveseat looking content. For
the first time in his life, Luke wanted this. The two sat cuddly-close side by
side, waiting for him to get up, unfortunately, he couldn’t. His morning
hard-on was still raging out of control, due to some explicit and strangely
erotic dreams, brought on by listening to the gentle breathing of one soft
armful of woman, who had slept only feet away from him. He rose to a sitting
position beneath the camouflaging blanket and wished with all his heart he had
someone to wake up with, roll over and make love to when he awoke feeling like
this. He must have been looking dazed because Sean eyed him curiously. What the
hell, he had to ask. Didn’t he?

“Where’s Angelina?”

“Gone,” Lillian
replied.

“Luke? What did you
do?” Sean quizzed leaning forward, elbows on his knees, hands clasped, frowning
at him.

“What do you mean?”

“Angie always stays for
Lillian’s cinnamon rolls. But today she slipped out early, as soon as the roads
were clear,” Sean replied. “She moved so fast you’d think the devil was nipping
at her heels.”

“I didn’t do anything!”
he cried, wondering if it was safe to get up yet, unfortunately his body
disagreed. The longer they talked about Angelina, the longer he would be here,
and it was the last place he wanted to be. They’d probably have him married by
the end of the week. Hadn’t he just thought about that himself? Oh hell! Now he
was really confused. Sean snorted and handed him a cup of strong black coffee.

“You look like crap!”

“Thanks!” he muttered
and lifted the strong brew to his lips, downing it in two swift swallows. It
wasn’t exactly the espresso he was used to, but it would have to do.

“Maybe
you scared her away?” Lillian suggested sweetly. He was beginning to wonder if
Lillian was really as sweet as she pretended to be, but she just smiled at him
softly, her eyes twinkling with mischief.

“That bad huh?” he
asked wryly. “But I think she must have left before day break, so she didn’t
see me.”

“I wasn’t talking about
your appearance Luke,” Lillian pointed out serenely.

“Yeah, what was with
the bad attitude last night? It just wasn’t you,” Sean asked, refilling Luke’s
cup.

Great, he was prisoner
here until his body cooperated or those two left so he could make his escape to
the bathroom. He sipped his coffee and eyed them speculatively.

“What’s with the
matchmaking you two?” he countered.

“She’s perfect for you
and you know it!” they said in unison.

He looked from one to the
other and couldn’t help it, he burst out laughing.

Chapter Four

“Angelina?”

“Yes this is Angie,
who’s calling please?” She hadn’t recognized the voice right away, but suddenly
she just knew it was him.

“It’s Lucas Hart, Sean
and Lillian’s friend.”

“Oh
God!
Everything is okay with them isn’t it?” she asked
hurriedly.

“Yes, yes, fine,” he
quickly reassured her.

“Then why are you…?”

Luke cleared his
throat. “I was calling to ask you out. On a date,” he clarified.

“A
date?
With you?
”
she asked incredulously. “Why?”

Not the reaction he’d
been hoping for but it wasn’t entirely unexpected, “I was rude and belligerent
at our friends’ house last night. I would like to make it up to you…”

“Not necessary, but
thanks anyway. Have a nice day Lucas.”

Luke
stared at the phone. She’d hung up. That had never happened to him before. He
was both stunned and strangely disappointed.

***

“What do you mean she
turned you down?” Lillian asked
,
hands planted on her
hips glaring at Luke. He shrugged. This was embarrassing. Sean was just leaning
back against the wall, arms folded over his massive chest looking smug. Luke
shot him an evil look, Sean smirked wider. Sean was a former bodybuilder who
after years on the road chasing competitive titles, had fallen for a sweet
homely girl who wanted babies and liked to bake cookies. Sean was still massive
and worked out every day. Lillian was small and soft looking, they were total
opposites. Is that what they were aiming for here, with him and Angelina? They
had nothing in common. But he had to admit they might have a point. He was
strangely drawn to her.

Lillian began rummaging
purposefully in her messy cupboards, how she ever managed to make some of the
delicious things she baked in her totally disorganized tiny apartment kitchen
Luke did not know, but it was obvious she was up to something now. She pulled
out a roll of cling wrap and packaged up a few cinnamon rolls.

“Off you go!”

“What?
Where?”
Luke asked, now dressed in his dark outerwear and
once again looking like he’d walked off the pages of a Milan fashion magazine.

“To
Angie’s store of course!
You can drop these by for her. It
will give you a reason to be there.”

Sean watched in
amusement as Sweet Lily, as he liked to call his wife in private, turned into
the little tigress he loved in the bedroom, speaking of which…

“See you later dude,
let us know what happens!”

Sean
purposefully escorted Luke to the door and Sweet Lily into the bedroom.

***

Luke found himself standing
on the cold crisp New York sidewalk with a package of cinnamon rolls headed for
a florist shop and a girl he hadn’t thought he’d ever want to see again.
Until this morning.
Following Sean’s hurried directions he
arrived at Make Piece, Angelina’s specialty florist shop. Funny, Angelina
Makepeace apparently had a sense of humor.