Page 55 of Mistletoe Latte

“No, you haven’t. So you had a setback, that happens to everyone.”

“Lost my apartment, lost my job. Spent so much time at my job I didn’t have any friends to lean on. And all because I couldn’t hack it.”

God, the tears running in her voice socked him in the gut. Nick brushed her hair behind her ear and swept the side of his finger down her cheek. “At eighteen, I joined the Marines. Thought that’d be my life. At twenty-one, I was discharged. Off to college I went…and dropped it two months later. Every time I thought I knew what I wanted to do with my life, life swerved. Working odd jobs, relying on charisma and the appeal of hiring a veteran got me a little farther, but...” He hadn’t planned to own a coffee shop. That was Rachel’s dream, one he’d been happy to cling to and call his own. Then she ran out leaving him with a business he’d never wanted.

“I’m never going to be a chef.” Her dejected voice stung him.

Nick sighed and dropped his head to the floor. “They always say chase your dreams. If you want it, it’ll happen. But I don’t think anyone gets what they wanted at eighteen. Maybe the dream job turns out to be a nightmare. Maybe the wife…leaves. Maybe the kids never happen. There’s no shame in changing your dream.”

“That’s not what any self-help guru would say.”

“Yeah, well, if we were all perfect those leeches wouldn’t have anyone to mooch off of,” he grumbled, causing Emma to laugh. God, the soft flutter of her giggle almost made him want to break out into song. Nick gulped and clenched a fist until his nails dug into his skin. “Besides, don’t you have a new place, a new job out east?”

She went quiet. Only her cheek swaying up and down answered him.

“Who knows, maybe you’ll become a fantastic chef out there and create the next cronut.”

“I’m sorry.”

“For what?”

“For flirting with you. For wanting you so badly even though I’ll be leaving like…”

Rachel.Nick squeezed his fist tight, then opened it. The cold air stung his palm, but he swept it over Emma’s warm ass. “You got nothing to be sorry for. I knew same as you did.”I tried to fight it because I knew.“And there’s no reason we can’t have fun.”

“Really?” She pushed up on her palms and the brightness in her eyes melted his cold, dead heart. Oh, he was in deep trouble if he wasn’t careful. But as he ran his hand back through her hair, Nick didn’t care about the end.

“We’ve got until, what, Tuesday?”

She nodded.

“There’s so much more I can do to your perfect ass.”

Four days left. Enough time for him to get infatuated but not fall any harder. Perfect. It’d been far too long since he’d been with a woman, even longer for it to go past one night. A chill wound through the cozy cafe. Nick reached for the first bit of cover he could find and slung an apron over the two of them. As he guided Emma back to his chest, he held onto her and closed his eyes.

Frank Sinatra sang them to sleep on the floor of his cafe. For the first time in five years, Nick took a breath without a weight crushing his heart.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

COLD CRAWLED UP her leg and ripped Emma from her dreams. She shifted and tried to pull her freezing toes back under the covers…only for a naked man to cling to her. He groaned and turned to his side, taking her with, but it sent their apron-blanket tumbling.

“Damn it,” Nick croaked, and he risked opening an eye. “Well…good morning.” A lopsided smile grew across his lips. He massaged her shoulder and chilly back before draping a hand across her ass.

“That was quite a night.”

“You’re telling me. I am too old to sleep on the floor.” Despite his protesting, he didn’t sit up. Emma straddled his thigh, the tip of his cock resting on her skin. As Nick blinked and glanced down her naked body, his manhood started to rise.

She nibbled on her lip and drew her leg higher, brushing her flesh against his. Nick’s eyes rolled back. He wrapped a hand around the nape of her neck and pulled her up for a kiss. Emma slipped her hand from his chest down the soft trail of hair on his belly and reached for the hard cock.

“Good morning!” The shop bell jangled the second a voice bellowed for them.

“Fuck!”

“Hello? Iverson, you old grouch, where are you hiding?”

Nick sat up at the same time as Emma. He craned his head back and caught the clock. “Shit, it’s seven.”

She tried to wrap a hand around herself, but there was too much to cover with too little. Nick picked up the single apron and dropped it over his neck. “Go, sneak out the back. I’ll distract him.”

---