Page 49 of Christmas in Coconut Creek

I couldn’t keep my eyes off Ophelia across the table. Cracking eggs into a bowl, measuring vanilla extract, swiping her finger through the mixture to taste it on her tongue. There was really nothing quite like a beautiful woman making eye contact while she sucked her fingers clean.

She knew exactly what she was doing.

I was pretty sure my balls had solidified over the span of three days, waiting to see her before doing anything about the ache there.

I’d almost lost it the night before though. Completely unable to help myself in those early hours of the morning when all I could think about was the way her body looked in those waves, and the salty taste of her nipples in my mouth.

She had every right to shut me down, but it only made the need more colossal. We were adults, there was no use denying palpable attraction, and neither of us had tried to. But I also figured that Ophelia was keeping herself guarded from me for a different reason, one that I had yet to cross the line and question.

All I knew was that I wanted her. And she wanted me. We could have casual, unhinged sex for a couple weeks like single people do, and then part amicably if that was what the situation called for. I’d forgotten how to be a hook-up guy, but maybe that needed to change. Maybe if I stopped looking for a permanent staple I could eventually find the woman that wouldn’t love me and leave me.

Despite all of that though, something about Ophelia felt inconceivablyright. Like flame to a wick. She was getting under my skin in all the best ways.

And what did I expect today? That she wouldn’t show up in those little cutoff shorts with the fringe hanging down her thighs? That her tits wouldn’t be pushed up just enough that I saw nothing and imagined everything at the same time?

Tease, I mouthed to her across the island. Ophelia popped her finger out of her mouth with a grin and pushed the bowl of cookie batter toward me.

“Try it.”

“Oh, I’m gonna try it. Just you wait.”

Whether willfully oblivious or ignoring the rising temperature in the room, Tally and Mateo worked dutifully next to each other shaping round balls of dough and putting them on a tray. There were several times Natalia scolded her boyfriend for making his too big or with not enough of the “good stuff” inside.

“How was work this week, boys?” she eventually asked.

“It was work. A bunch of dinosaurs behind desks treating us like IT guys when they’re struggling to open a spreadsheet,” Mateo complained. “I don’t know how to tell them we’re there for security installation, not tech support, without sounding like an asshole.”

“Try teaching them the program when they can’t even open a spreadsheet, Cap.”

“That’s why I pay you to do it.” Mateo took a bite out of a ball of cookie dough Natalia had just put on the tray. She quickly smacked it out of his hand with a glare.

“Have you heard anything from the base in Colorado, Frankie?” Tally asked.

I glanced toward Ophelia as she turned toward the refrigerator and opened it, rummaging inside for a carton of milk.

“Not yet. It’s still pretty soon. They probably had a bunch of candidates to sort through and interview.”

“Yeah but Echo has a buddy on the interview panel,” Mateo said. “That’s a shoe-in, brother. There’s not much Tyler Swan likes to do more than talk about the glory days in Delta. They probably knew more about you before the interview than you even told them.”

Ophelia joined us back at the island and started whisking milk into a new bowl of loose ingredients.

“Who even says I’m ready to get back out there? You know?” I wasn’t in the mood to rehash the details of my discharge from the military, nor was I looking for any more pity. But sometimes those intrusive thoughts spilled in and I forgot that it was okay to be vulnerable.

“Pike, you’re the best pilot I’ve ever flown with. They’d be shitting in their soup not to hire a salty fucking Ops guy with impeccable character references.”

“Are Sam and Tyler still coming down for New Year’s?” Natalia chimed in.

Mateo nodded. “Confirmed.”

My attention slid to Ophelia again, checking for a flicker of interest at the mention that two of our unit buddies would be paying us a visit. Sam and Tyler were good looking guys, the type that didn’t ever have to try to get laid, and when they came in a brotherly package and turned on the charm—it was open season. I’d seen it firsthand.

She just continued on listening and stirring melted peanut butter.

“I’ll talk to him when they get down here,” I relented. “But I don’t want to seem like a kiss-ass either. You know that’s not my style.”

I was still coming to terms with making that kind of life-altering relocation anyway. The part of me that wanted that job more than anything was completely overshadowed by the part of me that wanted everything to remain safe and the same. If I stayed in Florida I would tolerate my job for the rest of my life, but at least I’d have my best friend, my sister, my mother. Comfort and stability.

God forbid they ever needed me—I would be entirely too far away in Colorado to do anything about it, and that was something I couldn’t think about without getting anxious.

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