Page 3 of Sweet Treasures

His attention shifted to the counter with all the cookies. “What kind of cookie is that one? The third one over on the top row.”

Leaning over, she peered through the glass to see which one he was pointing to. Excellent choice. The three layered cookie was her favorite and her biggest seller. “Oh, that’s a spumoni cookie,” she said, straightening.

“Spumoni, huh?” His eyes came over to hers. “I’m Italian, and I didn’t even know there was such a thing as a spumoni cookie.”

Anna’s smile spread to a grin. “There isn’t. Not as far as I know anyway, and I’m Italian too.”

His smile widened.

Before she got completely lost in that amazing smile, she tore her attention away from him and put it back onto a safe place - the spumoni cookies. Well, it wasn’t really a safe place because if she stared at the treat long enough, she would have to eat one and she’d already had two earlier that day. If she didn’t watch what she ate, an extra cookie or two would surely land on her hips.

Therefore, instead of staring at the cookie, she removed one of them from the shelf and held the treat up for his inspection. “I love spumoni ice cream, so I thought why not try and create a spumoni cookie?” She smiled. “You know, with pistachios, cherries, whipped cream.” While it wasn’t ice cream and it didn’t taste like ice cream, the cookie had all the things she loved about spumoni ice cream in them. Well, almost. The bottom layer was a soft brownie cookie, the middle layer was green with glacé cherries and pistachios, and the top layer was a special frosting she had created that tasted almost like real ice cream. Not quite, but almost.

“Well, I have to give that one a try then.” Again with the smile. Maybe focusing on the cookie was a safer place, after all.

Even though it was a hard thing to do and took everything inside of her to accomplish the feat, this time she managed to maintain a professional persona through that drop-dead gorgeous smile of his.

“Here’s your hot chocolate,” Cailyn said, coming up alongside Anna. “I brought you one too, Anna, because I know it’s your favorite, and with no one else here, I thought the gentleman might like some company.” Cailyn managed to rattle that long sentence out without drawing a breath.

Anna, however, stopped breathing, and her cheeks burned with mortification. Again, what must this man think? Honestly, Anna didn’t want to know.

♥ ♥ ♥

Nicholas Vitale liked the petite lady’s spunk. The blonde woman Anna addressed as Cailyn voiced his thoughts exactly. His gaze went to the beautiful shop owner whose face was as red as the string of ornaments dangling from the ceiling right above her. It was a treat to see a woman blush. He rarely saw such things in his line of work. Women lawyers rarely blushed. In fact, many of them barked quite loudly, and a few even bit if you weren’t careful. In his experience they were tough as iron and almost nothing caught them off guard.

“Well, what do you say?” Nicholas asked, intrigued by the opportunity. “Being new here in town, I would love the company.” Before she said no, he hurried on to say, “Besides, you can’t let that perfectly good cup of hot chocolate go to waste now, can you? And I really do hate to sit here all alone.” Was there anything else he needed to say to convince her he really did want to have her company? “It’s bad for my reputation.”

“Your reputation, huh?” She wavered for a breath. “Well, I would like to help you out but…” Anna glanced over at Cailyn, “I really should help Cailyn finish cleaning up.”

He was about to open his mouth to say something else when Cailyn beat him to it.

“Oh, no need to. I’ve already done most of it. Go. Go on.” She shooed at Anna. “After all, like the man said, you can’t let this drink go to waste now can you?” Cailyn winked at him and smiled at Anna.

Even with Anna’s head turned sideways, Nicholas didn’t miss the narrowing of her eyes toward Caitlyn, who in return, showed absolutely no penance whatsoever. Nicholas stifled his chuckle, and before Anna could respond, he piped up with, “There. It’s settled.” He picked up the tray with the two beverages on it, took the spumoni cookie in the paper sleeve from Anna’s hand, set it on the tray, and strode toward the table in the corner by the front window. A moment later, footsteps sounded behind him. Not just any footsteps either. Anna’s.

Nicholas couldn’t help the smile curling his lips.

If things continued, by the time he left Sweet Treasures, he would have a date for his uncle’s law firm masquerade Christmas party. This stop off might be just the stroke of luck he’d been looking for.

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