Chapter 10
It was almost nine on Wednesday morning when Chelsea’s doorbell rang. Yesterday in Scottsdale was awesome. This week would certainly be a good way to see if they got tired of being around each other so much. She didn’t think so, but she’d see.
She opened the door and smiled when she saw Grady with Spot at his side.
Grady was looking sexy as ever in a navy T-shirt, Levi's, and Ecco athletic shoes, carrying two bags and two clear plastic tumblers of orange juice.
Spot looked happy to see her, wagging his tail.
“That looks like a lot of food.” She closed the door behind them.
“It smells delicious.” She knelt to hug Spot and scratch him behind his ears.
“Hello, you beautiful big boy.” She rose, got out a bowl, and filled it with water for him before joining Grady.
“King Creek Café’s best breakfast.” Grady set the bags down on the breakfast bar and breathed deeply. “Coffee. You’ve got coffee ready.” She poured two mugs, and Grady took his black while she doctored hers.
Several moments later, they settled in to eat after loading their plates with food. Spot sat between them, looking expectant.
“The coffee is perfect.” Grady set down his mug and picked up his fork. “Last night I stayed up late and wrapped the gifts for my family.”
“Already?” Chelsea looked at him in surprise. “We just finished shopping yesterday.”
He swallowed his bite of eggs. “I’m making up for running behind on gift-buying. I need to get everything shipped off as soon as possible.”
Chelsea cut into a sausage link with her fork. “You found some great gifts yesterday for your nieces and nephews.”
“Thanks to your help.” Grady smiled at her. “Tomorrow is Thursday. With all this running around, how does it sound to get takeout and watch a couple of movies at my place? I have some things to take care of during the day, and then I’m yours for the evening.”
“Perfect.” Chelsea picked up her coffee mug. “I need to go to my shop in the morning. One of our employees can’t make it in until the afternoon, so I’m going to be there with Chantilly. What time do you want to get together?”
Grady set down his fork. “How’s five?”
Chelsea smiled. “That’ll work.”
He looked thoughtful. “You’re going to need help getting all these cookies to the soup kitchen.”
“I’ll have plenty of help.” She waved off the thought. “My sisters are helping me in the afternoon, when I leave my shop.”
“Are you sure you don’t need me to carry the boxes?”
“We’ll be fine.” She smirked. “But you do have to deliver the box to the guys at the fire department.”
He smiled. “First thing tomorrow.”
“Be thinking about what to do on Friday and Saturday.” He grasped his orange juice cup. “Man, this week is going by way too fast.”
“It sure is.” Chelsea leaned back and stretched her arms. “Next, the cookie-making workout.”
After they had eaten, Grady cleaned up the breakfast bar and loaded the dishes into the dishwasher while Chelsea prepared to make cookies.
Spot picked one of her large rugs and settled onto it. He looked like a prince on a throne.
Chelsea turned on an all-Christmas streaming channel to listen to holiday music as they worked. She got out all the cookie-making and decorating supplies and bakeware.
“I bought enough ingredients to make cookies for the soup kitchen, the fire department, my brothers and sisters, and us.” She blew out her breath. “I figure around 260 cookies. Each batch makes twenty-four, and we can fit twelve cutouts per sheet. They’re big sheets.”
“What have I gotten myself into?” Smiling, Grady braced his hand on the countertop. “So, we’re talking eleven batches and twenty-two sheets of cookies.”
She nodded. “That’s about right.”
“Thanks for thinking about the guys at the fire department,” he said. “They’ll appreciate it.”
“Of course.” She flashed him a smile. “Those hard-working men deserve a cookie too.”
She grabbed two aprons that covered her from chest to thighs. She handed one to Grady. “You don’t want to get flour and icing all over your clothes.”
He looked amused as he held up the apron that had a ruffled hem and read the saying out loud. “‘I call this recipe eat it or starve.’” He chuckled as he looked at her. “Did you wear this when cooking for your brothers and sisters?”
“Yep.” She tied on a burgundy apron.
He read the words scrawled across her apron out loud, “‘Given enough coffee, I could rule the world.’”
Chelsea adjusted the apron so that it was straight. “Just a little more coffee and then I’ll graduate from princess to queen.”
He swooped in for a kiss, stealing her breath. “You’re already my queen.”
Her face heated. “Gotta start somewhere.”
He grinned at her and pointed toward the well-worn recipe card on the island. “You still use paper?”
“It’s on my phone, too, but I’ve used this card my mom left behind since the time I made my first batch.
” Chelsea measured the ingredients as she spoke.
“I think I was seven, and she helped me make a few dozen that lasted through the holidays.” She stirred the flour, baking powder, and baking soda in a small metal bowl.
“I could make these cookies blindfolded.”
“My mom made them every Christmas.” Grady put the oven on preheat. “I helped her sometimes. I liked working with my mom in the kitchen now and then.”
Chelsea used her large red KitchenAid mixer to beat the sugar and butter. “Did any of her cooking or baking skills rub off on you?”
Grady shook his head. “Not even a little bit.”
Chelsea laughed. When the ingredients were well blended, she added egg, almond extract, and vanilla.
After the mixture had been prepared, she added flour a little at a time until it no longer stuck to the beaters and was ready for the next step.
“I taught myself how to cook when I had to take over raising my siblings.”
She shrugged and continued. “They wouldn’t have minded surviving on mac and cheese, pizza rolls, chicken nuggets, and ramen, but I wanted them to have good meals and for us all to sit down together.”
“Mom felt much the same way.” Grady washed and dried his hands, then followed the instructions Chelsea gave him and lightly floured the silicone mat she’d set out. “At least one kid always helped her. There was more than enough of us to go around.”
“You must have had a huge dining table.”
“And a big house.” He rolled the sugar cookie dough a quarter inch thick with the wooden rolling pin. “But it never felt like enough room.”
Chelsea smiled. “I’ll bet. You have a huge family.”
He used Chelsea’s Christmas cookie cutters to make snowmen, bells, wreaths, poinsettias, snowflakes, and ornaments. He set them a couple of inches apart on the large baking sheet, set it aside, and started another so that two sheets would go into the oven at the same time.
He focused on rolling out the dough before continuing.
“To be honest, I don’t miss the days of having to share a bathroom and bedroom with my sisters.
They took so much time that they always made us late for school.
” He shrugged. “Granted, my three oldest sisters were out of the house and on their own before I was old enough to battle my sisters for the bathroom.”
“My siblings were so much younger than I was that I never had that problem.” Chelsea grabbed another bowl and started on the next round as they talked. She shook her head. “It was another story for the four of them.”
She added ingredients to the bowls. “If I had an industrial mixer and a bigger oven, this would go way faster.”
“Then I couldn’t keep up.” Grady put the two cookie sheets in the oven to bake for nine to eleven minutes. “This pace works for me.”
They chatted as they worked, Chelsea finishing a batch and Grady starting on the next two pans while the first couple baked.
When the cookies were a light golden color, Grady pulled the pan out of the oven, let the cookies cool for five minutes, then transferred them to a cooling rack. “It’s gonna take a while to decorate them.”
He slid his arm around her waist and looked over her shoulder. “What do you say to ordering pizza for lunch?”
She looked up at him and smiled. “If you don’t mind spending the entire time making cookies, I’m up for it. I love pizza, especially Hawaiian.”
The corner of his mouth curved into a sexy grin. “As long as I get to spend the entire day with you, it sounds terrific to me.” He squeezed his arm around her waist. “Even if it means eating a ham and pineapple pizza.”
She laughed. “We can get two pizzas.”
“Sausage and pepperoni for me.” He gave her a light kiss before he put the next sheets into the oven.
While they made the cookies, they would sing their favorite Christmas songs together, then start talking before singing another holiday tune.
They occasionally bumped into each other. Sometimes Chelsea wondered if Grady did it on purpose—no, she was sure he did—and that made her smile.
Chelsea had purchased decorator icing in squeeze tubes with nozzles. She had bought red, green, pale blue, light yellow, white, and black icing.
As the sugar cookies completely cooled, Grady decorated them. Like he’d said yesterday, he was good at it, and the cookies looked great in the various designs he created.
When it was closing in on lunchtime, Grady and Chelsea took a short walk with Spot so that he could do his business and enjoy sniffing everything they passed while getting in exercise. By the time they got back to the house, she was starving.
Grady ordered the pizzas for delivery. Half an hour later, they arrived, and Grady and Chelsea plopped down at the kitchen table and relaxed while they ate. Spot sat between them, alert and ready for them to give him tidbits of pepperoni, sausage, and ham.
“My legs are already sore from standing so much.” Chelsea waved a paper napkin to fan herself. “And I’m perspiring. It’s probably from the heat of the stove.”
“I’ve worked up a little sweat, too.” Grady nodded. “I think you’re right about the heat.”