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Chapter Four

I take out the letter my grandmother sent me. She has sent me more letters than I can count over the years. This one is much different. It’s not like the one she wrote to me over Thanksgiving, where she gave me her prized pecan pie recipe asking for me to prepare it for our family’s dinner. No…this letter asks me to use her apple pie recipe as a base and figure out my own special recipe to enter in a contest. A CONTEST! I blink repeatedly. I am still having a hard time with this concept. Sure, everyone said my pecan pie was great over Thanksgiving, but they are my family and even if it wasn’t amazing they would still be complimentary of it.

But the annual Fourth of July apple pie contest? With real judges? And real bakers? Why would my grandmother want me to do this? Why not Megan? I let out a deep breath.

“So tell me about this contest.” Jack pulls me in close and kisses my neck. Cascades of shivers fall over my arms…as if I can think with his lips anywhere on my body!

“Um, my grand—”

Jack’s lips cover mine and our tongues swirl together. His hands are running up and down my body, gripping and tugging on all of my pleasure points. I’m unraveling into pure joy and we are standing in the spice aisle at my grocery store. I pull back and shake my head.

“Jack, we’re in public.” I eye him and give him a please look.

“True, but we’re alone in this aisle.” Jack pulls me close again and kisses me harder as if the seconds being away from my lips created a stronger desire. I meet each twist of his tongue with my own and run my hands over his back. I stop.

“Jack, seriously, let’s get our groceries and get out of here.” I turn my attention to the letter and examine the notes.

Jack grabs the letter with one hand and my fingers with the other. He guides me down the aisle and into the back of the store. He pushes us through the double doors that lead into the warehouse.

“Jack, what are you doing?” My eyes dart all around us. Jack positions me into an aisle of boxes.

“This.” Jack reaches behind my head and pulls me to his lips. Our mouths meet and our tongues dance a rapid swirling sensational samba. His hands are roaming all over my body as if he is trying to remember every curve so he can sketch me from memory. My insides are squeezing tight; my breathing is out of control. I’m falling into ecstasy and I don’t care where we are. The only thing I see is Jack: he’s in front of me, connected to me, circling me, with his every touch.

“Excuse me, you can’t be back here,” a voice calls out to us.

Jack moves me behind him. “Oh, sorry about that, we couldn’t find the cinnamon or anyone to help us, so I thought we would check your stockroom.”

“Uh, hon, cinnamon is in aisle three and it’s stocked.” The man clears his throat.

“Well then, off to aisle three we go.” Jack leads me out of the stockroom and into aisle three.

I laugh as we stand in front of the cinnamon. “Really?”

“Really what?” Jack peers down at me. He rubs his thumb over my chin. “Your lipstick is smeared; you should be more careful with the application.”

I shove his arm. He doesn’t move though. He grabs my hand and kisses each of my knuckles.

“Lauren, I can’t hold out much longer.”

I raise an eyebrow at him. “This was you holding out?”

Jack bites my finger. “You don’t want to see me not holding out.”

I pull my hand away from him. “Maybe I do.” I toss my hair over my shoulder.

“Let’s get your ingredients.” Jack growls into my ear. Tingles swarm down my neck and over my shoulders like a firework exploding in the sky.

“Yes, let’s.” I scan the letter. We’ve got everything except the nutmeg and the apples.

I select an organic bottle from the shelf and toss it in our basket.

“I just need Granny Smith Apples.”

Jack’s eyes are dark with hunger. He whisks me into his arms and kisses me deeply before releasing me and I do my best to follow behind him to the produce section. My legs are wobbling from walking on a cloud of Jack’s love. He grabs a bag of Granny Smith apples and we head to the checkout, eager to get home.

***

I put the gear into park. I feel parked. Boxed in. Like a traffic grid on my life. Jack is back in Texas and I’m back at work. I’ve got to navigate my way through the day. I don’t want to have any intersections with Leena or Elaine. I need to have my first team meeting and plot out goals for Q1. This will be the first meeting that I’m leading and Javier is going to be listening in. This is of course something I’m really looking forward to, except not really.

I click the remote on my car and stalk my way to the elevator. As I get closer, I notice the door is open. Being held open by a hand.

It’s Trent. “I saw you pull in and thought I would wait for you.”

“Already trying to kiss up to the boss?” I laugh.

Trent laughs. “Always better to be on the good side.”

“True enough.”

The door is about to close when a purse wedges its way in between the opening. “Please hold the door.”

It’s Elaine. I’d recognize that artificial sweetener anywhere. Trent hits the open door button and pries the two doors wide with his massive hands.

“Oh my, thank you. What big hands you have.” Elaine’s eyes travel from Trent’s hands and over his entire body. She could pass for a body-scanning machine at the airport. That was intense.

“Sorry, I didn’t see you coming.” Trent hits the five button.

Elaine laughs. “Oh sweetie, that was obvious.”

My eyes bug out. I’m sincerely hoping she is not filling this elevator with sexual innuendos.

“What floor are you on?” Trent’s hand hovers over the buttons.

“Same as you, I suppose. Are you one of the new guys from Lauren’s team?” Elaine surveys Trent and then me.

I interrupt. “Yes, Elaine Stevenson, this is Trent Riznor. He’s been at the company since May.”

“Interesting, I don’t recall seeing you around.” Elaine taps her lip.

“Probably because he is always at his desk.” I force the sides of my mouth up.

“Is this the one we disagreed about?” Elaine squints her eyes as if she is trying to remember.

I use every inch of my self-control to act unfazed. “Not sure what you mean, Elaine, but he was one of my top picks.” The elevator opens and I do not hesitate to exit.

“I bet he is.” Elaine cackles and follows behind me.

I’m glad my office is not far from the elevator and the opposite direction to Elaine’s.

I unlock the door and shut out any possible further interactions with Elaine.

At my desk I boot up my laptop and see a ton of emails. Everything from status reports I requested to several from my mom. She called one too many times over the weekend asking if we could video chat with Jack and go over wedding themes. Each time I gave a random reason as to why it wouldn’t work out. Mostly I wasn’t interested in planning the wedding. I wanted to focus all of my energy on enjoying every moment of Jack, not thinking about rustic weddings or sparkles and confetti.