Red Hot Christmas (3 page)

Luke stood across the large empty room from Amber, trying to figure her out. “Why Pride?” Upon her blank look he motioned to the town. “What made you choose here?”

“Oh,” she chuckled. “That was easy. Everyone has heard of Iian Jordan and the Golden Oar. Everyone who's anyone in the restaurant business, that is. After leaving my last job, I decided I needed a big change.” Luke swore he saw her shiver. “When I started calling around, looking for work, I was ecstatic to receive a call back from Iian, even though communicating with him was a little difficult at first. After we started texting, it was a whole lot easier. I've spent the last week studying basic sign language.”

He smiled. She looked like someone who had it all together. Her hair was neatly piled on top of her head, although a strand had come loose when she'd helped him up off the ground. She'd quickly tucked it back under a bobby pin. He itched to get his hands on it to see the length, feel the texture.

“This is a pretty big place to live all by yourself.” He started walking towards her, watching her reaction to his obvious question. Her eyes were glued to his chest, and he smiled when he realized she was too focused on his naked body to realize he'd hinted at seeing if she was single.

“I have plenty of furniture to fill it. Plus, it will be nice to have a home office.” He smiled even more.

“So, there's no one else moving in with you?”

“Hmm?” She finally looked up at his face, and he could see her blue eyes focusing. “Oh, no.” He watched her blush again. He'd enjoyed seeing her cheeks turn pink earlier.

“Hmm.” He said and stopped right in front of her, just a breath away.

Her chin was turned up, her eyes searching his. He could see the freckles on her nose, then his eyes traveled down to look at her mouth, and he lost his train of thought.

They must have stood there for a few minutes before she blinked and took a large step back. “Well,” she cleared her throat. “I hope I didn't injure your ego too much by making you lose.”

“Lose?” His mind refused to clear.

“To Iian? The double-dog dare?”

“Oh,” He chuckled. “He won’t look at is as me losing. After all, I did get to get half naked with the sexy new girl in town.”

She blushed again, and he decided it was time to leave. He walked out the door, knowing she was following him. “Besides, his ego could use a little boost right now.”

“Why does he need an ego boost?”

“Well, when his sister, Lacey, is pregnant, she tends to make things a lot worse for her brothers. Her husband she adores, her brothers she tortures.” He smiled. “But, you'll find that all out yourself when you met her.”

“I hope she treats her employees like she does her husband.”

He laughed and gathered up his bike. “It was nice meeting you, Amber Kennedy. Welcome to Pride. I'll see you around.” He started walking, the bike slung over his shoulder, like it weighed nothing.

“Wait, the least I can do is drive you home.”

“No need. I just live a few blocks away.” He turned and started walking again. She watched him disappear around the corner and sighed.

A
mber decided that visiting the Golden Oar during dinner rush would be just as good as hitting the lunch crowd, since the whole ordeal with Luke had cost her too much precious time. She filled her time until then by dragging her bags and sleeping bag up the stairs and setting everything up. Then she went downstairs and did a little grocery shopping to try and fill her cupboards.

It ended up taking her a little longer downstairs then she had planned. Patty was not the only chatty one around. She met several other older women whom it seemed camped out at the grocery store, since she was sure they were the same bunch that had witnessed her incident with Luke several hours earlier. They all seemed very nice and asked more questions than Iian Jordan had during their brief interview.

The hardest question to answer was if she had any family around. She didn't feel like going into detail about where her father was, and why her mother refused to see her only daughter. So she lied and told them that her parents lived in Portland and were very proud of their only child.

By the time she went back upstairs and had everything perfectly arranged in her cupboards, it was only an hour before the main dinner crowd would hit the restaurant.

She decided a slow drive to the building would be just the thing. She enjoyed driving down the side streets of the town and found all the homes completely charming. When she drove up to the
large building which sat on the waterfront, she noticed the parking lot was well lit and almost completely full. She was happy to see this on a weeknight.

The building was beautifully remodeled and had new white-washed siding. Large white lanterns lit up the whole front of the restaurant. There was a large hand-carved sign that hung over the front doors.
The Golden Oar
was carved in vibrant gold letters above a large ship with white sails sitting in dark blue waters.

The glass doors had intricate lettering and a sailboat etched in the glass, which shined when she opened the doors. The smells and sounds hit her full blast. Warm, rich, family. All sorts of happy sounds could be heard. This was not a white tablecloth dining establishment, meant to have quiet voices and pressed napkins. Here, families and couples enjoyed family, friends, and an atmosphere that fit it all.

Smiling, she walked up to the hostess desk. Already she saw things that could use new touches. The uniforms were nice, but with a little updating they would not only have a more modern look, but be more comfortable for the staff. Older computers could easily be replaced with touch screens to save time and be more efficient. By the time she was seated, she had a list running in her head of items that could use her touch.

The menus were charming and just needed a little updating. The food list was perfect. She knew Iian ran everything in the kitchen. She'd done a lot of checking up on him and had found as much detail as she could. She knew she would be able to make small hints, but for the most part, would leave everything behind the swinging doors up to him.

She ordered the special of the night, beer battered fish and chips with a side of clam chowder. She also got an order of the calamari as an appetizer. She knew it was a lot of food, but wanted to try as much of everything as she could.

She watched how the waitstaff moved around, mentally taking notes as to which employees worked harder and more efficiently. By the time her food arrived, she knew exactly what her plan would be. When she got a taste of the food she knew why people drove from Portland to dine at the Golden Oar. The food quality was easily five-star. Now, it was up to her to bring everything else in the restaurant up to speed.

When she saw Iian walk out from the double doors, she pasted on a smile. He was wonderful with the patrons. Even though he was deaf, he easily conversed with everyone. He looked like a natural. He had everyone smiling by the time he left their tables. Then he spotted Amber and a lopsided smile appeared on his face as he quickly approached her.

“Hello, again,” he said smoothly.

“Hello.” She shook his outstretched hand.

“We weren't introduced earlier. I'm Iian Jordan.”

“Yes, I know. I'm Amber Kennedy, your new manager.” She made a point to speak very clear and face him. She'd done research and knew he could easily read lips, so she wasn't too concerned about how they would communicate.

She watched surprise jump into his eyes, then he laughed and sat down in the chair beside hers. “Oh, boy. I'm going to have fun with this one. It's nice to meet you, Amber. I hope you're finding everything to your liking?” He motioned to the empty plates.

“Yes, everything was wonderful. I know I'm a week early, but I figured I'd have some extra time to get settled.” She wondered what he meant by,
“I'm going to have fun with this one,”
but didn't want to ask.

“Checking us out, huh?”

“Yes, so far I like what I see. The food is top notch.”

“Well, I'm glad you like it. You just missed my sister, Lacey. She's in the last trimester of her second pregnancy, so I sent her home early. Doctor's orders.” He smiled.

“I hope I can get a chance to sit down with her later this week.”

“Oh, I'm sure she'll be around. If her husband Aaron has anything to do with it, she won't be around too long.” Amber smiled.

Then Iian leaned in. “I have to thank you for today.”

“Today?”

“Yes, if you hadn't hit Luke with your Jeep, he could have easily overtaken me. Bummed about the bike though.” Iian frowned a little. “But he's already talking about making the Green Machine better than before.” He chuckled.

“Yes, well. I guess I'm not used to two grown men flying at me on BMX bikes.” They both laughed.

Luke looked at the digital clock on the wall and wondered what Amber was doing. It was a quarter past midnight and he was deep in work. He loved this time of night, when everything was still and quiet. His gran was asleep downstairs, and he could focus one hundred percent. He knew he needed to look for his own place, but her health had been failing in the last couple years, so he stayed close. After all that's why he'd come back to Pride. That and his work.

He looked down at the screen and fixed another line of code while mentally thinking about other things. He'd gotten so good at his job, he hardly had to work at it like he had a few years back. Now it just came to him, flowing from his fingertips. He didn't mind the long, odd hours. Knowing that he could set his own schedule made it easier on him. Besides, it left him free to fix his gran's roof, race BMX bikes through town, or flirt with the pretty new girl in town.

He smiled. Yeah, he'd have to make more time to do that again. He was sure she had been into him as well. He'd seen the looks she'd given him, since he had been giving her the same looks back. It had been some time since he'd felt that pull of attraction. Not that he'd been dead since leaving the city, but Pride had limited stock. After all, he'd gone to school here and knew everyone in town and considered them all very good friends. It was hard to find someone you not only found attractive, but were interested in. He'd sure felt both for Amber. He could tell she was the type of woman who had to have everything in order.

It had been pure torture feeling her fingers on his back as she'd meticulously removed every pebble. He had enjoyed her smell, her feel, and had wanted nothing more than to see what she tasted like.

Shaking his head, he realized he'd been sitting at his computer for several minutes without seeing the screen. At this rate he'd never get his latest job done. He worked all throughout the rest of the night and decided he'd have to make sure to stop by tomorrow evening and see if the newest member in town needed anything.

The next day it was past noon when he finally woke up. His gran was in the kitchen watching the news on the new flat-screen TV he'd hung on the dining room wall, as she baked something that smelled like heaven. He walked up behind her and kissed her and wrapped his arms around her.

“Morning, Gran.”

“Well,” she smiled and smacked his hand out of the bowl she was stirring. “It's about time you got up.” She turned and upon seeing him, started tsk-tsking him, as she was famous for. “One of these nights you are going to have to actually get some sleep. You look terrible.”

He hugged her again and this time was successful in dipping his finger in the brownie batter. Sticking his finger in his mouth and licking the sweet goodness, he smiled. “It's not my birthday.”

“Oh, you boy!” She cleaned the drop of mix that he'd spilled off her countertop. “You be a good boy and go clean up. I have an errand for you to run today.”

He smiled at her and started to leave the room. If his gran asked him to jump the Grand Canyon in a run-down VW Beetle, he'd do it.

“Oh!” She said as he walked out. “And wear something nice. Not just jeans and a t-shirt.”

“Yes, ma'am.” He frowned and hung his head as he walked back up to his room. Something nice to his gran meant dress slacks and a button up shirt. He hated wearing dress slacks and a button up shirt.

An hour later he walked back into the kitchen where she was sitting at the table. A large covered dish sat in front of her on the table as she read the newspaper. When she looked up at him, she smiled and nodded her head.

“Good, now be a good boy and take this down to that nice young girl that almost flattened you in Main Street yesterday. We need to welcome her properly into town.” His gran pushed the container of brownie’s towards him.

“Gran, are you sure she gets the whole batch?” He looked at her, pleading with his eyes.

“Yes. If you want some, you'll just have to invite yourself in and ask her.” His gran went back to her reading, in essence dismissing him.

He stood there and looked at her gray head and realized she was more of a meddler then he had ever believed. How had she known about the incident with Amber yesterday? It must have been Patty. Patty O'Neil ran the local market for one reason and one reason alone, and no matter what she said, it had nothing to do with it being in her family for several generations.

Sitting in his truck outside Amber's apartment, he looked at the pan of brownies and swore he'd have some. He peeled back the cover and just looked at the iced goodness. His gran could sure make the best brownies in Oregon. Closing the lid, he decided when his stomach growled loudly that it was now or never.