Jacquie ’Alessandro - Sinfully Sweet

“Can’t say I’m turning cartwheels at the prospect of going to the nursery for sod and dirt,” Kevin said. “What else ya got?”

Daniel once again consulted his list. “Stamps at the post office.”

“That doesn’t sound the least bit like ‘coffee at Starbucks.’ What else?”

“Spackle and caulk at the hardware store.”

“You’re killing me.”

“Birthday gift for Mom.”

Kevin’s eyes widened. “Whoa, I’d totally forgotten.”

“So you owe me big time.”

“Oh, boy. That doesn’t sound good. I’m going to end up filling doggie-dug holes with dirt, aren’t I?”

“’Fraid so.”

“But her birthday’s on Valentine’s Day. That’s, like, two weeks away.”

“I want to buy her present today and get it mailed off before I get buried under with moving.”

Kevin’s expression turned hopeful. “Since we always get Mom chocolate for her birthday, I foresee something sweet to eat in my immediate future. And where there’s chocolate, coffee can’t be far away.” He rubbed his hands together. “Let’s go.”

Since he couldn’t disagree that buying chocolate sounded a lot better than buying sod and dirt, Daniel pushed off the bumper and slipped his to-do list and pencil back into his jeans’ pocket.

“There’s a new candy place opening today that I read about in the newspaper.” He headed toward the corner and Kevin fell into step beside him. “It’s called Sinfully Sweet and it specializes in chocolates.” He grinned. “I think Mom has met her match.”

His grin widened at the thought of their mom, a teacher at the same high school he and Kevin had graduated from. Those teenagers didn’t stand a chance against Norma Montgomery. With thirty years of teaching under her belt, not to mention raising two kids of her own-three if you included Dad as she laughingly insisted you should-she knew every trick in the book. Since her birthday was on Valentine’s Day, no one in the family ever had a problem figuring out what to buy her for a gift. Ever since he’d been a kid it was the same thing: chocolate. Over the years it had become something of a joke among them all, with Mom trying to guess what sort of chocolate concoctions she’d receive, and he, Dad and Kevin trying to come up with something unusual she’d never guess. Only she always seemed to guess-had to be that “eyes in the back of her head” mom thing.

Well, Mom might be hard to catch off guard, but this year he had an advantage, or so he hoped, in the form of Sinfully Sweet. According to the ad in the newspaper, the shop promised an amazing array of extraordinary chocolate confections.

While he and Kevin walked the short distance to Larchmont Street where the store was located, Daniel enjoyed the contrast of the warm northern California sun tempered by the cool breeze. They’d no sooner turned the corner, however, when the sight of a familiar figure walking toward them slowed his footsteps. Then he halted abruptly. As if he’d walked into a wall, and stared.

Kevin, who’d fallen a few steps behind him, bumped into his back and grunted at the impact. When Daniel remained frozen in place, Kevin moved to stand beside him and asked, “I thought you said the store was this way. What’s the problem, bro?”

His powers of speech freakishly suspended, Daniel continued to stare. At Carlie Pratt, sans P.B. and J.-which meant the devilish duo was probably at this very moment joyfully digging more holes in his yard. Carlie Pratt, who, with the golden sunshine gleaming on her tousled, shoulder-length reddish brown curls, appeared to be surrounded by a gilt halo.

But that was the only angelic looking thing about her.

She moved forward with a slow, wickedly seductive stroll that brought to mind cool satin sheets, and hot, sweaty sex. Damn, what a walk the woman had. Like steamy sin in motion. How was it that he’d never noticed it before? Probably because every time he saw her she was rushing around after her dogs. Or driving her car. Or had her arms filled with grocery bags. Or was carrying the large, portable padded table she brought to her massage therapy clients’homes. Or was sitting on a lawn chair in her backyard, where the grass, to be fair, was marred with even more holes than his.

Well, she wasn’t rushing or driving or sitting now, and the sinuous sway of her curvy hips as she leisurely walked, her attention focused on the store windows, rooted him to the spot as if he’d turned into a pillar of cement. Normally she was dressed in either a bulky sweater or loose-fitting clothes that resembled hospital scrubs. But not today. No, today she was dressed in a pair of snug faded jeans that hugged every gorgeous curve-and damn, she had more curves than a roller coaster-and a V-neck sweater the color of a ripe, juicy peach. She all but made his mouth water.

Kevin clapped a hand on Daniel’s shoulder then said in an undertone, “Whoa, dude. I see what put you in this trance. She. Is. Fine.”

Yes. She. Was. He’d thought her attractive from the day she’d moved in, but had ignored the observation as he’d been with Nina at the time. Then, even after Nina was out of the picture, with both him and Carlie working, they’d seen little of each other-except for the puppy incidents.

Well, he was seeing plenty of her now.

And liked everything he saw.

For a guy who prided himself on being practical, logical and sensible, he experienced a rush of heated lust that all but incinerated and stupefied him where he stood. A reaction that could be described as neither practical, logical nor sensible.

And apparently he wasn’t the only one who liked what he saw.

“If that’s what the girls in Austell are like,” Kevin said, “I’m thinking you’re crazy to move. And the way you’re looking at her, man, you’re a goner.” He tapped Daniel non-too-gently under the chin. “You might want to lose the slack-jawed, bug-eyed look before you introduce yourself.”

Daniel swallowed and relocated his voice. “No introduction needed. I already know her.”

“Yeah? Know her as in the biblical sense?”

A crystal-clear image of Carlie naked in his bed, materialized in his mind’s eye, and with a frown, he blinked it away. But not without the image leaving a trail of heat in its wake.

“No.” He lowered his voice further. “She’s my pesky neighbor, the one with the hole-digging dogs.”

From the corner of his eye he saw Kevin’s speculative look. “You’re not looking at her as if you think she’s a pest. If you want my opinion-”

“I don’t-”

“She’s enough to make a guy want to cover his yard with dog biscuits.”

Daniel turned and looked at his brother. He wasn’t sure how his expression appeared, but whatever it was, it had Kevin putting up his hands in mock surrender. “Hey, I was just making an observation. No need to shoot me the ‘hands off’ glare. I want a yard like I want a bad rash. She’s all yours.”

A frown yanked down Daniel’s brows. “She’s not all mine. I don’t want her. Hell, I can’t wait to move away from her.”

“Uh huh. Okay. Whatever you say.” He jerked his head. “She’s stopped.”

Daniel’s head whipped around. Carlie had paused to look into a store window, affording him a side view, which was just as curvy and outstanding as the front view. The breeze caught her hair, blowing several shiny curls across her face which she tucked behind her ear with an absent gesture. Then without glancing their way, she entered the store and vanished from his view.

Her disappearance yanked him from the stupor into which he’d fallen, and he blinked and rubbed his hand over his face. That’s when he realized that his glasses had slid down his nose and his jaw was once again hanging open. Definitely not his best look. Good thing she hadn’t seen him. She’d think him a gawking, slack-jawed, nerdy techno-geek. While he couldn’t deny he was a techno-geek, and by association kinda nerdy, no way was he a slack-jawed gawker.

At least he hadn’t been until thirty seconds ago.

He started walking, his limbs feeling oddly stiff, as if they really had turned to cement, and he craned his neck to see which store she’d entered. He vaguely noted Kevin walking beside him and pretended he didn’t hear his brother’s poorly suppressed chuckles. Seconds later he realized she’d gone into Sinfully Sweet.

It suddenly struck him that the words sinfully sweet and Carlie Pratt seemed to go together very well. Sorta like hot and steamy. Hot and bothered. Hot and who the hell had lit his jeans on fire?

Hmmm…was she making a purchase for herself-or looking for a Valentine’s gift for a boyfriend? He frowned. Did she have a boyfriend? He hadn’t ever seriously considered that question before. When she’d first moved in, he’d assumed she had several boyfriends after he’d observed, through his home office window, a number of men entering and leaving her house. Then, when he’d returned her muddy puppies to her the first time they’d dug under the fence into his yard, she’d told him she was a massage therapist at The Delaford Resort just outside of town near Crystal Lake, but that she freelanced on the side, treating a select few, long-term clients at the house. She’d made no mention of a boyfriend, and he hadn’t particularly wanted to know.

But all of a sudden, he very much wanted to know.

Yet with his brain once again firing on all cylinders, he frowned and shook his head at this sudden need for knowledge about her personal life, then decided to call it…simple curiosity. Yeah, that’s all it was. It wasn’t as if her boyfriend status really mattered-especially as he was moving in two weeks.

Kevin nudged him in the ribs. “Hey, there’s a coffee shop. I’m going to go order a caffeine I.V. drip. Once I’m revived, I’ll meet you in the candy store. That’ll give you some time to chat with your neighbor you don’t, um, like.”

Man, was there anything more annoying than a smirking younger brother? “I never said I didn’t like her.”

“Oh. Right. You said you didn’t want her.”

“That’s correct.”

“Oh, yeah, that’s totally obvious. Anybody could see that. Really.” With a chuckle, Kevin made his way toward the coffee shop.

Daniel stood on the sidewalk for several seconds, reorganizing his thoughts that the sight of Carlie Pratt had scattered, splattered and fried. What the hell was wrong with him? Clearly he, too, suffered from caffeine deprivation for the mere sight of her to knock him sideways like that. And why the hell was he still standing out here? Sinfully Sweet had been his destination. He had every reason to go into that store. And if he just happened to strike up a conversation with her, well, that was only the neighborly thing to do, right?

And as much as he might not like it or want to, he was feeling downright neighborly.

Pulling in a bracing breath, he rolled his shoulders, then walked purposefully toward Sinfully Sweet’s glass door.

THE INSTANT CARLIE stepped inside Sinfully Sweet, her senses were inundated with chocolate, coaxing a moan of pleasure from her throat. Decadent treats beckoned from behind the counter and tempted from a colorful display of foil-wrapped hearts in the center of the store. She inhaled, filling her head with the luscious, mouth-watering aroma. She could almost hear the delectable sweets chanting, Taste me, taste me.

Oh boy, this upscale store was the last place a self-confessed chocoholic on a tight budget should be, but after seeing the newspaper ad announcing the grand opening and the intriguing Valentine’s Day promotion, she’d been unable to resist the temptation. She could resist a lot of things, but chocolate wasn’t one of them. Nor was the chance to win a fabulous Valentine’s dinner date at The Delaford’s five-star restaurant. One glimpse inside Sinfully Sweet let her know that her willpower not to overspend would be sorely tested.

Just think about the whopper tuition you still have to pay, her inner voice advised. And the freakishly expensive text books you need.

Right. As if she could forget. With another year to go before she earned her bachelor’s degree in occupational therapy, and the added burden of having to shoulder the house’s entire rent payment after her friend Missy had eloped two days before they were supposed to move in together, money was tight. Certainly tighter than she’d envisioned it being by the time she was twenty-eight, but as she’d discovered, life had a habit of throwing curve balls when you expected a nice, easy slider.

Still, she wouldn’t let anything keep her from finishing her degree, then securing the job she’d dreamed of-one where she’d help people who faced challenges helping themselves. Like her grandfather, whose stroke ten years ago had set her on the course she’d chosen for herself. And whose recovery continued to inspire her to this day.