Chef's Delight (Stories of Serendipity) (22 page)

“To new relationships, and their continued success.”  He looked at Maddie, smiling as he said it.

Jessie remembered the first time he made that toast, and grinned up at him.  She couldn’t wipe the smile off her face, but she managed to take a sip of champagne.  Connor pulled her close to him, and she snuggled up to his shoulder.

After finishing their salutations, Kathy turned to Luke, winking lasciviously.  "You want to help me clean up the kitchen?"

His face, as he followed her into the kitchen, brought a giggle to Jessie's lips.

"I've got to get home.  The girls get up early."  Jessie yawned.

Maddie looked at her shyly, "Um, Jessie?"  she asked.

"Yes?"  Even though she had spent some time with the girl, Jessie realized that this was the first time she'd ever directly spoken to her.  Maddie was painfully shy, which seemed a stark contrast to the impression Jessie had of her mother.  She wondered what a lifetime of living in that woman's shadow would do to a girl.

"Can I come over sometime, and help you milk your goats?  Or just watch?"

"Of course you can, sugar.  I would be happy for you to.  You can come over anytime, and do whatever you want."

A bright smile brought the young woman's face to life, and Jessie felt a warm feeling in her stomach at the sight.

Connor clapped his hands together in delight.  "That's settled then.  We'll both be over bright and early in the morning to help you milk the goats."  Turning to Maddie, he asked, "Do you mind if I walk Jessie out to her car?"  She shook her head, a small smile still on her lips.

With his hand on her bare back, Connor followed her out to her truck.  "I absolutely love this dress."  He breathed into the back of her neck.

She turned at her truck and wrapped her arms around his neck.  "I know you wanted to help me out of it.  I guess there's some things we need to get a little used to."

He lowered his mouth to hers, and his lips and their scorching heat left her breathless.  "Tomorrow.  I'm meeting her mother's driver halfway to Houston.  Tomorrow night, I'm coming over.  Put it on for me?"

"You bet."

Connor seemed unwilling to let her go, and she cherished his arms around her.  Nuzzling into his warm scent, she inhaled the spicy, herby smell on his dress shirt.  This was where she belonged.

Connor let out a satisfied breath.  "Serendipity has been good for me.  I never thought my life would get this good." 

She nodded her agreement.  "Me too."

"Jessie?"

"Hmm?"

"I love you.  I don't ever want you to leave me.  I wouldn't be in this place if it weren't for you."  His fingers lifted her chin, so she was looking into his sapphire eyes.  To her surprise, she saw tears in them. 

"I'm not going anywhere Connor.  You're my home."

"I don't want to pressure you into anything, or to get you to make a choice that you don't want to make, right now.  Every time I'm with Maddie, and you're not there, I feel like something's missing inside.  And I can't see my future without you in it.  We're partners.  I want to be your partner in everything, Jessie.  In business, in love, in life.  I want to be your husband.  You are my everything."

Jessie giggled.  "You're getting mushy, Connor."  Then she realized what he'd said, and the blood drained from her face.  "Are you proposing to me?"

"Not as such.  I just want you to know that I have plans for us, and I eventually will.  I want to spend my life with you, Jessie.  I'm just letting you know that."  His massive hands tightened their grip on her, as he pulled her closer.  "I hate saying good bye to you at night.  I want to wake up with you every morning.  I'm not asking you to give up anything, just think about us, and our future."

Jessie tightened her grip around his neck, and pulled him down for one last goodnight kiss.  "I love you."

Driving home that night, Jessie explored the feeling of emptiness that she felt without Connor in her presence, and realized that she wanted what he talked about.  She wanted a partner in life.  For life.

She grinned at the thought.

Join
Anne Conley on Facebook, read about publishing updates, read excerpts of new work, and find out what she’s up to at www.facebook.com/anneconleyauthor

She loves comments and thoughts.  You can email her at [email protected]

Follow Anne Conley on Twitter@Anneconley10

Check on her at Pinterest, to find visuals that inspire her work, as well as recipes, and more!

Check out her website at www.anneconley.wix.com/anneconleyauthor

Make friends with her on Goodreads, Shelfari, Kindleboards, and Wattpad!

Turn the page for excerpts from more books by Anne Conley.

Turn to the next page for the first chapter of Dream On, from the Stories of Serendipity Series by Anne Conley:

Chapter 1

Dalton tilted his head back and felt the shot burn as it slid down his throat.  He looked over at the woman in the vinyl bustier to his right, and lifted the empty glass to her in a gesture of thanks. 

He had been second-guessing himself.  Just because he always came here, didn’t mean he had to always come here, did it?  He wondered if he was getting tired of it all. He had been feeling restless the last couple of weeks, and couldn’t quite put his finger on what was causing it.

He briefly wondered if he was finally ready to go back home, and fulfill his family’s desires for him.  Then the shot had showed up and the vinyl bustier had winked at him, and all thoughts of home and family vanished.  He figured he could find someone entertaining to do tonight.

She stood up from the plush wingback chair, and sauntered over to him, to perch on the arm of his chair.  Eerily, her face reflected the multi-colored strobe lights: sickly green, mellow blue, demonical red.  This last color seemed to mesh well with the abundance of makeup she wore, either to hide her age or hard living,
Dalton couldn’t tell, nor did he care. 

Her hand encircled his bicep, as she inhaled slowly into his ear.  “That’s a nice shirt.  Can I talk you out of it?”

He inwardly rolled his eyes at her blatant pick up line, but since the outfit she was wearing had “fuck me hard” written all over it, he decided he shouldn’t disappoint.  He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her into his lap.

This was a club, but The Church on a Sunday night had some pretty lax rules about appropriate behavior.  With the bass beat pounding through his spleen, he dipped his head and tasted the woman’s neck.  She moaned and leaned into him, pushing her breasts against his chest.  That was all he needed.

He nibbled her earlobe, “The last time I had sex in this chair, they asked me to leave.”

“Then let’s get out of here.”  Her hand stroked his erection through his pants. 

So he obliged her.

Alyssa was making lunches for her kids while they fought over toothbrushes in the bathroom.  “Guys, come on!  We’ve got to leave in ten minutes.  We do not have time for this!”  She finished throwing chips and cookies into the brown paper bags, and tossed them onto the couch on her way to the bathroom. 

Extricating the princess toothbrush from Cayden’s grasp and placing it into Sierra’s hand, she said sternly, “Now, get to brushing!”  Ten harried minutes later, they were on the way to school.

   In the car, on the way to school, Alyssa cranked up the radio and tuned out the children.  As soon as the bickering faded out, the dream she’d had last night tuned itself in.  It had been a good one.  She blushed at the pool of warmth forming between her legs. 

   It must have been some sort of subliminal thing telling her to get out more, because the dream started out in this wild club. Scantily clad women, men decked out in black leather and metal spikes were everywhere.

After the club, Alyssa had gone home with this beautiful woman and done unspeakable things with her, because in the dream, she had been a man.  Was that her subconscious telling her something else?

She had been an incredibly hot man, for sure.  Auburn hair, gray eyes, muscles everywhere, and apparently a boundless creativity in bed.  Saliva pooled in Alyssa’s mouth, and she swallowed, thickly.

At that moment, with her kids in the car, she was thankful her thoughts were private.

It was confusing.  Alyssa was not attracted to women, and had never had any desire to be a man, but this dream was so real.  In the dream, she had performed delicious sexual acts with a woman, and Alyssa had enjoyed every bit of it.  There was something about kissing the smooth skin, the supple softness, being in control of everything, that was deliciously foreign.  The feelings her body had experienced were so strange to Alyssa.  It could very well have been a wet dream.  Did women even have wet dreams?  She wasn’t sure, but she was almost positive she had had an orgasm last night. 

   As wrapped up as she was in her own thoughts, the drive was short this morning,  After dropping the kids off at their school, she continued on to hers, trying to focus her thoughts on the school day.

Walking into the school, Alyssa swept her long blond hair up into a pile on top of her head, and secured it with a pencil she found in her purse.  She didn’t have time to look in a mirror in the morning, much less fix her hair.  She pulled a few tendrils down to make it appear purposeful, and walked to her room, keys in hand.

Alyssa’s classroom was fastidiously neat.  She had motivational posters up on the walls, and spirited orange drapes over the windows.  She walked into the room, and opened up the drapes, to let some sunshine into the room.  Before she could even grab her coffee cup, and escape to the teacher’s lounge for some caffeine, a tall young man, wearing impossibly baggy jeans and a dirty hooded sweatshirt came ambling into her room.  He dropped his backpack onto the floor by a desk and pulled a crumpled piece of paper out of his sweatshirt pocket.

   “Ms. Fuller.  I don’t get the homework.”  He threw himself into the desk, and slouched down as low as physically possible without actually sliding out of the bottom.

   “Well, get a book, and show me exactly what you didn’t get.”  Alyssa said to him, after putting her coffee mug back down on the corner of her desk.

   “I didn’t get any of it.  I don’t get what a verb is.”  He made no move to get a book off of the shelf.

   “Well, a verb is an action word.  It’s a word that conveys action, like run, drive, or sleep.  But what the homework was over was adverbs.  They describe action, and most of them end in -ly.  Honestly,
Logan, you should have learned this stuff in junior high.  Get a book, while I get some coffee, and I’ll come back and help you with it.”  She grabbed her coffee mug and power walked down the hallway to grab her morning caffeine.

   The rest of her day passed in a blur.  Trying to get kids to understand the parts of speech and basic grammar principles was the reason she had chosen not to teach junior high. She had never in a million years thought she would be teaching it to tenth graders. 

   Seventh period was her conference period, and also when her children were bussed over from the elementary school to hers.  They bounced into the room about halfway through the stack of papers she was grading, and opened the snack drawer to get some nuts and juice Alyssa had stashed there just for them. 

   “Hey, guys.  How was your day?”  Alyssa’s brain was mushy by this time of the day, but she had to sound chipper for her kids.  She had learned a long time ago, her moods rubbed off on them.

   “It was awesome.”  Sierra answered matter of factly, like she always did.

   “It was awesome.”  Cayden parroted his sister.  He idolized her, and did everything she did.

   “Did you guys do anything interesting in class?”  Alyssa had to prod to get details out of the kids.

   “Ummm...Jonafon stole my turn wiping tables.  I was supposed to be fe helper today, but he stole my turn.”  Cayden’s bottom lip stuck out in a pout.

   “Did you get mad and throw a fit?”  Alyssa asked.

   “No, I told the teacher it was my turn, and she said I could do it tomorrow.”

   “Good, I don’t want to hear about any fits at school.  You’re my sweet boy.”  She leaned down and brushed a kiss across the top of his head.  “How about you, Sierra?” 

   “Today was art class.  I got a star.”

   “Good!  You’re my sweet girl.”  Alyssa brushed a kiss across her daughter’s head, too.  “Now, you guys get started on your homework.  Mommy doesn’t have to do duty today, so we can leave at 4:00.  Okay?”  They giggled at the words ‘do duty’, like they always did, and Alyssa rolled her eyes.

   The kids pulled out their work and sat at the big kid desks, their feet swinging under the chairs, and got busy.  By the time Alyssa was finished grading her papers, the bell had rung.  No students came in for tutoring after school, so they left as soon as they could.