by Teri Wilson
She tilted her mouth toward his. This time when he kissed her, she was ready. If anyone could truly be ready for such a kiss. Every subtle movement of his lips seemed to carry a new emotion, each one stronger than the last. Goldie lost herself in her response, trying to impart her answer to his unspoken question in the way she returned the kiss.
When they broke apart, Joe rested his forehead against hers and gave her a tiny kiss on the tip of her nose. “I think my heartbeat is giving yours a run for its money right about now.”
“Maybe.” Goldie rested her palm on his chest and felt a distinct thundering there. “Joe, can I ask you something?”
“Anything.”
“Would you come to Care Group with me this Thursday? It’s a Bible Study group that meets at Peggy’s house.”
“Are you asking me out on a date, Bashful?” Joe lifted his brows in mock astonishment. Clearly, he was still enjoying his moment.
“Actually, no.” Goldie disentangled herself from his arms long enough to unravel Bliss’s leash from around one of her legs. She scooped the dog into her arms and situated herself against Joe’s chest, his arm slung over her shoulder. “Peggy invited you. I’m just passing along the invitation, smarty pants.”
“Oh. Well, good,” he said with a rather bashful smile of his own.
“Good?” Goldie frowned.
“Yes.” He lowered his head so he could speak directly into her ear. “Because I was hoping to be the one to ask you out on our first date. Would you like to have dinner with me this Saturday?”
Goldie buried her trembling hands in Bliss’s fur. This was the moment she’d been waiting for. “I’d love to.”
“Wonderful. It’s sure to be a special night.” Something about his words and the way his eyes sparkled caused Goldie’s stomach to tumble in a fit of nervous excitement.
Then, she remembered. “Wait,” she gasped. “Saturday afternoon we have the dog show. Will we be finished in time to go home and get freshened up before dinner?”
Beside her, Joe stiffened. “You can’t be serious.” His tone became hard as stone. “You’re not still planning on going to the dog show.” It was a statement, not a question.
The intimate mood between them began to slip away. “What do you mean?” She nodded toward Bliss, who had settled quite comfortably in her arms. “Of course I am.”
“No.” Joe shook his head. “No, no, no.”
Goldie wiggled out from under his arm and turned to face him straight on. “What do you mean ‘no’?”
He paused. Goldie watched a vein throb in his temple while she waited for him to speak. After it had pulsed ten times, he rested his hands on her shoulders and smiled. It was weak effort, but at least he no longer looked angry. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to sound as if I were telling you what to do.”
He blew out a heavy sigh, and Goldie could tell he was choosing his words with great care. “I just don’t think it’s such a good idea for you to go to the dog show.”
She had a pretty clear picture of what was going on, but still had to ask. “Why not?”
“Sweetheart,” he breathed and Goldie instantly realized she preferred it when he called her Bashful. “You have to ask?”
Irritation pricked at her nerves. “I told you that wasn’t going to happen again.”
Joe cupped her face in his palms. “I know. But, wouldn’t it be best not to take a chance?”
Take a chance on what? Me having another meltdown?
It was Goldie’s turn to stiffen, but before she could say anything else, Joe fixed his melting gaze on hers, and she couldn’t stay angry. All she saw there was worry and concern. And maybe a little exhaustion. He had slept on her porch, after all.
She tried to infuse her voice with a blend of tenderness and confidence. “I’ll be fine. I promise. Trust me.”
“It’s not that I don’t trust you.” He threw his head back and let out another sigh. “How can I explain this so that you understand? I can’t see you in that kind of pain again. You weren’t expecting it yesterday, and I know you’ve turned it over to the Lord, but I just want to protect you. Please don’t go. Please come to dinner with me instead.”
“Joe, I’m going to the show. I have to.”
“You don’t need to prove anything to me. My feelings for you have nothing to do with whether or not you can hold it together at dog training class.”
Goldie bit her bottom lip and remembered the sensation of his kisses, each one more full of feeling than the last. Strong feelings. Love perhaps? She knew he was telling the truth. But she also knew, no matter how they felt about one another, they could never have a future if she hadn’t dealt with the past. She wanted to go to the show and do well, to prove to both him and herself that she was dealing with the grief. That she was healthy and whole.
“I want to do this. It’s important to me.” She tugged on the front of his shirt. “And you’re coming with me, right?”
Joe closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “Of course I’m coming with you. I’ll be right there by your side. So will Java. And so long as you’re up to it, we’ll go on our special date afterward, but…”
“But what?”
The corner of his mouth lifted. “But I may have to start calling you Stubborn instead of Bashful.”
Goldie swatted at his chest, and Bliss started in her arms. “Don’t you dare.”
“Don’t worry.” He pulled her close to him again, so close his lips brushed against hers when he spoke. “As long as your heart reacts like that when I hold you, I’ll always call you Bashful.”
Goldie could barely hear over the pounding of blood pumping through her veins. She had a feeling Joe would be calling her by her new nickname for quite a while.
Cup of Joe
Inspirational romance, Christian romance, Christian fiction, romance novel, christian romance novel, teri wilson, white rose publishing
Cup of Joe
Chapter Fifteen
Five days.
Joe shook his head.
Only five days until the dog show.
Despite the way his gut clenched whenever he thought about Goldie facing Harold again, an overwhelming sense of anticipation flooded his senses as well.
Five days until our date.
He tried to look at it that way. To forget all about Saturday afternoon and concentrate on their plans for the evening. But it was so difficult.
“Hey boss,” Cinnamon’s familiar voice sing-songed her greeting as she breezed in the door.
“Morning.” He barely glanced up at her from his coffee, but it was long enough to register the change.
Cinnamon seemed to watch the awareness cross his features as it dawned on him what was different about her. How could he have not known before? The nose ring was gone, replaced with a tiny hint of a hole right next to her nostril.
Joe wanted to grab his guitar and sing a song of celebration at the sudden disappearance of the tiny rhinestone stud. But, if the way Cinnamon was looking at him was any indication, that would be a big mistake. Clearly, the topic was off limits.
Fine. He would pretend not to notice.
She narrowed her gaze at him. “What?” The word sounded almost like a threat.
Joe cleared his throat and focused all his attention on the swirl of cream in his coffee. “Nothing.”
Cinnamon stood there for a moment, waiting for him to crack. Joe willed himself not to smile and busied himself with wiping down the counter. When at last she was satisfied that he wasn’t going to mention the nose ring—or its mysterious absence—she put on her apron and prepared to get to work. Behind her back, Joe smiled at Java. He could have sworn the Husky smiled back at him.
“So, how did it go with Goldie yesterday?”
He turned to her. Cinnamon’s eyes sparkled enough to make up for the missing nose ring, and Joe knew she must have witnessed their kiss on the beach. Thankfully, she was being uncharacteristically discreet. He was suddenly very glad he’d resisted makin
g a crack about her ringless nose. “Good.” In the history of the world, had there ever been a bigger understatement? “Really good.”
Cinnamon rolled her eyes. “Well, don’t keep me in suspense. We had a deal, remember? Did you ask her out or not?”
Joe held up his hands in a defensive gesture. “I did, I did.”
“What did she say?” Cinnamon poured herself a cup of coffee without taking her eyes off him for a second.
“She said yes. We have a date on Saturday night.” This time, when Joe answered her, he couldn’t keep up the calm façade. His face split into an enormous grin. He could actually feel the joy radiating from his soul.
“Oh, boss. That’s so great. I’m so happy for you.” Cinnamon clapped her hands and jumped up and down. “I knew she would say yes.”
Joe scanned the sidewalk out front for any potential customers. None, so far. Cinnamon could jump around all she wanted. “You did, huh?”
“Duh.” She swatted him with a dishrag. “Please. Don’t try and tell me you didn’t know she would.”
Joe paused, savoring the memory of Goldie’s thundering pulse as he held her in his arms. “I suppose I had an inkling she’d say yes.”
As the words left his mouth, he was overcome with a powerful longing deep inside. He couldn’t help but wonder if Goldie would say yes to all the other questions he hoped to ask her.
“An inkling?” Cinnamon blew a puff of red hair from her forehead. “Boss, I’m going to level with you. I’m going to give it to you straight because you’ve done so much to help me…and, well, it just seems like the Christian thing to do.”
Joe lifted his eyebrows and tried to keep the shock from showing on his face.
If Cinnamon noticed his surprise at her use of the word Christian, she hid it well. “Goldie is head over heels in love with you.”
He didn’t say anything at first. A month ago, even a week ago, his first impulse would have been to argue with her. He would have told her she was clearly mistaken and then gone on to list all the reasons why it was impossible that Goldie was in love with him.
But this wasn’t a month ago, a week ago or even a day ago. This was today. And with a jolt, Joe realized he wasn’t going to argue with Cinnamon at all.
“I think you may be right,” was all he said.
Cinnamon’s eyes popped open wide. “Yes!”
Joe grinned. Again. “Why do you look so surprised? You’re the one who said it first.”
“I was all ready to argue my case. I didn’t think you’d believe me. You’ve always been so hesitant about Goldie. What’s changed?” She cocked her head at him, and Joe flinched, waiting for the usual twinkle of the nose ring.
When he remembered it was gone, he grinned even wider. “Everything. Everything has changed.”
The tinkle of the bell on the front door to the shop interrupted their conversation, and two of Joe’s regular customers strolled in. Joe shot Cinnamon a warning glance. He figured she knew better than to continue talking about something so private, but it never hurt to be sure. In typical Cinnamon fashion, she responded by sticking her tongue out at him.
Joe just chuckled and disappeared into his office while she waited on the customers. Java shuffled behind him and peered up, his mismatched eyes full of devotion. Joe ran his hand over the spiky ridge of the dog’s ears.
“Good boy,” he said, and his thoughts took him back to that first day he’d brought Java with him to Goldie’s house.
It had been the first time he’d seen Goldie smile since her grandfather died. Part of him wondered if that’s when she first started falling in love with him. The other part of him didn’t care. It was enough to know it was finally happening. God’s perfect timing was here at last.
Joe dropped his head in his hands and his throat clogged with emotion. It was almost too much for him to process. Not only had the Lord answered his prayers for Goldie’s healing and happiness, now it appeared as though she may really love him the way he’d loved her for so long. He tried to form a coherent prayer in his mind, but failed. Merely saying thank you just wouldn’t cut it. He wished there was some way to show God how profoundly grateful he was.
Java nudged him with a big paw, and he glanced down at the Husky again, thinking once more about that day on Goldie’s front porch. The first smile. The first sip of coffee. He remembered with absolute clarity, crafting that first caramel G on her macchiato.
The idea struck him like a bolt of lightning. He shrank back in his chair from its force, and then sat up ramrod straight. It was perfect. A little daring maybe, but perfect.
He forced any trace of doubt from his mind and concentrated on what he needed to do. His date with Goldie was in only five days. Could he wait that long? And what if the dog show turned into a disaster? That would throw everything off course.
Joe shook his head, trying to physically rid himself of such thoughts. If Cinnamon, in all her fledgling belief, could be brave enough to change her life, surely he could do the same. He owed it to God to take a leap of faith.
He shoved his chair from his desk and all but sprinted into the shop. Cinnamon nearly dropped the pitcher of coffee she was carrying when he slid up next to her on the slick tile floor.
“You nearly scared me to death,” she panted. “What’s gotten you so fired up?”
“I need your help. Can you come up with a new drink? It needs to be really special, your best one yet. Do you think you could come up with something by Saturday night?”
“Saturday night, huh?” Cinnamon raised her brows. “Interesting timing.”
“I’ll tell you all about it,” he said with a wink. “So long as you make me a coffee drink that will knock Goldie’s socks off.”
“No problem, boss. It will be my pleasure.”
ef
“Bliss, down.” Goldie stopped in her tracks as she gave the command and the little Cavalier King Charles Spaniel plopped into a down at her feet. Once Goldie had paused for a few seconds, she began walking again and Bliss scurried up on all fours and resumed prancing at her side.
“Bravo!”
“Yay Bliss!”
Goldie’s informal audience hollered and whistled its approval. Bliss spun in manic circles, clearly pleased to inspire such a celebration.
Goldie wagged her finger at Peggy and Eve. “You guys can’t do that at the show. It will completely distract her.”
Peggy pretended to lock her lips with an invisible key. “Our lips are sealed.”
“That’s right,” Eve chimed in. “We won’t say a word.”
“And no crinkly bags.” Goldie clutched her chest. “That would be the death of me.”
“No crinkly bags.” Eve raised a pointed brow. “Although after her little performance at my Sunday school class, I would be completely justified to bring along a big bag of cheese curls.”
Goldie gasped. “You wouldn’t.”
“Or, would I?” Eve laughed, doing her best impression of an evil villain.
“Oh, cut it out Eve.” Peggy waved a knitting needle in her direction, and Eve abruptly clamped her mouth shut. “Don’t you worry, Goldie. Eve will do no such thing. Right, Eve?”
Eve nodded meekly, her gaze fixed on the pointy knitting needle.
“We’ll be there to support you. One hundred percent.” Peggy nodded to emphasize her point.
Goldie sighed. “Good. I want Bliss to win a ribbon so badly. The children from reading hour at the library would be thrilled.”
“I’ll bring my camera. That way you can show the kids some pictures along with Bliss’s ribbon,” Eve promised, still shrinking away from Peggy’s knitting needle.
“Thanks so much for watching us practice, you guys. I thought it would be a good idea for Bliss to work on her skills in front of an audience.” Goldie knelt in the grass of her backyard and scratched Bliss on the belly. The spaniel writhed around in the lawn, nipping at Goldie’s hand.
“Is Joe going to be there too? At the dog show?” Eve asked wi
th a wry smile.
“Of course. He’s entered in the advanced level with his dog, Java. Wait until you see them. They’re incredible.”
“Why don’t we all go out to dinner or something afterward? That would be fun. I guess I should get to know Joe better since it looks like he’s going to be sticking around a while.” Eve looked back and forth from Peggy to Goldie, waiting for a response.
Goldie tried to stop the fierce blush she felt crawling up her neck toward her face. “Um, well…”
