As the tinkling, dancing notes of the music went on and on, she knew she had to come up with a way to fix this. Somehow, she had to show Mason the support he deserved. Maybe, with time, he’d even give her another chance.
As she carefully touched the tip of a very fine paintbrush to the cookie surface to paint Santa’s eyes blue, it reminded her of Mason’s eyes. Unlike Santa, Mason didn’t have a team of elves to help him get ready for the huge catering job. It was a strange way for her brain to finally come up with a good idea, but Ruth didn’t stop to examine where the thought had come from. She dropped the paintbrush onto into a cup of water and headed to the door before she could talk herself out of this.
Outside, she looked around and saw Mason’s car parked five yards or so down from her’s, so she knew he was at work. She didn’t knock because she hadn’t knocked in ages and waiting for him to answer might have sucked her courage right out of her. When she burst into Mason’s kitchen however, and saw him pause in the middle of his work, she wished she hadn’t been quite so impulsive.
He was bent over a big plastic mold with a piping bag of chocolate in his hands. He looked at her in surprise but only for a second before he put it down and came toward her. “Hey.”
He sounded surprised to see her, and that just about killed her. She hated that she’d hurt him, so before her nerves got the best of her, she said, “Mason, I’m sorry about the way I acted on Saturday. I came over because I wanted you to know that I’m—”
“No, don’t. I was an idiot.”
“No, I was a jealous brat. Despite my first emotional reaction, I am really happy for you.”
A slow, gentle smile pulled at his lips. “That means a lot, Ruth. Thanks.”
She nodded. “In fact, I officially volunteer my time and Brianna’s to help you get ready. I don’t know a lot about chocolate but I’m sure there are simple tasks that you can give me. Anyway, I’m all yours.”
It was only when his eyes lit with laughter that she realized how that sounded. “Oh yeah?”
“You know what I mean.”
“A guy can hope though, right?”
His teasing caught her off-guard. “Do you? Hope I’m yours?”
As his expression grew serious, he stepped close to her and took hold of her hands. “Lately it’s been the only thing I’ve hoped for.” He bent closer and murmured. “That whole thing with hugging Brianna? It was just that—a hug. She might as well be my little sister for all the interest I feel towards her. How could I even notice her when my I’m so focused on you?”
“Really?”
He nodded. “Why don’t you believe me?”
Ruth took a deep breath. “Because I’m so self-conscious about my size, I guess. And you’re so fit and athletic that…”
“Are you serious? I’ve told you before that you’re beautiful. And trust me—I’m way too attracted to every part of you. It’s distracting being this tempted all the time.” He cupped his hands around her face and raised it until she had to meet his eyes. “But that doesn’t matter nearly as much as how you make me feel. There’s something here, Ruth. Something that I don’t want to lose.”
Ruth agreed with him completely, but all she could do was put her arm around his waist and press her face against his chest. “I don’t either.”
She was happy to stay there, surrounded by his masculinity and reveling in his warmth and strength. But as much as she wanted to spend the rest of the day just like this, she finally pushed back. “We need to talk about the catering job and when you need me to come over. I can even shut down on the day of the ball if you need me to.”
Mason chuckled and smoothed his hands around her waist again. “You’re incredible, you know that? But I’ve got amazing news for you.”
Her eyebrows scrunched together. “What?”
“I talked to Sharon and she agreed that the best dessert table by far would be a mixed selection of my gourmet chocolates and Sugar Lips cookies. I’ve got the details in an email we can go read together. What do you think?”
But Ruth was too overwhelmed to formulate an answer. It was generous and kind and brilliant beyond words. As usual, Mason had gone after something and gotten it, but this time, he’d gotten something for her.
“I was thinking that your big cookie paintings would be an amazing backdrop on the tables with some of my chocolate sculptures as centerpieces. So what do you think? Will you do it?”
Ruth raised up on her tiptoes and grabbed his face to pull him down to her. She kissed his willing lips with enthusiasm, then hugged him again.
“I don’t know what to say.” Her voice was tight and choked with emotion. It seemed like such a cliché phrase, but she literally couldn’t put her thoughts into words.
“Hey, I don’t care if you talk at all if kissing is out of the box again.”
Ruth laughed and tipped her chin up for another kiss. “They’re out. And never going in again.”
Mason swooped on her then, angling his head to capture her mouth for a deep, almost victorious kiss that made her breathless and giddy. She completely forgot where she was until the sound of feminine laughter sounded nearby. Breaking away despite Mason’s reluctance to let go, she saw Brianna grinning at them from nearby.
“I wondered what was taking you so long,” Brianna said. “It’s time to open.”
“Oh my gosh,” Ruth said, stepping back. “I need to get back. Crystal isn’t coming in till later.”
“You’ll come back over though, right?” He grinned. “We’ve got some planning to do.”
She bit her lip. “I’ll be back, but if we’re going to pull this off, we don’t have much time to waste.”
“Pity,” Mason said, following her to the door. “So, want to come over for dinner tonight? I still have everything ready to cook for you.”
Ruth raised her eyebrows.
“It can be a planning meeting,” he said.
“Mmmhmm.” But Ruth was too happy, to hopeful, to tease him for long. “Sounds good. See you later then.”
“Have a great day, sugar lips.”
Chapter Sixteen
After Ruth bared her soul about her insecurities, Mason had not only been surprised but gutted that he hadn’t made it clear how he felt about her before. He spent most of each day thinking about her, admiring her beauty, and distracted by every curve of her body. One of these days, very soon, he intended to make sure she knew precisely how he felt about the way she looked.
But more than that, so much more importantly, he was blown away by her offer to help him get ready for the event. Her face had drained of color when he’d told her he’d gotten the bid, and in that moment, he would have given anything for the job to be hers. So, he knew precisely what it meant that she’d come to him, ready to help him be successful.
A wave of love had swept through him like a tsunami, and in its wake, it had left nothing but a certainty that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with this woman at his side.
He longed to tell her, but no doubt he needed to take things slowly—to tread carefully—as she figured out her own feelings.
So, for the rest of the week, he focused on the work ahead of him, creating enough chocolate for three hundred guests. Every once in a while, he’d raise his head from his work long enough to check on the business in his store, which was almost completely left up to Brianna to take care of. When he was lucky, he managed to steal a few minutes with Ruth.
It felt as if something big was building between them with so many things still to say and discover. By the time Saturday evening came, he was more excited to finally spend some time with Ruth than about the reactions to their dessert table.
“Ready?” Ruth asked him as they pulled up at the Bellmark Hotel on Old Main Street, just five blocks down from the square.
“You have no idea.”
The Candy Cane ball would begin in less than an hour. They’d decided to set up at the last minute so that the temperature of the room would have less time to
affect the chocolate. Ruth had warned him that it was usually warm and became warmer as the night went on with so many people in the space. Sharon had given them a long table in a secluded corner where their work would be hidden behind a screen until time for people to enjoy it. This meant they could keep working on it even after the ball had begun.
He watched as Ruth set up her painted cookies. Her others had been given away as promised, so she’d had to hurry and make more.
“Hey, did you ever get a chance to read that newspaper article I sent you?” he asked her.
She grinned over her shoulder. “Yeah. We should have known that people would start speculating when both of our names were announced on the Candy Cane Ball advertisements. It’s like people can’t decide if they want us to be enemies or lovers.”
Her words sent his pulse racing. Stepping forward, he wrapped his arms around her from behind and pressed a kiss to the delicate warmth of her neck. “I know which one I want.”
Ruth jabbed him softly with her elbow, but when she spoke, her voice was unsteady with laughter. “Mason, we have work to do.”
He sighed and nodded. “I know. I can’t wait for this to be over. The only thing I want to do is curl up on a couch with you and watch Christmas movies until all this tension in my shoulders goes away.
“Sounds heavenly. It’s a date.”
She turned back to set up her next display, one he hadn’t seen yet. He turned as Brianna and Crystal came in carrying boxes of his chocolates. They got to work opening them and placing them carefully in the display. In order to cater to the elegance of the event, he’d made decadent truffles, all swirled with bright colors and gilded with shimmering, edible metalics. They were beautiful and, thanks to a week of careful taste-testing, Ruth had declared them to be both divine and sinful.
“What do you think?” Ruth asked, stepping back a few feet from the table to better view her display.
Mason stepped back with her, amazed at the nativity scene she’d created from cookies and icing. The stable stood over a foot tall, and all of the figures around it were about eight inches tall. She’d glued them all to stands with royal icing so that they stood up straight and secure. Just the technical points of what she’d accomplished were impressive. But he wanted to see the detail. As he stepped closer, he was blown away by the artistry. Each figure was tenderly painted in soft, delicate colors. From the facial features to the draping of their robes, the individual pieces were works of art. Together, they were nothing short of a masterpiece.
He turned back to her, sure she could see the stunned expression on his face. “Do you even realize how incredible you are?”
“You like it?”
He shook his head. “Clearly you don’t. Well, buckle up. I wouldn’t be surprised if orders started pouring in from all over after people see this. And I don’t just mean at the ball tonight. This is going to go viral once it hits the internet.”
Ruth held her hands to her cheeks as she fought off a smile. “Oh, that would be incredible. I’ve been so afraid that I’d have to close my doors on Sugar Lips since this Christmas didn’t go the way I needed it to.”
“Never in a million years. You’re on the edge of success like you’ve never dreamed of. Now, what do you say we finish getting this set up so we can start showing off?”
“Let’s do it.”
An hour later, they were done with the display. There were trays of Ruth’s cookies with raised platters of his chocolates on two long tables. It was an incredible sight to see all of their hard work come together in such an impressive spread.
“And to think, it’s all going to be demolished in no time,” Ruth said.
“That is the sad fate of all our work, but we make people so happy in the process.”
They helped Brianna and Crystal gather up all the trash so that the dessert area looked perfect. When they were done, he and Ruth headed over for one final look at the table to make sure everything was perfect.
“Thanks,” Ruth said, stepping up and holding his hand. “This is amazing and it’s all due to your generosity.”
“You’ll have to tell Lori how brilliant my idea was,” he said, a gleam of devilry in his eyes.
Behind them, Sharon’s voice sounded through the sound system, welcoming people to the ball and the buzz of conversation on the other side of the screens hiding the dessert table died away. A moment later, the song “A Marshmallow World” by Dean Martin played. Mason turned to Ruth. “Want to dance?”
She gestured to her jeans and sweater. “I’m hardly dressed for a ball.”
He smiled and raised her hand in the air to spin her around and into his arms. “Neither am I. I just want an excuse to hold you.”
So there behind the screen, he held her close and stared down into her eyes. He searched them for some clue as to whether or not he should tell her the biggest three words he’d ever wanted to say to anyone.
“What is it, Mason? You’re staring at me like you’re trying to figure out if I’m human or not.”
He laughed. “No, not that. Just trying to decide when to tell you how much I love you. Is now a good time, or should I wait a little longer?”
Ruth made a sound that was half choke, half giggle. “It’s just like you to be ridiculous at such a moment. Are you being at all serious?”
“About loving you?” He stopped dancing and pulled her tightly against him, reveling in the way she fit so perfectly against him. Angling his head slightly, he bent and pressed his lips to hers, leading her in another kind of dance.
What began as an attempt to convince her of his feelings became a heady, rushing whirlpool that pulled him into a vortex of sensation. His breath grew short and frantic as he felt her hands move around his neck, her fingers sliding into his hair.
A female voice interrupted them. “I’d say this is the perfect way to respond to all the speculation. What do you think, Brianna?”
Mason pulled away to see Crystal and Brianna nearby looking at Crystal’s phone. “Hey, we’re trying to have a moment here.”
“It’s about time,” Crystal said. “Ruth’s been in love with you for weeks.”
He looked down at Ruth and found her blushing. “Really?”
She smiled and bit her lip, then nodded.
“Want to get out of here?”
“You don’t want to stay and see peoples’ reaction?”
“Crystal and Brianna can tell us later. Right now, I just want to be alone with you. Besides, I have a Christmas present in my car for you.”
Her eyes lit up. “Let’s go.”
A few minutes later, they stepped outside into a cold dark night and found that it had started snowing. Big, fluffy flakes drifted down from the sky, landing on their faces like frozen whispers.
“It’s so beautiful,” Ruth said. “I love the smell of falling snow.”
Mason could only think about how much he loved her. “Come on,” he said, tugging gently on her hand.
When they got to his car, he reached into the car and pulled out one of his signature brown chocolate boxes. He handed it to her, saying, “I made something for you.”
She looked at him curiously, one of her eyebrows rising slightly as she opened the box. She looked at the square, flat chocolates inside and picked one up. “I know you say chocolate doesn’t taste as good when it’s cold.”
“Yeah, I meant to bring it inside but forgot. Just chew it slowly and let it melt.”
He watched tensely as she took a bite, anxious to see what her reaction would be. When her eyebrows twitched together in surprised confusion, he chuckled.
“Is that a cookie?” she asked. “One of my cookies?”
“Yes. It’s good, huh?”
“Oh yeah.” She took another bite. “Addictive.”
“It just proves we belong together, don’t you think?”
For an answer, she rose up on her tip toes and kissed his chin. “Absolutely. So, we’re going to spend Christmas together?”
He l
aughed. “Christmas? Yes. And if I have any say in it, next Christmas and every Christmas after that. And every day in between.”
“Sounds perfect. I’m so glad you opened your store next to mine.”
“And you don’t even know yet how perfect it really is.”
“Why?” She narrowed her eyes. “What are you plotting, Mason Baker?”
“Besides giving you the most fitting last name anyone has ever had?”
Ruth slapped her hand over her mouth. “Oh my gosh. I didn’t even think about that. That is epic. But what else?”
He grinned. “Let’s just say that you’re holding our future in your hands.”
She looked down at the chocolate box. “Chocolate and cookies? Under one roof?”
“Definitely under one roof, sugar lips. And as soon as possible.”
Epilogue
Ruth was focused on piping a bead around a cookie when a strong, masculine hand came into view. Mason stood next to her holding something—an exquisite chocolate rose with delicate, curling petals.
“Oh wow! Is that for me?” she asked, accepting it carefully.
“Of course. I wanted to get you something to celebrate our anniversary.”
“What? But that’s not for another three months.”
He pulled her into his embrace. “Not our wedding anniversary. One year ago today, we met again for the first time, remember?”
Ruth loved the gesture and her heart melted as always when she was close to him like this. But she couldn’t help but think this over. “No, it’s not. That was November sixteenth. Today is the eighteenth.”
He waved a hand impatiently. “Close enough. We met the night of the Lighting the square event, which is tonight.”
She laughed. “Gotcha. Is everything ready to go? Sorry, I haven’t been much help with this big order I have to finish.”
“No worries. Come out and look.”
Ruth paused to put the rose down carefully on the counter. She’d figure out how to display it later, but the last thing she should do was carry it around and risk melting it.
Sugarplums and Mistletoe Page 9
