“Is it just me, or is it smoldering in here?”
Auggie did her best not to tense up. Josh had slipped up behind her and wrapped his arms around her middle to whisper the words into her ear. When he did, the stubble on his chin brushed her neck. Things were most definitely hot inside the kitchen at the back of the Upper Room Mission. Smoldering was an apt word. And getting more so every moment that Josh stood near.
“Don’t you have potatoes to chop?”
He laughed then, the sound deep and resonant as his breath tickled her ear. Despite her best intentions, Auggie shivered as sensation rushed into all her favourite places. Not that she was thinking about him like… that.
As if he’d known exactly where her thoughts had gone, known exactly the suppression she had immediately employed, he laughed again and released her.
Joshua McLoughlin was a client. And her house guest. That was all. He most certainly was not a potential… lover. Christmas fling. Present to be unwrapped and pounced upon.
No.
No, no, no. Bad thoughts.
She must not even think of him like that. Even if he had become an almighty touchy-feely, way-too-friendly house guest suddenly. Too much was at stake for the magazine for her to complicate the transaction happening between Josh and herself with sex. Still, she looked over at him from under lowered eyelashes to find him staring at her with a knowing smile on his face.
“Augusta Chamberlain,” he announced to the room, “You look fine in that apron.”
Around her, people chuckled, and Auggie knew her face was flaming. Her only response was to whip her head back to her task. And if she peeled her carrots a little more vigorously than strictly necessary, no one needed to know. As if he was the only voice in the room, she heard Josh, chuckling away merrily to himself.
Well, at least she still knew how to show a man a good time, she thought sourly.
“He has a nice… accent,” the teenager standing to her left said.
“His arse isn’t bad, either,” said the grandmother on her right.
At the comment, Auggie snorted out a laugh. “Don’t let him hear you say that. He’ll like it far too much. He’d never leave you alone.”
“Augusta is it?” The grandmother asked.
“Auggie.”
“Well, you know what they say, Auggie. Youth is wasted on the young.”
The teenager beside her snorted. “Not on me. I wouldn’t waste him.”
“Jillian Frances, behave.”
The teenager rolled her eyes as a woman with a rolling pin walked by and gave the girl a stern glance.
“Yes, mother,” she said with a tone that sounded more stubborn than submissive. Once her mother had settled back into her work at the pastry table, she muttered, “But I wouldn’t.”
Auggie glanced at her with amusement and saw the look of solidarity that passed between the teen and the grandmother. She saw the family resemblance then, something about the way their eyes both sparked with the same fiery spirit.
“Do you two volunteer here every year?”
“No,” the grandmother said, “But we sure picked the right year, didn’t we Jill?”
In response, her granddaughter grinned, then deliberately cut her eyes across the room to where Josh stood. “You think he’ll be back again next year, Grandma Edie?”
Edie winked at her granddaughter, then her eyes slid over Auggie in a way that had Augusta feeling very much as if she was being summed up by an expert.
“Stranger things, my love, have definitely happened.”
Which, Auggie supposed, was an endorsement. Still, she rolled her eyes on principle.
“He lives in Ireland, so I wouldn’t hold your breath, Jill,” she said.
“Then I’ll just have to enjoy watching him right now, won’t I?”
“See,” Edie said to Augusta, “Now, that’s how you appreciate a man like that one.”
“I learned from the best,” Jill said, and grinned at her grandmother.
Auggie shook her head slightly in amusement at her fellow chefs, but she did flick her gaze over just enough that she had a decidedly nice view of Josh in his jeans. Edie was right. The man had a premium butt.
When Josh turned and caught her staring at it, Auggie felt her cheeks flame. The wide, knowing grin that split his cheeks only made matters worse.
Josh set down the chopping knife he held and started wandering over in Auggie’s direction. She was like a magnet, drawing him, but he had zero objections. No, he was more than happy to be drawn into her gravitational force field.
When Jillian’s mother stepped in his path it was like an interruption in the force. Connection broken. She pointed the end of her rolling pin at his chest.
“Potatoes finished?”
“They’re coming right along,” Josh said, dropping his charmer’s smile. Something was clearly wrong with these Canadian women, since she, too, seemed immune.
“Not finished, then.” She wagged the pin. “Back you go. We’re on a schedule. Unless the potatoes are too much for you.”
He grunted. “I’m Irish, mam. If there’s one thing I know, it’s potatoes.”
She gave him a bit of a strange look as she wagged her pin again. “Back you go then.”
“Yes, Mam.” He scowled down at the pounds of potatoes still needing his attention. Wee bastards, one and all. Turning abruptly, he again addressed Auggie from across the room. “How many people did ye say would be at this meal, then?”
Her only response was to jack an eyebrow at him in amusement. When he gave a disgusted snort and turned back to his mountain of potatoes, Auggie’s lips quivered. Beside her, Jillian laughed outright, then did her best to smother the sound, so that she ended up choking, eyes watering, and Auggie had to pound her on the back while Edie handed her a napkin to wipe her eyes on.
“That one’s a handful, I think,” Edie said once her granddaughter’s imminent death was averted. “Even with the hot bod.”
This time it was Auggie who choked. When she finished spluttering, Edie had her hands on her hips.
“I’m not dead, you know. Just experienced.”
“Clearly,” Auggie said, her smile blooming wider the longer Edie stared her way.
“Well, alright then.”
“Would you like an introduction, then?”
“Pfftt. I don’t need a wingman, doll. If I want to meet a man, I just go right up to him. No, that one is all yours. And good luck with him.”
“Oh, but he’s not,” Auggie protested. She couldn’t help but smile, though, when she glanced over to see Josh still glowering at the potatoes, holding his chopping knife with an executioner’s grip.
“Mmm, hmm.”
It was all Edie said. All that had to be said, because Auggie could feel her heart melting just a little at the sight of the clearly aggravated Irishman attacking his work. He didn’t have to be here. Was only here because of her, in fact. And it was kind of charming to see that, even annoyed, he was committed to seeing the day through.
Placing her peeler on the cutting board where she worked, Auggie wiped her hands on a dish towel.
“I’ll be back in a minute.”
She walked over to the coffee urn that was set up in the corner and filled two cups. Dropping a teaspoon of sugar into hers, she debated the powdered coffee mate, then decided against.
“Hey.” She stepped over to Josh and presented him with a cup. “I haven’t thanked you for doing this.”
He grinned at her, accepted the cup of black coffee, then set it down without sipping.
“Careful, the Sergeant's watching. You’ll get us both a tongin.”
Auggie gave a bewildered laugh. “A what?”
“A tongin. A… lecture. You’ll git us both in trouble, fine thing.”
Auggie snorted. “She doesn’t scare me.”
“Oh no? Well then,” he picked up his coffee, took a swallow and set it back down. “Want to watch how a real man chops potatoes, do you, fine thing?”
He made a mock show of rolling up his sleeves and flexing for her. From their side of the room, Edie and Jillian gave simultaneous little whoops that dissolved into laughter as Auggie rolled her eyes.
“Actually, I thought you might want a break. I came over to offer to switch you stations for a while. I can chop if you want to peel.”
“Over there, by those two?” He gave a theatrical shudder. “They’re staring at my arse hard enough to give a man a complex. No, I’ll be staying here.”
She grinned at him, then glanced at Edie.
“Well, she’s not dead, is she? And Josh?” She tossed him a look as she started back to her carrots, “She’s not the only one who was looking.”
“Awk, sure you know yerself,” Josh said, smiling smugly as he went back to work on the potatoes. On the spot, he decided he wanted to get the woman working behind him out of this room and alone. If the only way to do that was to get this lot of potatoes chopped and done, then he’d commit himself wholly to the task.
“I don’t know what you said to him, but look at him go,” Jill said when Auggie resumed her peeling.
“I didn’t say anything. Just gave him a little incentive, perhaps.”
Beside her, Edie huffed in amusement. Auggie did nothing to correct the notion the woman obviously had embraced. After all, Auggie wasn’t fully certain the older woman had the wrong idea. Maybe Josh, living all the way across the pond as he did, couldn’t be the happily ever after Isla and Mellie had found. That didn’t have to mean they couldn’t enjoy the togetherness that had been thrust upon them this holiday season. Maybe, if he wanted, he could be her happily right now.
The only way to know for sure was to get him alone and ask him. Auggie’s fingers began to fly double time across the carrots.
It took a couple more hours, but she was finally saying her goodbyes to Jillian and Edie. She flashed Josh an appreciative smile when he held her coat for her as she slipped her arms into it.
“Such a gentleman.”
“I have my moments.”
He showed her another one of those moments when he walked with her to her side of the car and held open the door while she climbed inside. It made her feel warm inside, even as she protested.
“You know, I can open my own door.”
“I’ve no doubt,” he said. He smiled at her, then closed the door in her face. Argument averted.
He was still chuckling to himself as he jogged around the back of the Jeep and slid into his own seat. Glancing over at her, he realized he may have been mistaken. He’d lived with his sister long enough to know the signs. This argument was just getting started.
“Josh,” she started, her tone -- he was certain she believed -- reasonable, “About the door thing.”
He interrupted. It was rude, but it would, he was certain, save them both some time.
“Fine thing, I’ve no doubt you can and have done all manner of things for yourself. But as long as I’m here, you won’t have to. It’s how my mam raised me. She’d be pained to think I didn’t look after the woman I was spending time with. More than pained. She’d box my ears, and that’s the least of it.”
She laughed at that, couldn’t help it really, considering the look on his face when he said it. That was a look of genuine respect for the consequences of displeasing his mother. There was no doubt whatsoever in Auggie’s mind that he’d experienced his mother’s wrath more than once.
“But we’re not spending time together, as you say. Are we?”
His smile slid slowly and somewhat wickedly across his face, and the impact of it steeped into Auggie’s bloodstream like the kick from a strong cup of tea. Her pulse was suddenly revving. Then Josh’s grin faded into an entirely different, much more potent expression, and they sat there staring at each other like two love struck teenagers.
He leaned in quickly, his hand cupping the side of her neck, his fingers toying with the hair that curled behind her ear. She sucked in a breath just as his lips found hers, covered her, moved with precision and -- she would think later -- possession over her own.
The kiss ended almost as quickly as it began, and yet it left Auggie feeling branded, claimed somehow. The breath she’d been holding shuddered out of her, and, eyes still locked on hers, Josh dropped his hand and leaned back into his seat.
“I’d say we are, most certainly. Also, if you could, try not to get us killed driving home. I’m going to want to be doing that again.”