“Yeah, I’d say so. What did it actually cost you?” For an instant, Dakota wished she hadn’t asked.
“That’s one thing I need your help with and I’m going to say sorry up front because I know what this is going to do to your already busy schedule.” His earlier smile had now turned sheepish and she waited for the bomb to drop. It couldn’t be good after that comment. “I know Ryan likes your work. He’s bought pieces for his wife and I might have told him about the decorations you gave me.” Adam bit his bottom lip and watched her.
“And?”
“He asked if I could get you to make him some icicles for their tree. His wife would be over the moon if you could. And,” he winced, “so would I because it would mean I could give the kids exactly what they want.”
Her jaw muscles clenched her teeth together involuntary, almost biting her tongue. It took a moment or two to relax enough to talk. “Do you have any idea how much work I have going on right now trying to do my own decorations for my own tree? To say nothing of the orders from my website or the amount of pieces Rachel has asked for.”
He grinned at her with a boyish exuberance. “Yeah, I know.”
“And the things I have to help my sister with for the gala night. How will I manage that?”
“I can help you there. The office isn’t that busy right now this close to Christmas and I kind of like the idea of looking after you.”
“But it won’t be any good if you’re going to wander off doing other things and leave me hanging.” This was all too much. Just managing her own list of must haves was going to be stretching every waking moment.
“I only have to go to see the team doctor. In and out in one day, two tops. We can work around that.” He reached for her hand. “Come on, friend. Help a guy out here, please. We can’t have the kids thinking badly of me. I don’t want to be dubbed the Christmas Grinch and I’m doing my best here just like you suggested.” He smiled at her. “But I need help from a friend.”
Dakota warred with herself mentally but she knew she was doomed as soon as the smile deepened and she saw his dimples for the first time. It occurred to her that she’d never seen Adam so content before either. How very unusual for a man possibly facing ill health and the end of his career. He must have come to terms with his lot in life and for that she was grateful. She knew how hard it was to drag yourself out of the dumps when life stacked so many obstacles in the way.
“You make it very hard to say no. But,” she wagged her finger at him, “I’m not letting you get away quite so easily. It takes hours to make each piece and you adding to it isn’t really viable right now. To make up for the extra hours, I’m going to have to cut back on other things, like sleeping and eating.”
“I can’t help with the sleeping, but I can help with the eating if you’d let me arrange something.”
“You can cook?” Obviously the man had many talents.
“Of course I can.” His frown told her how offended he was at her words of doubt. “I pride myself on my kitchen skills. You can ask my mother if you like, she taught me most of what I know.”
“Really? If you like you can arrange a couple of meals to be delivered, I won’t expect you to slave over my stove. And I’ll take anything so long as I don’t have to cook it. I have far too many angels to make to be fussy over what I eat.”
“Leave it with me. You go create your masterpieces and I’ll take care of kitchen duties for the next couple of nights and we can see how we go from there. If you need me to cook until gala night, I will. Deal?”
“Deal.”
Adam grabbed her around the waist and twirled until the cake and coffee sloshed around in her stomach and she begged him to stop. “Don’t. I’m going to be sick if you continue.”
Adam kissed her on the nose. “You, my darling girl, are the best friend a guy could have.”
Friend? She’d see about that. The guy was in so deep he couldn’t even see it, but she could. The warmth that came into his smile when she touched him, the way his face lit up when he saw her and his shoulders lost the tension that he carried with him. She knew she’d have to let him come to the realization himself and didn’t want to push him. But biding her time was going to be hard when all Dakota wanted to do was throw herself into his arms. Patience wasn’t her strong point. How on earth was she going to carry on as if there was nothing more than friendship between them until he came to his senses?
*
“I can work with that if you can, Coach. Ryan said the next two weeks are cool for him but after that, he’s going to be busy with family Christmas commitments. Leon said the same thing and the kids will be out of school for the holidays anyway.”
Coach checked his calendar and came up with a game plan that Adam thought would work, named a day that seemed possible for everyone involved. “Right, Adam, I’ll leave it in your hands then to let them know for sure. You know there’s going to be a heap of interest from the locals seeing these guys here, don’t you?”
Adam grinned, leaned his elbow on his desk, the phone cradled in his ear. “Hell, even I’m thrilled to have them here.”
“How about we make
