SHELTER

Chapter 11

Only minutes later she heard the garage door ascending and got deeply into rolling and cutting gingerbread men.

"Hey Jo! Oh damn it smells good in here! What are you making?" He came in on a rush of cold air from the garage and she looked up briefly only to see he was his usual exceptionally hot self. She gave a quick smile and returned to cutting cookies.

"The ones on the table are sugar cookies and these are gingerbread." She carefully transferred the brown dough men to the cookie sheet. "How was work?"

She'd stopped by the range a week ago to run him by some paperwork he'd left at the house that morning and been impressed. The sheriff's office back home had had an indoor range on campus and all the employees, including dispatchers, were welcome to use it if they passed the safety course. Luke had been adamant about Jolie being able to protect herself when he wasn't home. As a result she'd taken several handgun courses and practiced regularly at the range.

Warren's range was clean and well situated. Several older men wearing hats with veteran's patches had been standing in Warren's office talking when she'd arrived. The muffled pops of gunfire barely breached the bullet and sound proof glass that provided a viewing gallery for spectators.

She hadn't missed the appreciative glances of the old geezers as she'd leaned in to hand him his paperwork nor the questioning looks they'd shot him when he'd thanked her and promised to see her later that night for dinner.

She'd chuckled almost all the way to work about how funny and gossipy old men really were. Warren had probably been grilled for information the moment she'd shut the door.

She'd yet to see the gym yet but had taken Warren up on his offer to stop by after work the next day to work out. She'd been doing nothing but baking and eating for several weeks and she was beginning to feel the repercussions.

"Everything was great until I dropped my IPod on the gym floor and didn't find it until after one of the men dropped a 50lb kettle weight on it." He looked truly distraught at the memory. "There I was walking around with my eyes to the ground searching and I heard the crunch. Of all the luck."

He was leaning up against the counter munching on a green frosted Christmas tree as he related the story and suddenly a light bulb went off in her head. It was perfect. He wouldn't be able to replace it before Christmas and he was definitely in need of one since he'd mentioned he hated to work out without his music.

"That is absolutely crap luck." She commiserated. "I for one can appreciate the need for good music." Pink's "Trouble" was playing from the speakers in the living room. Warren hadn't said anything about her diverse taste in music but she could tell he wasn't a great fan of some of her pop-ier choices.

He simply smiled and rolled his eyes before pushing himself back to standing. "I'm going to shower and then I'll make dinner. Teriyaki beef tonight because I am in dire need of some protein after all these cookies."

She watched him strut off down the hall with a wistful smile. No matter what she did she couldn't seem to control the slow warm ache just seeing his backside created in her nether regions. The familiar feeling of panic and self loathing started to creep in but she stopped the thoughts mid stream and shooed them away. She was going to keep her promise to him.

*********

 He saw her step through the doors and look around curiously as she took of her jacket. She'd paired black capri yoga pants with an almost fluorescent orange tank top and black sports bra. Her curly blonde hair was pulled back from her face with a thin black band and secured at the back of her head.

His mouth instantly went dry because the outfit confirmed everything he'd imagined about how hot her body truly was. He recovered quickly when he saw her find him across the gym and waived her over.