The final weeks to Christmas passed in a blur. Coffee and shopping with Barb and Sue had been a blast. Jolie had shipped gifts back to Dustin and his family and cards to everyone else back home. As discreetly as possible she'd purchased gifts for Warren's family and had them bagged heavily to keep her companions from seeing their surprises.
Barb had brooked no opposition to her invitation for Jolie to join them for Christmas. Jolie had to admit she looked forward to spending her favorite holiday with such a warm, wonderful family.
She was sure that Barb would like the brightly colored, hand blown glass spoon rest she'd found and she could share in the bottle of good wine Jolie had found for her husband. Sue would be the recipient of multiple baby related gifts that she had mentioned she needed before the baby arrived. Jolie had located a DVD of digitally re-mastered dance routines between Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers that Warren's grandmother had talked about for a particularly long time after Thanksgiving dinner had concluded. She worried that they already had it but Barb assured her they didn't. Tommy, Beau and Caleb were getting matching beer steins that had been personalized with their names.
Everyone was taken care of except for Warren himself. She planned on spoiling him with the requested fudge and had already showered him in peanut butter bon-bons and chocolate covered cherries but she wanted there to be an element of surprise to his day as well.
Things between them had returned to the light and comfortable status they had enjoyed before she'd had her melt down but she knew he was still concerned about her. Too often she caught him observing her as nonchalantly as possible or under a hooded gaze.
She'd thought a lot about what he'd said. Much of it made sense. After quite a few tears and a prayer offered up to a God she hadn't spoken to in quite some time she'd finally taken a ragged breath towards the early dawn hours after making a solemn oath to herself to do as he'd asked and try to be nicer to herself.
Still, being nicer and letting herself be ridiculous were two different things. She'd already made an ass of herself by crying on him, blubbering on him and kissing him without his permission. It had only been his cheek but it was still awkward. She blushed at the memory. He hadn't mentioned her actions to her at all and aside from the watching didn't treat her any differently. She was truly grateful that she'd been delivered such a great guy for a friend and was determined not to ruin it.
These crazy feelings she couldn't really ignore, and had made the vow to stop punishing herself for, were hers to deal with alone. She wouldn't be the crazy girl who couldn't tell reality from fantasy. Just because she had them didn't mean he did and the chances weren't likely that they were returned.
With a quick shake of her head she pulled herself from her unfruitful thoughts. She still had only 4 days until Christmas and no idea what to get Warren. She'd just finished wrapping the giant 5 pound block of fudge in wax paper and placing it in the decorative tin she'd found. Then she'd wrapped the tin and sealed all the edges with tape so he wouldn't be able to sniff out its contents. Now she sat icing sugar cookies while contemplating what other gift to give him.
He dressed himself pretty well for a man. His biggest fashion fault being the worn out cowboy boots he insisted on wearing day in and day out but in truth they were slightly endearing so she didn't mind them all that much. He was also unusually hygienic for the male species. He bathed daily, always smelled nice and maintained his hair and beard within reason. She found him even more attractive when he was slightly mussed and had a shadow of a beard.
He already owned a great television and sound system and an assortment of DVDs and CDs. He hadn't made any mention of any he desired to have.
In frustration she bit the head off a newly frosted snowman cookie and chewed slowly as the buttery goody melted in her mouth. It was Warren's day for dinner. She glanced at the clock and noticed he was due any minute. Time to get distracted.
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.
"You made it."
"Yep. So this is the other business? Quite the entrepreneur you are Mr. Maier." He blushed and waived off the compliment.
"Do you need a tour?"
She scanned the two story building quickly. "No. It looks pretty self explanatory and user friendly. Cardio upstairs, weights and machines downstairs. It looks like the locker rooms, bathrooms and a couple of classrooms toward the back there. Am I right?"
"Yes ma'am you are correct." He smiled wide. She was sharp and independent.
"Great. Well first thing I want to do is run so I'll head on up then. Thank you, this is really kind. Not that I'm surprised. You've consistently been above and beyond kind to me." She turned and started up the flight of stairs leading to the cardio machines.
His mouth got dry again as his brain quickly tried to figure out what had just happened. Had she flirted with him? Sensibility told him it wasn't possible but he was hard put to tell himself that that smile and her tone meant nothing. It was especially hard to dismiss since it was so far from her usual guarded demeanor. He shrugged it off and continued his pushups.
Forty five minutes later a sweaty and flushed Jolie descended the stairs and locked her gaze on some upper body machines in the corner.
"Good run?"
"Great run." She smiled in gratitude. He'd be damned if she didn't look even better with blood coursing so close to the surface of her pale skin. Unfortunately that led to thoughts of what she'd look like flushed and excited beneath him and those thoughts could end in nothing good.
"How far'd you go?" He could tell she wanted to get to the machines but he was curious.
"Just five miles to warm up," She threw him a smile and moved along. He finished his workout with more than a few sidelong glances at hers.
Warren was heading to the front desk and the protein bar he'd stowed behind it when he saw the back classroom door open and a gaggle of women spewed forth. Noelle was at the front of the pack. He picked up his pace but she'd spotted him and was already adjusting her trajectory to intercept him. Too late he saw that Jolie was also done with her workout and heading in his direction as well.
Noelle caught up first and pounced. "Warren! I see you haven't been putting on any holiday pounds like the rest of us."
He didn't see that she had either but that was the point of her statement. She stood preening, waiting for him to tell her she looked good as well. The southern manners his mother had hammered into him warred with the silence he maintained.
"It's a wonder with how much junk he's been eating in the last 2 weeks." Jolie gave him a light punch in the arm as she approached. Noelle locked eyes on the other woman and her smile became hard. "He put away 3 peanut butter bon-bons, 2 sugar cookies and one gingerbread man on top of dinner last night."
"Well aren't you the little Suzie Homemaker?" He could hear the disdain dripping from Noelle's words and bristled in defense. The claws were out. Noelle wasn't even pretending to be kind to Jolie right now.
"It's a skill I enjoy." Jolie shrugged and turned to face Warren effectively cutting Noelle out of the conversation. It was her only visible acknowledgment of Noelle's rudeness. She gave him a conspiratorial wink. "So speaking of food.... I am going to head out because I have to run by a couple of stores and I was thinking pizza for dinner. I'm feel lazy. Any preference?"
"I like all things pizza." Noelle made a huff of frustration and tapped her foot angrily behind Jolie's body but with Jolie's height all he could see were her sneakers. Somehow this struck him as particularly comical. Warren was struggling to suppress the laugh that was bubbling up in his chest. He lost the battle when he saw Jolie's face distorted with her own efforts to maintain a sober attitude in spite of the angry little snorts and huffs behind her.
"Great. I'll see you then." She shot him a last smile and shifted toward the coat rack before she lost it. "Oh Noelle! I didn't know you were still there. You startled me. I'm heading out, have a great night." She reached over and gave a quick pat to Warren's arm before ducking her head to hide her laughter and walking away.
He removal left him face to face with a red faced indignant red head.
"So that was awful cozy. You know I don't appreciate being strung along with this story of friend of a friend needing help. It's obvious it is more than that to anyone who has eyes."
"Noelle, at no time have I ever strung you along. I was completely honest with you when I told you I wasn't interested in you. As for my involvement with Jolie, that is none of your business." He didn't wait for a reply but walked away leaving a sputtering Noelle rooted to the floor.