Page 26 of Only for the Season

She’s also my one chance for coffee at this time of morning. I knock on the back door of the kitchen.

“Come in,” she shouts. I enter and she frowns at me. “What are you doing here? I figured you’d be long gone from Smuggler’s Hideaway by now.”

I’d planned to be gone. Spend Thanksgiving weekend with Eli and his family. Get a break from coding. And return to work on theSynqapp with a fresh mind.

Unfortunately, I’m as stuck on the coding as I was when I arrived. I’m not going anywhere until this app is finished.

I shrug. “I paid for the apartment until the new year. I figured I might as well use it.”

She snorts. “As if the money you paid can even make a dent in your bank account.”

“Hey. It makes a dent.” She lifts an eyebrow. “A very small dent.”

She shakes her head. “What are you doing here at this time of the morning?”

“I couldn’t…” I break off to yawn.

“Maybe you should go back to bed.”

“No can do. I need to work.”

She nods to the café. “Go ahead and make yourself a coffee.”

I don’t hesitate. While I’m at it, I go ahead and make a coffee for her as well. I assume she drinks it black since there was no sugar or creamer in the loft.

“Here you go.” I set the coffee down on the table in front of her.

She groans. “Thank Neptune. I could use a caffeine jolt.”

“What are you working on?”

“A gingerbread house.”

I scan the kitchen and notice there are parts of a gingerbread house – walls, roof tiles, chimneys, etc. – everywhere. “How big will it be?”

She giggles. “Huge.”

“What are you doing with a huge gingerbread house?”

“It’s for the gingerbread contest. The winner’s prize is ten thousand dollars and a contract to supply baked goods to city hall for the year.”

Based on the meeting the other day at city hall, Parker could use the money. “I bet you win.”

“Not if I don’t finish assembling this gingerbread house. Between the assembly, setting, and decorating, I don’t know if I’m going to finish in time. The entries have to be at city hall by ten this morning.”

She glances at the clock on the wall and her eyes widen as she nibbles on her bottom lip. My cock twitches. It wants to feel those plump lips surrounding it.

Knock it off, I order my body. Parker’s seriously worried about this and she needs the money.

“How can I help?”

She blinks up at me. “Help? You want to help?”

“I am an engineer.”

She snorts. “I thoughtsoftwareengineers didn’t know how to assemble things.”

I scowl. I’m not doing great at being a software engineer at the moment – theSynqapp is a great example of my failures – but I’m not going to whine and complain to Parker about my work.