All I Want For Christmas Is You - Penelope Ward Page 0,48
before you give me away.”
Go I did.
When I heard the door of the truck slam, I hurried out to the porch and let King Cake out before he could do any more damage to my screen door.
The moment that the door was open, he was running across the yard as fast as his fat little legs could carry him.
The blonde Nordic god grinned, pulled a bone out of his pocket, and then dropped down onto his haunches, giving me time to study the object of my obsession.
Delivery Guy—DG for short since I still didn’t know his name—was tall. And when I say tall, I meant I had to crane my neck to look up at him. He was also stocky, had a luscious beard that did things for me that I wouldn’t even admit to myself, and had the bluest eyes I’d ever seen that didn’t belong to a dog.
Which was then awful for me to think about—comparing the man to a dog.
There was nothing dog-like about that man.
He was tall, sexy as hell, and had the sexiest do-me lips that I’d ever seen in my life.
Like, women killed to have lips like that, and the delivery guy had them naturally.
His eyelashes were super-duper long, too.
“Hey, Delivery Guy!” I called, grinning from ear to ear.
I knew I looked dumb, but I just couldn’t help my jubilation at seeing him there with my dog on my lawn.
Like, so, so sexy.
DG bent down and picked up my dog, making it look effortless.
I shook my head when he said, “Hey, Favorite Customer.”
His teasing had my mouth opening before I could so much as think twice about it.
“Do you work out?” I asked. “Because when I have to lift him, I have to have a neighbor help me.”
His lips twitched. “Actually, I do. Functional fitness. Lifting dogs. That’s why I work out.”
I tilted my head. “Maybe I need to start working out. You don’t do anything crazy like go to the gym at three in the morning, do you?”
He snorted. “Actually, no. Most of the time I do it at night when I have the time. Sometimes I can fit it into a normal time during the day. Every once in a while, I have to do the crazy stuff like workout at five in the morning to make sure I can actually get one in. But those days are rare.”
I wondered what he did.
He sounded like he was busy as hell, and he made it sound like from our other times of seeing each other during his deliveries that this wasn’t his main job. That he filled in when he was needed.
“And, if you’re interested in testing the waters, there’s a Christmas community WOD this weekend,” he offered.
I tilted my head slightly sideways. “What’s a community wod?”
“W-O-D,” he explained the acronym. “Workout of day. And a community WOD is actually just a way to get the community interested in fitness. And we always love trying to get some newcomers in the gym. Fresh meat.”
He winked, and I felt my heartbeat accelerate.
“Oh.” I licked my lips, and he gently placed my dog on the ground before reaching into his back pocket and producing a four-dollar toy that I’d purchased just for the sole purpose of getting him to come see me. “That sounds… intimidating.”
He laughed. “It might be a little bit,” he agreed. “But it’s fun. I swear. And I’ll be there. It’s on the corner of 259 and Wells Road. Nine in the morning. This Saturday.”
I was almost excited at the prospect of seeing him again, maybe for more than the five minutes he usually stayed.
Except… working out was not my thing. Not even a little bit.
“I’ll give it a try,” I said as I reached for the parcel. “Thank you.”
He winked, and my entire heart damn near leaped out of my body.
“Have a good day, Mrs. LeBlanc. See you this weekend if you decide to come,” DG called.
I barely restrained the urge to call after him.
My heart was pounding and the only thing I could think to do was watch him drive away with a bubble of excitement in my throat.
As soon as he was no longer in sight, I immediately groaned.
“What the hell did I just get myself in to?” I asked myself.
My sister was laughing her ass off when I finally got close enough to the phone.
“You heard?” I moaned.
“Oh, yeah. I heard.” She giggled. “You’re so stupid.”