Beach Blanket Santa

had his fair share of his own, particularly in his younger days.
    Matt rocked the open freezer door back and forth, rapidly fanning his face with puffs of icy air. It was working already. He was feeling better. Next best thing to a cold shower, he supposed, hoping Sarah hadn’t noticed his level of excitement before she’d raced out of here. Or maybe she had, and that was why she’d bolted like a scared rabbit. Matt felt suddenly consumed by guilt, wondering if he’d done something wrong by laying it on so thick. It wasn’t exactly like he’d planned their cooking lesson to turn extra hot. It just serendipitously had. Of course, once it had headed in that direction, he’d done nothing overt to stop it. He surely would have if Sarah had protested. Yet she seemed to be enjoying their joint venture into the culinary arts just as much as he had. Matt hoped he hadn’t imagined that. He would feel awful if she felt he’d come on too strong and that had put her off. For Matt was growing attracted to Sarah, way attracted. And in his heart of hearts, he couldn’t believe he’d gotten her signals that wrong. She was growing attracted to him as well. But Matt needed to be careful not to push it. Maybe the best thing to do would be force himself to back off a bit and let Sarah take the lead. If she was truly as interested as his instinct said, within the next couple of days she definitely would.

    Sarah returned looking all fresh-faced with her hair pulled up in a ponytail. By this time, Matt had already washed the baking dishes and was busy putting them away. “I was going to help you with that,” she protested, a little after the fact.
    “It’s all right. I didn’t mind it. Besides, the kitchen needed to be tidied before I start dinner.”
    “Oh no, you don’t.” Sarah bossily entered the kitchen and took him by the elbow. He set down his dishtowel with surprise. “You’ve done all the cooking you’re going to for the next little while.”
    He was mildly disappointed by that. Mostly, he’d been hoping they’d do some more cooking together. The good thing was that Sarah appeared bright and cheery, not like she was upset about anything. Perhaps she had enjoyed being close to him but was just too conservative to say so. She handed him his glass of wine and steered him toward the sofa. “Why don’t you sit, and I’ll refill that for you? I’m doing the cooking tonight.”
    That sounded super to Matt. He could relax in front of the fire and briefly check the score on the game. “Mind if I turn on some football? Just for a moment.”
    “Watch it as long as you’d like,” she called from the kitchen with a smile. She pulled two frozen pizzas from the freezer, and Matt chuckled to himself, wondering if back in Maryland she did any home cooking at all. Not that it mattered to him. He was sure the dinner would taste just as delicious as if she’d made the pizza dough herself. All he had to do was look in Sarah’s eyes and everything seemed better. Even being trapped at the beach in a storm was starting to seem pretty awesome.

Chapter Five

    The next day was just as enjoyable. It was still too nasty to go outdoors, with very high winds and lightning. But inside, they found plenty to do. They’d watched a movie together, read companionably by the fire, and had taken turns cooking. Now they were settled at the dining room table, sharing milk and cookies over Holiday Scrabble.
    “Not fair!” he challenged with a laugh as she chalked up another triple word score . “You never told me that you were a Scrabble shark.”
    “It’s how you play the game.” She playfully met his eyes. “No mercy.” She didn’t show any either, beating him in a close match. Afterward, they were both tired and ready to call it a day. It had been such a good one, Sarah found herself really looking forward to another with Matt. And what was special about tomorrow was it was Christmas Eve.
    “Thanks for another fun day,” she said after they’d put away the game.
    “Thanks for scorching me in Scrabble. Something tells me I could learn a thing or two from you.”
    She laughed, feeling lighthearted. The fact was that Matt made her happier than anyone ever had. It was a fantastic feeling, almost like having a partner and friend who was also very easy on the eyes. Sarah cautioned herself against thinking of partnerships with Matt. Once he knew the truth about her, he wouldn’t be able to think of her in that way, just as