Light and Sweet: Sacred Hearts Coven (13 page)

A Hot Cup

Leon and Lilly continued their shower, washing each other between soft sensual kisses. “Where have you been all my life?” Leon asked her between smooches.

She laughed, “Nice one liner.”

“I know it sounds like that
, but I am serious. There is something beyond magical about you. From the first moment I looked into your eyes I knew there was something and someone in there that I had to know. I don’t know how to explain it. It was like the heavens opened up and an angel sprinkled love dust on me.”

Lilly’s eyes went wide.

“Take it easy I am not claiming I love you,” he chuckled. “But I love the idea of getting the chance to fall in love with you.” Leon pushed Lilly’s wet hair away from her face.

She knew her makeup was running down her cheeks
, but what did it matter at that point.

“I hope that doesn’t sound too cheesy. I’ve spent a lot of wasted time pretending to want to get to know women, and this isn’t like that. I want to lay it on the line and be utterly naked and real with you.”

“Wow, I totally get it, and perhaps it would be cheesy coming from someone else’s mouth,” her lips covered his, “but not this one. I like and want to hear whatever comes out of this mouth.”

Leon held her face and stared deeply into her eyes before feeding from the sweetness of her mouth, kissing her from his core. Her heart started to race and she felt herself melting. She was afraid she was going to melt into the shower
drain forming a puddle at his feet. He sealed the kiss with one sweet little peck.

“I am turning into a prun
e, how about we get out of here?” Leon suggested.

Lilly smiled and reached forward turning the water off. Leon grabbed two towels. They wrapped themselves and exited the shower stall. Lilly picked up her dress from the floor that was still covered in bubbles.

“Oh my goodness, look at this mess.” Lilly laughed.

“It’s nothing a few towels can’t handle.”

Lilly went over to the sink and rinsed her dress and wrung the water out. “Any chance you have a dryer here?”

“Yeah, let me show you. I will grab you something to wear while it dries.” Leon locked his towel around his waist and walked out of the room.

Lilly was beyond over tired to the point that she wasn’t sure she could go to sleep if she tried.

“What time is it?” she followed behind him and tossed her clothes in the dryer and set it to gentle.

Leon leaned around the door and looked at the clock in his room. “Wow, it’s a quarter to five. I don’t know the last time I stayed up this late, sober no less, probably never. This might not count as sober either if you count the blissful high I am feeling from spending the night with you.”

Lilly walked into his room and plopped down on his bed. “I don’t think I have ever stayed up all night. My body is numbed out to the sleepiness. My dress should dry pretty quick, we should go watch the sun come up at the beach and then go for breakfast.”

“I’m down for that. I know an awesome coffee shop that makes all homemade pastries and stuff,” Leon replied.

“Me too,
” Lilly said.

They looked at each other and said, “Esmeralda’s Cafe,” in unison.

Lilly cleaned herself up the best she could by sweeping her hair into a side braid. She double checked her clutch and found a stick of black eyeliner in the zipped pocket under her lip gloss. She was grateful she must have left it there on another occasion.

Leo
n took Lilly to watch the sunrise on the beach. Lilly snuggled into him as they sat in the sand. They talked for almost two hours. There were no awkward silences between them. The night never actually ended so Lilly got her wish.

Fatigue and hunger were starting to set in. She knew she was going to need to get home in the near future before she collapsed.

Lilly’s stomach was growling so loudly that Leon heard it over the crashing of the waves. “Sounds like we better get you some breakfast.”

“That sounds like a great plan,
” Lilly said. “But not before sticking our toes in the water. Maybe we should come back after breakfast when the sun has warmed the air.”

Leon opened the door to the cafe and held it open as Lilly walked through the entrance. She had never been in there that early before, or on a Sunday for that matter. She was glad to see Esmeralda behind the counter.

They walked up to order and she saw Esmeralda’s eyes light up at seeing her. “Good-morning.” There was a draw to her welcome.

“Morning, Esmeralda,
” Lilly replied to her greeting.

“First name basis
, huh?” Leon nudged Lilly. “Color me impressed.”

Lilly smiled.
“This is Leon, Leon this is Esmeralda. I come here to work on my computer a few days a week.”

“Nice to meet you, Leon.
” The way Esmeralda said his name made it sound like she just figured something out or a light bulb went off. Lilly brushed it off and smiled.

“What can I get for the two of you this beautiful Sunday morning?”

“Salted Carmel Latte,” they said in unison.

All three of them started laughing.

Wrap up with the witches

Esmeralda finished locking up the cafe. Jan offered to stay late and help her to prep for her gathering at Jasinda’s bar. Talia sent out a group email to all the sisters to organize a time when Esmeralda could teach them how to make bread.

Not all of the sisters could make it, but the timing worked out nicely. It was Sabina’s birthday.

“The girls did a good job cleaning before they left tod
ay,” Jan mentioned. “We should be able to get you out of here with time to spare. Did you decide what kind of bread you are going to make with your friends?”

“Yeah, I am actually going to bring two loaves of sourdough to make my pull-apart party bread and I am going to bring the ingredients to make birthday bread. It is good, because the recipe doesn’t call for yeast or kneading. Do you mind running through the closing check list so I can get started gathering all the ingredients?” Esmeralda asked.

“No problem. Go ahead, as soon as I am done I will come help you.”

“Thanks, love.”

Esmeralda grabbed a stack of to-go cups from behind the counter on her way back to the kitchen. She decided that she would portion all the ingredients in separate cups and label them with the content and measurement. Earlier that day she emailed the recipe to Talia so she could bring printed out copies for everyone.

She sliced the sourdough bread down so it looked like she cut it with a French fry cutter. The bread was sliced in both directions leaving about a quarter of an inch of bread still attached, creating small attached pieces that would be easy to pull apart. She wrapped each one with foil.

Grabbing the food processor she pulsed together fresh parsley, green onion tops, a clove of garlic, crushed red pepper, cubed Parmesan and provolone cheese. She drizzled in some flavorful olive oil so that the mixture still had texture, but was thin enough to pour. She put that in a to-go cup as well.

Jan finally came back and helped Esmeralda measure out the rest of the ingredients for the birthday bread. They put the flour in plastic bags. They stacked the bread pans and other ingredients on a baking tray for easy travel.

“I think you are all set. I will lock up after you,” Jan offered.

“I don’t know why I am nervous. I teach everyone here how to make everything.” Esmeralda threw her bag over her shoulder before picking up the tray full of supplies.

“The girls are going to love it. How can they not, they love you and your bread. You are going to have a blast,” Jan said helping her with the doors.

“Thanks Jan, you are the be
st. I’ll see you in the morning,” Esmeralda said as she walked out of the cafe.

Jasinda had called in an extra girl to work the bar for the night. She didn’t want to worry about running back and forth between the kitchen and the bar. Of course she would periodically because that was just who she was, but she wanted to enjoy her night with her sisters.

She made sure the ovens were on and the kitchen was clean and ready for some cooking fun. Since they were at the bar the ladies could have anything they fancied. Jasinda was big on making spiced meads, but tonight she decided to do something a little bit different.

She decided to make little strawberry margarita Jell-O shots. When she was shopping  at the market, the strawberries were so perfectly plump and red, she couldn’t resist.

Using unflavored gelatin she mixed her favorite tequila and fresh squeezed lemons, limes and oranges, a little bit of water and some orange flavored liquor. She poured the mixture into the strawberries that she hollowed out earlier and refrigerated them for a few hours. They were adorable and were going to taste great.

She put them out on a long white plate she had from home at the center of the stainless work table in the center of the kitchen. She wanted to eat one
, but thought it best to wait for the girls. They needed another pop of color. She grabbed a lime and made tiny little lime wedges and dipped them in sugar and stuck them in the tops of each strawberry.

She looked down at her watch and noticed that everyone would probably be arriving any minute if they weren’t already out at the bar. She cleaned up the lime and sugar mess and exited the kitchen to look for her friends.

She must have been in there longer than she realized. As soon as she walked out of the kitchen she was bombarded with shouts and hollers from a rowdy bunch of women sitting at the bar. She smiled knowing it was going to be a fun night.

Esmeralda was the last to arrive. It worked to her advantage because she had plenty of hands to help her bring everything in. All the ladies paid for their drinks at the bar and followed Esmeralda and Jasinda to the kitchen.

The girls started to “ooh” and “ah” when they saw the tray of strawberries.

“Yum, I love fresh strawberries.” Claudia ran over and grabbed one. She was young and was part of the immediate gratification generation. “Holy flip’n-tastic, Jasinda. Are you kidding me with these?”

Jasinda laughed. “They are strawberry margarita Jell-o shots. Cute right?”

“Those look divine, Jazz. Are the ovens on?” Esmeralda asked her.

“You betchya. They are set to three twenty five as directed.”

Esmeralda lined up all the ingredients for the birthday bread on the counter. She unwrapped the two sourdough bread rounds and placed them on the vacant tray. She poured the oil and cheese concoction over the top and between the slivers of bread and threw the tray in the oven.

“I made some pull-apart bread for us to all snack on while we make what I like to call Birthday Bread. I thought it was the best choice since it is Sabina’s birthday.”

“I’m so excited! I almost forgot it was even my birthday. So what’s in it?” Sabina asked.

“A little bit of everything; pumpkin, banana, zucchini, carrots, cranberries, and I brought some shredded coconut special for you Sabina.”

“I do love coconut,
” Sabina said.

“Whateve
r is in the oven smells so good,” Belinda commented.

“Oh shoot, I need to get that ou
t,” Esmeralda yelped.

“Let’s get eating those strawberries, I want to hear about Lilly and your spell. I can’t wait until the full moon to hear what happened.”

Esmeralda took the bread out of the oven and the garlicky smell wafted throughout the kitchen. She felt her mouth start to salivate. The cool fruity margarita would pair well with salty buttery goodness of the bread.

“Well…
my spell didn’t quite work out as planned. I actually almost freaked out and called Seraphina to figure out what to do.” Esmeralda started to pull a piece of bread.

“Oh no! What happened?” Jasinda asked.

“Ok, so we enchanted the salted caramel coffee syrup and the spell was to help unite Lilly with this guy named Leo. He is a great guy around the same age as Lilly. He and his father have the accounting firm just down the street from the shop. He comes in at the exact same time every day.”

The women were sitting on the edge of their seats. Their eyes locked in on Esmeralda as she started to tell them what happened. Their hands were stuffing savory bread chunks and strawberries into their mouths.

“I really thought they would make a great fit together. I got lucky they even came in for their coffee at the same time so they actually wound up chatting while they waited for me to finish making their coffee. I thought it was so meant to be. The funny thing about the universe is that it always has a plan of its own and sometimes I swear it just laughs at us.”

“You’re ki
lling me. Tell us what happened,” Claudia chimed in.

“Take it easy, have another jello shot. So while I was making Leo and Lilly’s drinks, my employee Jan was making a coffee for a guy named Leon. Apparently this guy Leon took Leo’s coffee. He and Lilly actually met the weekend prior. Lilly didn’t see him in the coffee shop because she went to the ladies room.

“Turns out that fate had her way making sure that they found each other. I personally would have never picked him for her, but who am I to decide such things? I have never seen her as happy. Did I mention he is the lead in a rock band, the complete opposite of Leo?” Esmeralda started to laugh and shook her head at how silly it was.