If You Kiss me (Sugar Maple #5) - Ciara Knight Page 0,2

front-of-fireman-calendar wet hair look.

Jackie needed a second to catch her breath from the shock of a man in her shop, so she returned to her safe spot behind the counter. Took a sip of her cinnamon and nutmeg–flavored latte and a bite of the tongue-tantalizing tart.

“Um, I thought it was your rule never to eat in front of people.” Carissa gave a you-can’t-hide-how-hot-you-think-he-is smile and removed the hat, hung it on the hook, and slinked to the door that Blaze held open with the charm of a southern gentleman. No man in New York ever made a woman feel as special as a southern man could.

Jackie swallowed the buttery pastry, doubting there was anything fat free or gluten free about it, and in a non-southern-lady way, she choked on it.

Chapter Two

Instinct took over, and Blaze jolted into life-saving mode. He shot to Jackie’s side. “You okay? Can you breathe?” He rubbed circles between her shoulder blades, but she continued to gasp, so he smacked her back several times. “Don’t worry, I’m trained for this.”

She coughed and choked, covering her mouth.

He stood behind her, wrapped his arms around her middle, and clasped his hands together.

She turned in his arms and slapped at him until he let her go. In between gasps, she said, “Trained to dislodge a tree branch from a three-ton elephant, maybe.” Her watering eyes shut, and she took a sip from the to-go coffee before she continued. “I think you broke a rib.”

“I hope you’re not that fragile.” He huffed and stepped back from the queen of mixed signals, ignoring that perfect blend of floral sweet and hidden secret perfume she wore. That was Jackie, the most mysterious and challenging woman he’d ever met. But he didn’t have time for her games, not right now. Not when he was learning to care for two daughters who just landed on his doorstep a few months ago.

“Hardly.” She straightened, her slender yet curvy frame in heels measuring a smidgen under his six-foot-two height. He found himself stretching his head a little higher.

“Are you going to stare at me all day or tell me why you barged into my shop, caused me to choke, and then tried to kill me with your brute force?” She half smiled that intriguing, mesmerizing, I’ve-got-a-secret kind of smile that drove him crazy. Correction, used to drive him crazy. Now he behaved like a grown-up who focused on family duties, not pretty women.

“Yes.” Blaze thought back over what Knox Brevard had told him at the Ms. Horton and Mr. Strickland wedding last fall at the McCadden Farm. Flattery will get you everywhere with Jackie. “I know that you’re a world-famous designer and that you’re way too busy for a desperate father in need of a perfect formal dress for his daughter, but if you could find some time to help, I’d more than appreciate it.”

She popped one hip out, causing the fluffy bow tied at her hip to flutter, drawing his attention down to her tiny waist.

“Eyes up here, you know.” She snapped her fingers at him. “I don’t know. A child’s dress? Girls don’t appreciate high fashion. She’ll probably go make mudpies while wearing it.”

“Mud pies? She’s not four.” He cleared his throat and softened his tone to a decimal below flattery but above desperation. “Besides, all my eldest daughter has talked about since coming to Sugar Maple is how she’d love to own a Jacqueline Langford–Just Jackie design.”

“Raynor,” she said flatly with an angry crinkle of her nose. “I design under my maiden name now.”

“Right. Forgot that you told me that.” He couldn’t imagine what insane man had let a woman like Jacqueline slip away. A woman who would be able to keep Blaze’s attention for decades, unlike the normal women he dated, in whom his interest fell by the main course. Not that she was sweet or possessed the southern charm of the usual girl in Sugar Maple, but she was fiercely independent, successful, and driven. Everything opposite of his ex-wife, who needed her hand held through life.

“And as for the store being called Just Jackie, a convenient mishap with the sign from a friend compiled with a town business license issue. I plan to change the name.”

Blaze didn’t care about the store name. He just needed a dress. “Listen, all Tabitha does is talk about you, and since I might have made a…what did she call it? Right, epic NeoRent mistake, I apparently need to make it up to her big-time.”

“Why?” Jackie