Chocolate Swirl Cookie Christmas

By L. M. Gonzalez

Jennifer Medina, successful romance writer, is suffering from writer’s block. Having divorced her critical husband, she is determined to avoid men and concentrate on career and volunteer work.

Ray Trevino prefers working outside in the family’s construction business, so he has refused his dad’s offer of an office job to help run the company. Past experience taught him not to take risks in his personal or business life.

When they meet, immediate attraction flares. Ray invites Jennifer out—not on a real date, but as research for her book. Yet despite their wariness about love and commitment, their relationship progresses until both realize they’ve crossed boundaries…and they go their separate ways.

Can they somehow forget the past and make better memories this Christmas?

• Language: Unknown
• Publisher: The Wild Rose Press
• Release date: Dec 7, 2022
• ISBN: 9781509244577

L. M. Gonzalez

L.M. Gonzalez writes about the loves and lives of women and the challenges of romance the second time around. Her stories, set against a backdrop of strong Latino culture blended with an American lifestyle, are refreshing and capture the essence of everyday Hispanic life.

Book preview

The place was decorated with twinkle lights and red, green, and gold garland. And then her eyes settled on Ray. Her breath caught in her throat as she glimpsed the bracelet of a gold watch at his wrist. He seemed a different man than the one at the Adult Center and the one in jeans who’d gone to her house. He seemed charming and sexy and likeable.

They have a variety of entrees, Ray said.

Oh. She hadn’t looked, so she opened her menu.

What do you like?

Jennifer stared, mesmerized with him. Oh, I don’t know—you. He grinned, and embarrassment filled her. He probably knew what she was feeling. And she would not feel that way, not with him. Especially not with him.

I’ll eat salad. I’m not very hungry, she said.

Umm…eating dinner together is the first step of the foreplay to romance, didn’t you know?

Romance isn’t sex. She glared at him.

His smile didn’t falter. Eating can be an aphrodisiac. Feeding each other can be very romantic.

Jennifer swallowed hard at his words. I’m not feeding you anything.

Jenny, this isn’t going to work if you don’t cooperate. Ray winked at her.

Her nipples peaked at his wink, and she was glad she’d worn a scarf. She picked up her glass of water. My name is Jennifer, not Jenny.

You don’t like nicknames?

Not from you.

I think I know now why you’re blocked in the love-and-romance thing. You’re tight. You need to loosen up.

Chocolate Swirl Cookie Christmas

by

L. M. Gonzalez

Christmas Cookies

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales, is entirely coincidental.

Chocolate Swirl Cookie Christmas

COPYRIGHT © 2022 by Lupe Gonzalez

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the author or The Wild Rose Press, Inc. except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

Contact Information: [e-mail]

Cover Art by Tina Lynn Stout

The Wild Rose Press, Inc.

PO Box 708

Adams Basin, NY 14410-0708

Visit us at www.thewildrosepress.com

Publishing History

First Edition, 2022

Digital ISBN 978-1-5092-4457-7

Christmas Cookies

Published in the United States of America

Dedication

To the memory of Christmases past

and to those who find true love at Christmas

Acknowledgments

Thank you to the San Antonio Romance Authors Writing Challenge, during which I started writing this story.

Chapter 1

Jennifer Medina took her apron off the hook on the wall at the entrance hallway to the kitchen of the adult center where she volunteered. Smells of bacon, scrambled eggs, and coffee stirred her nostrils. She loved the scent of breakfast cooking. Pity the only thing she liked was bacon. She’d developed an abhorrence for eggs at an early age, and she preferred tea to coffee.

Gertrude Appleby, more familiarly known as Gertie, called out, Is that you, Jennifer? Come in here, girl. We’re busy today. Must be more people are traveling for the holiday.

Jennifer quickly tied her apron behind her and hurried in. I’m sorry. Where do you want me?

At the order line. That’s the long one.

Jennifer quickly washed her hands at the sink, dried them, used the sanitizer on her hands, and ran to the cash register.

A man at the front of the line asked for a Mexican omelet.

We have scrambled eggs, bacon, toast, and coffee, she said without looking up from checking the latest orders.

Aren’t you supposed to please your customers?

At his teasing tone, she glanced up to encounter twinkling dark brown eyes in a bearded tan face. He grinned. Her heart skipped a beat, then traveled to her throat, making it impossible to speak.

Thankfully, Gertie repeated what she’d said.

I guess I’ll content myself with what you have. What can I do? His teasing and smiling demeanor vanished, and he took his food, paid, and strode to a table occupied by an elderly gentleman.

She missed him immediately—his charm and potential to brighten her world. She shook the thought away. She’d never seen him before. Unlikely he would return. The center had its regulars, but now and then a new person would show up, never to be seen again. Passing through town. Or maybe a relative was a member, and she’d see him again.

The Life Enrichment Senior Adult Center was located near an access road to a main highway of San Antonio. Older truck drivers and RV owners stopped in for a quick breakfast. The long tables were decorated in red-checked tablecloths, with artificial daisies in small vases situated strategically down the middle. A few smaller tables surrounded the bigger ones.

Jennifer continued to take orders—most asked for the morning breakfast, but some didn’t want certain things. Some asked for more, but seconds were only available once the line dwindled.

When the line of members did end, Jennifer looked until she found the new man who’d gone in to sit down and realized the elderly member with him was Jorge Trevino, a regular at the Center. Was the man his son? Jennifer had sat with Mr. Trevino a few times, and he’d always talked about his son, who seldom visited, but he knew he was busy.

Without overly staring, Jennifer took a good look at the unfamiliar man. He was tall, with broad shoulders, and he wore work clothes—jeans, work boots, and a cap he’d placed on the table. He was talking rather heatedly with his father, if indeed he was the son.

Not bad-looking, huh? Gertie said beside her.

Heat suffused Jennifer’s face. He’s…okay, I guess. I’m looking because he’s a stranger and he’s talking to Mr. Trevino.

Well, he’s not a stranger to Jorge. That’s his son, Ray. About time he paid attention to his father. Gertie huffed and flung a towel over her shoulder.

Jennifer remembered the man’s twinkling dark brown eyes—twinkling until he’d been confronted with two stern ladies who didn’t have a Mexican omelet to offer. Maybe she could find a recipe and make the egg dish for him. What am I thinking? The only thing she was going to make in the future was cookies for the Christmas party in a couple of weeks.

She was going to bake chocolate swirl cookies. In middle school, she’d been a shy, studious girl, but she’d discovered recipes in magazines and would try them out on her family. The cookie became a family tradition. And not just for Christmas.

She remembered a Christmas from her childhood when her cousins from Nebraska had visited and annoyed her by eating the raw dough before she could make the cookies. Back in the day, she hated boys. They were the bane of her existence—teasing, dirty, and nasty. Nowadays, she didn’t like men much either, after a messy relationship and divorce from Ralph, her ex,