The Denver Cereal by Claudia Hall Christian Page A

of hair that ran like an arrow from his belly button. In
that moment, Jill noticed something she hadn’t allowed herself to
see.
    Jacob was a
hunk!
    Embarrassed, she turned to
go back to bed when Jacob smiled and winked at her. She smiled at
his greeting. She waved her hands to indicate she didn’t want to
interrupt. But Jacob walked over to her. Without breaking the
conversation, he kissed her lips and hugged her.
    “ Good morning,” he
murmured.
    She sighed. She melted
into his embrace.
    “ Okay, you know where to
find me if you need me,” Jacob said. “Right. I’ll be
there.”
    Jill moved to step away
from him, but he held her in place.
    “ Thanks,” Jacob said. He
pulled the earpiece from his ear and tossed it onto the table.
Returning his attention to Jill, he said, “How are you
feeling?”
    “ Really good,” she said.
“You’re a balm for any insomnia.”
    “ I’m glad. Katy is doing
very well. They’ll release her to our care this morning. Rest,
quiet, stuff like that. I was able to cancel most of my day, but I
have to attend a meeting at eight-thirty. I shouldn’t be too long,
but I have to go,” he said. “I thought Mike could take you to the
hospital. That way, you can be there when Katy wakes up. I’ll come
and get you when I’m done. Will that work?”
    “ I know you have a company
to run,” she said.
    “ Help my father run,” he
said. He kissed her nose. “The company runs itself. I mostly run
interference for my father. That’s what the meeting this morning is
about — one of my father’s messes.”
    Jill smiled. “I’ve never
been with anyone who had a job, so I don’t
really . . .”
    Jacob laughed.
    “ How about some cereal?”
Jacob asked.
    “ I understand it’s the
house specialty,” she said. “Crunch Berries?”
    “ Mike finished them
yesterday. I was going to get more at Walgreens but I talked to the
pharmacist for too long. I can go right now.”
    Jill shook her head.
Wandering to the table, she saw Jacob’s Blackberry vibrate. She
flushed with guilt. She shouldn’t distract this important
man.
    “ You have a phone call,”
she said.
    “ I also have an assistant.
If anyone really needs me, they text,” he said. Jacob pulled the
boxes from the cabinet. “Would you like me to get some Crunch
Berries or can you choose something from my vast
selection?”
    Jill’s pierced brow
relaxed. She laughed. “I love cereal.”
    “ See! I knew you were a
girl with taste.”
    “ What are you working on?”
Jill asked. “Oh, I probably shouldn’t ask.”
    “ No, it’s okay. We have a
group that estimates jobs. They estimate what we’ll spend down to
the gallon of gasoline, what company resources will be required,
and how much we’ll make from each project. It’s a hard job — really
hard. We have some talented people who keep us in
business.”
    Jacob sat down in his
chair. He turned the laptop for Jill to see.
    “ They send me these
projections and I look them over. I run the numbers, double-check
their work, look at the work schedule, stuff like that. If it seems
reasonable, I send the entire thing to my father to see if he wants
to do the project. Pretty boring. I get a bunch of these every
Monday morning.”
    “ Can I see?”
    “ If you sit on my lap,”
Jacob said.
    Jill plopped down on his
lap.
    “ Mmm.” His hands stroked
her legs.
    “ I’m pretty good at
budgets and numbers, so this is interesting to me. I never knew how
companies did this kind of thing.”
    Jacob kissed the back of
her neck while Jill pretended to study the spreadsheet.
    “ You have beautiful skin,”
he said.
    Jill turned her head to
look at him. “Jacob.”
    “ Hmm?”
    “ You have a busy morning,”
she said.
    “ Mmmm,” he
said.
    She leaned away from him
to catch his eyes.
    “ Yes, busy morning,” Jacob
said.
    Jill stood up from his
lap. “I don’t want to get in the way of
your . . .”
    Their eyes caught with a
jolt.
    Jacob lifted Jill off her
feet. Jill