Katherine Garbera - Summer in Manhattan

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A summer to remember…When Cici Johnson falls for the charms of American big shot Rich Maguire, their drunken one night stand results in an unexpected pregnancy. Rich wants nothing to do with the baby or Cici, but she's determined to give their child the love of two parents on her own.Jason Hooper's spent his whole life wondering what family really means. In and out of the foster care system, he never gets too close to anyone; just in case they walk away. But then he meets Cici and he feels as if he's finally home.For both of them, the summer they share in Manhattan couldn't be sweeter. If only he'll let his guard down, Hoop's own happy-ever-after might not be make-believe anymore…

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“I’ll think about it. I already signed a contract to move into an apartment not too far from here. I bet Io would love to take your place. Her mom is always trying to set her up with a nice Greek guy.”

“My mom is unstoppable,” Iona remarked as she sat down at their table. “Sorry I’m late. What were you talking about? Besides my nightmare.”

“You have a Mom who loves you and only wants what is best for you,” Hayley said with a cheeky grin. “That’s not a nightmare.”

She’d have liked the close relationship that Iona had with her mom, Cici thought.

“Yeah, well, you’re not the one who’s supposed to go to the Hamptons in two weeks to meet some family friends. Uh, I know all of our family friends and so who could she possible have dragged into the mix?” Iona asked. “I’ll tell you who…some single guy from a good Greek family. I know she’s been to see the matchmaker.”

The waiter came back with their drinks and Iona ordered a double espresso before he left.

“Maybe the matchmaker will be the right thing for you,” Cici said. “I mean, if I learned anything watching reality TV…”

“It’s that your best-friend is going to torture you with the smell of coffee all day if you don’t stop trying to convince her that being set up by a matchmaker is a good idea?” Iona quipped.

Cici laughed and shook her head, holding her hands up at her shoulders. “Fine. I’ll stop.”

“That’s better. So, what were you talking about?” Iona asked as she lined up her sugar substitute packets for her espresso.

“Hayley wants me to move into her place but I just signed a lease on an apartment so I can’t,” Cici said. Thank heavens she’d signed that lease yesterday. It was the only way she was getting out of this. She knew her friends cared about her. But they were different than she was. They seemed to waltz through life making the right choices…heck, even their bad choices turned out okay.

“Wow, dodged that bullet,” Iona said.

Cici kicked her friend under the table.

“What are you talking about?” Hayley asked after taking a sip of her cappuccino.

“She’s trying to avoid Garrett’s friend Hoop.”

“You are?” Hayley asked, blushing as she did so.

“Yes.”

“Why?” Hayley leaned in, her blonde hair swinging forward against the side of her face.

Cici looked down at her lap, her own bangs falling over her glasses and she tried to find a way to say this next part without sounding like a woman who’d done something she regretted. She decided when she’d discovered her pregnancy that she’d try to embrace it. Even though she had always assumed she’d never have a kid of her own. Cici relished the idea of herself as the cool Auntie.

“I just don’t think it’s wise to get involved with someone who’s friends with Garrett,” she said. Actually, Hoop had said it first all three months ago when they’d been at Olympus and had shared one hot kiss.

Not hot enough for him? Too hot for him? She didn’t know. All she knew was that he’d seen her to a cab and sent her home alone.

“Is this because of…” Hayley gestured to Cici’s stomach.

“My pregnancy? Yes, that’s part of it,” Cici said. “Let’s talk about something else. Something fun for the summer at the Candied Apple & Cafe.”

Cici turned the conversation to business and was happy enough when they finished breakfast and she waved her friends goodbye. She was on a week’s vacation from the Candied Apple & Cafe so didn’t have to be in the office. It was a forced vacation of sorts, since Hayley had been on one and Iona was going to be spending a week in the Hamptons. Her friends had insisted she take a break as well.

She’d decided to move into her new apartment and try adjusting to being pregnant. Cici knew her life was about to change forever.

Jason Hooper, known to everyone as Hoop, had screwed up. It wasn’t the first time. After all, he was thirty-three and had been a cop for five years before giving it up to become an attorney. Growing up in the foster system had honed his natural instincts of being a loner. He let people in but it took him a while to decide if he should let them stay. He wanted to say that was where he’d made his mistake with Cici. He’d needed time to think. To plug the facts into a pro/con list and then decide if the heat between the two of them was worth exploring.

Stupid .

Now, he was drinking club soda but it tasted like regret as he watched her talking with her friends and mingling in a way that kept her far away from him as she worked the room at the summer kickoff party at the Candied Apple & Cafe.

Manhattan’s trendiest new chocolate shop was on a roll and if the crowd at tonight’s event was anything to go by, they were going to continue that momentum for a long time.

Cici Johnson, with her short wavy hair, thick rimmed glasses and curvy figure was temptation incarnate. But his track record with the opposite sex wasn’t the best. He didn’t do long term and it had seemed wise to him to avoid any kind of complications that would impact his friendship with Garrett.

Idiot .

“Dude, you’re staring at her,” Garrett Mulligan observed, handing him a beer.

Hoop dumped his club soda on the tray of a passing waiter and took the beer from Garrett. Garrett was his best friend and a cop. They’d known each other since high school when Garrett’s parents had become his surrogate family. Garrett was the reason why he’d screwed up with Cici.

“It’s all your fault.”

“How do you figure?” Garrett asked.

“If you hadn’t been dating Hayley then I could have comfortably had my usual fling with Cici and moved on.”

“If I hadn’t been dating Hayley you never would have met her.”

“Fair point.”

Hoop took a swallow of his beer and skimmed the room, hoping that some other woman would catch his eye. But no one did. It was Cici for him. It was as if the moment he’d told her that a few hot kisses were all they’d ever share, fate had a deep chuckle at his expense and made her impossible to forget.

“So…”

“So?”

“Are you going to go talk to her or continue to try to stare her down from here?” Garrett asked.

The party was to celebrate the start of summer and a new menu at the Candied Apple & Cafe. The trendy Fifth Avenue confectionery that was co-owned by Garrett’s fiancée Hayley, Cici and their friend Iona.

“Possibly. She’s been avoiding me. I’ve called her a dozen times.”

“I’ve never known you to let something like that stop you,” Garrett remarked with a laugh.

Hoop thought about it, and then finished his beer with one deep swallow. He wasn’t going to let it stop him. He couldn’t. He had been dating a lot the last three months since their one date. Sad that he knew exactly how long it had been, but there it was. Every time he leaned in to kiss another woman, he compared it to Cici. Every time he made another woman laugh, he remembered how much he liked Cici’s laugh. Maybe it was that he’d put her off limits. Something that could be easily fixed if he could go out on one date with her. But she had moved on.

Now he was panting after her…well not exactly panting…but close enough.

He handed his empty bottle to a passing waiter and moved through the throng of party goers toward Cici. She wore a sundress that hugged her endless curves and ended just above her knees. It was a straight sort of A-line skirt with a fitted bodice and as he got closer he noticed that she wore a thin gold necklace and the charm had moved around to nestle at the back of her neck.

She said something he couldn’t hear and the man she was talking to responded and then she laughed. He felt a bolt of awareness go through him along with a tinge of jealousy. Another man had made her laugh.

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