A Kiss at Christmas Read online

  “I’ve been there, too,” Graham said, “and I think it’s a perfect place for our retreat. And we wanted to take the group there this Christmas, especially because Elise is over all the Christmas events. And because Merit and I do this thing together, and I think I might be on my own if I took us somewhere other than where Elise is.”

  The two of them were smiling like kids at Christmas, but Kelli still didn’t get why she was even in on this conversation.

  “So,” she asked, “are you wanting me to do some kind of pamphlets for it, or come up with some images to—”

  Merit laughed and interrupted. “No, we want you to come!”

  “You...What?” She looked at both of them, trying to make sense of the words. “I don’t understand. You want me to work at the retreat?”

  Graham chuckled, shaking his head. “The first year we did this, ZentCube was probably one-tenth the size it is now and we were all in the same building. We found out that a few people had nowhere to go for Christmas, so we decided to do something about it. We know it can be hard around the holidays to not be with family, and we know how much fun it can be to spend it with a group of people that you may or may not know. And this year, we’d like you to join us. As a guest. And don’t worry—we pay for everything. Will you come?”

  She gasped, a lightness filling her chest and making it seem like she was floating right out of her chair. Were they really inviting her to go on vacation? And giving her a place to go for Christmas? “For real?”

  “For real,” Merit said.

  Kelli’s heart practically burst out of her chest with so much happiness and gratitude that it made her jump out of her chair and hug Graham, and then go around the little table and hug Merit. “Yes! Yes, I want to go!”

  She was going to have a place to go for Christmas. It was all she could do to not have happy tears spilling down her cheeks. When they led her out of the room to pick up a packet of information from Carla, she hugged it tight to her chest. She kept hugging it tight as she put on her coat and speed-walked back to her building, not even caring that she was getting covered in snow.

  She wasn’t going to be alone. She was going to belong somewhere.

  Chapter Four

  Parker worked on putting in the last of the design element’s changes so he could get them finalized and sent to the trade show exhibit company they used before the end of the day, running his mouse over the cat-themed mouse pad his desk now had.

  Sam’s chair creaked as it spun around behind Parker, right before he heard his teammate and friend say, “So, I see you haven’t taken the cats down yet.”

  “Well, you know me. I love cats.” Kelli—and probably Valeria, he was guessing—had put a lot of work into this. It would be a shame to waste such hard work. A prank as good as this one deserved to hang around for a few days. He tweaked the dimensions on the plans a bit until they looked perfect.

  “I don’t think it’s the cats that you are so fond of.”

  “Ha ha,” Parker said without even turning around.

  “I think you’re fond of the girl who put it up.”

  “Kelli?”

  “Obviously.”

  Parker shook his head. “We just like to annoy each other. Like you’re doing with me right now.”

  He clicked save on the plans, and then sent a quick message to his boss. All done. Take a look?

  When Sam didn’t respond, but also didn’t turn back to his desk, Parker turned around in his chair to face him.

  “I’m just saying that deep down, I think you want to ask her on a date.”

  “Sam, I just got out of a serious relationship.”

  The guy shook his head. “Nope. That was over two months ago. It’s time.”

  “Who says that two months is the standard amount of time to get over an engagement and move on?”

  “Dude. There’s no standard. It’s different for every person and for every time. I’m telling you that for you, with that breakup, it’s time.” Sam stood up and walked over to Parker’s desk, leaning against the framework of his cubicle.

  Parker turned back around in his chair to face his computer screen. “And I think you don’t have any idea what you’re talking about.”

  “We all know why you do the initial spiel at trade shows. I mean, you’ve got that face that’s all symmetrical and that deep voice. People like listening to people with pretty faces. Now tell me why they have me talk to the ones who are interested in learning more.”

  “Because even when people tell you they’re not interested, you won’t stop bugging them about it?”

  Parker barely caught sight of the stuffed cat as it flew toward him, and barely turned in time to catch it.

  “No, pretty boy. It’s because I’m good at reading people.” He caught the cat that Parker threw at him, and then pointed at him with it. “And I’m telling you that you’re ready, whether you think you are or not. Ask her out already.”

  “We already went out.”

  The look on Sam’s face was comical. A mix of shock and surprise and disbelief. Apparently he wasn’t good at reading everything.

  Sam grabbed his chair and pulled it across the aisle and sat down facing Parker. “When? Why did you not tell me about this?”

  “Relax, Sam. It was like two and a half years ago. Right after I first started working here.”

  “What happened? How did it go?”

  Parker let out a breath of a laugh, shaking his head. So much of that date had been awkward. “Not well. My aunt Aftyn bumped into us at the restaurant and asked, ‘Aww! Is this the girl you were telling me all about? I’m so happy to see you together. No, wait. The girl you told me about had brown hair...Why aren’t you dating her anymore?’”

  “You’re making that up.”

  “I swear to you I’m not. And then as I’m paying for dinner, my card gets declined. If that wasn’t embarrassing enough, the next one gets declined, too—apparently there was some fraudulent activity on my account and they were ‘protecting me’—and I didn’t have enough cash to cover the meal. So she paid. Luckily I had bought the movie tickets online in advance. Although it probably would’ve been better if I hadn’t, because she got sick from something at dinner, and I couldn’t even take her home because my mind had still been back on why my cards had been declined, so I locked my keys in the car.”

  Sam shook his head.

  “Let’s just say it was a bad enough first date to guarantee we’d never have a second date. And then I started dating Stephanie and we got engaged and she went on to almost get engaged to James.”

  “Shut up. So, wait. Is that why you two started pranking each other? Because you had an awkwardly embarrassing first date, which made working on the same floor with each other awkward, so that was a way to turn the focus off the date and onto something else?”

  Huh. He’d never really thought of it that way before. Maybe Sam could read people better than he’d given him credit for.

  “You can’t tell me that you’d let a little thing like an awkward first date stop you from asking someone out who you very clearly have chemistry with.”

  Parker shook his head. “I’d never be good enough for someone like her.”

  Sam’s head jerked back in surprise. “Are you being real right now?”

  Parker didn’t even bother answering. If Sam knew about the list Stephanie had given him when she broke off their engagement, he wouldn’t be questioning it at all.

  “You used to own every room you walked into, Parker. You used to have the confidence to ask any woman out. What did Stephanie do to you?”

  Parker was spared having to answer when his computer chimed its email alert. He turned to it and opened the email.

  “I really think you should talk about this.”

  Like that was going to happen. Parker stood up and grabbed his coat off the hook on his cubicle. “Maybe some other time, buddy. It looks like I have a meeting at HQ right now.”

  “At HQ? Why do you have a meeti
ng at headquarters?”

  “You got me,” Parker called out as he headed toward the elevators. “Whatever it is, wish me luck!”

  It was nearly five, and it was already getting dark outside. All of the streetlights were on in the parking lots of the buildings as he walked toward headquarters, the falling snow lit up in the rays of light below each one. He stepped into the building at the top of ZentCube’s campus and stomped off his shoes, shook his coat, and brushed the snowflakes out of his hair before heading to the elevator.

  When he reached the third floor, the receptionist took him to Merit Casselman’s assistant, Carla. She thanked him for coming, then led him to Merit’s office and poked her head in the door. “Parker Brockbank is here. He’s your last appointment of the day.” Then she opened the door the rest of the way, motioned for him to go inside, then left and shut the door behind her.

  The office was nice. Good furniture, not overly-decorated. He had met both Merit and Graham several times. He’d even chatted with Graham for quite a while at last year’s Christmas party. They had both been sitting on the arm rests of a chair and a couch, chatting, but stood up when he walked in.

  “Parker,” Graham said as he shook his hand, “thanks for coming to meet with us. Have a seat.”

  Parker shook Merit’s hand, too, and then sat down in the one seat that neither of them had been leaning against when he walked in. The two of them sat, too.

  “It’s been a long day,” Merit said, “and we know you probably want to get home, so we won’t beat around the bush. We’ve heard you don’t have anywhere to go for Christmas.”

  Ouch. Not only was it a reminder of the broken engagement, but also that he wasn’t going to have any family around.

  “And we want to change that.”

  Parker raised an eyebrow.

  Graham looked at Merit, laughing. “Well, that definitely couldn’t be called ‘beating around the bush,’ that’s for sure.” Then he turned to Parker. “You’ll have to forgive us. You’re our twelfth and last meeting of the day, and I think we peaked in our delivery of this message somewhere around the third or fourth person.”

  “Maybe you should’ve made a slideshow,” Merit said.

  “A slideshow! I can’t believe I didn’t think of that! Ah, well. It’s too late now, so we’ll just spell it out. Every year, we have a Christmas celebration with a group of employees who don’t have family around to celebrate with.”

  “And this year,” Merit said, “we are doing it at a resort in South Carolina. A week long, all expenses paid. Twelve employees—”

  “Assuming you tell us yes,” Graham cut in.

  “—plus me and Graham for most of it. We’d love to have you join us.”

  Shock made Parker lean back in his chair. “Wow. That’s incredible. Really.”

  “Is that a yes?” Graham asked.

  A week-long vacation at a beach resort with a dozen coworkers, or home alone in his apartment with a foot or two of snow. The two didn’t really compare at all. If he stayed here, he would be surrounded by people who were really wanting to celebrate Christmas, when he really just wanted to skip it this year. If he was on a beach where there was no snow, it wouldn’t even feel like Christmas. And if all the people going didn’t have anyone to spend Christmas with, either, they likely were just as opposed to celebrating as he was. It sounded like a perfect way to get away from it all and just pretend like the holiday wasn’t even happening.

  But how could he say yes to ZentCube paying to fly him across the country to a resort on the beach when he had a job offer on the table that he hadn’t made a decision about yet? It was a really good position with good pay. How could he accept this trip, and then quit the company right after? The guilt was already creeping in.

  Sure, he could possibly decide to stay at ZentCube, but there was no guarantee of that. Saying yes would be a jerk move. He wasn’t a jerk, so obviously he couldn’t accept.

  “I’m sorry. I can’t.”

  Both Merit’s and Graham’s faces fell.

  “You really can’t?” Graham asked. “Why?”

  Maybe he was a jerk after all—the guy looked crushed. He tried to grasp at a reason that wouldn’t be lying but would explain why he couldn’t go, but everything he came up with sounded flimsy. An excuse that would only add insult to their offer. Like he was going to turn his nose up at their big plans because he needed to water his houseplants or something.

  He ran his hands over his face. There was nothing he could say that wasn’t going to offend, so he might as well tell the entire truth. Then he could at least live with himself.

  “I got a job offer at another company.”

  “Oh,” Merit said.

  “Not that I was looking! A buddy of mine just contacted me and said his company wanted me as their Brand Manager.”

  Merit’s eyes were still on him. “And you told them yes?”

  Parker shook his head. “I haven’t decided yet—they just asked yesterday. I have to let him know by the first of the year.”

  The room was silent for several long, excruciating moments while the two leaders of ZentCube pondered and looked at each other, giving nothing away in their expressions. Did he just commit career suicide with this company? Maybe he’d be walking out of this office with termination papers in hand.

  Then Graham leaned forward, his forearms resting on his knees, hands clasped in front of him. “Come with us over Christmas.”

  Parker’s eyebrows shot up. But still, he shook his head. “I can’t. Because then if I decided to take the other job—well, I wouldn’t be okay with the kind of person that would make me.”

  “Think of it this way,” Merit said. “Did you play any sports in high school?”

  Parker nodded. “Baseball.”

  “Any colleges try to recruit you?”

  “Two.”

  “The recruiters—did they wine and dine you to convince you to go to their school?”

  Parker smiled at the memory. It had felt pretty cool as a kid who had so little of life figured out. “They did.”

  Merit leaned forward, nearly matching Graham’s pose. “Then pretend this is the same thing. We’re trying to recruit you to stay on here. If, after the retreat’s over, you decide to leave, then no hard feelings. We’ll rest easy knowing we tried our best, and you’ll know you made the decision that’s best for your career path. Deal?”

  Being able to spend the week of Christmas away from Christmas. Not only did that sound more heavenly than his younger self ever would’ve guessed, it might put him in a better mind frame to actually make the decision. And if Merit and Graham both knew where he stood going into the trip, he wouldn’t have to feel guilty about it.

  “Okay, I’m in.”

  Merit and Graham both grinned big, shook his hand, and gave him slaps on the back before sending him out to Carla to pick up a packet with the trip details.

  As he walked back out into the snow, he released the burden that Christmas had somehow been on him, feeling lighter than he had in a while. The thought of skipping Christmas brought a big smile to his face. This was going to be perfect.

  Chapter Five

  Kelli pushed her rolling suitcase as the line for airport security inched forward, and then opened Valeria’s text that had just popped up on her phone.

  Do you promise to have so much fun without me?

  Kelli smiled and typed back, Pinkie promise.

  And find someone to date?

  She pushed her suitcase around the switchback in the fabric barrier, and then typed her response. Val, I’m going to a company Christmas retreat, not a singles cruise.

  Kels. These are all people who have no one to spend Christmas with, so they are likely all SINGLE. Cozy up to one of them.

  She was scrolling through the facial expressions emojis to find one that perfectly encapsulated what she thought of Valeria’s comment, and glanced up to see how close she was getting. Only about eight more people in front of her. Then she notice
d who had just gone through airport security. She abandoned her emoji search and instead typed a message.

  You are never going to believe who just went through airport security!

  Who?

  Parker Brockbank from Trade Shows! What do you think he’s doing here?

  She pulled her ID out of the pocket in her shoulder bag, and got her phone opened to the boarding pass. A notification at the top of the screen popped up with Valeria’s response.

  Well, if I had to guess, I’d say he’s looking to get on a plane.

  Ha ha.

  He’s probably going home for Christmas.

  Oh hey—Christina Greene in SEO is flying home today, too. If you see her, tell her I said hi.

  Of course. He was probably flying home for Christmas. This was the first day they were off work for the holidays, so it made total sense.

  Kelli handed her ID to the TSA agent, and then put her phone on the scanner to have it read her boarding pass. The agent let her through, and she entered the screening line just across from the line Parker was in. He had just removed his laptop and placed everything on the conveyor belt. He was so wrapped up in what he was doing that he hadn’t even noticed her. So she just watched him as she waited.

  Because really, he was a very attractive guy. She rarely let herself admire him, because then her stomach would get all fluttery and then she’d have to remind herself how embarrassingly awkward their first date was years ago, and that was usually all she needed to stop.

  And on the rare occasion that didn’t work, she’d remind herself about the time a month or two later when she had first started dating James, and she had ducked out of work in the middle of the day to have a super sweet phone call with him in the print and copy room. They had been talking for much longer than Kelli had guessed they would, and Parker had come into the room not long before they hung up. When she turned around, Parker got after her for taking personal calls on company time.