A Kiss at Christmas Read online

  “Not really. I usually get there at seven, so I mostly have my pick. Except for that one—it always gets taken first.”

  “But your second place choice can’t be more than five steps further from the door at seven.”

  The second place choice was actually closer to the door. That wasn’t what it was about. And suddenly he wondered what it was actually about. How much did he love the space because of the space, and how much did he love it because of the competition to get it between him and Kelli? He didn’t know why, but just the thought made him suddenly need to compete for that parking space while they were here. Maybe if he just stayed away from the things his own family normally did at Christmas time, it wouldn’t be so hard.

  “How about you?”

  “Time off,” Addison said. “I love traveling to new places, and an extra three days would make that even better.”

  “Which have been your favorite places to travel to?”

  Addison started telling him, and he tried hard to listen, but he kept noticing how organized Kelli was with the craft supplies she was working with. There were twelve people around the table working, and it looked like an explosion of scissors, glues, paints, brushes, and all the craft supplies they’d been given to make the ornaments with. Except for right in front of him and right in front of Kelli. Everything was lined up so neat and orderly, where she could find anything she needed quickly.

  “How about you? Do you have any favorite places you’ve traveled?”

  Okay, he had to be more serious about not letting his eyes or his mind wander to the other side of the table. So he talked with Addison as they finished making their four ornaments. By the time they were done, he admired the horse he’d made out of brown felt that stood next to a cactus that was decorated like a Christmas tree, and the cowboy hat with mistletoe on the brim.

  When Elise called time, Parker and Addison looked at their ornaments. He was pretty proud of what they had created once he’d quit looking Kelli’s direction. Elise had them all gather up their ornaments and bring them to the tree, and then Graham said, “Let the Christmas tree decorating begin!”

  Addison hung two of them, and Parker searched for the perfect spot for their other two, as all twelve of them were gathered around the same tree, trying to find places for theirs.

  Before he knew it, he was reaching to put one of his up high while someone was reaching in front of him to place one and he looked down to see that Kelli was pressed against him, their faces less than a foot apart. There was so much jostling around the tree that someone knocked into Kelli, and he had barely placed his ornament in time to put his arm on her shoulders to keep her from falling. Her eyes held his for a small moment as they stood inches apart, sharing the same air, electricity seeming to crackle between them, before she cleared her throat and said, “Thank you,” then looked away. He quickly turned away from her gaze, too, and his eyes landed on her ornament.

  “Wow, Kelli.” He looked closer. There were little elves with wooden marble faces and felt bodies, wearing tall pointed hats with a mini pompom on top. They were both kneeling on the floor, wrapping gifts. Differently colored wrapping paper covered the floor, and she had even taken curling ribbon, cut it in half so it was thinner, and made little tiny bows out of it. The amount of detail in such a small space was mind-blowing. “This is incredible. So intricate. I’m impressed.”

  He looked back at her to see that she was beaming at the compliment. She should be.

  Once all the ornaments were placed and they had all stepped back, Graham turned on the lights to the tree and led them all in the oohing and aahing. It did look decent. Nothing like home, though, which caused a wave of melancholy wash over him. But then he glanced at Kelli and saw the joy on her face as she stared at the tree in wonder. It made him look back at it again. For not being like the one at home, it was a good tree.

  Graham clapped his hands together. “Okay, you’ve got two hours to head to your room and get settled. Your packing list asked you to bring the most formal outfit you had. When you come back, be wearing that, because we’re headed to the Tinsel and Tidings Christmas feast and ball!”

  Parker headed to his room, which was so much more impressive than his room in his apartment. His suitcases were waiting for him, just like Merit said they’d be, so he started unpacking them and hanging up his clothes. Then he saw the envelope on his night stand and remembered about the Secret Santa. He set the shirt down he’d been about to hang up and walked over to it. He opened the envelope and looked at the name printed inside and smiled.

  Kelli Ellis

  Once he got all of the items put in a closet, drawer, or in the bathroom, he still had about an hour and fifty minutes before they had to be dressed and downstairs.

  He looked around the giant room and exhaled. Getting ready would only take about thirty minutes. Being in this room just made him feel even more strongly how alone he was, and he couldn’t spend the extra hour and twenty minutes here or he was going to go crazy.

  He headed down to the second floor, but there wasn’t a soul in the family room or kitchen, so he headed to the basement to check it out. The exercise room had several machines and a good number of free weights. He’d have to take advantage of them while he was here.

  The theater was impressive, too. It seated twenty-one people in three rows, all in reclining chairs. And in between the theater and exercise room were several table games. He walked over to the ping pong table and grabbed a paddle and ball, and started bouncing it on the paddle over and over.

  Down here was just as depressing as his room. Maybe he just needed to leave the mansion and explore a bit. He set the paddle and the ball down and had taken one step toward the door when Kelli walked into the room. “Oh, hi. You’re not spending the extra time resting from travel, huh?”

  Kelli laughed. How had he not noticed how amazing of a laugh she had before now? “I got my rest from travel on the plane, remember?”

  He chuckled and smiled again at the memory of her being so close as she lay her head on his shoulder. “You up for a game?”

  “We could,” Kelli said. “Or we could get a jump start on everyone else and do something that will earn us some points.”

  Parker looked at the pool table. The game sounded like a lot more fun—he really wasn’t in the mood to do anything else that was Christmassy. “What do you have in mind?” He wanted to know exactly what they’d be doing before he would be willing to commit.

  Kelli pulled out her phone, probably to see the picture she had taken during the presentation. “Oh! One of them is to walk along the beach and write a Christmas message or draw a Christmas scene with a stick in the sand. That would be fun, and I have been dying to check out the beach.”

  A walk on the beach wasn’t Christmassy, and he didn’t have to draw a picture if he didn’t want to. He could do that.

  Less than five minutes later, they were both in jackets and walking along the beach. It had only been a short pathway from the mansion, and the weather was nice. Easily over fifty degrees and sunshiny, so they probably could’ve gone without the jackets and been just fine.

  The beach was nearly empty, which really surprised him. Sure, it was too cold to play in the sand and water, but it was still beautiful out. Kelli had changed into flip flops, and she took them off and ran along the sand at the edge of the water, scrambling out of the way whenever a wave came in, and squealing when she didn’t make it out of the way in time and it washed over her feet.

  He smiled as he watched her.

  “Take off your shoes! It’s not that cold. Still tons warmer than anywhere in Colorado right now.”

  That was true. Why not? Anything to take his mind off Christmas. He left his shoes and socks on a bench and raced out to the water’s edge. The sand was soft beneath his feet and felt great. He hadn’t been to a beach in far too long.

  Before he knew it, he wasn’t just dodging the waves coming in—he was also dodging Kelli’s kicks of water she was sending
his direction. He sent plenty back her direction. And like she said, it wasn’t actually too cold, especially since he had already acclimated to the Colorado winter.

  At least, it wasn’t too cold until he didn’t dodge Kelli’s splash of water. He gasped as the cold water soaked his pants. “Is this to get even for my water bottle on the plane? Because that wasn’t really my fault.”

  “And it wasn’t my fault that you didn’t move fast enough to get out of the way of that last one.” There was a teasing glint in her eyes and a grin on her face as she sent another splash of water his way that he did move fast enough for, and then she took off running to get away from any retaliation.

  So, of course, he ran after her. He would run after her as long as it took to catch her.

  “Whoa,” he actually said out loud as he slowed to a walk. Where had that thought come from? He was not chasing Kelli. He wasn’t trying to date her. He wasn’t looking for a relationship at all. He hadn’t guessed that coming out here, seeing her running free and happy along the beach, would be a bad idea. A dangerous idea.

  The walk got his mind off Christmas and how he thought he’d be spending it. Now he just needed something to take his mind off Kelli.

  Kelli had stopped running, too, but she had stopped because she had found a few sticks that had washed ashore. Just because he was having a crisis of motivations didn’t mean he was just going to leave her out here alone.

  Plus, he wanted the points they would get.

  That was all. He was here for the points.

  Kelli drew a gigantic, very fancy “Merry Christmas” in the sand. Parker wasn’t going to draw anything Christmas-related, but then a memory of one of his favorite Christmases came to mind. Ethan had somehow talked their parents into letting them sleep in sleeping bags in front of the tree so they could see Santa when he came to bring them presents.

  When he was finishing up, Kelli came over to look at it. “Wow. You’re quite the artist.”

  “Isn’t everyone who is drawn to marketing as a career?”

  She shrugged. “To some degree, I guess. Not often this much. Is this you and your brother?”

  Parker nodded as he finished up the scene. “We had fun. It was when Ethan was three and I was fifteen. I’d stopped believing in Santa before he was even born, but having a little brother who was that much younger than me let me to relive the magic of Christmas all over again. I mean, you should’ve seen the excitement on Ethan’s face when we woke up and saw that Santa had come while we were asleep.”

  When he finally looked up at Kelli, she had a curious expression on her face. The afternoon sun was right behind her, making her look like an angel as she looked at his scene, and it made him wish all over again that he was good enough for her. “It sounds like you love Christmas.”

  He set down the stick and brushed off his hands, then stood up. “Usually. I’ve always wondered which had made me like Christmas more—my parents’ love of the holiday, or getting a second chance at experiencing the magic of Christmas through a brother who was so much younger than me.” He hoped that one day soon he’d be able to experience that all over again with his own kid. “But this year’s different. I’m not a fan of Christmas this year, and I would happily skip it all.”

  “Is your family not around this year?”

  He shook his head. “My parents went on a cruise to celebrate their thirtieth anniversary. They didn’t think they’d be leaving me alone, because I was supposed to be on a cruise myself right now.”

  He didn’t know why he’d felt the need to get that off his chest. Maybe he just needed someone to know. Maybe he needed Kelli, specifically, to know. He knew the second that she had figured it all out, because her hands flew to her mouth and she gasped. “Ohmygosh it was supposed to be a honeymoon cruise, wasn’t it?”

  He nodded.

  “Oh, I am so sorry.”

  He shrugged. “It was for the best. I hadn’t believed that at the time and didn’t think I ever would, but now I get it.”

  They both looked down at the pictures they had carved in the sand, but he wasn’t sure either of them was actually seeing their drawings.

  “I know what you mean.”

  Parker’s eyes flew to Kelli, hoping she would say more.

  “James and I broke up too, you know. He broke it off, and it had crushed me. I didn’t think I would ever feel like it was a good thing. But it’s been a year, and I realized months ago that I had been in love with his family, not him. It was a big, beautiful family with so many different personalities, and I felt like I fit right in with them. Like they were my family. It wasn’t until several months later that I finally understood that my relationship with James hadn’t exactly been stellar. I had been letting the love I felt for his family color everything, so I hadn’t even noticed things weren’t okay between us.”

  He knew exactly how it felt to not notice. He shook his head and chuckled. “Well, then, it looks like we both have our exes to thank for figuring things out for us.”

  She laughed, too. “I’ll be sure to send him a thank you card.” She looked at the things they had drawn in the sand. “Want to take pictures?”

  Parker held her phone and took a picture of her standing just above her Christmas greeting, in a mid-air leap, arms thrown into the sky. Then he stood next to his, doing his best impression of the animated character in Graham’s slide show that announced the prizes, and Kelli took a picture with his phone.

  He was happy with the scene he had made. Even if it did make him miss Christmas at home.

  As they headed back down the beach toward the mansion and the shoes they had both left behind, they texted their pictures to Graham and Merit as proof that they had completed the challenge.

  “I can’t believe we are texting the owners of ZentCube, like they’re our BFFs. I never thought I’d be doing this.”

  Parker looked over at her as they walked along a beach, fifteen hundred miles from home, as the sun was low in the sky, casting her in golden light. “I never thought I would, either.”

  Chapter Nine

  Kelli loved dressing fancy. She had packed three fancy dresses when she’d seen it on their packing list, but she knew the one she was going to go for all along. It was the perfect shade of Christmas red, and it was shimmery, and she always felt on fire when she wore it. Like she could do anything. She paired it with some equally fabulous red shoes.

  Then she pulled her curled hair up all fancy, too, which really made the dangly silver earrings she wore stand out even more.

  Valeria texted to see how things were going, so she texted back a picture of her in her dress, taken in the full-length mirror in the room.

  Wow! You are going to knock the socks off all the guys there!

  I mean MY socks just jumped off my feet.

  Kelli smiled and texted the emoji with a girl dancing in a red dress. And then added lasers to it before sending, laughing to herself.

  I see you chose the red dress. Does that mean you met an interesting, single guy?

  Parker came to mind first, which shouldn’t have surprised her, since she had just spent an hour on the beach with him. But she reminded herself that a relationship with anyone wasn’t a good idea right now, and a casual one with Parker would only make working in the same department with him even more awkward than it had been seeing each other at work after the last time they had dated. Davis. Think only of Davis.

  I did, actually!

  His name is Davis, and he works in Development.

  And, because she knew Valeria would ask for details, she added a text that said, And he has nice eyes.

  Valeria responded with the surprised emoji. Then the gasping emoji. Then the heart-eyes emoji.

  Wow. This is huge. Dipping a toe in the dating pool after so long. I’m so proud.

  Okay, I’ll stop distracting you. You just go get your flirt on, girl!

  But don’t you dare forget to text me details later.

  I won’t.

  S
he slipped her phone into her handbag, took one last look in the mirror, and then headed out her door. She was sure she wasn’t heading down late at all, but as she walked down the curved staircase, she swore all six of the men were already in the lobby, waiting. And she didn’t miss their appreciative expressions. It was a little confirmation that she had hit the mark with her outfit.

  Her eyes were on Davis as she walked down the stairs. He looked nice dressed up so fancy. His suit was well fitted, his hair was nice, and those kind eyes were like an accessory that made the outfit.

  But as much as she had tried to keep her eyes only on Davis, they went to Parker anyway, and she forgot how to breathe. His dark suit looked on him like suits had been designed for the express purpose of making Parker Brockbank irresistible. It was a deep, warm gray color that brought out colors in his eyes that she hadn’t seen before. Those eyes looked captivating. Intoxicating. Like they were reaching out to capture her. His hair that had looked beautifully windblown on the beach now looked tame enough to be respectable, while still having a hint of wildness. His scruff was trimmed short and neat and she wanted to run her hands along that strong jawline of his. If Davis was a ten out of ten, Parker was an easy nine-hundred-fifty-seven.

  She was in so much trouble. She needed blinders tonight, like the kind they put on horses. Then she could just keep her eyes on Davis and not see Parker at all. Davis was great. He seemed like a good guy. From what she knew of Graham and Merit, they wouldn’t have invited him if he wasn’t.

  Davis, she told herself. Then, a little more firmly, she repeated Davis. Keep your eyes on Davis. When she got to the bottom of the stairs, she stood on the side of Davis opposite of Parker. Elise had talked with them earlier about this dinner and dance, and how she and her team really worked hard to make it a night that the people at the resort would really enjoy. They knew to head over to the ballroom, so as soon as the last person came down the stairs, the twelve of them went outside to find four golf carts in a row, waiting for them.