by Megan McCoy
Was that why Ellie was taking over the parade? he wondered. Well, he knew why. She was making a name for herself like the up and comer she was. He lifted his head as he heard a loud bout of laughter from Max. What was he thinking? It didn’t matter. He seemed to think Ditzy Girl - Lucy, he reminded himself - was the cutest thing ever, no matter what she did. Strange. She only annoyed him. But then, as he’d been told, he annoyed easily. His mind drifted back to the dark-haired pixie and wondered how soon she’d annoy him. “Work, Mike,” he said out loud and bent back to his computer.
Chapter 2
Ellie picked up the tree box from the back of her car to take into the office. Her last appointment had postponed and so she thought she had time to set it up before Mike showed up. If he did. Lydia had vouched for him, saying that he and one of the ladies from Lydia’ church, who had done it for years and years, were Santa and Mrs. Claus. Despite his appearance. Why did Mrs. Claus have no first name? she wondered. Well, she probably did and just preferred to go by Mrs. Claus. If she got married would she change her name? She propped the door to her office open and pulled the tree in. Yeah, she probably would. She had no real attachment to her last name. Bland. Boring. Unlike Murphy? Where had that come from? She’d only just met the man and he was at least ten years older than she was. He had no interest in her. Why would he? Other than Lydia had confirmed he was single, as far as she knew.
She was just, well, it had been a while since her last boyfriend. A few years. She had focused on her career after she broke up with him. There was nothing wrong with the boy, she’d just felt he was just that, though, a boy. Considering herself driven from childhood, she’d always worked hard and achieved her goals and he had been more interested in getting by.
Sure, at some point, she’d like to get married and have a family. But that was down the road. Right now, she wanted to succeed in the life she’d worked so hard to build. Yeah, sometimes she got stressed and sometimes it was overwhelming doing it all alone, but overall, this was what she wanted. Having someone to lean on, count and rely on would be nice. Someone older and smarter whose brain she could pick and who would guide her on the right path. She was on the right path - what was she thinking? She was thinking she wished she had someone here to hold this door as she struggled to get the box through while her phone was ringing. And of course, it would have to choose now to start raining. Shivering, she yanked the box harder and wished she had her hat on. That was some cold rain. Hopefully it wouldn’t freeze.
“Hey, Lucy, how’s the new job?” she answered, after she finally managed to get the box in the door and then slammed it shut to keep the rain and cold out. Lucy was one of her friends, the flighty one, they called her. She flitted from job to job, project to project, man to man, but never settled on anything long term. However, it seemed part of her charm. They all just rolled with it.
“Great, I love it!” Ellie didn’t know where Lucy was working now, only that she’d just found something in an office. “In fact, I’m entering the office in the town’s business Christmas decorating contest.”
“That sounds fun,” Ellie said, wishing she’d thought of it for her office, but she had enough on her plate right now.
“So! I’m throwing a spur of the moment decorating party tomorrow night. Want to come? There will be cookies, hot chocolate and hot toddies,” she promised.
That actually sounded fun. She needed a break from work and parade planning. “Sure, what can I bring and where?”
“I’ll text you the time and address. Wear comfortable clothes, because we will be working, and bring any kind of snacky or drinkie thing you want! Or just yourself.”
“Sounds good,” Ellie said. “See you tomorrow.”
That would be fun, she thought. Anything with Lucy was fun. Lucy might be flighty, but the girl knew how to throw a party. Ellie wondered who else would be there. All their mutual friends had busy lives, but she hoped they would come together and she could recruit a few more of them for the parade. She’d had lunch with a couple of them a few days ago and signed them all up to help. A nice thing about growing up in a small town - you had a group of friends you grew up with and hung on to. What was even nicer, someone had paid for their lunch! Merry Christmas! She needed to remember to pay that forward sometime.
Grinning, she propped the tree box up in the corner and patted herself on the back. Lydia said they needed at least fifty volunteers and while there was a handful of regular ones, they needed new blood, which Ellie would be providing in the form of her friends and their friends. The next generation of parade people!
Her brother Hank had promised he would bring a few friends from school too. Was Joni his next door neighbor one of those? She hoped so. She liked Joni and hoped they would be good friends at some point; she was already coming to the girl get-togethers with Izzy and Shana, who she taught school with and Ellie had known forever.
She suspected Hank wanted to be more than friends at some point with Joni. That was fine with her. He needed someone. He was a good brother, but a little bossy. If he had someone else to boss around, or at least be with, maybe he would leave her and her business alone a little more often. She was grown up now. He didn’t have to big brother her all the time anymore.
Glancing over at the clock on the wall, she wondered when Mike would arrive. She’d been at her office bright and early, since eight, and other than the trip to the car to bring the tree in, she hadn’t left, and there hadn’t been any sign of him. It was just after eleven. Maybe he’d forgotten. It was okay, she assured herself. It didn’t matter. Or maybe the rain that had just started scared him away. It was supposed to rain for the next three days, she’d heard this morning, maybe turning to sleet tomorrow. Ugh. But she could endure it, as long it got it out of its system before her parade.
So why did she think it did matter? Well, it didn’t matter because she saw a car pull into the parking lot. This has to be him, she thought, and it was. She watched him get out of the car. He’s got to be six three, at least, she thought. She was five three, well, five two and a half, but sometimes she liked to round up. That was a big difference between them. Tall, handsome, a lot of thick, dark hair, a small fashionable beard, she liked very much what she was looking at. That smile - and that frown - both did something to her. Right now, watching him stride in toward her, toward the office, in the chilly, wet weather, she noticed that he seemed amused by something and that was a good thing. Happy was much better than being sad or mad, after all, wasn’t it?
Waiting till he got up on the stoop, she opened the door for him. “Come, get out of the rain,” she said.
He obliged, stepping inside and shaking off the remnants of the afternoon thunderstorm. “How are you, Miss Ellie?” he asked, as if he wasn’t late and owed her an explanation.
Ellie tried to ruffle her feathers, but a shuddering boom shook the building while she tried not to shriek. Thunderstorms happened all four seasons of the year in southern Illinois. No reason to freak out, she told herself.
“You afraid of the boomers?” he asked in a non-condescending way that she appreciated.
She shook her head. “Not really, but sometimes they do startle me.”
“I understand that,” he said. “I’m not afraid of snakes, but if I see one when I’m mowing, they always make me shriek like a little girl. Just because they startle me.”
“I’d pay to see you shrieking like a little girl,” she responded before she thought.
He laughed. “A lot of people would, I imagine,” he agreed.
He held out his phone to her as if he expected her to take it. “Here are the pictures you wanted.”
Why hadn’t he shown her the pictures yesterday, she wondered, if he had them on his phone? Maybe someone had to send them to him. Did it matter? Not really. “Thank you,” she said and flipped through them. He really had to have help with the makeup and other things because he was unrecognizable. He looked like Santa and there was tiny Mrs. Claus sitting next to him. “Sh
e’s little,” she commented, surprised into mentioning it.
“So are you.” He grinned at her and she smiled back.
“Not really. I’m just fun sized,” she told him.
“Whoever said tiny candy bars were fun, was wrong,” he told her.
How should she take that? She wasn’t certain. But, whatever.
“When is your next appointment?” he asked.
“Not till this evening. I’m planning to do some paperwork, make some calls and put the tree up.”
“How about you get your coat on, I take you to lunch and then help with the tree.”
He didn’t ask as if it were a question, she noticed, but yeah, she was hungry and didn’t really want to drive in the now sleety rain. She could use a chauffeur.
“Don’t you have a job?” she asked him. “I can manage to do those things, you don’t have to take time out of your day for me.”
In answer, he took her coat off the coat rack and held it out so she could put her arms in it. No one had done that for her since she was a small child. But for some reason her arms slid into the sleeves and then he turned her around and fastened a button.
“There, need to grab your purse or anything?” he asked her. “I know women always need their purses.”
“We do,” she agreed. “We have secrets in there that no one can find out about, and stuff we can’t live without.”
“Scary girl things.” He nodded as he opened the office door for her and flipped off the light. “Lock up.”
“Oh, it should be fine,” she said. “We won’t be gone long.”
“Lock up,” he said very quietly.
She stopped and locked the door, and as she turned back toward him, he said, “Good girl. Always be safe.”
Good girl? Okay. Why did that make her feel... Well, she didn’t know how it made her feel. Weird, somehow.
He unlocked the car with his key fob and grabbed her hand. “Let’s run.” He grinned at her and they dashed toward his car in the icy rain. He opened her door, and then shut it as soon as she got in, and strode to his side, the rain turning his dark hair darker. Lock up? Good girl? What is with him? she wondered as he got in the car and reached into the back seat, grabbing a towel.
“Here, you can wipe down.”
“You are wetter than I am,” she noted, but taking it, quickly dried her hands and face. Then she gave it to him. “Your turn.”
“Thank you,” he said, giving his hands, face, and hair a quick once over. Then he tossed the towel in the back seat. “Where do you think I’m taking you for lunch?”
How should she know? “Diane’s Diner?” she guessed. It was a nice place and she had lunch there often. The food was good, inexpensive and was served quickly, so you were in and out as fast as you wanted to be.
“Sounds good,” he said.
“That was a guess,” she said. “We can go anywhere you want.”
“If you ever ask a woman where she wants to eat, she will say ‘I don’t care.’ But if you ask her where she thinks you are taking her, and then you take her to her first guess, it is probably where she really wanted to go.” He grinned at her. “And that is all you need to know about males.”
Ellie giggled and shook her head. “Men are so devious!”
“We are.” He nodded solemnly. “But we try to take good care of our women, in whatever form that takes. If only they would tell us where they want to eat!”
“And now you have that covered,” she said. “You must be practically perfect in every way.”
“Sometimes I think I am.” He smiled at her as if to belie his words.
“They should be putting the lights and decorations out soon,” Ellie said, changing the subject deliberately. “Are you a big holiday person?”
“Not really,” he responded. “I play Santa in the parade in honor of my dad, but other than that, I really don’t pay much attention to them. Holidays are usually just a blip on my radar and I’m always glad when they are over. How about you?”
“Oh, I do it up big. I’m one of those,” she confessed as he pulled into the diner’s parking lot.
“I’m going to drop you off at the door,” he said, as he pulled up right next to it.
“You don’t have to do that,” she said.
In reply, he got out, went around the car to her door and opened it.
Obediently, she got out and headed to the door, feeling badly that he had to get even more wet. She should have listened to him.
“Hi, Ellie,” Kirsten greeted her. “One today?”
Why did she feel shy suddenly? She met clients and friends here all the time. “Two of us today,” she said, brightly. “He’s parking the car.” Kirsten didn’t need to know he wasn’t a client.
“Corner booth for privacy?” she asked.
“Sure. Here he is now.”
“Oh, Mike, good to see you again,” Kirsten said. “You looking for a new house?”
“You never know,” he said, looking at Ellie.
She wanted to protest that she hadn’t said anything like that to the hostess. But instead, she just smiled and led the way to the corner booth.
“New house?” he asked once Kirsten gave them menus and took their drink order.
“I bring clients here a lot. I guess she assumed,” Ellie answered, wondering why she felt guilty when there was no reason to.
“I see,” he said. “Well, who knows? I could be looking for a house.”
“Good thing you know a realtor.” She pointed out with a saucy grin. “Where do you live now?”
“Condo on the edge of town.”
She knew those condos. Pricy. What did he do for a living? “You want to get out of there into a house?” she asked.
“I hadn’t thought about it till right this minute. But if I do, good thing I know a realtor.”
The waitress arrived with their drinks, ready to take their food order.
Once they were alone again, Ellie changed the subject. “I’m sorry I didn’t believe you about the Santa thing. You have to admit that you really are the opposite of what Santa looks like.”
“Santa is in the eye of the beholder,” he informed her.
“Many things are,” she agreed. “But the kids have expectations. I’m glad you meet those.”
“I’m glad you are glad,” he said.
Okay, Ellie, go for it. “So, do you and your wife have any kids?” Wow, she did it! Boldness personified!
“I have neither a wife nor kids,” he said. “You?”
“I, also, have neither a wife nor kids,” she said. “Or a husband for that matter.”
“I, too, have no husband,” he said, sipping his coffee. “So, why did you start doing the parade?”
“To give back to the city? Out of the goodness of my heart?” she offered. Then shrugged, and said, “Well, some of that, but really because I’m focusing on getting my business going. I want to be the top realtor in the area and there are some big shoes to pass up. This will help. We need to have about fifty volunteers, plus all the people in the parade now have my contact information.”
“A good reason,” he said. “You have a good plan, as long as you don’t get overwhelmed.”
“Everyone gets overwhelmed their first time on a job. It will get easier as it goes.”
The waitress set their plates down and they both thanked her as she left. He’s polite to the workers, Ellie noted. She liked that.
They sat and chatted for another hour before he said, “Well, we’d better get back to your office. There’s a tree to put up.”
“Oh, you don’t have to do that,” she protested.
“Yes. I do. I said I would and I always do what I say,” he replied in a tone that made her shiver.
What was with that? Anticipating going out in the cold rain. That was all it was, she assured herself. She wasn’t attracted to alpha males. Her brother was all the alpha she could stand. Their parents had passed away in a car accident when he was twenty and she was fifteen. H
e claimed that he’d raised her, but really, her parents had done a fine job and her grandmother took her in while he was in college. Hank felt very protective over her, she knew, and that often took the form of being bossy. No wonder he couldn’t keep a girlfriend! He had high hopes for the new neighbor next door, but how long would she tolerate him telling her what to do? Smiling at the thought, Ellie noticed Mike looking at her quizzically.
“Just thinking of my brother,” she told him. “You remind me a little of him.”
“Not a good thing to be assigned to the brother zone,” he said, throwing down cash for the lunch.
“Let me get my half,” she said, pulling her wallet out of her purse.
He simply shook his head.
“Then the tip,” she announced.
“Nope. Got that. You ready?”
She shivered at the thought and he smiled at her. “I already started the car with my remote start. It should be nice and warm. Plus, I have seat warmers. Your fanny will be toasty.”
“Who doesn’t love that?” she agreed. Fanny? That was an old-fashioned word she hadn’t heard for a while.
They stood up and once again he held her coat out for her to slip on. Nice. She needed to take care not get used to that.
“Wait here,” Mike said when they got to the front door.
This time she listened to him without protest, while looking out at the sleety rain which seemed to be coming down heavier than before. Hoping the power stayed on, she shivered again, and was glad that he was the one dealing with scraping the car in this mess. How sexist was she? Well, it wasn’t like she did it every day by herself. When she went home tonight, her car would be a mess. Everyone could use a little spoiling now and then. Today, obviously was her turn.
He pulled up in front of the diner and she ran out and got into the door he’d opened from inside, at least. “Oh, it is warm in here,” she said.
“I don’t lie,” he said. “I thought we covered that.”
