His Secret Santa

by Stella Ferris

  Devyn stiffened waiting on him to finish.

  “I always took care of her. I didn’t push her for medicine or leave her when things got hard. I made sure she was okay, and my sister hated it. She hated our mom for what she ‘did to us’ even though it was our dad that fucked up. My sister doesn’t know it, but I overheard him before he walked out. He didn’t leave just because of our mom. He also left because he didn't want to come home to ‘two brats after a hard days work’ so he bailed.” Chad’s grip on the couch tighten. He urged himself to loosen his fingers and let go of the arm of the couch before he accidentally ripped it off.

  “Mom couldn’t hold down a job, so I ended up going to work pretty early and my sister’s just like our dad. If she could get out of here she would, but she’s stuck. She doesn’t have a job or any money. She kind of jumps around from guy to guy, sucking them dry until she is right back where she started.”

  Devyn’s lips were pressed thin as she soaked in the information. He finally let his hand tangle in hers, lacing his fingers through hers like she could keep him from floating away. He felt like he just might after the weight he had gotten off his chest. Had he ever talked about what happened between his family? He didn’t think he had, but for some reason he decided to tell her. Tell Devyn Kennedy. His boss. The woman he was falling for way too quickly. Chad knew something else was going to come out. He felt it climbing out of his chest before he could process the words spilling from his lips.

  “Truth be told, I didn’t want the job you have,” he said, the words slipping by without a second thought. His brain couldn’t catch up with the secrets he was letting her know. “I just wanted the experience. I want to open my own store and I thought running someone else’s store would help me out. Help get me there, ya know? I know it sounds stupid, but it’s always been my dream to have a place of my own. Something meaningful that would help people.”

  “You’re joking,” she said, her mouth hanging open at him. He knew he shouldn’t have said anything, but the damn words spilled out of him before he could stop them. He hadn’t wanted Devyn to know all of that so quickly, but part of him did. He was tired of hiding it all from her. He wanted her to know the truth if there was any way they could have a future together. But still, he couldn’t help the way his face burned and the regret swam in his stomach.

  “I knew you’d think it was stupid.”

  “I don’t.” Devyn placed her hand on his chest. Her brown eyes connected with his and he saw the passion behind him. “It’s not stupid. It’s insane.”

  She shook her head, but Chad looked away before he could see the way her lips tugged up on either side. Her words warmed his face, embarrassing him for sharing too much with her. No one had ever understood his dream. Not his sister. Not his friends. Certainly not her. He scolded himself for believing otherwise.

  “Me too,” her words were soft.

  If he hadn't been listening closely he would have missed them. Me too. The words stopped him. Her sweet voice slipped out only loud enough to hear over the soft hum of the TV.

  “I used to tell my sister I would build an empire,” she said pushing off the couch to sit up straight. “I wanted this job for the same reason. I wanted the experience because I want to be a CEO someday. I don’t know what I want to do exactly, but I want it to be more than what I am now. I don’t want to be a manager at someone else’s company. I want whatever I do to be mine. I don’t want to work my ass off to make someone else rich. Maria has always said I should just be grateful for the life I have and the amazing job I have, but she doesn’t get it. She has always been content just living, but not me. I’ve never wanted a life of contentment. I know I’m destined for greatness. I can feel it. I can make a difference, but I just can’t figure out how I’m going to do it yet.”

  Chad’s heart swelled, and in that moment, he knew it was over. He couldn’t walk away after the bet. He brushed his fingertips over her arm before moving his hand to her face. He cupped it and pulled her forward. Their foreheads met, the contact between them making him crazy. The world didn’t matter. With the two of them, anything was possible, and now that Chad knew that, he would never let her go. He hadn’t started to fall. He had. He was already there.

  He tangled his hands in her hair and pressed her mouth to his.

  12

  Devyn normally woke up every morning to an alarm at 5:30 sharp, but something was wrong. Her alarm didn’t go off, but there was something playing. It wasn’t her alarm. It was a phone. She uncurled herself from her bed— no — from Chad. Her body had been curled around his on the tiny couch they had shared the night before. Her eyes adjusted to the room, searching for the sound that was coming from across the room. The screen lit up the entire room, and she was surprised it hadn’t woken Chad up. She grabbed it, clicking the sound button on the side of the phone silencing it in her hand. The caller ID was hidden. What was someone doing calling her an hour before her alarm went off? Her body stiffened because there was only one person who would call her at this hour.

  She hit the lock button, ignoring the incoming call. She let the phone buzz in her hand and when it finally stopped she unlocked the screen. A notification popped up on her screen. She had received a voicemail from her unknown caller.

  Then her phone started ringing again, the flashing screen lighting up the couch. If she didn’t watch, it would wake Chad, who was somehow still sleeping soundly beside her. She hit decline on the unknown number, sending whoever was trying to reach her to her voicemail. If it was Alex, Devyn hoped this sent a message to her. To fucking stop it. The phone started ringing again. Her eye twitched. Devyn clenched her jaw, tightening the grip around the device. She wasn’t in the mood. She hadn’t slept this good since before she got her job. She peeled herself off the couch and walked into the other room. She slid her finger across the screen, answering the incoming call.

  “Who is this?” Devyn made the words sharp, harsh to make a point to whoever was on the other line, even though she had a good idea.

  “Don’t play dumb,” Alex’s voice came through the other end, making Devyn grit her teeth. Alex’s shrill voice sounded like nails on a chalkboard. Devyn had grown to hate their phone calls in the few short months she had been working under her. Alex made impossible demands and just expected Devyn to play along. She was getting tired of the way Alex would send her on wild goose chases for things the company couldn’t have. She had been biting her tongue for too long.

  “It’s four in the morning,” Devyn said, hoping the stern tone she had taken on would be enough to sway this conversation to ending.

  “Okay?” Alex said. Heat flooded her cheeks. Devyn didn’t think she could hold back her temper this early in the morning. Maybe if she had gotten up on her own. “Truthfully Devyn, I don’t care what time it is.”

  “Well, good for you,” Devyn retorted, her voice dropped an octave. She had never talked back to a superior in her entire life, but after every line Alex crossed, Devyn knew this was the last one. She was done with her shit. She couldn’t handle another moment of listening to her spout bullshit without saying something to her. She needed to say anything. “I do care. I was asleep. I was sleeping pretty good too, and there is nothing that I can do for Maxi’s at 4 in the morning.”

  “Silly girl,” Alex laughed, her voice carrying on the other end of the phone. “I own you. You're salary, remember.”

  “You think that. I’m not your toy to play with.”

  “Yes you are. Whether you want to admit it or not Devyn, you are mine. I own you.”

  “No,” an edge raised in the tone of her voice, “you don’t. I suggest you get a reality check, Alex. You don’t have a right to wake me up at 4 in the morning. There isn’t a single emergency that would require me at 4 in the morning. The building could be on fire, but that still wouldn’t be my problem. I don’t have any employees in that building until at least 6.”

  “I beg to differ, Devyn.” Devyn held her breath, waiting for her reply.
“I believe the way this works is I hired you as a salary employee, and if I call and need you to do more work, then that is what you have to do. There is nothing that you can do about that either. If you’d like to hand your position over, I recall there is another person who would have gladly taken the position I gave you.”

  “You didn’t give me anything.” Devyn crossed her arms over her chest. Her voice leveled out and the anger she felt moments before started to diminish. “You wish that you had given it to me, but you didn’t. I earned it. I worked myself ragged putting in hours off the clock to get my numbers where they needed to be on top of the years I spent getting my degree. You didn’t give me anything. You knew I was the best fit for the position. I was the best you could have hired for this company and, most importantly, you wanted someone to take over the jobs you didn’t want to do. That’s why you need me so bad, because I know if you fire me then you’ll be stuck doing them all yourself.”

  Alex hesiated. Devyn could hear her breathing on the other end, but she said nothing. Devyn chewed on her lip and forced herself to spit out the last bit of courage she had left.

  “If you think you can run this company without me then be my guest, but hear this. If you fire me without good reason, I will fight you every step of the way.” Devyn’s fingers curled around the railing of her stairs, her knuckles turning white around the wood. “And Alex, if you wake me up again, I will not be so nice.”

  She didn’t wait for Alex to respond and she ended the call.

  WHEN CHAD FINALLY ROLLED over at 5:45, she offered him some coffee and a shower. Unfortunately, she didn’t have an extra set of clothes for him to wear.

  “Don’t worry about it,” Chad said. His early morning voice was scratchy and deeper than normal. Her toes curled in response. He took a long drink of the steamy coffee from the mug she had grabbed for him. “I always keep a spare outfit in my car. Business professional and casual. You never know what will happen.”

  He winked at her and her cheeks warmed at the thought of him planning to stay over curled up on her couch. Yesterday she would have detested the idea, but now she welcomed it. How had she already started to feel more than distaste for this man? He sat the coffee cup back onto the table. A soft grunt escaped his lips. Devyn studied him. His eyelids slid over his eyes and a smile curled on the edges of his mouth. He pressed his back into the wooden kitchen chair and he brought the cup back up to his lips again. A soft hum escaped them this time.

  “What’s your plan for today?” Devyn asked, slipping a strand of hair behind her ear before taking a long sip of her own drink.

  His eyelids fluttered open, soaking her in. He smiled at her, exposing the whites of his teeth.

  “Nothing in particular.” His voice had already settled back into a low hum instead of the ragged growl he had managed earlier. Devyn’s heart fluttered at the way his teeth shone and his voiced melted her insides. After he opened up to her the night before, she knew deep down she would never view him the same again. He would never just be the guy who made her life hell. He would be the guy who managed to make work hell for a while but also managed to turn it around. To become a person she shared too many common interests with and made her melt at the drop of a hat.

  Even if she didn’t love Christmas after all of this was over, she didn’t know if she was ready to give him up.

  “How about we do a do over from yesterday,” she said, taking another long sip of her coffee.

  He stopped the cup before it got to his lips, barely averting the risk of spitting the drink across the table at her. He raised an eyebrow at her before parting his lips. He paused, unable to decide what he wanted to say before he closed them again.

  “I know yesterday sucked.” she curled her hands around the mug. “I want to try. Can we try again?”

  “Yeah, I’m sure we can.” He cleared his throat, obviously surprised by what she was saying.

  “Okay.” She looked down at the table and chewed on her bottom lip. “Surprise me. Family tradition. Lame Christmas game. Whatever. Just pick me up after work.”

  Chad smirked, looking at her over his coffee and nodded.

  “Deal,” he said, sitting his mug on the table and getting up out of his seat. He pushed away from the table and walked toward the door. She watched him disappear into the snowy morning and reappear holding a gym bag that she assumed held his clothes. He climbed the stairs to take his shower, and Devyn fought the urge to join him.

  13

  Chad picked Devyn up from her office like he had the day before, minus the kissing and almost having sex on her desk. Not that Devyn would complain if he did after the way she had thrown herself at him the night before. Hell, who was he kidding? He wanted it just as bad as she did, but he couldn’t give in yet. He couldn’t give her a single reason to pull away from him. If she thought he was only in this to fuck her then his chances something real with her were out of the picture.

  Somehow, they both managed to stay on their best behavior. Chad mentally vowed to keep his hands mostly to himself. He still found his fingers grazing her skin whenever he had a chance. Something had changed in her.

  Chad had a feeling Devyn had the gears turning in her pretty little head, and he was terrified it wasn’t in the way he wanted. He wasn’t sure if it was because he had managed to fall asleep on the couch shortly, after coming close to losing all their clothes and getting lost in each other— which this time he had put a stop to— or because of the way they opened up to each other.

  He shouldn’t have agreed to go out again tonight. He should have made a beeline back to his house to check on his mom and make sure she was okay after the way he had left her the night before. Lidia could be a cunt to their mother, and she wasn’t the best person to keep a watch on her. But he was finally getting Devyn to open up and he couldn’t pass up that opportunity.

  Chad swore to Lidia he wouldn’t be all night this time and he’d be home by eight. He couldn’t stay over tonight. No matter how badly he wanted to.

  Devyn was still clutching her phone in her hand like she had been yesterday. She seemed a little more tense than yesterday, but there was something different. It wasn’t the dread of having to go Christmas shopping because she had asked him for this.

  “Have you ever been ice skating?” Chad tossed a glance toward her, smiling before turning back to keep his eyes on the road.

  “No.” Devyn let out a long sigh before pressing her lips together in a thin line. “I wanted to go growing up.”

  She had asked him to surprise her with a holiday themed evening. He knew as soon as she asked where he would take her, and honestly, she had seemed excited. At least as excited as he could expect her to be.

  Devyn’s eyebrows furrowed and Chad waited for her to explain what she meant. Her nose scrunched, forming a series of rows on the bridge of her nose.

  “My mom—” her words choked in her throat and she paused. Devyn’s eyes welled, turning glassy.

  Chad extended his arm, wrapping his hand around her knee to comfort her. She waited, swallowing hard in an attempt to steady her voice.

  “My mom didn’t let us, but I always asked,” she said, the words barely audible over the static of the radio. She cleared her throat and spoke louder, “It was just a hassle. It was something that would pull her away from her lifestyle for even a minute. The Christmas movies were easy. Her kids were distracted for a little while when she wanted to get high, but ice skating wouldn’t be so simple. It was something that would require her attention, because if we were in public and got hurt under her watch it would raise questions. If we got hurt at home, it didn’t matter. She would just take care of the problem behind closed doors.”

  Devyn shuddered and Chad wrapped his arm around her waist, pulling her closer to the driver's seat. They sat there, not saying a word. Devyn leaned over resting her head on his shoulder.

  “I shouldn’t have told you that,” Devyn said matter of factly. There was no regret in her voice. It was simply a s
tatement, like she was used to keeping the traumatic history she endured to herself.

  Chad swallowed, unable to take his eyes off the road ahead of them. The snow had started falling heavier than when they left the building. He wanted to say something, but he didn’t know what. Saying he was sorry wouldn’t take her pain away.

  “You can tell me anything,” he said, letting the scowl on his face drop.

  Devyn sat in silence, keeping whatever was going on inside her head to herself. Chad pulled into the entrance of the ice skating rink. It was surprisingly slow for this time of year, but for Devyn’s first trip on the ice it was probably for the best. He threw the truck into park, and twisted his body around to look at her. He cocked his head at her, tilting her chin up toward him.

  “You are the most incredible woman I’ve ever met, you know that?”

  “You’re funny.” She tried to fight the smile on her lips, but he could see her eyes lighten up. He saw the smile she was trying to hide.

  “As glad as I am to hear you finally admit I’m hilarious, this isn’t the time. It’s time for you to let go of that memory you just shared with me and make a new one. Now get out of the truck and get ready to fall on your ass.”

  “You’re so romantic.” She rolled her eyes. “You really know how to make a girl swoon don’t you?”

  “You’re damn straight.”

  Chad opened the door and climbed down. He turned back to her, a grin on his face. He had changed into blue jeans and a plaid button up shirt before they left the office and Devyn had fought him on doing the same.

  “You coming or not Boss Lady?”

  Devyn finally smiled and extended her hand for him to help her down. She crawled out of the cab of the truck. Chad’s hand wrapped around her waist, and pulled her to the ground.

  “Do you know how to ice skate?”