by Candis Terry
“Yeah,” he answered like she’d just told him the sky was blue.
“Now look up.”
His eyes trailed north and landed on the ventilation problem. “Damn it. They installed it in the wrong place. I didn’t even notice.”
Gabi knew he would have if he weren’t so tired. He’d spent the night at her apartment after falling asleep spread out on her sofa with his head in her lap while Big Bang’s Sheldon performed his now infamous Penny, Penny, Penny knock. Gabi had tried to talk Parker into letting her take over the food truck for him that day, but he’d told her there was too much of a learning curve to jump in on a solo flight. Especially since the truck had been hired out for a holiday party at one of the nearby offices. So he’d taken the shift himself before he showed up at the restaurant to put in more work hours.
“Something has to change,” she said, pointing to the vent. “Otherwise you won’t meet code on inspection.”
“Damn it.”
The delivery guys sensed something was wrong and stopped what they were doing.
“If you switch the grill with the deep fryer and pasta cooker, it will be an easy fix,” Gabi said. “But it will mess up the flow of the work area.”
“So the only other solution will be a timely and costly relocation of the ventilation.” He closed his eyes and with two fingers put pressure on the bridge of his nose. “I’m so screwed.”
“Hold your horses.” She set the floor plan down on a nearby counter. “Did you sign off on the work?”
“I . . . don’t think so.”
Her eyebrows hiked up her forehead. “You don’t think? Or you know?”
He dropped his hand. “I can’t remember.”
The troubled expression darkening his eyes told the whole story. The man just needed to slow down and get some rest before he completely imploded.
“Can you do me a favor?” she asked.
“Sure.”
“A few days ago you said you trusted me. Can you trust me right now with this situation?”
“I can do more than that.”
“You can?”
“Yes. Gabriella? You’re hired.”
Those two words were better than the fanciest wrapped Christmas present.
“What’s my job title?” she asked, barely able to contain her excitement.
“What do you want it to be?”
The question threw her. But she’d learned that if you don’t ask for the moon, you won’t get the stars. The first day she’d walked in here she’d been full of herself and overly confident. She’d been prepared to bullshit her way through whatever was necessary to obtain her goal. But right now, all she wanted was an opportunity to learn and prove herself. And above all she wanted to help Parker and his family achieve the goal of opening this restaurant on time.
“Broiler or sauté cook?” she asked.
“Bullshit.” His eyes narrowed. “You’ll be my sous chef or you’ll be nothing.”
“But . . . Parker.” She curled her fingers around his forearm. “That’s your second in command.”
“You don’t want the job?”
“I do, but I haven’t even given you a job application or my resume. Or references.”
He captured her face between his hands and looked right into her eyes. “I trust you, Gabriella.”
Yep. Christmas morning. Happening right here.
“I won’t—”
“Let me down. I know.” He swept his thumb across her bottom lip. “And if you can make this ventilation problem go away, I’ll give you a raise.” With a smile he turned to go back into the front of the restaurant to finish whatever he’d been doing up on that ladder.
“We haven’t even talked about how much money you’re going to pay me,” she called after him. “So how much of a raise will I get?”
He gave her a tired laugh. “If you have to ask, I’ve been doing it wrong.”
She smiled. If she’d known he was talking about the perks of being his good-time girl, she’d have asked for more.
Spying a stack of invoices on the counter, she shuffled through until she found the one for the ventilation contractor.
“Gabriella literally saved the day,” Parker boasted while they enjoyed dinner that night at Declan and Brooke’s new house just a few miles away from the vineyard. The home was filled with Christmas spirit in the form of twinkling white lights, garlands of green, and an enormous decorated tree in the corner of the living room.
Admiration filled Parker’s soul as he looked across the table at Gabriella. “Thanks to her, not only did it not cost me a dime to get the ventilation fixed, but they discounted the original price because it was their screwup. So now, instead of me having to fight a big battle to get things fixed before inspection, the restaurant opening is still on schedule.”
“Way to go, Gabriella.” Brooke fist bumped her.
“Parker has enough going on,” she replied. “I was happy to be able to help.”
“Don’t be so modest.” Parker slipped his hand over the top of hers on the table just because he had to touch her. “She also got all the meals figured out for Jordy and Lucy’s rehearsal dinner and the reception.”
“Wow.” Dec laughed. “Looks like Christmas miracles do exist.”
“You’re not going to believe the menu they came up with,” Parker said, sticking his fork into Brooke’s delicious homemade lasagna.
“Lobster and caviar?” Declan asked with a grin, knowing their brother had always indulged in the finer things when he’d been an NHL player.
“Nope. Food stations with stuff like baked potatoes, mac and cheese, and French fries.”
“Not that there’s anything wrong with that,” Dec said, “but, you’re kidding. Jordan has been driving all of us crazy with this wedding planning stuff. I figured he’d go over the top.”
“I think he might have finally realized that Lucy really wants to scale everything down,” Gabriella said. “I get the feeling she’s not much of an extrovert.”
“She’s not. She’s a very private person.” Brooke sipped her wine then set her glass down. “Which is why I think it surprised everyone that she and Jordan are such a perfect match. Because he’s totally an extrovert.”
“Opposites attract.” Parker shrugged, wondering if that was true, why he and Gabriella seemed to do so well when they had so much in common. “Right?”
“Not always.” Brooke grinned. “You two seem to be doing okay.”
Instantly, Parker felt the pressure to explain their relationship. How could he do that when he was still trying to figure things out?
“That’s because we’re just keeping things fun and casual.” For reassurance, Parker looked to Gabriella for confirmation. “Right?”
Her gaze immediately went to her plate where she pushed a piece of lasagna around with her fork. “Right.”
Parker felt like an ass when an awkward silence brought the conversation to a halt. Dec and Brooke gave each other some kind of secret handshake look. A look reserved for couples who were in sync. Couples with a future together. Parker didn’t know that look. Had never felt it or shared it with another woman. But the fact that now Gabriella wouldn’t meet his eyes told him he’d stepped in it big time. And that left him feeling confused. They’d both agreed on the type of relationship they expected. They were both on the same page. Weren’t they? But if that was true, why did he suddenly have a huge lump in the pit of his stomach that had him pushing away his half-eaten plate of food?
“I like the new place,” he said, quickly changing the subject and hopefully taking the heat off the moment. “You’ve got lots of room to grow here.”
“That’s because we’re getting married in a few months.” Declan frowned at him as though he’d just enrolled in the idiot-of-the-month club. “And we plan to have a big family.”
“And Moochie wants us to get another dog to keep her company because we’re both at work so much,” Brooke added.
“Sounds like you’ve got i
t all figured out,” Parker said.
“Yeah. Some of us are lucky that way.” Declan’s glare intensified. “The rest of us should get a clue.”
Parker didn’t know how, but the evening had just gone from pleasant to how-fast-can-I-get-out-of-here.
When Gabriella offered to help Brooke clear the table, Parker knew by the intensity in his older brother’s eyes that he was about to get a verbal spanking. And as soon as the ladies left the room, Dec proved him right.
“You’re not serious.”
“About what?” Parker asked.
Dec tilted his head toward the kitchen where Gabriella and Brooke were cleaning up.
“Cut me some slack. We haven’t known each other that long. You knew Brooke for four years before you finally got a clue.”
“Right. And I almost lost her because of my stupidity.” Dec leaned back in his chair. “You willing to take that chance?”
At that moment, the ladies came back into the dining room, saving Parker from having to give a response. But the question lingered. And in all honesty, he really didn’t have an answer.
When Parker drove Gabriella back to her apartment to drop her off, his mind was still working overtime thinking about what his brother had asked.
He’d met and bedded plenty of women. For the most part they’d all been nice and he’d enjoyed spending some time with them. He’d even dated a few for a couple of months. But none of them had ever stirred up any feelings in his heart.
And that’s where the real problem lay.
With Christmas only a couple of weeks away, the stores, shops, and even the streets were bursting with holiday cheer that naturally brought a sense of family, home, and love. Every music station had deviated from their normal playlists to either classic or ridiculous holiday tunes. He still wasn’t sure how dogs barking to “Jingle Bells” or Grandma getting run over by a reindeer was meant to add to the holiday, but apparently he didn’t think like everyone else. Almost every TV commercial promoted the holiday with romantic scenes of champagne-filled flutes, a roaring fireplace, and a man proposing to a woman in the snow with a Christmas tree lit up in the background.
Unless you were dead, you couldn’t ignore the impending holly jolly. And if you were a guy in any kind of a relationship—casual or otherwise—you felt the pressure to do something big for the girl you were dating. Countless men proposed on Christmas or New Year’s Eve. But he and Gabriella were just getting to know each other. So how would this all play out? Would they see each other Christmas day? Or would they each do their own thing separately?
Other than figuring out what gifts to buy his family, or how many holiday parties to book for his food truck, he’d never given the holiday much thought. His family usually came together at some point during the day to exchange gifts, but then they spread out to celebrate in their own way with whomever they chose. Many of those times he’d call up friends or whomever he’d been dating at the time. Other times he spent the rest of the holiday alone.
As he walked Gabriella to her door, realization hit him like a wallop from Jack Frost.
Everything had changed.
When he hadn’t been looking, Gabriella had become someone to him. Someone he enjoyed. Someone he liked to spend time with. Someone he wanted to be with. Especially on a holiday that celebrated all things warm, glittery, and, yeah, romantic.
When she opened the door to her apartment, Parker noticed that everything looked the same. Other than a lonely poinsettia plant in the center of her dining table there wasn’t a single sign that the holiday was near. Did she even plan to celebrate? Would she be alone? The idea of her being locked up inside this little apartment on Christmas with nothing but a Siamese fighting fish to keep her company burned a hole in the center of his chest. She’d mentioned that her family was estranged since her parents’ divorce. In essence that made them both parentless for the holidays.
“You want a glass of wine?” Gabriella asked him as she tossed her coat on the back of a chair. “I’ve got chardonnay and cabernet.”
“Chardonnay will be fine.” As he came inside, he glanced around her apartment again. “No tree?”
She opened the refrigerator door and shook her head.
“No decorations?”
Popping the cork on the bottle of wine, she again shook her head.
“Are you hiding from Christmas?” he asked.
In the process of removing a wine glass from her cupboard, she looked at him over her shoulder. “Hiding?”
“Yeah.” He pointed to the lone poinsettia on her table. “Is that as festive as you’re going to get?”
“I’ve got all kinds of decorations.”
He looked around the apartment again. “Where?”
“In the closet.” She poured their glasses half full then handed him one.
“So you just haven’t put them up yet?” he asked.
“They’ve been in the closet since the day I bought them. I got them at an after Christmas sale about five years ago.”
“Five years?”
She nodded.
“And they’ve never been out of the boxes?”
“Nope.”
His stomach twisted. “Why?”
“Because after watching my parents battle it out in the courtroom and seeing them be granted their divorce—two weeks before Christmas—I just haven’t ever felt the spirit. I kept trying—thus the purchase of the decorations—but the mood just never materialized. Know what I mean?”
“Yeah.”
He stuck a hand in the pocket of his coat. Sighed to try and release the pressure in his chest. The ache in his heart.
Gabriella took another sip of wine and watched him over the rim of the glass.
Fuck this.
He didn’t know what his family had planned for the big day; maybe the thought of everyone being together without their mom and dad was too much. No one had made an attempt to plan anything yet. He didn’t want to end up spending the holidays alone and he didn’t want her to spend them alone either. He didn’t know where this fun, casual, no strings thing between them was going, but right now they enjoyed each other’s company. They enjoyed each other’s bodies. And soon they’d be working side by side. That, at least, gave them something to celebrate.
“Grab your fish. And point me toward the closet where your decorations are hidden.” He didn’t mean to growl, but it had still come out that way.
“Why?”
“Because you and your little bubble blowing friend are coming to my house.” He set down his wine glass and curled his hands around her arms. “You’re not spending the holidays alone and neither am I. We’re going to stop on the way home and get a real live Christmas tree, even if we have to steal one. Then we’re going to put a fire in the fireplace, turn on some holiday tunes, and decorate until we’re too exhausted to know the difference between Elf on the Shelf and Buddy the Elf.”
A smile played on her luscious lips, but she didn’t fully give in to it. “Have you been hiding from Christmas too?” she asked.
He nodded. “This is the first one without my parents. I’ve been too busy to let that reality sink in. Now that it has . . .” He shrugged. “It just doesn’t feel the same.”
“I guess we have a lot in common.”
Declan’s question came roaring back.
Was he willing to take a chance?
If he didn’t, what would happen?
He looked at the woman before him. She made him feel good. She made him feel wanted. She made him feel like he could do anything and succeed. He wanted to make her feel that way too. Without another thought, he stepped to the edge and jumped.
“Yeah. I think we do.”
Chapter 14
“Do you think it’s leaning?”
Gabi tilted her head and looked at the seven-foot Douglas fir Parker had set up in front of his windows overlooking the Columbia River. It had taken them twenty minutes in the freezing cold to finally decide on the not quite perfectly shaped tre
e, and then another twenty tying it to the roof of Parker’s SUV. By the time they’d gotten the darned thing inside, Gabi felt like a Popsicle.
“Nope.” She squinted. “Looks perfectly straight to me.”
Parker laughed. “That’s because you’re leaning.”
“Then stop serving me wine if you expect my decorating views to be accurate.”
“If I stop serving wine, my family goes out of business,” he joked. “You’re the one who chose the chilled pinot.”
“Then I must have been crazy. Because, baby, it’s cold outside,” Gabi sang along with the stereo. “Aren’t you listening to the song?”
“I’m listening to you.”
“You need warming up?”
“Yes.” He came to where she stood in the kitchen, settled his hands on her hips, and pulled her in close. “So why aren’t we drinking hot toddies naked instead?”
“Because I’m standing guard over the popcorn in the microwave.” For the first time she’d found a good use for the snack. They were actually going to string some and use it as a garland on the tree along with the cranberries he’d had in his freezer.
“And because we have a vineyard to support. So the more wine we drink, the better.” She cocked her head then pointed with her wine glass. “That tree is crooked. So it looks like the naked part of the evening will have to wait until later.”
“Damn it.” He gave her a quick kiss then went back to tree duty.
On the kitchen counter Basil watched them from behind the safety screen of his plastic plants. The popping in the microwave stopped and Gabi opened the door. Steam rolled out and she backed up a bit. “Are we really going to string this stuff? Or can we eat it?”
“You didn’t get enough to eat at Dec and Brooke’s house?”
“I got plenty. And it was very nice of them to invite us over to their new house. But I’m a snacker. If you put something that tastes good in front of me I’m going to have my mouth all over it.”
“And now you’re talking dirty?” He grinned wickedly as he tightened the bolts in the tree stand. “How am I ever going to get this tree right?”
