Melodies and Mistletoe (Christmas in the City Book 3)

by Kasey Stockton

  “How far is the school?”

  “Two blocks,” Hailey said.

  Kendra ate her last bite of cronut and licked her fingers before tentatively taking a sip of hot chocolate. She stopped on the sidewalk, turning her stricken face on her uncle. “Oh no! I ate the whole thing! I was going to let you try it.”

  “That’s okay, Ken. I can get one next time I go.”

  Her face brightened. “Or you could try Hailey’s if she says it’s okay.”

  Gee thanks, kid. Hailey smiled at Kendra’s hopeful, shiny eyes and lifted her pastry bag to Ryan. “You can have it.”

  He laughed. “I’m not taking your cronut.”

  “Have you really never had one?”

  His face creased into an apology. “I’m afraid I haven’t. I have heard of them before though.”

  “Well, think a croissant, like the one you threw at my coat—”

  “Okay, okay…” He threw up his hands, chuckling.

  “—but deep-fried and covered in icing.”

  “It sounds delicious.”

  Hailey reached into her pastry bag and ripped the cronut in half, offering a piece to him. “Try it.”

  “Thanks.” Ryan accepted the pastry, winked at his niece, and took a bite. “Mmm. This really is good.” He shoved the rest in his mouth, and Hailey made herself look away. Even the way he ate was attractive, highlighting his strong jaw.

  This was not good. She could not find Amber’s brother attractive. The guy was wearing a designer suit and…wait. She sized him up, trying to imagine how he’d appear if all she could see was the top of his head as he analyzed his chest.

  It added up. Same suit, same build, same bulky biceps straining against the coat sleeves. The guy had been heading right for the Martinezes’ private elevator. This had to be the rude man she’d run into last night.

  Kendra chatted in between sips of her child-sized hot chocolate as they traveled the last block to the school then handed Hailey her empty cup. She hugged Ryan, and he kissed the top of her head. “Have a good day, Kenny. I’ll see you later.”

  “Today?” she asked, her bright eyes betraying her hope.

  “Probably not today, but soon.”

  “Okay. Bye, Hailey!” she called, turning to run into the school’s small, gated yard.

  The teacher latched the gate behind Kendra, and Hailey passed Ryan, searching the street to find a trash can. She hadn’t even had a sip of her own drink yet, but her stomach would probably resent it now anyway. She needed to get a good distance from Ryan so she could breathe again.

  “So, what are you doing now?” he asked, his hands resting casually in his coat pockets.

  “I have some errands to run for Amber.”

  “Oh, you’re an assistant, too?”

  “No.” She spotted a trash can down the way and started toward it. Maybe if she was lucky, he wouldn’t follow her.

  Darn. She wasn’t lucky.

  “Then what are you to Amber?”

  Slipping the remaining half of the cronut into her purse for later, she tossed Kendra’s cup in the trash and took a sip from her own. Mmm. Okay, so hot chocolate was nice in the morning. It slowly warmed her core from the inside. Facing Ryan, it was hard not to notice his sculpted cheekbones and direct gaze in the crisp morning light.

  “I’m her daughter’s nanny. Everything I do is for Kendra.”

  Ryan narrowed his hazel eyes. “Why do I have the impression you don’t like me very much?”

  Uh oh. Had she been super obvious? Time to backtrack. “I don’t know you well enough to like you or not.”

  “That really didn’t answer my question.”

  She raised her eyebrows, taking another sip of her drink. A woman walked by, pushing a wide jogging stroller, and Hailey moved closer to the street to give her room to pass.

  “New question,” he said, stepping to the side with her. He ended up uncomfortably close. “Why do I have the impression you really don’t want to be my friend?”

  “Maybe you should look internally for an answer to that question.” There. That would confuse the heck out of him, and it wouldn’t get her in trouble with her boss. But seriously? What was this guy thinking? She turned around and started walking, sipping more of her drink. It was settling nicely in her stomach, despite her earlier worry, and warming her frozen fingers.

  “Hey, wait.” He jogged to catch up. “Seriously, I don’t get it. I help you out, and this is how you treat me?”

  She halted, causing Ryan to bump her with his shoulder; her drink sloshed at the impact, spilling hot chocolate on her hand. She sucked air through her teeth, immediately wiping her hand on her pants to remove the sticky liquid.

  “Sorry.”

  “Forgiven.”

  “So easily?” he asked. “You’re hard to figure out.”

  “Tell me something. Did you go see your sister last night? Like around ten?”

  “Yes.”

  She stared at him, blinking slowly. “Did you run into anyone in the lobby?”

  “No. Wait…” Recognition lit his eyes. “Was that you? The woman that bolted out of the elevator?” He put a hand out. “Okay, I know I was being rude then, and I don’t have an excuse. I was frustrated, it was the end of a really long day, and I had just come from an important client dinner…”

  “You always decide how you choose to treat people, and it shouldn’t be something that varies depending on circumstance.”

  “Oh, come on, Hailey.”

  “Listen, these”—she pointed to the mess on her coat and the hot chocolate stain on her hand—“were clearly both accidents. Calling me out on the internet and pointing out my flaws was intentional. So no, Ryan Says, we are not, and never will be, friends.”

  Chapter Five

  Ryan could not have been friend-zoned harder—and by a woman who didn’t even want to be his friend. He rounded up all the attraction he felt and did his best to throw it into a bucket of ice water because this woman clearly did not like him. Though, how she could possibly have taken anything negative away from his YouTube critique flummoxed him. He’d been blown away by her voice. Had she not watched it? She really hadn’t seen his admiration?

  Her green eyes were blazing, her lips flat. The December cold was pinking her cheeks. Or, maybe that was her anger.

  Well, Ryan had said in the video that he could take a hint, and she had just delivered one on a semi-truck. Except, she hadn’t said anything about his offer. “What about business colleagues?”

  She tucked her chin, lines forming on her brow. “What?”

  He’d surprised her. Maybe that was a good sign. “The gig I offered you. It’s still yours if you want it. I’m not asking to be your friend or anything. We can have a strictly professional relationship.”

  Hailey’s calculating eyes roamed over his face. “You’re serious.”

  “Of course I’m serious. We need someone to play for the fiftieth anniversary of Sound Magazine on New Year’s Eve. The song you performed is perfect for the event. How many similar songs do you have prepared?”

  “None.”

  Now it was his turn to be surprised.

  “I threw that together in half an hour and my friend posted it online. We weren’t expecting to get any kind of reaction.”

  He was satisfied to learn that he’d pegged her correctly after hearing her sing. Of course his initial thoughts when he saw the hat and the stool weren’t kind, but he’d keep those to himself. “So could you come up with more music that’s similar? Christmas songs redone, I mean.”

  “I could, but…I don’t know.” She lifted her cup and sipped from it. She’d sipped the giant cup of hot chocolate no more than three or four times, and he wondered if she’d ordered such a big one just to spite him. Given her current reaction, he wouldn’t put it past her.

  “What if I give you the day to think about it and you can let me know?”

  “Yeah, I guess that would work.”

  She seriously wasn’t jump
ing at this chance of a lifetime? Ryan tried to understand her hesitation, but he couldn’t. “Okay. I’ll expect to receive your answer by the end of the day.”

  She nodded, appearing unsure. He pulled his card from his wallet and flipped it over. Then, taking a pen from his bag, he wrote his cell number in black ballpoint. “I look forward to hearing from you.”

  She quirked an eyebrow at him, and he chuckled. “Think what you want, but I really am a nice guy.”

  “I’ll believe it when I see it.”

  “Then give me a chance to let you see it.”

  Hailey didn’t respond to his blatant flirt, and he didn’t blame her. She’d told him she wasn’t interested, and it was immensely disappointing. Instead, she tucked the card into her purse and turned to walk down the sidewalk. He stood there and watched her go, refusing to check the time. Carter had probably called him forty times if the incessant buzzing on his watch meant anything; he could only hope they had managed to clear the Hailey Grant wannabes out of his office.

  Halfway down the block Hailey dropped her cup in the garbage can and kept going until she disappeared around the corner. Yep. She’d totally bought that drink just to spite him. And despite himself, he couldn’t help but grin.

  The sky was dimming beyond the windows and Ryan was tired of being in the office. He’d arrived at Sound’s building in time to watch security escorting a few stragglers from the lobby, and he’d been grateful he hadn’t had to deal with that.

  Note to self: don’t put an offer like that on YouTube—or any internet site, for that matter—ever again.

  Carter had been a champ though. If he’d really been worried about it, he could have edited that last ten seconds out of the video.

  A beep preceded his secretary’s voice on his phone’s intercom. “Your sister is on line two.”

  “Thanks, Karen.” He pressed the button, then clicked the speaker option. “Hey, Amber.”

  She sighed, blowing static into the speaker. “Can we reschedule? I promised Kenny I would tuck her in tonight, and I haven’t done it once this week. I really need to be home.”

  He pinched the bridge of his nose, leaning his elbow on the glass top desk. “The meeting with Bradshaw is tomorrow.”

  “Yes, and I feel fully prepared. Everything for my magazine is in order.”

  “But I don’t.”

  “Ryan, this is why we have a board. So that you don’t have to do this sort of thing alone.”

  “But it hasn’t been doing great, which is why I moved home. I’m not going to move across the country and then give a half-effort to reviving the magazine. I want to be prepared for everything Bradshaw throws at us. We need this ad account.”

  “Then meet me at my place. We can hold the meeting after I kiss Kendra goodnight.”

  He dropped his hand, staring at the phone. That could work, and he might have a chance to see Hailey again. She hadn’t called him yet…not that he’d been checking his phone every five minutes or anything.

  He cleared his throat. “Sure. What time?”

  “Eight-thirty? Nine?”

  “Deal. I’ll see you then.”

  Ryan hung up the phone when a knock came on his office door.

  “I’m just heading out,” Carter said, slipping inside the room. “I’ve got Janica Harper lined up for a photoshoot Tuesday, and Sarah’s team will handle the interview. It’s the perfect cover for the New Year’s edition.”

  “That’s fantastic, but won’t it be cutting things a little close? Everything has to be finalized by next Friday. That only leaves us three days.”

  “My team is on top of things. I think if everything else is ready by then it should be fine. Did you read Sarah’s email yet? She outlined her ideas for the interview.”

  “No, but I trust her. I’m sure it’ll be great.”

  Carter stepped further into the room, dropping into one of the chairs on the other side of Ryan’s desk. “She thinks the feature should wait to go live on the website until a week after the magazine is released.”

  “But we always release it the same day.”

  “Which gives readers no motivation to buy the hard copy. I see what she’s getting at here. You did send out that email asking for revival ideas.”

  “True. I’ll read it and think it over.” He leaned back in his chair. “I don’t know if I’ll have the brain capacity for it until the meeting with Bradshaw is over.”

  “Have you checked the numbers for your Ryan Says video? That should help.”

  He nodded. “Let’s hope so. If we don’t get this ad funding we can’t expand the digital platform.” He rubbed his temples. “I don’t really want to be the Bierman who lets the magazine fail right after its fiftieth anniversary. My grandpa and my dad will be shaking their heads at me from heaven.”

  “If they’re really watching you, man, then they know you’ve been in California the last five years.”

  “Exactly. I ran away, and the magazine fell apart.”

  “Listen, no one expected you to stick around after your old man passed. Running this place wasn’t your dream. I saw that; your dad saw that. When you got the offer to work for Remmy Records, everyone understood why you accepted it. Your dad would say the same thing if he was still around.”

  “You can’t actually know that, but I appreciate you trying.”

  “This isn’t the only thing in Bierman Media he ran, Ryan. Your dad cared about this place, yeah, but he diversified for a reason.”

  “Ding dong!” Sarah said, simultaneously knocking and letting herself into his office.

  Ryan saw his secretary standing behind her, giving him a helpless gesture. He may have only been back for a few weeks, but even he knew there was no stopping Sarah from getting where she wanted to be.

  Her blonde ponytail swished behind her, and she paused behind the second chair facing his desk. “Oh, hi Carter. I didn’t know you’d be here too. Good thing I have two left.” She grinned at him, her eyes lingering a moment too long before dragging them over to Ryan. “Just wanted to bring you a little peppermint bark to start your weekend off right.”

  She held two white-and-red-striped boxes out, one toward each man, flashing her bright smile at them.

  “It’s Thursday,” Carter said, taking the box.

  That didn’t dim her smile. “Yes, it is. But I’m working from home tomorrow, so I won’t see you before the weekend. I have a meeting with Janica Harper’s publicist working out the details for the interview. I wanted to catch you before you left, and I’m so glad you’re both here because I have a great idea for the shoot.”

  Ryan set the box of peppermint bark on his desk and motioned for Sarah to be seated.

  “Vivi Meier shared a photo last night of the view from her terrace, and it was clearly the New York skyline.” She looked between the men like this should mean something to them. When neither reacted, she continued. “If she’s staying in Brooklyn and she’ll be around Tuesday, it would be incredible to invite her to the shoot. Janica can still have the cover and the feature, but we could throw some shots in of the duo together. Ten years ago they were a major hit, and the people who followed them then are reading our magazine now.”

  Ryan leaned his elbow on his desk, running a hand over his mouth. It wasn’t a bad idea. The tricky thing would be convincing Vivi Meier to participate without giving her a major spotlight.

  Carter looked less convinced. “Last I heard they still weren’t speaking.”

  “They don’t have to speak to take some photos. They’re performers. This is what they do, and they haven’t been seen together in the last ten years, so this will be huge for their fan base. It helps everyone. It’ll bring eyes to us, which will make Janica’s spread more of a success and get her higher recognition, and it could revive interest in Vivi, which has lagged the last few years.”

  “It will be making a huge statement,” Ryan said. “You have my permission to broach it with the publicist, but if it raises any red flags, abandon the
thought immediately. We can’t afford to lose Janica Harper right now.”

  “Deal,” Sarah said. “People are going to freak seeing Cali Girls reunited.” She turned to Carter. “Do you want to meet in the morning? We can go over the artistic points for the shoot before I propose them to Janica’s pub.”

  Carter fixed a smile on his face. “I thought you were working from home tomorrow.”

  “I am. I have a guy coming to begin my bathroom remodel so I need to be there, but you could meet me at my apartment. It shouldn’t take too long.”

  Ryan leaned back in his seat and enjoyed the indecision crossing over his friend’s face. Yeah, Carter was the Art Director, and his input could probably build a case for bringing Vivi Meier. But the guy clearly didn’t want to go to Sarah’s house.

  Was there something going on here that Ryan didn’t know about? He’d gotten to know Carter well when they both started at Sound ten years before, and they’d stayed friends after Ryan left for California. He was absolutely going to drill Carter the moment Sarah let them be.

  “How early?”

  Sarah glanced up, thinking. “Nine? I just need my notes ready by the meeting, which should start at eleven.”

  “Okay, I’ll be there.” Carter’s mouth was set in a firm line, but that didn’t seem to dampen Sarah’s enthusiasm. She stood, grinning, her heels clicking over the wooden floors as she left.

  Sarah had left the door open, but Karen, Ryan’s secretary, got up and shut the door, her round face creased in an apologetic smile. Karen had been at Sound almost as long as Ryan’s father had worked there. She was likely thinking of retiring in the next few years, but Ryan hoped she’d be around for a while. He remembered when her face was less lined with age and she would slip him a wrapped peppermint candy, the soft, round kind that melted on his tongue.

  “She’s determined to get back together, man, and I just can’t let myself go there again.”

  Ryan sat up. “Back together? When did you guys date? This is the first I’ve heard of it.”

  Carter leaned back, stretching his legs out under Ryan’s desk and rubbing his forehead. “It was like two years ago. And it just didn’t work out. I don’t like dating women I work with. Then they’re everywhere.”