If Wishes Were Magic

by Barbara Baldwin

  AJ followed her into the office, leaving the outer door ajar. “We were a little busy that night to worry about last names or work history.” His voice had dropped to a seductive whisper, but still loud enough that Chanti heard Annie gasp.

  She rolled her eyes. “Annie?”

  Her assistant was through the door in record time, gazing at AJ with a love struck expression.

  “Not a word, do you hear me?” Chanti tried to keep her expression stern, but she had to admit any woman who saw AJ for the first time or otherwise, probably had the same reaction. He had a take me, I’m yours sex appeal that strummed the air around him.

  “Annie?”

  “Huh?”

  Chanti just shook her head. “Close the door on your way out, and put my phone on do not disturb.”

  A grin split her face. “Oh, yeah.” She said in a voice full of awe as she backed through the door, her gaze never leaving AJ.

  The minute the door closed, Chanti swung on him. “You did that on purpose.”

  Instead of denying the deliberately provocative remark, he leaned over, palms flat on her desk. “I wondered if I would see you again before I left. You never did come back to Charlie’s place.”

  “I’ve been busy,” she prevaricated. That wasn’t to say she hadn’t thought about him day and night, but now that he was actually live and in her office, she felt very unsure of herself, which was not at all like her. Usually in control of any relationship, AJ had her palms sweating and her mind in a fog. Then his words sank in.

  “You’ve been thinking about me? We only danced.”

  He gave her a smile, making her stomach flutter. “And kissed; and talked.” His gaze locked with hers. “And kissed some more.”

  Chanti nervously scooted her desk chair back, the wheels clattering against the latest tub of mail Jake had delivered that morning. The noise was enough to remind her of why AJ was here and she knew if she didn’t get the conversation back to the business at hand, she would…well, she wasn’t sure what she would do. She knew what she would like to do. Never had a man so devastated her thinking with a single glance.

  The first words out of her mouth were anything but about business. “You never called.”

  “I didn’t have a number. I told you I would be at Charlie’s. You never showed.” He sat, crossing one ankle over the other knee and Chanti noticed he still wore cowboy boots. For some reason, they reminded her not of the emotional impact of that night, but of how easy AJ had been to talk to; how he had watched as she talked, avidly interested in what she had to say.

  She felt her stomach settle and a genuine smile touched her lips. “I am glad to see you again. I didn’t know you would be the one I was calling when Charlie gave me that card.”

  “Charlie, huh? I’ll have to remember to thank him.” He smiled again. “So, what kind of pressing problem can a cosmetics mogul possibly have that I can help with?”

  Chanti turned and hefted the tub of letters to her desk, sliding them across the smooth surface. She briefly explained the advertising fiasco because that wasn’t the problem she needed help with. “I’ve decided to make the most of it and have a party for the children who wrote in; however many of the letters have no return addresses. I need someone who can find out where they live.”

  She watched AJ tip the tub and gather a handful of letters. “Most are postmarked from the Chicago area. That really shouldn’t be too hard to do.”

  “Really, will you take the job?”

  He looked again at the pile of letters. “My flight doesn’t leave until tomorrow night. I can start on them here and take the rest with me to finish after the holidays.” He glanced up at her. “And still have time for one last…dance.”

  Chanti quickly came around the corner of her desk, grabbing his arm to pull him to his feet. “That won’t do at all.” She led him over to the built in closet, opening the door to reveal the other tubs of letters received last week. “You see, there are more here, and will probably be more in tomorrow’s mail and the day after that.” She turned to him, hoping it would be as easy as he indicated.

  “And I need them all found before Christmas Eve.”

  Chapter 5

  “You what?” he questioned sharply even as his libido said, come on, man, she’s a great looking woman and she kissed you. Hang around.

  “Well, what good would it do to have a Christmas party with Santa after Christmas?”

  Chanti stood, hands clasped together and an angelic, hopeful expression on her face.

  He had thought about her constantly as he finished the job he had been hired to do. She had been his saving grace, thinking of her happy laugh and long blonde hair as he cleaned up an entanglement involving a local politician. The night at Charlie’s had been the highlight of his time here in the frozen tundra. When he had walked into Mori Cosmetics and realized it was Chanti his office had scheduled him to see, he had been delighted.

  “But there must be a hundred letters here, and more coming.”

  “Your office said you could do anything,” she said, her voice persuasive and provocative.

  He grinned. He knew Becky wouldn’t tell a client that, but he had to give Chanti credit for trying, and he couldn’t resist drawling, “Anything? Well, now darlin’, that can cover a lot of ground.”

  He watched a light blush stain her cheeks.

  “I think, Mr. Anderson, if we’re going to work together, you should be a little more professional.”

  “As I recall, we bypassed professional and went straight to personal the other night.” For some reason he couldn’t help teasing her, while not stating anything sexually overt, he could tell she knew exactly what he meant.

  “All the same—”

  “Besides, I haven’t said I would take the job.”

  Her face fell. “You have to.” She rushed over to the bin of letters. “Just read some of these; they’ll tear your heart out.” She held out a batch of letters.

  “Why is this so important to you?” He moved closer, touching her lightly on the shoulder. The connection he had felt upon first meeting her was still there and if anything, stronger than that night. Something about her drew him like a moth to the flame. He knew he didn’t have anything scheduled for the rest of the month; his resolve already weakening in the face of her dilemma.

  “What was your childhood like growing up?” she answered his question with one of her own.

  He shrugged. “The usual, I suppose.”

  She gave an exaggerated sigh. “I mean, did you have two parents and brothers and sisters? Did you have regular meals with enough to eat and a coat in winter?”

  He thought he saw where she was going. “Yeah, I had all that and probably more. So what you’re saying is, these kids don’t.”

  “Probably not most of them.” She turned back to her desk, picking three letters from the pile. “Open these and read them. If they don’t make you want to help, then you’re not the right person for the job anyway.”

  AJ did as she asked but it only took two for it to get to him. In the world of politics, corruption and intrigue he sometimes dealt with, their simple requests for themselves and their siblings seemed an easy task to master. AJ thought perhaps this was a chance to redeem himself and do something much more humanitarian.

  “Finding who these kids are and where they live isn’t the hard part,” he said as he noted the lack of return addresses. “You know that, don’t you?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “A lot of the kids you want to help probably have parents who are distrustful of authority. They probably cheat with their government subsidies, like food stamps, or lie about their wages to get more assistance, and they won’t want to be found out. How are you going to get them to bring their kids to some fancy downtown business?”

  “We invite them. Invitations to a party will be sent to the children through the parents. We don’t want to invade anyone’s privacy and we’re not using it for marketing purposes. I’ve already told
PR they are not to leak anything to the press.”

  He had to give her credit; she was adamant about doing this and yet didn’t appear to want the publicity that most businesses would try to achieve. Her open expression told him she had great faith in the goodness of mankind, and it was at that moment that AJ decided to help her. He needed that in his life.

  “We may not be able to find everybody.”

  “But you can find a lot of them?”

  “Probably.” He found Chanti’s earnest enthusiasm irresistible. Hell, he found the woman irresistible.

  “What’s the plan?” he capitulated.

  “You’ll do it?”

  “Yeah, sucker that I am, staying in the cold northland to help a bunch of kids.”

  “Yes!” she squealed and threw her arms around him, hugging him tight. “Thank you, thank you.” She punctuated her words with tiny kisses on his cheeks before realizing what she was doing. “Oh, my, I—”

  AJ tugged her back close when she would have stepped away. “If I can negotiate my payment, I’ll take a dozen or so of those every day.”

  “We need to talk about the plan.” She pushed against his shoulders and he finally let her go. “In fact, let me make a call.” As she picked up the phone and talked quietly, AJ’s gaze soaked in her slim figure, silhouetted against the light from the window. She wore a long wool skirt and sweater that followed her curves from neck to ankle, and made AJ ache in places he had no business aching. At the same time, he concluded, what would it hurt to get to know her while he was here? The sparks had certainly flown when they danced.

  As she talked animatedly he watched as she absently pulled the clip from her hair and it fell in silky waves around her face and shoulders.

  “AJ?”

  It took him a minute to refocus on what she was saying.

  “Jake and Annie will be here in a minute.” She opened the door. “Come with me and I’ll show you the conference room. It will work as a command center.”

  He grinned. “We’re not a spy agency.”

  He had her blushing again. “You need a place to work, so here you go.” She opened the second door down from her office and a young woman and a man, who carried the tubs from Chanti’s office, followed AJ into the room.

  “Annie and Jake, this is Mr. Anderson,” she introduced them.

  “Just AJ will do,” he said shaking their hands. “Looks like we’re going to be working together so there’s no need to stand on formalities.” The two looked awfully young, but if this was Chanti’s team, he could deal with it.

  They all sat down at the table and AJ plugged in his laptop as Chanti began outlining the plan. He admired her take-charge attitude, and realized she did know what she was doing.

  “Jake is currently in PR, but I’ve asked him to be part of this.” When AJ eyeballed the young man, he saw him blush and wondered how long he had been in the job. AJ’s experience had taught him to read people quickly and his impressions were rarely wrong.

  “Jake gets the Dear Santa mail every day and will help Annie sort while she starts a data base. He will also write the invitation letter and set everything up for getting numbers back to us.” She looked at Jake. “Anything to do with getting the information out and back will be your baby. But remember, no publicity.”

  AJ nodded. “I’ll need to be able to interface with Annie’s computer so we’re not doubling the work.”

  Chanti hesitated. “That would give you access to everything having to do with Mori Cosmetics.”

  “I’m not here to steal trade secrets. You’re hiring me to help, not sabotage you. Speaking of, if I’m officially on board, I suppose we need to have a contract for…services rendered.”

  The two younger people didn’t seem to notice his deliberate hesitation, but Chanti did. She narrowed her gaze at him.

  “You and I will talk business later,” she said in a formal voice. “I’m sure we can come to some kind of agreement.”

  He grinned as she continued.

  “While AJ begins getting the addresses, Annie, I want you to work on the food. Check with the local caterers and get an idea of what it would cost to feed one hundred, two hundred, etc. I think we want kid food – you know, hamburgers and hot dogs, cookies and ice cream. And make sure they’re Christmas cookies.”

  AJ just sat back and smiled. Chanti’s enthusiasm was catching, and he felt drawn into her plans.

  “Also, Annie, contact some of the vendors who are always hounding us to make key chains and coffee mugs and the like. See what it would cost to have them make up Christmas stockings full of kid stuff – some for boys and some for girls. Give them a deadline, ask them if they want to contribute to the cause, and if not get their best price. But don’t tell them exactly what we’re doing -- just say a party for children.” She paused, then added, “And the same thing with the quantity. We won’t know how many until the last minute. If one place can’t do it, call someone else.”

  AJ couldn’t help himself. “And while all of us are doing the legwork, what are you going to do, Ms CEO?”

  “My staff will tell you I don’t ask of them what I’m not willing to do. As soon as we begin to see what the requests are, I’ll start rounding up the presents.” Her mouth stretched in a wide smile.

  “Budget?” Annie asked, writing furiously.

  “Impossible to say at this point. Each part will have its own, and we really can’t go overboard.”

  “What else do we need to think about?” She looked at AJ.

  “For now, it appears you have it covered. I’ll help Annie set up the database we’ll use so we don’t have to backtrack for information.”

  “We can get you Internet access from here,” Chanti said.

  “Wireless.” AJ shook his head. “All I need is a power source and coffee.”

  “Okay,” Chanti stood. “Everyone knows what needs to happen. This is Monday. Jake, contact the tech department and get AJ a temporary inner office email and set up a group so we can keep each other in the loop. We’ll meet again on Friday and see where we’re at.”

  She stood, and AJ automatically stood also. Jake looked at him and quickly stood, too. At the door, she turned back to him.

  “If you need anything, Annie’s extension is thirteen-fifty and Jake’s is eleven zero two.”

  “And yours?” he called to her as the door started to swing shut.

  “Annie will get with me.”

  The door closed quietly behind her. He turned his gaze to Annie, who shrugged.

  “She’s very busy,” she said by way of explanation.

  AJ began typing. “Get me your fax number so I can have my office send a contract. That should get her to talk to me.”

  * * *

  The sun had disappeared without Chanti even noticing. She stood and stretched, walking around the front of her desk and doing toe touches to ease the kink in her back. How she thought she could keep up with the day to day operations of Mori Cosmetics and get this Christmas party done, she didn’t really have any idea, even if she had sounded like she did in the conference room earlier in the day. She touched her toes again with a bounce.

  “Now there’s a sight for my computer tired eyes.” The voice, totally male and very seductive, came from behind her and Chanti spun with a squawk.

  “I thought you had left.”

  AJ shrugged. “I had no place to go except an empty hotel room, and once I started making headway, I just kept at it. Besides, your conference room doesn’t have any windows so I really never noticed the time.”

  Chanti tucked a wayward strand of hair behind her ear. How could he look so fresh and…devastating at this time of night when she felt wilted and bedraggled?

  “Why are you here so late? You live in Hattiesville, don’t you? That’s a long drive at night in this weather.”

  She thought it best not to tell him she had a studio apartment right between her office and the conference room, built especially because she did work late more often than not. Besi
des, if she said she didn’t mind working late, it meant she had no life.

  “I have a place, here in the city,” she stated vaguely.

  “But working late? Don’t you have a life?”

  “How do you do that – knowing what I think almost before I think it?” She waved a hand. “Never mind. I probably don’t want to know.”

  “I’ll tell you anyway,” he commented, walking slowly toward her. Walked was probably the wrong word, because every move he made spoke of stalking and seduction. She quickly put her desk between them.

  “We need to discuss your contract.” She picked up the pages from her desk. There was nothing really to discuss. She had called around, and while his rates were a little higher than some, they were still reasonable.

  “Is there a problem?” He slouched in a chair, rubbing his hands down his face.

  She looked closer, noticing the tiny lines around his eyes. “Have you eaten?” The question came out of nowhere, but his twinkling eyes beguiled her and all she could think about was spending a little more time with him instead of at her computer reading fourth quarter sales projections.

  His stomach growled in answer. He slapped a hand against his midriff and she followed the movement. She would bet he was lean and hard under that shirt.

  She quickly stood. “Come on. I know a great place and it’s within walking distance. I’m tired of sitting on my fanny all day.”

  “Let me get my coat.” He followed her out the door and she locked it behind her.

  They took the elevator down to ground level and she signed out with the night security. The wind had died marginally as they walked down the block. AJ automatically took the outside and offered her his arm. It felt nice having a considerate man at her side.

  They turned the corner and the wind blasted them, apparently having been blocked by the building before then. AJ tugged his cowboy hat lower, tilting it against the wind. She shook her head.

  “Come on, we have a stop to make first.” She tugged him through the door of Bloomingdale’s then grabbed his cowboy hat off his head and put it behind her back when he reached for it.