Finally, something clicked in Chloe’s brain and it all made sense again. This was the auditor she’d been waiting on from the Department of Education. She’d been told that one would show up this month, but had no idea when. The man standing in front of her certainly wasn’t what she’d expected.
“Yeah, I got it.” She shook her head and swallowed hard. “Have a seat, Jordan.”
He thanked her and dropped into the chair, looking around at their tiny office. Six towers of silver filing cabinets lined the wall behind her desk. The door to the right led to Gemma’s office, and the desk near the door was Laurie’s domain. In all, they didn’t take up much space.
As Chloe went about shuffling her files and getting organized, Laurie turned up the Christmas music at her desk. They’d been listening to it since Halloween. It made the cold weather seem lighter, somehow, and easier to bear. She swayed along as a Mariah Carey tune filled the silence.
“I don’t suppose she plays anything a little less, well, cheesy?” Jordan asked. He grimaced and then laughed. “I’m not sure I can handle that for the next three weeks.”
“Three weeks?” Chloe gaped at him, the files of last year’s receipts nearly slipping from her hands. “You’ll be here that long?”
“Well, yeah.” He leaned back in his chair, as if afraid to be any closer to her. “Audits take a long time. I have to comb through every receipt, every documentation you have. The state needs to know you’ve been reliable with your bookkeeping and records. They’ll especially want to know if they can trust you with more money.”
“I promise that our bookkeeping is flawless,” she shot back, lifting her chin high. “And every dollar accounted for.”
“Cool, cool.” He held his hands up in surrender. “I believe you. I just have to prove it to my boss. And speaking of…” He took a buzzing cellphone out of his pocket, looked at the screen, and sighed. Holding up a finger, he shrugged and jumped out of the chair. “Just a minute. I’ve got to take this.”
Chloe didn’t listen as he chatted with his boss. She was too busy grumbling over the filing cabinet, yanking out folders. The New Hope Foundation had never needed a babysitter before now. They had nothing but a sterling reputation. But if they wanted to expand their support of the community, they needed more than just the funds from the Barkley & Barkley cooperation. They needed state funds. They needed Jordan.
In a passive-aggressive form of vengeance for her lost pride, Chloe walked over to the radio and dialed up the volume on the Christmas carols. Jordan was watching her as he listened to his phone, raising one dark eyebrow at the bold look she shot him. Inwardly, she laughed at the prospect of torturing him for three weeks. He might be the finest man she’d ever seen, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t mess with him just a bit.
Besides, there was no way the two of them would work out. He didn’t like Christmas songs, for heaven’s sake. He didn’t know how to change a tire and he couldn’t even keep his suit from wrinkling in the front. She had bigger things to worry about - like finding a lead for her Christmas musical.
“Alright,” Jordan said, finally hanging up his phone. Weary lines crossed his forehead as he rubbed his temples. “Let’s get started. My boss is already jumping down my throat.”
“Whatever you say.” She dropped a piles of files in front of him, papers spilling out across the desk. “Have at it.”
They worked that way for a couple hours - Jordan requesting more files and Chloe handing them over, tight-lipped and tense. She dared him to find any mistake. A single one. But he didn’t say a word. He tap tap tapped on his laptop, analyzing the pages she’d given him and periodically answering his phone. It was on the fifth call of the afternoon that she finally felt the need to flash an annoyed glance his way.
He had the phone plastered to his ear. There were the occasional yes, ma’am and no ma’ams, but mostly he seemed to be tuning his boss out. Chloe watched him from the corner of her eye. Every time she looked Laurie’s way, the trim redhead would give her a goofy smile and two thumbs up, making her want to toss a stapler at her.
It was lucky for Laurie that at that moment, Chloe’s favorite song came on the radio. Brian McKnight’s sweet tenor voice crooned about being home for Christmas. She closed her eyes and soaked in the tune, feeling a calmness settle like a warm blanket over her body.
As she listened, a hum interrupted her thoughts. It matched the notes of the music, but sounded much closer. She snapped her eyes open to locate the sound. Jordan was humming along, seemingly unaware he was making any noise at all. He stared at a poster of Ricardo’s Pet Shelter hanging on the wall, the phone to his ear while the buzz of someone talking came through the speaker.
Chloe felt adrenaline spike through her system. She’d never heard a voice like that - at least, not in real life. Not even in her church choir. Jumping out of her chair, she moved closer to him, leaning in to hear more clearly. The annoying buzz of his boss didn’t seem to bother him. He swayed along with the music, his shoulders even dipping the slightest.
Unaware of her close observation, he escalated from humming to singing along, hitting every note with extreme clarity. Laurie had even paused her typing to listen and smiled up at her with a knowing smile. A more perfect Christmas present couldn’t have dropped into her lap.
When Chloe could take no more, she snatched the phone from his hand and snapped it shut. “You can sing.” It came out more like a demand than a question. Jordan stared at her, bewilderment clouding his eyes. “You can sing,” she repeated.
“That was my boss.” He took the phone from her hands and frowned down at it.
“Tell her the call dropped.” She waved off the issue and stepped closer. “You can sing. I need a man who can sing.”
“That’s great.” He took a step backwards and gave her a fake smile that didn’t hide the nervousness in his voice. “I hope you find him.”
“What she means, is she needs a man to sing in her musical,” Laurie offered from her desk. She gave him a reassuring smile and nodded her head. “Chloe’s putting on the Christmas Eve play. We had auditions this afternoon, but she’s had no luck for the part.”
“And I’m really sorry for you, but that’s got nothing to do with me.” He held up his hands, the phone grasped tightly in his fingers. “I’m just here to do the audit.”
“Please!” Chloe tried to think fast. She had to find some sort of motivation for him to join. “It’s a great cause. The whole town turns out for the Christmas Eve service.”
“I don’t think so.” He shook his head, his back against the wall. “My boss would kill me if I got involved in anything other than the audit here. I can’t afford to lose this job.”
Chloe bit her bottom lip, frustrated at the idea of losing him for the part. He just said he was going to be in New Hope for three weeks. That would keep him around until after Christmas. It was perfect. She just needed the right motivation.
“Richard Garret!” She nearly shouted the name. That was it! The motivation he needed. “Professor Garret. You do this, I’ll get you an interview with him.”
His eyes narrowed. “You’re joking. That’s like blackmail.”
“Nope.” Crossing her arms, she fixed him with a hard stare. “This is a perfectly legal exchange of goods. An interview for a musical performance, plus rehearsals. How badly do you want this dream job of yours? Accountant for the Minnesota Vikings football team. Sounds pretty cool to me.”
The muscles in his jaw worked as he returned her stare. She was sure he was going to say no. The defiant stance he’d taken told her as much. She’d never find the right star for her play and then Ashley Lynn would hold it above her head for the rest of their lives. The prospect set a two ton boulder in her gut, weighing her down.
Without her male lead, she’d have to revert back to the traditional old school version of the manger scene. That meant working with a couple dozen kids dressed up as donkeys and sheep and a fake baby doll in a wooden bassinet. It meant
a boring service with a forgetful performance. Chloe didn’t do forgetful. She was, if anything, an overachiever.
Without warning, Jordan stuck out his hand and sucked in his cheeks. “I’ll do it,” he announced. She gasped in delight and grabbed his hand, giving it a strong shake. “How complicated could a little church musical be? Now, if you don’t mind, I need to call my boss back and tell her the call dropped before she fires me.”
He marched back to his chair to redial his phone. Chloe watched him put it to his ear, her nerves bouncing around in her stomach. He could be the answer to her problems. With a voice like that, the service would be epic and Ashley Lynn could go cry crocodile tears into her fuzzy pink sweater.
“Let’s just hope he can act,” Laurie whispered next to her.
Chloe nodded and smiled. “Don’t worry. He’s perfect.”
Chapter Five
He couldn’t say for sure why he’d agreed to do the play. Yeah, the idea of getting an interview with the head CFO of the Vikings football team was a sweet payoff, but that wasn’t the real reason. The way she’d looked at him - so hopeful - had struck a chord.
Those big brown eyes and her set of full lips with the pink gloss had drawn him in. Mesmerized him into saying yes. Even if he wanted to back out now, it was easy to see from just a few hours spent together in the office, no one said no to Chloe Walker. Not without a fight. He just had to get through the next few weeks and this would all pay off.
She marched him right up to the church the next day after work, the unassuming brick building bright and welcoming. He followed at a distance, trying to keep his gaze away from staring at the beautiful back of his new play director. Instead, he looked down at the script she’d printed off for him just this afternoon.
“Have you ever acted before?” she asked, opening the door to the church.
He shook his head. “Not really. I had to do a skit once in speech class, but that was a long time ago.”
She pushed her hair over her shoulders in a determined movement, pressing her lips together into a thin line. “That’s okay. We’ll walk you through it. At least I know you can sing.”
The inside of the church was alive with the sound of children squealing and running around. Chloe’s pretty redheaded coworker, Laurie, was already there, attempting to wrangle the children and reign in the mass chaos. She had a halo headband on her head, the golden ring dangling above her wavy hair. A couple of the children wore wire wings. A young woman with long black hair wore a blue veil over her head. She had a gigantic stomach that resembled a soccer ball stuffed under her shirt.
“Jordan, meet your costar, Amanda. She’s got a degree in musical theater and teaches drama at our high school.” Chloe pointed to the hugely pregnant woman. “That belly’s real. Let’s just hope she doesn’t pop before Christmas Eve.”
Amanda smiled and shrugged. She had a pleasant face with olive skin and laugh lines around her eyes. “Not due until January tenth, but anything could happen. It’s our first.”
Jordan shook her hand and tried to keep his cool. Any minute now, Chloe was going to expect him to sing in front of an entire room of strangers. The only audience he was used to were the fast food containers in his car. This was a whole different ball game.
“Alright, let’s run through the lines,” she called, clapping her hands. Laurie snagged the two sprinting angels and managed to catch their attention. “Work off the script for now. I want all lines memorized by next week. Three weeks until curtain call.”
He didn’t see any sign of a curtain. Only empty pews and an intimidating alter at the top of the aisle. This wasn’t exactly the Orpheum. Still, he held up the script and squinted at it. It read like one of those romance novels, the kind his mom used to hide beneath her pillow. He’d found one when he was eight and spent an afternoon eagerly scanning the pages for the hot stuff. Now-a-days, his entertainment usually focused around the sports channel.
“Laurie, you start,” Chloe called. She backed into a pew and sat, her eyes bright. “Angel comes in.”
They worked through the first few pages of scene, piecing together each step and action the actors were supposed to take. Chloe had assured him this play would only last a half hour, but running through it like this made it seem like a drawn out version of Les Mis. He’d made the mistake once of taking a date to that movie. It could have been the horrible movie selection that made her never call him back. Or his snoring during the middle. He couldn’t be sure.
Finally, when Chloe was satisfied with the lines, they moved into learning the songs. Jordan felt a little more relaxed for this session of the practice. Maybe he couldn’t deliver lines, but he could at least hit all the right notes.
Singing along with Amanda, their voices blended in a perfect harmony that had the rest of the actors pausing to listen. Even the wild little angels perked up their ears between a game of tag. Chloe sat watching them from a stool, her eyes glistening with excitement. Clapping wildly when they finished, she whistled and launched herself from the chair.
“Beautiful! This just proves I made the right casting call,” she exclaimed with a smile stretching across her cheeks. Jordan liked it when she seemed to forget herself in these little moments. Gone was the sassy and cool exterior. In its place was a childlike enthusiasm that seemed to hum in the air.
“Alright, I’m ready. What time’s the performance?” Jordan asked, rubbing his hands together. He could do this. He’d managed to survive this mind-numbing session.
A light thrill of laughter pulled all their attention to the back pew. A beautiful young woman with Kardashian hair, wearing a tight yellow cardigan with a black scarf, sat with an amused expression on her face. Her gaze met Chloe’s and she raised a single eyebrow, as if in a silent challenge.
“Ashley Lynn…” Chloe growled under her breath.
He wasn’t sure who this Ashley Lynn was, but he could tell there wasn’t much love lost between the girls. After a few moments of an awkward stare down, Ashley Lynn got up from her pew and left with a condescending twinkle in her eyes.
“Right!” Chloe forced a laugh and her eyes went wide. There was a glint of crazy in them. She reminded him of his Uncle Irwin when he went off his meds. “We’ve got more than a dozen rehearsals between now and the show. We need to work on hitting our marks and timing and not to mention, choreography. There’s still a lot of work to be done.”
Jordan could feel the warm sense of accomplishment drain from his body. He was starting to resent this pretty little package of energy bobbing around in front of him, waving her bright colored nails and calling people out.
“Laurie needs to project more,” she said with a finger pointed at her friend. “The angels needs to learn how to sit still. I’ve got two shepherds who can’t seem to stop giggling and a wise man who has been playing on his phone all night.” She gave each of them a fierce glare. “Not to mention you, Mr. Davis.”
He took a step back and stared at her. “Me? What do you mean?”
“I need you to feel the dialogue. You were as flat as a railroad tie, delivering those lines tonight. I need more from you.”
Resentment flared up inside him. “Wait a second, you said you needed a man who could sing. I sang. That’s all you asked of me.”
“I asked you to be in my play.” She placed her hands on her tiny waist and pursed her lips. “That includes singing and acting. We’ll work on it.”
He threw his head back in disgust and walked back down the church aisle, shaking his head in amazement. For one small moment, he’d been thinking maybe this wouldn’t be so bad. Sing a few songs, get the interview of his dreams. But with a miniature General in heels barking orders at him, he wasn’t sure he was going to make it until Christmas Eve. Even if the General was the most beautiful thing he’d ever laid his eyes on.
“Alright, that’s enough for tonight.” Chloe’s clipped tone set his teeth on edge. “Everyone go get your eight hours of sleep tonight. I want you here the day after tomorrow,
on time. I’m looking at you, Shepherds.”
He rolled the script up and stashed it in his back pocket, ready and willing to sink into that Santa comforter waiting for him in his hotel room. Outside the church, the night had turned crisp and frigid. His breath appeared in front of his face in little puffs of white.
Popping the collar of his coat up, he pulled it in tight to keep out the chill. Springtime couldn’t come fast enough. No more of this holiday nonsense and brutal cold. Give him football and green lawns and warm breezes. He’d take those any day.
“You sang great,” a voice said from behind him. He turned to spot Chloe wearing a deep purple pea coat with matching leather gloves. She jogged to catch up with him, her heels clicking on the sidewalk. “You really did. But we’ve got to work on your romance.”
He smiled incredulously at her, putting a hand to his chest. No woman had ever accused him of that. “Excuse me?”
“Your romance.” She smiled and blinked up at him. “It’s dead. This is the greatest love story of all time. I need a little love from you.”
Shoving his hands deep in his coat pockets, he shook his head and started off toward his car. She settled into a walk beside him, buzzing like a fly in his ear.
“Come on, I’m sure you know how to put on the moves,” she said. He grimaced at her, but she wouldn’t give up. “I think most people don’t realize what kind of love story there is between Mary and Joseph. That’s what I want to expose with my musical. And you, son, need to bring the romance. They’re in love, for goodness sake.”
“Well, I’m not sure I’m going to be able to help you,” he finally said, coming to a halt behind his car. He sighed and scratched his head, trying to put together the words to explain it. “I don’t really know anybody in love.”
“You don’t?” She looked up at him with eyes wide in horror. “You’re serious?”
“Nah, not really. Besides, I don’t really believe in the whole romance thing.”
Her eyebrows shot to the sky. “You don’t do romance…? But Christmas is all about romance and love and family.”
Caroling in the Snow: A New Hope Sweet Christmas Romance - Book 2 Page 3
