Santa's Perfect Package: A Collection of Holiday Romances

by KB Winters

  “Good. It’s too bad I don’t have more time,” he said, chuckling under his breath.

  I shuddered, knowing that I’d never forget the sound of the cruel laugh for the rest of my life.

  “Go home, pretty little thing.”

  My legs shook as I tottered forward, only managing two tiny steps. I opened my eyes again and hoped that the mouth of the alley wouldn’t be the last thing I’d ever see. Hopefully, this wasn’t a trick. From behind me, I heard him pick up my purse and jewelry and then he took off at a run in the opposite direction. I bolted, running as fast as I could go, and I didn’t stop until I reached the front of my apartment building.

  “Shit!” I gasped, collapsing against the door. I didn’t have my keys. My phone. My wallet.

  The asshole mugger had taken everything.

  Hot tears spilled down my cheeks as I stood helplessly in front of my apartment building. The electric doorbells were posted but I didn’t know anyone else. I found the one that belonged to my neighbor and pressed it firmly.

  “Hello? Who’s there?”

  “Help! Please, I—” A sob tore free, cutting off my words. I swallowed hard and forced myself to get it together. “Please help me! I was just mugged and they took my keys. I live next door, in 92B. Can you buzz—”

  The door unlatched with a loud click and a sob of relief broke free from my lips. “Thank you!”

  I raced up the stairs and when I arrived at my floor, my neighbor—Ms. Lou, from the name on the doorbell panel—was standing in the hallway. “Are you okay, dear?” she asked, her eyes wide.

  I nodded but then promptly broke down into tears.

  She rushed toward me and wrapped an arm through mine, leading me into her apartment. “Oh, dear. Here, come inside and use my phone to report it to the police and I’ll put on some tea.”

  I stared at the door to my own unit, thinking of Juniper in there, all alone. I sucked in another sob and nodded at Ms. Lou’s advice.

  Two hours later, the police had been by to take a report and the building superintendent was on his way to let me into my apartment. Ms. Lou fed me cookies and tea until he arrived, chatting idly about her grandchildren who all lived in Minnesota.

  The super arrived and I said goodnight to Ms. Lou, thanking her profusely for her help and the snack.

  “Now, Ms. Westin, I’m afraid that I can’t get someone out to change the locks until tomorrow. Are you sure you don’t have anywhere else you can stay tonight?” the super, an older gentleman asked after letting me back into my unit.

  I shook my head. “I don’t know anyone in the city. I’ve only been here a few months.”

  He nodded. “Well, just be careful. If the mugger took your purse, they’ll have your keys.”

  Fear struck my heart but I swallowed the lump in my throat and tried to put on a brave face. “I’ll be all right.”

  He nodded again, more reluctantly, but then shuffled out, closing the door firmly behind him.

  Juniper raced to see me and as I gathered her into my arms, I started to cry all over again, still terrorized from the replay of the mugging racing through my mind.

  “There’s no place like home, there’s no place like home.”

  * * * *

  “I can’t believe there’s only four days until Christmas! There’s still so much to do!”

  I nodded absently at my mother’s fussing. She’d been racing around the house all afternoon in what could only be described as a Christmas tizzy. She went on endlessly about how many packages she had left to wrap, the decorations that had yet to be excavated from the storage boxes in the garage, and the number of people coming over for dinner.

  “Ruby? Are you even listening to me?”

  I snapped to attention, looking up from the listing of job posts I’d been sifting through online from my perch at the large marble topped island in the middle of my parents’ kitchen. “I’m listening. Did you want me to wrap anything for you while you go out to the grocery store?”

  She eyed me, acting like she was debating my offer, when in reality we both knew there was no way she’d let me anywhere near her precious wrapping station. I loved my mother dearly, but she could be a bit of a nut case. Case in point, she had an entire wrapping station set up inside one of the spare bedrooms upstairs. A table folded down like a murphy bed to provide a workspace and then bins and bins of paper, bows, and ribbons were settled behind. Sorted by color. Obviously.

  After a moment, she waved her hand and smiled. “That’s okay, honey. I’ll get to it. Santa’s little helper might just need to pull an all-nighter.”

  “I’ll bring the wine.”

  She laughed. “Perfect. What have you been working on over there? You’re supposed to be on vacation!”

  I lowered the lid of my laptop. “Well, you know, money never sleeps. Or something like that. My boss just had a few things he wanted me to look over.”

  I force myself not to blink too rapidly. I felt like a complete idiot, but I hadn’t found a way to tell my parents about the lay-off. I’d meant to. But after telling them about the mugging—which I’d been forced to do since I needed an emergency copy of my driver’s license made two days before my flight left and they’d had to overnight me my birth certificate—they were on edge and I didn’t know if they could take any more bad news.

  So, instead, I’d bring it up after Christmas.

  But definitely before the boxes of my belongings arrived on a freight truck.

  The morning after the mugging, the building super had come back to find me propped against the inside of my door, frying pan limply hanging from one hand, as I nodded off, chin against my chest. After he’d left the night before, I worked myself into a full-blown panic that the mugger would have my keys and license and would come looking for more things to steal. Or…to do other things. Unspeakable things. I’d hunkered down with a frying pan for defense and ended up crashing out there in the hallway when my body physically couldn’t stay awake another moment.

  So when the super found me, I was at the end of a tether. Paranoid, sleep deprived, and stressed out beyond my capacity. He’d started a conversation as he went to work on changing the locks and my entire sob story bubbled out before I could rein the crazy back in. At one point in my ramblings about how terrible my life was, he offered me an escape route. Apparently, the building had a wait list stacked up, and he told me if I wanted—or needed—to leave before my lease was up, he’d be happy to pick from those candidates and sublet it out. He even said it was okay to leave behind my paltry furniture and he’d pay cash because he could fetch a higher price tag with a furnished apartment.

  In a moment of insanity, I jumped at the deal, and by the time I was in a cab going to the airport less than a week later, my personal belongings were on a slow cross-country truck and should arrive sometime after Christmas. Right to my parents’ driveway.

  Which meant I had less than a week to tell them I’d lost my job and given up my apartment and had less than a months’ worth of expenses saved in my bank account, nowhere to live, and no job prospects.

  Yeah. That was going to be fun.

  “Are you sure you’re all right, sweetheart?” my mother asked, drawing me from my thoughts.

  It was the tenth time she’d asked since I’d arrived.

  “I’m sure, Mom. Just lost in thought there for a minute. I’ll vacuum and get everything ready for Rick and fam. I’ll even do the little toilet paper triangles how you like them.”

  “Already done,” she replied, grinning at me as she wandered from the kitchen. “But the vacuum sounds like a good idea. I haven’t gotten around to it yet today.”

  A few minutes later, she said goodbye and went out to bravely face the hordes of last minute shoppers at the grocery store. I chuckled as I imagined it something like a scene from a zombie movie. Everyone scavenging and fighting over the last bag of potatoes or apple pie.

  I finished my job application, a position in San Diego. It was only a couple of hour
s south of my parents’ house. Just far enough away I could have my own life—but close enough I could come visit for a weekend. And I could reconnect with some of the friends I’d lost touch with when I’d gone off to grad school in Chicago.

  By the time I got the vacuum cord untangled and plugged in, the doorbell rang. I abandoned the vacuum cleaner, grinning ear-to-ear, more than ready to scoop up my new baby niece and shower her with kisses and all the little pink gifts I’d already purchased for her—thankfully before I’d gotten the axe—but when I pulled the door open, it wasn’t Rick and Vanessa waiting on the other side with little baby Kayla.

  Apparently my parents had won some kind of “drop by visit from a movie star” because the Spartan on the front porch was tall, devilishly handsome, with a half-cocked smile that made my heart drop and my thighs clench at the slightest flicker of the naughty glance he gave me.

  “Wait a minute. I know you!” I forced myself to stop staring at his impressive body and my eyes made their way back to his face at his comment. My cheeks warmed as I realized he caught me giving him the once—more like the thrice—over. He gave me a crooked smile. You’re Ruby Brace Face.”

  My eyes went wide. “Max?”

  My cheeks flushed even more at the sudden lurch in my stomach as I realized the hotter-than-sin man standing on my parents’ front porch was none other than my brother’s best friend, Steven “Max” Maxwell. And from the brief glimpse I’d gotten, he was all grown up!

  Chapter Four

  Steven

  Wow! Ruby Westin had somehow morphed from a scrawny awkward teenager, glasses, braces, and crazy-ass hair into the bonafide hot piece on the other side of the welcome mat. Damn! When she first opened the door, I wondered if I’d gone to the wrong house. Something that would have been insane, considering how many times I’d walked up to the front steps over the years spanning from third grade to the summer after graduation. It was also one of the last places I went before shipping out for boot camp.

  Ruby crossed her arms and managed to twist her face into a slight scowl. I tried not to stare at the soft, rounded tits peeking out from beneath her V-neck sweater, propped up all the more by her arms. “Brace face.” She shook her head, her shoulder-length waves dancing around her shoulders. “I forgot you two assholes used to call me that.”

  I laughed softly. “Sorry.”

  A smile twitched at her lips. “Where have you been all these years? Marines, right?”

  “Navy, actually.” I pocketed my hands. “I’m on leave for the next four weeks and thought I’d come see Rick. We’ve been emailing a little bit back and forth and he mentioned he’d be in town for a few days before Christmas.”

  Something sparked in Ruby’s eyes. She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and nodded. “Yeah. They’ll be here until Christmas Eve. But, uhm, he’s not here yet. Probably getting checked into their hotel. Vanessa didn’t want to stay here with us.” She gave a slight roll to her chocolate brown eyes. “Anyway, you wanna come in and wait for him?”

  Damn it, I did. Not a question about it. But I also didn’t trust myself not to make a pass at Ricky’s sister.

  Now, there was a thought I never expected to cross my mind.

  All throughout our school years, Ruby had tormented Rick and me just as much as we tormented her. There was barely a full year between them and she always insisted on getting into whatever we were doing. And if we didn’t let her join in, she’d run off to daddy and she had him wrapped. I smirked at the flood of memories of those years, trying to reconcile them with the gorgeous woman in front of me.

  The purple colored sweater clung to her figure, showing off hourglass curves that had my fingers aching to touch. A pair of jeans wrapped her long, lean legs all the way up to a spectacular ass. She was probably 5’7, a good half a foot shorter than me. Perfect fit. Her eyes were dark and glittered with amusement. I faltered at her lips. They were full and inviting and I momentarily lost myself, thinking of the way they’d feel wrapped around my cock.

  I blinked hard, forcing the image away.

  Damn it, Maxwell, she’s Ricky’s little sister. It’s Ruby! You cannot go there. No way.

  “I don’t bite,” Ruby prompted, smirking at me. Was she flirting with me?

  I had to get out. Now.

  “Ya know, I’ll come back by later. What time do you think he’ll be here till? Or—” I stopped and took a couple of calculated step back, getting a few more paces away from the temptress guarding the door. Her arms were still crossed and an amused smile lingered on her full lips. “Or, just have him call me. Ya know, when he gets a chance.”

  Ruby’s eyes flicked past mine at the sound of a rumbling engine. In the blink of an eye, the smirk dropped from her face and a look of terror took hold. I whipped around, following her gaze and spotted a large freight truck pulling up along the curb opposite the Westin’s home. “Shit!” she hissed.

  “What’s wrong?”

  She was already lost to me, no longer hearing my voice. At least, I didn’t think so. She raked a hand through her hair, dragging it up and away from her face before letting it go. She squeezed her eyes closed. “Shit, shit, shit. It’s not supposed to be until after—”

  I reached out, brushing the back of her hand. “Ruby? What’s wrong?”

  I turned again and studied the truck. A man—the driver—hopped out of the cab and came over to the start of the walk. He had to be at least fifty, with a beer gut, and a blank expression. Did she know him? Who was he? Was he her ex or something? It didn’t fit. There was no way Ruby would be with a guy like that. But why else would she be having such a strong reaction to his presence?

  “Max—” I spun back around to face her at the desperate plea of my name. “Is that your truck over there?”

  She pointed at my blue Chevy and I nodded. “Sure is. What’s going—”

  “Can you do me a favor?”

  My eyebrows knit together, still completely lost, but I nodded again. “Of course.”

  “Okay. Thanks.” She moved past me, her hand gently grazing my bicep. “One sec.”

  She raced to the sidewalk and met the driver. I kept my distance as they spoke. Ruby was obviously flustered. He presented her with a clipboard and she signed with an agitated scrawl on the places he indicated. After a few minutes, she looked back at me and I jogged out to join her at the end of the driveway. “Everything all right?”

  Ruby heaved a sigh and then met my stare. “Okay, this is going to sound insane, but I need to take all those boxes—” she paused, pointing into the back of the freight truck at a small mountain of boxes. “To a storage unit.”

  “Right now?”

  Ruby bit her lip. “Yeah. Right now before my parents get home.”

  “You gonna tell me why?” I asked with a laugh.

  “Do I have to?”

  I shrugged my shoulders. “I guess not, but I’m holding you responsible if I die of curiosity.”

  She giggled and my heart jumped at the lighthearted sound and the sudden return of her beautiful smile. “I’ll take my chances.”

  “All right then. Let me back the truck up.”

  “Okay. Thank you.” She held my eyes for a moment and I smiled at the relief in her face. “Thank you, Max.”

  “Hey, Rubes, call me Steven.”

  She gave a slow nod and then a smile spread across those intoxicating lips. “Steven.”

  * * * *

  We loaded the boxes from the freight truck to the back of my truck in triple-time, both huffing too much to speak. Curiosity was still burning in my mind but I kept my questions to myself. Once inside the truck, Ruby plugged the address of the storage place into my phone and as we neared the destination the only one who’d spoken the duration of the drive was the navigation robot.

  “Rubes?”

  She turned away from staring out the passenger side window to glance over at me. “Huh?”

  “You’d tell me if you were in trouble, wouldn’t you?”

&nb
sp; She gave a hollow laugh. “Ma—Steven, don’t worry about me, okay?”

  “Shockingly, not reassuring,” I said. The GPS blared the next set of instructions and I turned at the stop light. “Come on, Rubes. We’ve known each other forever. Tell me what’s going on.”

  Ruby sighed as she rolled her dark chocolate eyes. “It’s a long and pathetic story.”

  I chuckled. “What a coincidence, I love long and pathetic stories.”

  She laughed a little. “Well, as much as I hate to deprive you of a whopper of a tale, I’d rather not get into it right now.”

  “All right. Fair enough.” I kept my hands on the wheel—firm at ten and two—but kept glancing at her out of the corner of my eye. Her fingers worked through her hair, tugging and twirling the ends as she stared out the window. Something major was stirring inside her mind. And with each passing mile, I was growing more and more curious. I knew it was none of my business—since I hadn’t seen her in years—but I still wanted to help her. Besides that, I needed something to distract me from the way my body was reacting to the smell of her perfume and the sweet scent of the glisten of sweat on her skin after hauling ass to get the truck loaded. She’d worked like a trooper and had ended up just as sweaty as me. The warmth in the cab, combined with the intoxicating smells brought out some primal side of me that was normally caged for months on end.

  And I wasn’t planning on fucking my best friend’s sister.

  In fact, I’d fully planned on having at least a couple of winter flings while on leave, but none of them had anything to do with my best friend’s little sister.

  The thing that blew my mind was the fact that I hadn’t even known Ruby’d turned into such a fox. She’d had to have been in the pictures from Rick and Vanessa’s wedding. Hadn’t I seen those on his Facebook page? Did I just gloss right over Ruby altogether? She’d had to have been featured front and center, right?

  I glanced at her again. There was something else that was drawing me to her. It wasn’t just her soft curves or her full pout. It was…something inexplicable. Something delicate.