Gifts of Love

by Natalie Ann

  Holly sighed. “Don’t get me started on that.”

  Touched a nerve, he could see. The numbers girl might not like the fact that her family didn’t want to raise prices. Interesting and that did explain things more.

  “Mom. This is Brendan St. Nicholas. He wanted to meet you.”

  The older woman that looked just like her daughter walked over, a smile filling her face with a warm welcome. Nothing like Holly had. “So happy to meet you. I can’t thank you enough for selecting our business for your toy drive. We are so excited, aren’t we, Holly?”

  Ah, there was a look between mother and daughter he caught. Yeah, she had reservations about this. “We are,” Holly said back. “I mentioned to Brendan about your themed tree ideas and he liked it.”

  “You did?”

  “I’m sorry,” Holly said. “This is my mother, Nancy Lane. That was rude of me to not introduce her properly.”

  “Not rude at all,” he said. “It’s nice to meet you, Nancy. And yes, I like the idea. I told Holly that my vision is old school charm for this drive. My sister, Kat, handles all the media and promos. She’ll have some ideas too, but I’d like to hear what you had in mind. You know what works best for your business and I’d like to see you benefit from this too.”

  Nancy almost started to bounce up and down on her toes like an eager kid ready to hand over her Christmas list. “Holly told me I can’t go overboard and I won’t. She rules the roost when it comes to the budget around here.”

  He grinned and looked over at Holly to see her face flush. “In this case the budget comes from me.”

  Nancy’s jaw dropped. “What?”

  “I told Holly all expenses are mine. The only thing I need from you is the space and some time and that is more than enough.”

  “But I thought we could do some themed trees and then sell them after the drive. Just to give an idea of what we could do. We couldn’t ask you to do that.”

  “You aren’t asking me. As Holly was walking me around, I was milling the idea in my head. You put together what you want and how many trees and so on. I’ll talk with Kat and we’ll purchase them and raffle them off the night of the celebration or donate them to the organizations taking the gifts. The hospitals could always use the trees for decorations. Trust me, you will get more publicity that way.”

  This time Holly’s mouth opened and closed. “Wow. I don’t know what to say.”

  “You say, thank you,” he said, brushing her hair off her shoulder.

  6

  The Fun in That

  “That was nice of you,” Holly said ten minutes later when they were in her office.

  “What was?” Brendan asked.

  “What you said to my mother. Letting her get excited and plan this. She really does enjoy those types of things.”

  “Unlike you?” he asked, winking at her.

  She was trying to figure out why he was flirting with her. She wasn’t stupid; she knew when someone was overdoing it and she felt Brendan was. The only question was...why?

  What did he hope to gain? She had nothing to offer him, nor would she.

  Guys like him didn’t spend free time with her and she wasn’t about to kiss his butt like he was probably used to.

  “I can get into the holiday spirit like the rest of my family. I’m the more practical one of the group though,” she said.

  “There is always one stickler in every circle.”

  “So who is it in your family?” she asked. “Not you?”

  “No. My father. He’s been in management his whole life and now he is my right-hand man dealing with the headaches and nuisances I don’t want to, letting me be creative and work with my programmers and coders.”

  “Way over my head,” she said. “But I’m sure Ryan told you how much he enjoys your games.”

  “He did.”

  “Why don’t you have a seat and we can try to work a few things out, or would you rather I talk with Kat?”

  “No, we can start. I’ll just outline how we do things to give you an idea.”

  “That works,” she said, pulling up a document on her computer. “I hope you don’t mind if I type up some notes.”

  “Not at all. Practical, right?”

  “That’s me.”

  He sighed, but she pushed it off. “In the next few weeks we’ll work on setting everything up, getting the greenhouse the way we can all agree. I’ll provide the insurance certificates and any other paperwork. Kat will work with you in regards to the best time to do any media or promos.”

  She was typing away, then looked up. “Will there be a lot of media attention?”

  “More so at the end. We normally get the local news here on the night of the celebration. Sometimes we can get a story beforehand to start us off. It depends who Kat can get on board with. She’s good with that stuff and I leave it up to her. Either way, we’ll have ads in the papers, on the radio, fliers sent out in the mail.”

  Okay, maybe she was completely wrong about him. He was obviously putting a lot of his own money into this. “Why not just use the money for all of that to buy toys yourself?”

  “What’s the fun in that? Anyone can write a check. I want to get the community involved. There is something rewarding about getting others to join in.”

  “Yeah,” she said. “I can see that. It’s just not everyone likes to put the effort in.”

  “Nope and you can’t change those people. That isn’t what I’m trying to do. But there is instant gratification when someone drops a toy off and they know it’s going to a kid that might have never gotten it otherwise.”

  “Do you think that’s the right reason to do it? For instant gratification?” she asked. “Wouldn’t you want people to do it because they are making a difference rather than making themselves feel better?”

  “The world would be a much better place if that were the case, but we know it’s not. I’ve learned that it doesn’t always matter the motivation as long as the end results are the same.”

  She’d never thought of it that way and wondered why. Probably because she was so used to looking for the bad in everything and everyone now when she never used to.

  “Back to how you organize this. I read that you receive thousands of donations. I’m a little nervous about keeping them in the greenhouse where someone might break in and take them. We have cameras on site, but it is a greenhouse.”

  “We won’t leave the toys here the whole time. Each week I’ll send over a crew to get them and bring them back to my main headquarters. I’ve got staff that volunteer for this event to help sort everything. If it gets too packed in there, we’ll transport more often.”

  She felt some relief at that. “So you take everything away?”

  “No. That would make it look bare. We’ll take what we can, and leave others so it doesn’t look like no one has donated. When it comes time for the celebration we’ll make sure we have a good selection of toys for view, but the bulk of it will stay where we put it. Besides, the night of the celebration there are a lot more toys that arrive.”

  “The organizations that you are giving them to donate some too?”

  “They collect on their own and contribute to it. They will bring over what they’ve collected most times. Or at least part of it.”

  “You keep mentioning a celebration. What does that entail?”

  “It’s something different every year. Since the whole theme is different than I’ve done before, the celebration will be too. We bring in caterers, food, drink, music. Toast to our success, I thank everyone for their hard work, explain what we received and where it’s going and then we just party.”

  She laughed. “You make it sound easy, but I have a feeling it’s anything but.”

  “If you want something enough, you make it look easy,” he said. “This is something that means a great deal to me and I’ll do what it takes to succeed. It’s all about fun and giving back. People get sick of hearing the words ‘paying it forward’ but that is really wha
t I’m doing.”

  She wanted to ask why but knew that was probably too personal of a question.

  “It’s a nice thing you’re doing,” she said.

  There was a knock at the door and she turned to see Ryan standing there. “Sorry to bother you. I’ve got to leave and Reese can’t come with me.”

  She’d forgotten that Ryan took Reese for her so he wouldn’t be underfoot while she met with Brendan. “No problem. Sorry, Brendan. I have my dog with me at work, but I wasn’t sure what you’d think of it and wanted to keep him out of the way.”

  Brendan had gotten out of the chair and crouched down on the ground with Reese rushing forward, his big chocolate butt wiggling in ecstasy as he got massive rubs behind the ears. Funny how Brendan knew where Reese loved to be pet the most.

  “No problem,” he said. “I’ve got myself a chocolate lab too. Best companion there is out there. How old is he?”

  “I guess Reese isn’t an issue,” Ryan said. “Nice to see you again, Brendan. Thanks again for thinking of us for the drive, but I need to run.”

  Brendan lowered his head and rubbed it on Reese’s nose and some of the distrust she’d felt for him evaporated. How could it not?

  “Not a problem,” Brendan said, standing up and shaking Ryan’s hand.

  Brendan turned and sat back down in the chair, Reese staying by his side, loving the attention.

  “Reese is eight months old. How old is your lab?”

  “Eight months,” Brendan said. “I’ve got a girl, Rosie.”

  She laughed. “Rosie?”

  “I wanted to call her Nosy, but thought that was kind of mean. When I brought her home she went right for the rose bushes, sniffing and digging and making a mess. That night she got into everything she could, nosing around. Rosie just seemed to stick. Where did the name Reese come from?”

  “I like peanut butter cups,” she admitted.

  “Who doesn’t?” he said. “Have dinner with me tonight.”

  “What?” Where did that come from?

  “You heard me. I sense a lot of distrust you have for me for some reason. Let’s have dinner and get to know each other a bit better.”

  “You’re asking me on a date?” She burst out laughing at the absurdity of it.

  “What’s so funny?”

  “You can’t see how hilarious this is? We’ve got nothing in common. Why do you want to go out to dinner with me?”

  “I just told you. I want to ease your mind about the toy drive. Answer any questions you’ve got.”

  She felt her face flush. Guess she put her foot in her mouth thinking it was a date. “Oh. Sorry. I guess I just assumed. It’s a business thing.”

  “No,” he said. “It’s a date.” He was grinning at her, causing the flush to go from her face to her neck and into her belly.

  “I don’t know,” she said.

  “Reese likes me,” he added.

  “Now you’re trying to play me by using my dog.”

  “And that just set you off,” he said.

  “You’re smart, what do you think?”

  He stood up and pulled his phone out of his pocket, then turned to show it to her. “Rosie. Come on. Maybe Reese would like to meet her. We can grab a pizza and eat at my place. Casual.”

  “I don’t normally go on a date with a man for the first time at his house.”

  “I don’t think Reese would let anything happen to you.”

  He was right. “I don’t know,” she said again.

  “It’s a work night. You’re probably one of those people who has everything planned out. How about Friday night then? It will give you two days to think it over. Come up with all the questions you want to ask me.”

  She hated that he was close in his assumption. At the end of the day she just liked to go home and stick to her routine. It made her boring, but she didn’t care.

  Spontaneity was long gone from her life. Live and learn.

  “I’ll think about it,” she said. It was the best she could do for now. She hadn’t been on a date in months and wasn’t looking to get involved with anyone.

  Least of all someone so far out of her league that he was probably looking at her as some plaything while he did his good deed of the month.

  “You’ve got my number. Let me know by Friday morning,” he said and stood up to leave. “But I’ve got to get back to my office and get some work done too.”

  She stood up with him, intending to walk him out. “Should I reach out to Kat?”

  “I’ll have her give you a call. What’s a good number for her to reach you?”

  She opened a drawer and pulled out her business card. “She can reach me on that number. It’s direct to the office.”

  He laughed. “Not going to share your personal number?”

  “I’ll call you no later than Friday morning with an answer one way or another.”

  “If that is the best I can get, then I’ll take it. No need to walk me out. I know the way.”

  She had a feeling he wasn’t someone that was going to take no for an answer, so now she had a few days to figure out what to say and how to handle this delicately.

  Her family would be livid if she blew this opportunity for the business. It was the last thing she planned on doing, but she sure the hell wasn’t going to be someone’s short-term entertainment either.

  7

  Used and Discarded

  Reluctantly, Holly found herself driving down the long driveway of the home belonging to Brendan St. Nicholas Friday at a little after five with Reese in the front seat.

  She’d wanted to say no.

  She’d wanted to find any excuse.

  She’d wanted to lie and say she wasn’t interested.

  The problem was she couldn’t come up with any reason to stop her from being where she was right now.

  Saying no might have put a wrinkle in the toy drive plans and she wouldn’t do anything to jeopardize that. She wouldn’t let her family down when they were looking forward to this.

  When their business needed it.

  If she felt out of place in her six-year-old SUV in the half circle in front of what could only be described as a mansion, well, she wasn’t shocked. He was a millionaire after all.

  She parked and got out, then held the door for Reese to follow, making sure his collar was clipped, and started to walk to the front door.

  No need to ring the bell, as there was Brendan opening one of the double doors wide, his own chocolate lab, Rosie, dashing out ahead of him toward Reese.

  She did the only thing she could and unclipped Reese or she would have been dragged across the lawn with the two of them chasing each other.

  “Looks like they are happy to meet,” Brendan said.

  She got a better look at Brendan in his jeans, a sweatshirt with a logo across the chest, and old beat-up sneakers on his feet. Yeah, he looked more like a man she might be attracted to in a bar than the one that owned a gaming company.

  Which was part of the reason she wouldn’t lie and say she wasn’t interested, because part of her was.

  She planned on being upfront with him though. She wasn’t going to be a plaything for him to pass his time.

  She wasn’t going to be used and discarded.

  She’d been there and done that.

  They could have dinner if he wanted. They could talk and get to know each other.

  They wouldn’t be having sex unless she thought there was a chance at something more than three weeks of company, and right now, that thought was as far from her mind as walking to Russia for a glass of vodka.

  “Reese loves company,” she said. “I bring him to doggie daycare twice a week so he can run around. Otherwise he’s at the office with me.”

  “Rosie goes to the office daily. I should look into doggie daycare for her too, but it seems like I’ve got so much going on.”

  “I’m sure,” she said.

  “It’s a little brisk out, why don’t we bring them in and they can play in th
e house.”

  “I’m afraid they might break something running around,” she said.

  “Don’t think anything of it. Rosie, house,” Brendan said.

  Rosie came running toward her master, so Holly stepped out of the way, Reese following his new friend and ignoring her.

  She stepped through the door, stopping in the foyer and just looking up at a grand staircase. She wanted to say it was a house out of a fairytale, but the truth was, it wasn’t anything as grand as a mansion you’d see in Hollywood. It was just so much more than anything she’d ever been in.

  She took her jacket off and handed it over where he’d hung it in a closet off to the side, then followed him to the back of the house. She passed a large formal dining room, what she assumed might be a library or den, another formal living room.

  When they got to the back of the house, it was just wide open. A massive kitchen, an island that held six chairs, another large table that held eight chairs. The living room was bigger than she could describe with a large amount of furniture. More than one person needed.

  “I know, it’s a lot,” he said, almost reading her mind. “But I have team meetings here. Sometimes my programmers and coders crash here for days.”

  “Really?” she asked, not able to imagine that. “When I’m done with work, the last thing I want to do is have anyone with me at home talking about it.”

  “It’s not always avoidable,” he said. “I’d rather be in the comfort of my home than my office, though there are times we pull all-nighters there.”

  “I take it your staff doesn’t have families to be home to,” she asked. She wasn’t trying to be sarcastic, but it seemed to her he asked a lot of his employees.

  “They do. They are compensated well for their time,” he said, smiling at her. “No one tells them they have to work for me if they don’t like it.”

  “I suppose,” she said. “So are you really planning on ordering pizza?”

  He frowned at her. “Of course. Why do you ask that?”

  “I just figured you wouldn’t want pizza delivered here. It’s kind of set back like you want your privacy. You probably don’t want anyone to know where you live.”