by Ford, Mia
Her Perfect Gift
A Christmas Romance
Mia Ford
Copyright © 2019 by Mia Ford
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, including electronic or mechanical, without written permission from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
This book is a piece of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people.
If you are reading this book and book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return it to the seller and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author’s work.
Published: Mia Ford 2019
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Created with Vellum
Contents
Author’s Note
Blurb
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Excerpt
Author’s Note
Stay connected with Mia Ford
Also by Mia Ford
Author’s Note
Her Perfect Gift is a full-length standalone Christmas romance novel. At the end, I’ve included an excerpt from The Perfect Gift, a Christmas romance novel and an Amazon TOP 20 Book which also had the tag of the most sold books on Amazon.
Her Perfect Gift concludes at around 90% on your device.
Happy Reading!
XO, Mia Ford
Blurb
No one knows the real man behind this face.
Except for her…
As a Hollywood star, I’ve got everything I want.
The fame, the money, the women.
But I still feel a void inside me.
No one’s come close to being as special as Darcy.
She used to be my neighbor.
My obsession.
The one that got away.
This Christmas, I need to bring her back into my life.
But she may not give me a second chance.
The world calls me a player.
Well, this player just got a woman pregnant.
Darcy is about to be the mother of my child.
…and the limelight might destroy our family.
Will I lose her to my fame yet again?
Chapter One
Seth
December 19th
“Well, hello there, Mr. Sexiest Body of the Year,” my agent, Sierra, teases me in a sing song tone of voice. “Honestly, there are so many women that would sell a limb to be sitting where I am right now…”
“Oh, well aren’t you the lucky one.” I roll my eyes and let out a gravely laugh. “But unfortunately for you, you also have the job of managing every aspect of my life. Sorry about that, Sierra.”
“Hey, it isn’t the worst thing in the world to manage the career of a super star Hollywood actor.”
I smile to myself as she says that. I still find it a little strange to be seen as Seth: The Hollywood Guy, rather than little ol’ Seth Bishop who grew up in a small town in the middle of nowhere. Of course, this was my goal, I fought for it since I was old enough to know what fame and fortune was. So, to have my dreams realized is something else. I still need to pinch myself at times.
“So, speaking of, you have a little gap in your schedule right now, which I would like to discuss with you. Because you have had a lot of options coming your way. My inbox is filled with scripts. Now, I know that you said you want to make the move out of action, but this one comes with a really good pay check, that I might even be able to negotiate to a bit higher because they are so desperate to have your name attached…”
“No.” I push back the paper that she slides my way. “I don’t want any more over the top action movies. The plots are getting to be more unbelievable. I can’t stand it.” I can’t stop myself from sighing with irritation. “I feel bad for the stunt guys too. They do all of the hard work, putting their lives in danger, and get none of the credit. It’s crazy…” I can see that I’m losing Sierra, so I stop going down that road. “Anyway, that’s irrelevant. I want to work on something more serious, something with meaning… you know, one of those movies that people think about for a long time afterwards because it’s affected them.”
“I hear you,” Sierra replies, through gritted teeth. “But this is a really good price tag. I think you should look at the offer. It will line your pockets, mine too if we’re being honest about it, and you know it, don’t you?”
“But I don’t want to be type cast.” I shake my head hard, absolutely determined to stick to my guns. I know what I’m doing here. “I’m already there, but I don’t want to make it worse. This in my next move.”
“You know, most actors stick to what they know,” Sierra continues, just as determined as me. “They find a place where they fit in the shark’s mouth and remain there, so they don’t get chewed up and spat out.”
I chuckle once more. “I know that’s your opinion, Sierra, but I also think that you know you weren’t going to get a typical Hollywood guy when you agreed to work for me. So, this is what you need to help me with.”
She snorts out a strange sound, half amusement, half irritation, but I know that Sierra doesn’t mind. I have helped to catapult her career in the exact same way that she has mine. We have been there for one another, which now means that we need to stick together during this transition where everything will change. I hope.
“Okay, so I will turn everyone down, even though they are offering you a fortune, and I will continue looking for something that suits your new, very vague, needs. Moving on, I wanted to talk to you about Christmas.”
“I have done all my Christmas light turn ons, I have filled all my festive obligations…”
“I’m not saying this is an obligation, but an opportunity. You know that telethon on Christmas Day? The one where funds are raised for charity and celebrities become household names?”
“I know the one.” I sit up straighter in my seat. “I already told you that I can’t do anything at Christmas this year. I’m going back home for the holidays to see my family and friends…”
“But you never do that,” Sierra complains. “You have talked about it a few times, but never done it…”
“I know,” I can’t help but agree with her. It’s all that I can do. “But six years is too long for me to miss the holidays. I want to go back, to see everyone, to attend the Christmas carnival…”
; A smile creeps up on my lips. The Christmas carnival was always a staple part of my existence when I was younger, something that I never thought I would miss. But, as soon as I started my life in LA, I didn’t even think twice about it. I have been so caught up in the bubble of fame here, that the last six years had just flown by. Ever since my twenty eighth birthday, my frame of mind has been different, I’ve become more reflective. I want to go back to my roots, to remember who I was before all of this. I feel like I have gone away so far from who I used to be that I need a moment to reflect on the life I had before. Just a minute, that’s all, then I will be back.
“Why do you have to go?” Sierra purses out her lips. “Can’t it wait until next year? Because this is a great opportunity and I wouldn’t want you to miss out when you can visit home at any time.”
“I can’t though, can I?” I remind her. “There is always something in the pipeline. Right now, I have an opening in my schedule and I just want to get back to my old life for a moment.”
Sierra leans back in her chair and stares at me inquisitively for a minute before she speaks out. “There isn’t anything going on here, is there? Anything that I should know about? , Because you know how much I hate being surprised. I don’t think that I need to remind you of the whole Infinity scandal, do I?”
Oh God, no! That is the one story that I tried to handle alone to stop it from getting out in the world which is why I didn’t tell Sierra. She wasn’t my first kiss and tell girl, but she was the first online influencer who made her way into the world by being naked most of the time, or pretty much naked, and I knew that it was going to be a scandal. I did what I could to stop her story from being pointed, I even paid her a fortune, but it made no difference. It got out there anyway, and nearly blew Sierra’s mind. Because of my involvement she couldn’t even run her usual public relations tactics to calm the story down, so safe to say, she was mad. Maybe she still is, since she keeps bringing it up even three and a half years later as a moral lesson.
I think she also wanted it to be a catalyst for me to stop with the one-night stands and short flings as well, but that didn’t exactly work out. The thing is I am a man with needs who hasn’t found anyone to captivate me for long enough for it to turn into any kind of proper relationship. That isn’t exactly my fault.
“There isn’t anything going on,” I reassure her. “I just want a break, that’s all. A time out.”
“You’re not going to run away for good, are you? Because I don’t want that. If I’m going to work out some jobs for you that are out of your usual mode, which isn’t going to be the easiest job, I want to know that you will be back in LA as soon as the new year is in.”
“I will be back.” I smile widely at her. “I promise you. I wouldn’t have worked as hard as I have over the last six years, to run away. This is just a little bit of space, that’s all.”
Sierra still looks suspicious, which I can’t blame her for, since this is a little out of character for me, but she eventually nods and understands. Not that she really has much choice. She might manage me, but I’m the one in control. When I’m not attached to a contract, I’m the one who has power over my destiny, and I am absolutely determined to make it home this time around. I have too many people that I want to see.
“I will be in touch,” Sierra warns me as I leave her office. “So, you will have to keep me updated.”
“Honestly, Sierra, I’m not going to get myself in any trouble here. I’m just going home for a while…”
“Seth, you can always find a way to get yourself in to trouble. Just please… if you can, avoid it.”
I hug her before I say goodbye and I leave her office to head out for my first real break in a very long time. There are a lot of people who I’m excited to see when I go back home, particularly my father, but there is also one person who I’m more nervous than excited to see. But after six years, surely it will be okay?
Darcy McNeill, what am I going to get when I see you? A slap, a hug, nothing at all?
It was this time of year when I last saw her. And when I first saw her. It was in December when I was fifteen years old, and her family moved in the house next to ours. I remember seeing this young teenage girl with wavy dark hair and a bright smile, who I knew was going to change my life… and that she did. We became absolute best friends until… well, until I started to see her in a different light. I don’t exactly know when that happened, but it did. It became a crush that I just kinda felt like would turn in to a relationship once we were old enough. And six years ago, when we kissed at the Christmas carnival, I really did think that we were finally on the right path.
But then I got the call. The call that changed my life forever. The call from Hollywood that I had a role in my first movie. Back then, I was the best friend in a high school thriller that pretty much turned in to an action movie by the end of it, which catapulted me on the path to my career. In all of that, I guess I forgot about Darcy McNeill and the future that we could have had. Or more… I didn’t think that our lives could mesh anymore. I didn’t think that she would want the same things as me, and LA wouldn’t suit her.
Why didn’t I give us a chance? There is a reason why I haven’t had a proper relationship before, and that’s because of her. If don’t make me feel like she has, then they don’t get a chance. And no one captivates me like she does.
God, it’s going to be wild seeing her again. Anything could happen. Maybe Sierra is right, perhaps I do risk trouble here.
Chapter Two
Darcy
December 20th
“Now that, is break up hair.” Ivy grins wildly as she spins me around in her hair dressing chair to show me my reflection in the mirror. “Look at you, you sexy minx, Darcy McNeill. Now you can go out and slay the world.”
I run my fingers through my bouncy curls and smile at myself. “I have to admit that I look good, Ivy, but I don’t know that I am going to slay anything tonight. And I don’t know if what happened with Pete classes as a ‘break up’ exactly. We weren’t even together for that long. It just sort of… fizzled out.”
It always fizzles out. That’s part of the problem. I don’t know if it’s me or them, I guess it has to be me since I’m the common denominator, but it always falls apart. There isn’t enough glue to hold us together. There isn’t enough spark to make it last, and Pete was just another victim of that. I only decided to message him because it’s been a couple of weeks, not because I actually wanted to spend time with him, and I wasn’t even hurt when he told me that he met someone else. It was more just disappointment that I failed again. I am going to end up alone if I’m not careful. Single forever. One of those old maids who has a bunch of freaking cats because she can’t find someone to spend her life with.
Urgh, but then I don’t want to be the sort of person who thinks I need love to make me happy either. I am okay just being by myself. That’s why I left my job at the local beautician company to start up my own business, and why I’m pushing to make my very own make up line work. I might not be where a lot of twenty six year old’s find themselves romantically, but I am doing well in my career. Or I would like to think so anyway. I’m getting there.
“So, what’s next for you anyway, Darcy?” Ivy asks as she begins to pack away her equipment. “Now that Pete is out of the picture, where do you see yourself going? Back on the apps?”
“Urgh, no.” I shake my head hard, my curls flickering around my face as I do, giving me a little bit of much needed confidence. “No way. No more dating for me for a while. I’m done. I need to start getting my makeup line out in the public eye a bit more anyway. I haven’t been as “on it” as I would like to be.”
I actually need to make a lot of changes in my life, and I need to do it soon before I slip back happily into the rut that I have been in for far too long. The ‘break up’ can at least do that for me.
I make a mental list inside of my head of where I want to begin, and it definitely starts with my living situation. I
know that quitting my job hasn’t helped me with this, but being twenty six, and still sleeping under the roof of my over protective parents was never in my life plan. When I was a teenager, I used to dream about breaking free as soon as I got the chance because I didn’t want to be under their rules for longer than I needed to… but I wasn’t thinking about money then. I didn’t think about the hardship and bills of living alone.
And now, I’m the only tragic one I know that can’t live anywhere else. I haven’t done myself any favors by starting this make up line, and Mom keeps using it as just another thing to hold over my head. She thinks that I would be better off getting my ‘head out of the clouds’ and working in a ‘proper job’. No wonder it’s hard for me to get motivated and keep going. She might only want what’s best for me, but she’s hard to live with.
I almost want to move out of this town completely the moment that I can afford to do so, to start fresh, but it’s hard when everything that I have is here. All the friends that I once had, have moved on with their own very successful lives, and have forgotten about me. The only real friend that I have here is Ivy. She isn’t a friend from high school, but someone who came afterwards. I met her through the beauty business, and now I don’t know what I would do without her. She’s been my rock… especially at times like this, and I don’t know who else I can turn to. Ivy will keep the hairdressing salon open for me, to do my hair, and give me a boost. This time, I need to make this boost work for me.
