by Ward Maia
Table of Contents
Blurb
Text
About the Author
By Ward Maia
Visit Dreamspinner Press
Copyright Page
Summer Santa
By Ward Maia
Sam is a journalist struggling with the recent transfer to his magazine’s Brazilian office. He doesn’t speak the language and isn’t all that familiar with the customs. It also isn’t easy to make friends when you’re the new guy. Then there’s James, his friendly and gorgeous coworker, who is so out of Sam’s league, he knows he doesn’t stand any chance with the handsome Brazilian.
Just as Sam is preparing to spend Christmas away from his family, an unexpected surprise spins his lonely holiday plans around. Another unforeseen gift is James’s offer to show Sam some of the city’s holiday traditions. With his significant low self-esteem, Sam doesn’t know what to make of James’s offer and apparent interest. Can some last-minute decorations and an impromptu meal make Sam’s apartment feel more homely?
Maybe everything could come together in a wonderful way—if Sam can find the courage and confidence to accept all James wants to give.
SAM STARED at the computer screen, cursing modern technology and fighting the urge to bang his head on the desk. He took a deep breath and forced his frustration down.
“One more time,” Sam murmured to himself, reloaded the page, and waited as patiently as he could. Then he clicked on the Send button at the end of the page.
There was a brief pause. Sam held his breath, his palms sweating. And then… the error message popped up on the screen. Again.
Sam wailed and banged his head on the desk. He wanted to scream and tear his hair out. He’d been trying to send his final assignment by the end of the day. Before Christmas. It was almost five o’clock and the page kept crashing. At this rate, he’d have to work on Christmas Day. Which wouldn’t exactly be anything new. Except he was depressed enough to be spending the holidays away from his family.
Having to work on Christmas Day would just add another terrible layer to his already miserable mood.
“Everything all right?” a familiar voice asked from above him.
Sam snapped his head up and stared slack-jawed at the man leaning against his desk. James was wearing steel gray slacks and a white button-down shirt, with the first button undone. His tan skin glowed, even underneath the fluorescent lights in the office, and his arms were crossed in front of his chest as he aimed a devastating crooked smile at Sam.
“Um… page… crash,” Sam mumbled. He resisted the urge to face-palm, but instead straightened in his chair and cleared his throat. He ignored the little red mark that was probably forming in the middle of his forehead from banging his head on the desk.
“Oh, yeah. Some of the pages have been crashing. They’re trying to figure out if it’s the servers or just how the internet works down here.”
Sam laughed, maybe a little hysterically. So he tried to cover it up with a cough. “Well, guess I’ll be working on Christmas Day, then.” Sam gave James a strained smile, trying to keep the misery from his tone.
James frowned and stepped closer. Sam automatically pushed his chair back and then immediately wished he hadn’t. It wasn’t that he minded James’s company. It was quite the opposite, really. James was sweet and polite. He always offered to help whenever someone had a problem. Not just Sam. He was like that with everyone.
Not to mention he was ridiculously attractive. All lean muscles and long limbs. His hair always looked messy, in that completely intentional way, and it somehow always looked great with the business-casual attire he wore to work.
“Sorry,” Sam mumbled and stared down at his shoes.
“Do you want me to take a look?” James stepped back and pointed at the screen.
“You can if you want. But I don’t think there’s much hope for me.” Sam got up and offered James his chair.
James sat and started to type away at his keyboard. Because aside from being handsome and sweet, he was also smart. Of course he was.
“…for the holidays?” James asked.
“Huh?” Sam asked, shaking his head, forcing himself to focus on something other than the fine hairs on the back of James’s neck and fighting the urge to run his fingers through them, to see if he could make James shiver.
“What are your plans for the holidays?” James glanced briefly over his shoulder at Sam before returning his attention to the screen.
“Oh, uh… nothing special. Just dinner for one. In my apartment. Alone.” Sam groaned internally. Could he have given a more needy and pathetic answer? He decided to stick to monosyllabic responses with James from now on. He couldn’t really embarrass himself with yes and no answers. Right?
“You’re not going home to see your family?” James asked, and Sam could almost hear the frown in his voice.
“No. They’re going to visit my sister up north.” Which was true. He just didn’t want to tell James he didn’t have enough money to afford the ticket to join them.
James opened his mouth to say something else, but instead, he clapped once and got up to face Sam, gracing him with the full force of his smile.
Sam swallowed, forced his eyes away from James’s face, and glanced at the screen. Your message has been sent flashed at him and Sam gasped.
“You did it!” Sam beamed and turned to look at James. And realized they were standing far too close to each other. Sam gulped in a nervous breath, James’s citrusy cologne invading his senses.
“They… they probably fixed the servers,” James said. Did his voice sound just a little bit husky? And were his pupils maybe a bit dilated?
Well, of course they were. Sam was blocking the light. It was a natural physiological response. Nothing more. No matter what his lonely and overactive imagination tried to make of it.
“Right.” Sam straightened and ran his hands over the invisible wrinkles on his shirt. “Regardless, thank you. Now at least I won’t have to work during Christmas Day.”
“That’s always a good thing,” James said, getting up from Sam’s chair and sounding uncharacteristically awkward.
They stood there, just staring at each other for a few seconds. Sam ran his gaze over James’s face, wondering if maybe, just maybe, he’d read his reaction to Sam’s proximity right. But it wasn’t possible. James was way out of his league. In so many ways it wasn’t even funny. Not just because he was handsome. Made even more so by his slightly crooked nose and uneven eyebrows.
Not that Sam was unhappy with the way he looked. Sure, maybe he could stand to lose a few pounds and work on his tan. But he was nowhere near as good-looking as James. Maybe Sam wasn’t the most impartial observer when it came to the other man, but he didn’t think anyone looked like James. But it was probably just the tiny annoying crush he had on James clouding his judgment.
Yeah, it could definitely be that.
James opened his mouth just as his phone rang, and he excused himself to answer it. Sam tried to push down the disappointment that their brief exchange had been interrupted, but it bubbled to the surface anyway.
“Merry Christmas, Sam,” James said.
Sam looked up and gave James a genuine smile. “Merry Christmas.”
James nodded and turned around, talking to whoever had called him as he walked away.
Sam sighed and turned to his computer, shutting everything off. He wasn’t in any particular hurry. All he had to look forward to was a tiny, sparsely furnished apartment. And a lousy frozen dinner for one.
So he took his time packing everything up. But his small cubicle had just one computer, a chair, and a stack of printed magazines. Not even ten minutes later, he was sitting in a cab, on his way to his apartment.
IF THERE wa
s one thing Samuel Evans didn’t deal well with, it was the heat. Being promoted and sent to work overseas at the magazine’s brand-new branch was an amazing opportunity he hadn’t even considered turning down. He wasn’t married and didn’t have any kids. Other than a few sorry houseplants he could barely keep alive, there was nothing keeping him from moving to another country. Besides, he was sure the plants were far happier at his mother’s house anyway.
He’d embarked on the new adventure with excitement—until he almost fainted from the heat not five minutes after stepping off the plane. It felt like he was sweating his soul through his pores.
When he’d told his boss during the job interview that he loved difficult challenges and saw them as an opportunity to grow, he had never expected this to happen. Hell, he hadn’t even expected his boss to remember.
But he had. And he’d offered Sam just the opportunity to grow he’d always wanted. And now here he was. Stuck in traffic, on his way to spend the Christmas holiday by himself in an apartment he hadn’t even bothered to decorate.
It was a great opportunity, no doubt about it. He just wished his boss would’ve had enough compassion to maybe wait until after New Year’s to send him to a foreign country whose language he didn’t even speak.
“Excuse me,” Samuel said, tapping the taxi driver’s shoulder. “How much farther?”
The taxi driver shrugged and said something in Portuguese, staring at Sam through the rearview mirror expectantly.
Sam sighed and shook his head, turning to look out the window. His phone rang, and when he pulled it out of his pocket, his sister’s smiling face looked back at him.
“Banana.” He grinned broadly.
“Don’t call me that, Sammy,” she said absentmindedly. A car honked very loudly, making Sam wince. “Where are you?”
“On my way to my apartment.” I hope.
He didn’t say the second part out loud, but neither he nor the driver could understand each other very well. After long minutes of pointless gesturing—mostly on Sam’s part, which did not go unnoticed by the other passengers trying to get a cab—Sam had just shoved the address at the driver, got in the car, and hoped for the best.
The driver, a middle-aged man with abundant laugh lines and a thick beard, had nodded and smiled, opening the passenger door for Sam.
“I really don’t know why your boss couldn’t just wait until after the holidays,” his sister voiced the question he’d been asking himself for days.
“I don’t think he celebrates the holidays, so he probably doesn’t expect anyone that works for him to celebrate it either.” He shrugged even though he knew she couldn’t see him.
“Well, Aunt Millie is going on and on about how you should spend Christmas with your family.” Music exploded on the other side of the line and Sam had to hold the phone away from his ear.
“Where are you?” He looked around as if he could pinpoint the source of the music. Which he couldn’t, of course, because she was on another continent.
“Oh, um… Mrs. Danvers is having a party,” she said, her voice high-pitched and a little squeaky.
Sam narrowed his eyes at the lady crossing the street next to the taxi. She widened her eyes and walked faster to the other side of the street.
“Really?” He stretched out the word. “Mrs. Danvers? Our ninety-year-old neighbor is having a party?”
“Oh yeah!” she squeaked. “You should see it! It’s out of control.”
“You’re a terrible liar.” He sighed. “Also, why are you lying to me?”
“Who? Me? Lying? Pfft,” she scoffed and laughed a little hysterically.
The taxi driver said something and gestured toward the building they were pulling up to. Sam nodded to indicate that he understood. He faintly recognized the building and hoped his tired eyes weren’t deceiving him.
“I gotta go. Talk to you in a couple of hours?” Sam asked, hoping that talking to his sister, even if over the phone, would help to alleviate some of his holiday loneliness.
“Oh yes! We most definitely will. Just, um, remember I love you and that none of this was my idea,” his sister rushed to say.
Sam thought he heard a voice that sounded suspiciously like his Aunt Millie yell traitor, but he couldn’t be sure over the sound of the car door closing and the busy street.
“Okay,” Sam said a little cautiously. “I love you too.”
“’Kay, bye!” she squeaked and the line went dead.
“Huh.” He stared at the phone’s dark screen.
He shook his head and pushed his sister’s weird behavior out of his mind as he tried—and failed—to communicate with the taxi driver. Eventually he paid with the colorful bills that served as currency in this country and dragged his sorry self into his apartment building.
Sam waved to the doorman, who gestured back and said something. Sam paused and shook his head to indicate he hadn’t understood. The man spoke again. Even the few phrases Sam had tried to learn were of no help and the words tumbled too quickly out of the other man’s mouth for him to catch.
As far as Sam knew, he could be saying anything from welcome or maybe Merry Christmas or even you’re sweating all over the carpet, please leave.
Because Sam was indeed sweating all over the pristine carpet. He sighed and rested his forehead on the granite countertop. Instead of continuing the failed communication, he pulled out his phone and flipped through the screens, looking for the translation app.
Something caught his attention and he did a double take to make sure he was seeing correctly. A woman wearing a bright orange sundress and a ridiculously big straw hat waved at him and smiled, making her way toward him.
Sam’s jaw fell open and his eyes widened.
“There he is!” the woman cooed, pinching his cheeks like she used to do when he was five. “My beautiful sunflower!”
“Aunt Millie?” Sam asked in disbelief.
“The one and only,” she exclaimed and smiled brightly at him. “Now come on, give us a hug!” She wrapped her surprisingly strong arms around him and pulled him against her chest. Stunned, Sam could do little other than just stand there and let her crush him against her body.
“What are you doing here?” Sam asked when she finally let him go.
“Oh, you know me.” She waved her hands around. “I’m always looking for my next adventure.”
“Don’t listen to her,” someone said, and Sam snapped his head up to see his mother walking toward him. “The only adventure we’re here for is baking in the sun.”
She reached Sam and pulled him down, kissing his cheek noisily.
“Mom, what are you guys doing here?” Sam asked, completely flabbergasted.
“We came to help you acclimate. Did you think we were going to let you travel halfway around the world and get settled into another country all by yourself?” his mother asked, smiling sweetly at him.
“Speak for yourself,” Aunt Millie said, putting on huge round sunglasses that made her look a little like an overgrown beetle. “I’m here to find my inner voice. Or go on a journey of self-discovery. Or some other middle-aged cliché I still haven’t decided on yet.”
“But what about Dad? And Ana?” Sam asked.
“Oh, don’t you worry. Your father is lost somewhere in the hotel gift shop and your sister is by the hotel pool with the boys,” his mother informed him.
“You’re all here?” Sam didn’t even try to hide the shock and happiness in his voice.
“Of course,” Aunt Millie said and pulled him down for another hug.
Sam straightened himself and cleared his throat, swallowing down the lump of emotions. Things didn’t seem so scary now that his family was here. And he wouldn’t spend Christmas by himself. Gradually happiness started to replace the shock.
“Well,” Sam said, grinning broadly. “Welcome to Brazil.”
“I SWEAR, I had nothing to do with this madness.” His sister, Ana, raised her hands in a placating gesture.
But even
though her words proclaimed her innocence, her smile told him something entirely different. Sam walked toward her, his eyes narrowed. After he’d gotten over his surprise, his mother and aunt had ushered him into a cab and whisked him away to the hotel they were staying in.
“Uhum, sure.” Sam pulled her into a hug.
“Be honest. You’re glad we crashed your exotic holiday getaway,” she said into his shoulder.
“I’m not on an exotic getaway. I’m here for work,” Sam reminded her.
“Work? Have you seen the beaches that are just outside this hotel? This is the honeymoon destination Kit has been promising me for years!” She extended her arms and collapsed onto the poolside chaise with a contented sigh.
“Where is Kit?” Sam chuckled and sat next to his sister.
She pointed to the pool and Sam followed her finger. He smiled at his brother-in-law, Kit, splashing away happily in the pool with Sam’s three nephews.
Kit and his sister were complete opposites. She was a bookworm and he was a gym rat. But they shared an unparalleled love for soccer. The sport had ultimately brought them together. Maintaining a relationship between two very different people had been all their doing.
“Tell me the truth,” Sam said, relaxing and letting the relief of not having to spend the holidays by himself wash over him. “This was all Aunt Millie’s idea, right?”
“It was more of a family decision really,” Ana informed him. “Plus, we can have a white Christmas any old year. This Christmas I want to bake under the sun and get sand in inconvenient places.”
“That sounds unpleasant.” Sam grimaced.
“Not really. Kit always helps me look for all the stubborn grains.”
“And that’s how you ended up with three boys.”
She threw her head back and laughed. They sat there for a while as Sam’s nephews tried to outswim each other.
“Are you excited about your new job?” Ana waved at the waiter serving the other guests by the pool.
“It’s kind of the same job, just in a different country,” Sam informed her.
