Change My Mind

by Ali Parker

  “I need help.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Second floor, men’s department. Those savages have left a disaster and all of our hard work is falling apart. Hurry up.”

  I groaned and ended the call. I headed for the elevators to go save her and whatever madness she was involved in. I cringed when I saw the aftermath of the day. There were still crowds but not nearly as many people as there had been earlier. There were clothes scattered everywhere. Nothing was where it was last night.

  “Parker?”

  “Here,” I heard her frantic voice call out. I walked around a mannequin display and found a mess I could not have imagined.

  “Oh my god,” I groaned. “What the hell?”

  “My idea to make a cute little tree out of boxes of chocolates and nuts and candy canes was not smart. Those animals treated it like it was a game of Jenga. I didn’t think they would actually want to buy the stuff! It’s all at the registers.”

  “Watch out,” I cried as the top of her tree started to lean.

  “Get the ladder,” Parker said, reaching up in an attempt to keep the tree from tumbling to the floor.

  I rushed to grab the step ladder, setting it down beside her and climbing up in my heels. I pushed in one of the boxes and only managed to push out another one on the other side. “Oh no,” I cried out. “Grab the other side.”

  She let go of what she had and ran around the tree to catch a box that was falling. “Got it!”

  She pushed a little too hard and the whole display started sliding toward me. “Wait, wait, wait,” I cried out.

  I lunged forward, trying to use my body to hold up the crumbling display. I only ended up slamming against it, sending it toppling in the other direction.

  Parker squealed. “No!”

  I felt myself falling forward and my first reaction was to jerk backward. Unfortunately, heels and ladders did not make a good combination. I felt myself falling. My arms flailed as I struggled to grab anything that might catch my fall.

  I fell into a pair of very strong arms. I wasn’t expecting it. I shrieked at the same time I was gently righted, my feet touching the floor. The arms still around me. I looked up and was convinced I was living in a dream. I must have actually fallen on the floor and knocked myself senseless. I was suffering from a concussion or mild brain damage. My heart pounded in my chest from the near-death experience. I was gasping for air.

  Oxygen deprivation. That was the only explanation I had. Nothing else could explain the man looking down at me with concern and shock in his eyes. It couldn’t be him. No way. Not possible. I closed my eyes, trying to shake my brain back into reality. When I opened my eyes again, he was still there. I couldn’t deny it. I knew those eyes. I would know those eyes anywhere.

  Chapter 4

  Chase

  Holy shit. Harper Lincoln was in my arms. How did this happen?

  I could feel her shaking and instinctively pulled her against me. She stared up at me with wide, green eyes framed by dark, long lashes. She fit against me like she belonged there. It was just like it used to be. She was so damn perfect. I missed holding her in my arms.

  My mind flashed back to a time when things were good.

  “You are such a guy!” she exclaimed with laughter.

  She was in my arms, leaning against me as I leaned against the trunk of a towering tree in our favorite hideaway. I bounced my hips, rubbing my semi-erection against her. “Damn straight I am. I could show you if you needed more proof.”

  She burst into giggles, wiggling in my arms. “Jane Eyre is a classic. It empowers women.”

  “It shows how women always swoon over the handsome, rich guys. Little do those naïve little women—pun intended—know, those rich guys have their wives locked up in a dank basement or tower.”

  She pulled away from me. “The smart women know how to woo a man and make him fall in love with her all over again. They help those dolts see how dumb they have been.”

  “Dolts,” I repeated, reaching for her as she tried to crawl away from me.

  She squealed and tried to get to her feet. I caught her, knocking her to the ground. She was laughing as she rolled to her back. I straddled her body, grabbing her hands and pinning them to either side of her head. Looking down at her, I soaked in her beauty.

  She had auburn hair and dark green eyes. Her porcelain skin with the smattering of freckles made her look like a doll. She was stunning. She wasn’t willow-thin either. She was an athlete and could have probably gotten away from me if she really wanted to. She was strong with muscular arms and legs and curves in all the right places.

  She was looking up at me with wide-eyed innocence. It was our first study date, but I hoped to god it wouldn’t be our last. I couldn’t resist the allure of her. I leaned down and kissed her. I remembered that first kiss like it was yesterday. Her soft, plump lips and the taste of the chocolate bar we shared on her tongue.

  I felt her jerk in my arms and was snapped back to reality. I looked at her, seeing her in the present. I was just as taken by her beauty as I had been the first time I saw her. She was staring at me with recognition and surprise.

  “Harper!” a young woman with strawberry-blonde hair exclaimed as she came running around the display. “Oh my god. Are you okay?”

  Harper looked at me and jerked away. I helped her to her feet.

  “I’m fine,” Harper said, smoothing down her hair and adjusting her shirt. “I’m okay.”

  “Are you sure? Did you hit the floor?”

  “No, I’m fine.”

  “I’m so sorry,” she gushed.

  “It’s fine,” Harper insisted. “Why don’t you go get a couple of people to help take this down and rebuild it?”

  “I’ll go get some help,” she muttered.

  “Good plan,” Harper said.

  The young woman rushed away, leaving me alone with Harper. She looked at me and put on a fake smile.

  “Chase,” she said coolly. “What brings you here?”

  I needed to think fast. It was clear she worked for the store. “I was doing some holiday shopping,” I lied.

  I couldn’t very well tell her I was there to check out their holiday displays. That would make me look like a poacher. I wasn’t poaching. Well, I was, but it wasn’t like I was their competition. When I spotted her on the ladder, I got tunnel vision. I could only see her. It was like peeking into a time warp. I saw her, and I had to be next to her.

  When she stumbled off that ladder and fell into my arms, it was like an angel had fallen from heaven. A Christmas miracle had literally fallen in my lap. Well, I thought it was a miracle. Judging by the way she was looking at me, she did not feel the same way.

  “Are you going to be in town long?”

  “No, I’m headed to Vail. I’m opening a resort there.”

  “You’re still in the family business then?”

  “Yes, I am. My father retired, and I took over. We’re opening new resorts every year. It’s really been growing.”

  “Congratulations,” she said with a tight smile. I got the feeling she didn’t really mean it.

  “Thank you,” I answered. “It’s been a lot of work, but it has been very rewarding.”

  “How is the family?” she asked.

  She was being polite. I felt like I was talking to a stranger, an acquaintance. Harper was neither of those things. At least she didn’t used to be. “They are good. My parents live in Malibu. Cori too. It’s all sun and sand for them.”

  “That’s a big change in scenery and climate,” she said with a small laugh.

  “They were tired of the winters. They still come back on occasion.”

  She nodded before looking around. “I need to get back to work. Tell the family I said hi.”

  “I’ll do that. It was nice to see you again.”

  “You too,” she said with another smile before she turned and walked away.

  I watched her walk out of my life once again. Damn, if I d
idn’t like watching her walk away. Her skirt was tight, hugging her hips and showing off the round ass. The years had been good to her. She had a more womanly body but she had clearly found a fountain of youth. I hated that she was acting like we were nothing, like I meant nothing.

  I was no longer interested in seeing much more. I had seen all I wanted to see. I walked out of the store and found my driver leaning against the hood of the SUV and talking to another driver. When he saw me, he jumped up and rushed to open the back door for me.

  “Where to?” he asked.

  “Home,” I answered.

  He closed the door and moved around to get in the driver’s seat. I stared out the window, in disbelief she was right here in Boulder. I hadn’t bothered to look her up in all the years we’d been apart. I figured it was better to leave things alone. I didn’t realize she was right under my nose this whole time.

  The SUV pulled to a stop in front of the family home, the place I had grown up. It wasn’t all that flashy. It was big and was certainly luxurious on the outside but not so much on the inside. It was all about keeping up appearances. We had refurbished the house, bringing it back to the splendor it had once had.

  “I’ll see you tomorrow morning,” I told the driver and headed for the front door of the chalet-style house.

  I walked inside, the dark hardwood floors giving it a warm, inviting feeling. My mother had taken a lot of time to pick the furnishings when we finally had enough money in the family coffers to fix the home up once again. That had been satisfying. I knew my father was thrilled to see the house be transformed into the greatness it had once been.

  Things had been pretty rocky there for a while. My father was a proud man and refused to let anyone know how dire the situation was. The yard was immaculate, and the curb appeal gave the impression that we were well off. Beyond the walls, we were just like an average family. My mom clipped coupons and we bought most of our clothes off the clearance rack.

  We told people we were too busy to go to the Hamptons in the summer or jet off to Hawaii with our old friends. It was all part of the cover. My father was embarrassed to admit the chain of resorts had been bleeding money for years. Not anymore.

  I walked up the stairs to my bedroom suite. I took off the suit jacket and laid it on the bed before loosening the tie. I took it off, tossing it on the bed as well before moving to look out the window. The backyard was covered in snow. Everything was covered in snow, but I remembered when we were younger, the backyard rarely looked quite so serene when we lived in the house. We built snowmen, snow forts, and just made a mess of it in general.

  I pulled myself away from the window and headed back downstairs. I went into the study and poured myself a scotch before sitting down in one of the leather wingback chairs. It was my father’s domain, but when he wasn’t in the house, I took it as my own.

  I leaned my head back, letting the chair cradle my head as I took a stroll down Memory Lane. I thought about Harper and the many memories we had made in this house. She had been Cori’s best friend, which made it a little cliché for me to be attracted to her, but I had been into her from the start.

  My dad wasn’t pleased with my grades in school. He demanded I find a tutor to help me pull my grades up. Failing grades meant the partial scholarship we had gotten for the private school would be yanked. Cori suggested Harper tutor me, so I called her, and we immediately hit it off.

  She was crazy smart, but it didn’t just naturally come to her. She worked her ass off. She made me feel like a chump for taking the easy way for so long. She was ambitious and a true go-getter. She was a scholarship kid as well. Unlike me, she didn’t take it for granted. She didn’t want to risk losing her place at the private school.

  She changed me. She made me want to try harder. I credited her for giving me that drive I needed to push myself to save the family business. I remembered when I first told my dad I was ready to help him. He’d been hesitant at first, but I convinced him. Together, we turned things around and managed to bring the chain back to its previous glory. Hell, I liked to think it was better than what it had been.

  I wondered how long she had been in Boulder. I wanted to know exactly what she did at the store. The young woman that had been on the other side of the leaning tower of candy acted like Harper was her boss.

  I pulled up the search engine on my phone and typed in the name of the store. I found the about pages and pulled up the information for the staff. I wasn’t expecting to actually see her name. There was no way they would give every one of their employees a bio page.

  When I saw her picture, I immediately clicked on it. I read through her bio. She was the head of merchandising. That explained her involvement in the tree. I looked at her picture, zooming up on the image. Those haunting green eyes stared back at me.

  “Head of merchandising,” I whispered.

  A slow smile spread over my face. An idea came to mind. I wasn’t sure it would work, but it couldn’t hurt to ask. I didn’t come back to Boulder with the intention of rekindling an old flame, but if the opportunity presented itself, I’d be a fool not to jump at the chance.

  Chapter 5

  Harper

  My legs trembled as I made my way to the employee hallway. My entire body was shaking. I was trying to wrap my head around the idea I had just fallen into Chase’s arms. Never in a million years would I have expected him to save me from cracking my head open. I truly believed I would never see him again.

  Part of me was still wondering if it was really him. It seemed too farfetched that he would choose that exact moment to walk back into my life. It was just like him to show up when I was at my worst. I couldn’t run into him at a bar when my hair and makeup were perfect and I was wearing something cute. Oh no, I ran into him when I’d been up for days running myself ragged all while falling off a stupid stepladder.

  “How embarrassing,” I groaned as I stepped into the elevator.

  I went directly to my office and walked into my private bathroom to survey the damage. I had not stopped to look at myself in a mirror for hours. I wanted to see what he saw. I cringed when I saw the dark circles under my eyes. Most of my makeup had worn off. I was definitely not at my best. It figured that would be the moment he showed up.

  My first and only love, Chase Adams, was back. I was seriously considering moving. I didn’t think the state of Colorado would be big enough for the two of us. I washed my hands, smoothed down my hair, and stepped out of the bathroom to find Bob standing in my office.

  “Bob,” I said, startled to see him.

  “Are you going to find a Santa? I just talked to a few of the other business owners, and they can’t find a Santa. That means we absolutely have to have the big red guy. We’ll be the only place in town with a Santa. It will drive up sales!”

  I stared at him for a few seconds, trying to remember how long it had been since our last conversation. It was maybe an hour. He was the owner. I needed to remember that. “Actually, my team and I did some brainstorming and we have a new plan, one that does not require Santa. It will be unique and fresh, and I think it will appeal to the masses.”

  He looked at me like I was crazy. “We have to have Santa. Just go find one or two of those scabs. We can do limited hours. That will really drive up demand.”

  “I’m not going to hire a scab.”

  “Do your job and remember who you work for,” he shot back.

  “I am doing my job. I’m not the one who won’t pay the guys a decent wage. I’ve created a new marketing plan that will get us through this holiday season.”

  His eyes flashed, and I realized I might have pushed him too far. “Hire a Santa. This isn’t me asking. This is me ordering you to do your job.”

  I was exhausted, and my patience was fried. Men were not at the top of my favorite-humans list. “You know, Bob, if you think it is so easy to hire a Santa, feel free to do it yourself. You’ll be the one liable for any misconduct.”

  “Are you refusing to follow
a direct order?”

  “Since I’m not in the military and you are not my commanding officer, I think we can say I’m refusing to do something I find to be distasteful. I’m refusing to put the company I work for at risk of a pretty hefty lawsuit, should the scab do something wrong.”

  He smirked. “You mean the company you used to work for. Pack your things and leave. You are no longer my employee. My employees take direction.”

  He turned and walked out before I could come up with a good comeback. Not that I had one. I stood unmoving, shocked, and angry. He just fired me. I couldn’t believe he actually fired me. I was jobless. A month before Christmas and I was jobless.

  I wasn’t going to let him see me sweat or cry. I took a deep breath, found a box of samples, and turned it over, dumping it onto the floor. I started tossing in the few personal things I had in my office. It wasn’t all that much.

  “Gee, thanks for the help,” Parker mumbled as she walked into my office. “I got it cleaned up, no thanks—”

  She stopped and looked around the office. Then her eyes fell on the box on my desk. “What are you doing?”

  “I don’t work here anymore.”

  “What? No. Why? What happened?”

  “Bob fired me because I wouldn’t hire a complete stranger to play Santa.”

  “Did you tell him it’s because of him that there is a strike?”

  “You see me packing up my things, right?”

  She winced. “You did tell him.”

  “I did.”

  “What are we going to do?” she asked, her voice rising. “I can’t lose my job!”

  “Relax. You aren’t going to lose your job.”

  “I don’t want to work here without you!”

  I smiled and walked around my desk. I was the one facing uncertainty, but she was the one who needed to be calmed. “It’s going to be okay. I’ll find a new job. Once I get myself established, I’ll push to bring you on.”