The Billionaire's First Christmas

by Holly Rayner

  “Of course not. I would never indulge in such an immature…” I’d already been packing one in my hand. While he talked, I threw it and hit him in the side of the face. SMACK! “Oh that’s it!” he said, “It’s on now.” He was rubbing his cheek with his wet glove and I was feeling a little bit bad until…

  SMACK! A tightly packed snowball hit me, right in the forehead. I stood still staring at him in disbelief as ice cold water dripped down over my eyes and slid down my cheeks.

  He suddenly looked worried. “I’m sorry, Robyn! Are you okay?”

  Not answering him still, I dropped to my knees and began digging deep into the snow, losing the glove off my left hand. He’d taken a step towards me, thinking I was hurt at first, but then he realized what I was doing. He dropped down to do the same but before he got his hole dug I had packed it together into a ball and stood up and threw it at him. I heard the SMACK and bent down to get my glove, smiling with satisfaction.

  “Ha ha! You missed!” he said. He sounded like an insolent twelve year old and even though I’d missed him with my snowball that made me happy. He was having fun. I was wondering how I could possibly have missed him. I turned around to see and SMACK! He got me right upside the head with that one.

  I narrowed my eyes and pulled my eyebrows together as I dropped down to make another. He was facing away from me, I think doing the same thing I was. I threw my snowball first and this time I watched it connect with the back of his head.

  He was laughing and still rubbing the back of his head when I felt, SMACK to the back of my own head. How the heck did he do that? I turned to see who was behind me and SMACK! I got hit dead on in the face. It was my neighbor’s kids, Sue and Conner. They were eight and ten years old and I’d tangled with them before. They were vicious little snow ball making machines.

  “Oh, so that’s how it’s going to be?” I said, “Aaron, I think you and I should…” SMACK! A snowball came from Aaron’s direction and struck me. The kids were laughing hard now. I turned to look at him and said, “Hey! I thought you’d be on my side.”

  “It’s a dog eat dog world,” he said. “Every man, woman and child for themselves.” While we talked, the little ones made more snowballs. Suddenly it was SMACK! SMACK! SMACK! Aaron and I both had a barrage of snowballs raining down on us. I couldn’t make my own ammunition fast enough and when I finally had one made, I’d throw it recklessly, missing my targets. Aaron hit them a few times, but they were still way ahead of him. When he got too frustrated with them, he would turn back on me. Traitor!

  Snowballs were zooming across the courtyard. They flew away from me and then they flew towards me. I had no idea anymore if any of mine were hitting any of my targets. I was scooping, packing and blindly throwing. There was snow and ice in my face and in my eyes. I squealed occasionally, and I heard Aaron do the same, only in a more manly way.

  Finally, as I sat, wet and thoroughly exhausted in the snow I felt him sidle up next to me. “I think we should finish this,” he said in a conspiratorial voice.

  “I thought it was every man, woman and child for themselves?”

  “Okay, we can keep getting bombarded then…”

  “Okay, let’s do this together,” I finally agreed. “What’s the plan?”

  “You make ‘em faster than me. Start making them, stay low behind me and keep me loaded with ammo.”

  If I’d stopped and thought right then about the fact that this was the CEO of my company, I probably would have died laughing. I didn’t though. To me, he was just Aaron and I was having a great time.

  I started making snowballs and he started throwing them. I could hear the kids squealing and getting further and further away. By the time I made about fifty snowballs Aaron turned and held his hand out to help me up.

  “They’re behind the building… let’s go!” With that, we ran back inside, leaving the children out in the snow looking for us. It was awesome. Aaron slammed the door behind us and it took us a good ten minutes to stop laughing.

  “Wow,” he said when he finally stopped laughing. “That was great.”

  “It was, and I can only imagine what I look like. I’m going to go dry off. I’ll bring you a towel.”

  I started to walk away and felt his hand on my arm. “Wait, look up,” he said.

  I looked up and didn’t see anything. “What am I looking at?” I asked.

  Aaron was trying to get his hand out of his pocket and he laughed and said, “I was hoping it would go smoother. Now look up.” He had his arm stretched out above our heads and dangling from his fingers was a piece of mistletoe with a red ribbon tied around it. I looked back at him and his face looked so focused and intense. He put his hands on the sides of my face and wound his fingers in the hair that had fallen loose from my hat. It was so sweet, the way he set the whole thing up, like he’d been thinking about how he wanted to do it for a while. Something about the way he touched me made my eyes close and as he leaned down towards me, my lips parted. My breaths were coming so fast that I was almost dizzy. I felt the edges of my body melt into him and it felt like we’d become a part of each other as soon as his lips brushed against mine. It was a sweet, tentative brush at first, and then it got more urgent as he pulled me up and held me into his chest and crushed his against mine, letting his tongue slip in and explore the dark caverns of my mouth. His tongue tasted sweet and his touch was firm and gentle at the same time. We kissed like that for a long time and when he broke it and pulled back, I think it took me several more minutes to open my eyes. I wanted to savor it, it was perfect.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  ~

  ROBYN

  “Wow! That was more worth waiting for than anything I’ve ever waited for,” I told him. He grinned and ran his fingers down the side of my face making me shudder.

  “It definitely was,” he said. “Now, go get changed before you catch your death of cold.”

  I didn’t want to leave. I wasn’t cold as long as he was holding me. As soon as he let go I began to shiver. “I’ll throw you out a towel,” I told him in a shaky voice. He was still looking at me with that deep, intense look.

  “Okay,” he said.

  I got the towel and brought it back out to him. He was still standing in the same spot by the door. I realized that he wasn’t just wet, he was soaked. “You poor thing. You’re going to have to go home and change.”

  He took the towel and dried his face and hair and then he said, “I think I have a change in the car. You go change before you get pneumonia.” The voice he’d said that in sounded commanding and strong.

  “Yes sir,” I said with a mock salute. He grinned.

  “Yeah, you better remember who you’re talking to.”

  I went in and changed. I couldn’t ever remember being so happy. My face actually hurt from smiling so much. I knew from the moment I heard his voice on the phone that first day that he was something special. I put on a comfortable velour jogging suit and dried my wet hair a little with the blow dryer. When I came back out, he was standing there, clothes in hand.

  “I’m sorry I took so long,” I told him. “It’s all yours.”

  “Thank you,” he said. He started past me and then he stopped. Pulling me into his chest once more, he kissed me again. This time it was even deeper and more passionate. When we finally had to pull apart in order to breathe he said, “Oh my goodness, I got you wet again. I’m sorry.”

  My face was flushed from the kiss. The front of me was slightly damp from pressing up against him. I smiled and said, “I don’t care. You could kiss me like that covered with mud from head to toe, and I wouldn’t care.” He grinned and went into the bedroom, closing the door behind him.

  AARON

  I laid my dry clothes down on Robyn’s bed and looked around. Her room was decorated in soft earth tones and everything looked so sweet and feminine. It had been a long time since I’d been in a woman’s bedroom. All of the women I’d been with over the years had either been at my apartment or a hotel.
I liked being in her room. It even smelled like her, fresh and sweet, almost edible.

  I stepped into the little bathroom to take off my wet clothes. I didn’t want to drip all over her bedroom. The bathroom was as neat as the rest of the place with her lotions and body sprays and female things arranged neatly on a shelf above the counter. I stripped down, taking the little box that I’d gotten at the jewelry store the day before out of my pocket and set it on the counter. Then, I laid my wet clothes in a pile. Then I dried off and put on my dry ones. I used the blow dryer she’d left out on my hair. I hadn’t realized until I turned on that warm air just how cold I’d been.

  When I finished, I slipped the box into my dry pocket and went back out into the living room. Robyn was waiting with a plastic bag for my clothes and two steaming cups of hot chocolate. I put my wet clothes in the bag and set it by the door. Then I went back and sat down next to her. I took a sip of the chocolate she handed me. It tasted like she’d put cinnamon and nutmeg in it. It was honestly the best cup of hot cocoa I’d ever had.

  “I have a present for you,” I told her at last.

  “Really? I have one for you too,” she said.

  I laughed, “You already bought me one, remember?”

  “That was a silly joke,” she said. “This one is the real thing.” She went over to her tree and took out a square box and handed it to me. I handed her the one from my pocket. “You go first,” she said.

  I started un-wrapping it. I was going slowly, distracted by her watching me. Now that I’d gotten a real taste of her lips, all I wanted to do was kiss her again.

  “Do you need some help?” she asked.

  I laughed, “No, Miss Impatient, I’ve got it.” I finished taking the paper off and found a white box. I lifted the lid off of it and inside I found a beautifully framed photograph. I lifted out the silver frame and looked at it, in shock. “How… Where…?” She laughed.

  “They take them all along your ride. When you’re finished you can pick out the best one and buy it. I went back that day after you left and bought this one.”

  “You are… incredible,” I told her, honestly as I looked at it. It was a photograph of her and me, cuddled underneath a blanket in the snow riding in the carriage in the park. “This is the most thoughtful gift I’ve ever gotten,” he said. “I love it.”

  She looked so happy that I was pleased. I really was. I’d never gotten a gift that I would cherish so much.

  “I was planning on leaving it for you on your desk when you were gone,” she told me.

  “You didn’t think I would show up today, did you?” I asked her. I felt bad about that.

  “I was hoping you would,” she said.

  I leaned in and kissed her again. I couldn’t seem to stop myself. “Okay, your turn,” I told her.

  She looked like a child as she began taking off the wrapping. She had her tongue hanging out to one side in concentration. She was so damned beautiful that sometimes I could hardly contain myself around her. She finally got it opened and pulled the little lid off the box. She pulled out the bracelet and tears instantly sprang into her eyes.

  “Santa Claus!” she said. “Oh my God, I can’t believe you did this.”

  The bracelet was made of delicate silver and held four antique silver Santa Claus charms. One of them had a diamond sack across his back. When I saw the bracelet, I knew she had to have it.

  “It reminded me of you,” I told her.

  She had tears running down her cheeks now and she threw her arms around my neck and hugged me tight. “I love it, Aaron! I love it so much! Thank you!”

  I laughed, “You’re welcome.”

  She held out her arm and said, “Will you do the honors?” I took the bracelet and slipped it around her delicate wrist. Fastening it was a little tricky with my big fingers, but I got it.

  “There,” I told her. “It looks beautiful on you.”

  She threw her arms around me again. I couldn’t help myself, this time I had to hold her there and kiss her. I felt like my life was starting over and everything else in between had been only to lead me to this moment.

  After we kissed for a really long time, she said, “Okay, it’s about time.”

  “Time for?”

  “Caroling, remember? For a big wig CEO, you don’t have a very good memory,” she said with a grin.

  “It’s selective,” I told her. “I really am an awful singer.”

  “It’s not about the singing, it’s about the song,” she said. I wasn’t sure what she meant by that, but I didn’t argue. I was finding that with Robyn, it was pointless most times anyways.

  We bundled back up and she handed me a little book as we started out the door. It had the lyrics to all of the most famous Christmas songs inside. I followed her along the sidewalk and down the street. We came to a large, beautiful church and she stopped and said, “This is where we start.”

  We stood in the archway where it was warm and within fifteen minutes, people began arriving. They were a wide array of characters, from a woman who would later tell me that she was ninety years old, to a man in a wheelchair and a little boy of about eight. Everyone seemed to be excited. The pastor of the church invited us all in before we left and offered us hot drinks and cookies. Robyn introduced me to everyone as her “friend” and for the first time in a long time, I was in a crowd of people who had no idea who I was. I got the feeling after I’d spent some time with them that even if they had, they wouldn’t have cared. They were all like Robyn, genuinely nice and genuinely enthusiastic about Christmas. I was beginning to feel it myself.

  We climbed into the back of a flatbed truck with wooden railings built on. I couldn’t help but think if my business associates could see me now, as we were hauled down the streets of New York like happy, chatty cattle. The truck took us to a residential area that didn’t look very festive. It was one of those areas that looked like it had been hit hard by the recession, track houses that were sorely in need of repairs.

  “Why do you carol here?” I asked Robyn as we stepped off the truck.

  “The pastor does a survey of the city every year. He finds a neighborhood that seems to be in need of some cheer and that’s where we go.”

  I nodded, it was the same premise as Robyn’s Santa Claus efforts and I liked it. We started walking, stopping at the first house at the end of the cul de sac. The pastor began singing “Silent Night” and we all joined in. I realized that with all the beautiful voices around me, I didn’t sound as bad as I thought I did. At that house and the second one, no one came out to see us. I think I did see the curtain move in the second one, but only briefly.

  At the third house we sang, “Deck the Halls” and a little family came out to see us. It was a mom and three kids. The pastor slipped an envelope in her hands when we were finished and said, “Merry Christmas and God Bless.” After we left to go to the next house, I asked Robyn what it was.

  “They’re gift cards for the grocery store. This neighborhood was hit hard by the closing of the furniture plant last year. A lot of these people have been out of work and on unemployment since then. This is how his church gives back to the community.”

  Once again, I was touched and warmed to the bone by the generosity of the human spirit. I had no idea that people who seemed to have so little were so willing to donate to those who seemed to have left. I knew the furniture plant that she was talking about. I’d read about it in the financial pages when it closed down. They had employed over five hundred people, but had been unable to compete with large conglomerates like the one I owned myself. I made a mental note to look into it. Maybe it wasn’t too late to breathe some new life into an old business.

  We stayed out caroling until well after nine o’clock. Each time I saw the light in a family’s eyes as we sang, or as the pastor slipped them an envelope the magic of the season rooted inside of me a little deeper. I promised myself that now that I had it back, I’d never lose it again. I was also going to do my best to keep it in my
heart all year long, the way that Robyn did.