A Kiss at Christmas

by Meg Easton

  Before they were finished, one of the volunteers in charge came over and asked them to instead move to serving the people who had just started coming in while she finished up the turkey. Because they weren’t assigned which items to serve, he purposely chose a spot where there would be someone between him and Kelli.

  But as he put a scoop of mashed potatoes on everyone’s plates, he still found himself looking further down the line at where Kelli was placing a roll on each person’s plate. She was smiling and chatting with each person. She wasn’t acting like they were any less than her just because they had found themselves homeless at Christmas. The look on her face was that of zero judgment and genuine care. He wondered if it was authentic, or if she was just very good at putting on a front. From the way everyone’s faces were bright and smiley as she talked with them, they thought it was plenty genuine.

  But Stephanie was pretty good at showing the image she wanted people to see then complaining about them afterward, and he suddenly needed to know if Kelli was the same.

  After they had finished serving everyone, spent time socializing with all the people who had come to eat, and packed up the extra food in boxes for their guests to take with them, the lead organizer started assigning each of them clean-up duties. Parker took a subtle step toward Kelli, knowing that as the woman in charge reached them, she would be more likely to pair them up on a task. And she did. They both were assigned to washing the big pans.

  The day had been long and exhausting—mentally and physically. Knowing that people tended to show their true colors a bit more when they were worn out, he was curious to see Kelli’s. As the sinks were filling with water, she leaned against the sink, looking so tired. Perfect. So he asked what she thought of the people she had met. They were mostly gone, and they were far enough in the back that any who remained wouldn’t be able to hear her.

  Asking her seemed to give her more energy and her face immediately lit up. “They had so many incredible stories! Did you talk with the guy in the gray coat? He wore a beanie the whole time and mismatched boots.”

  “I did.”

  She started putting some dishes in the soapy water, and washed as she talked. “He had so many tough things happen in his life. Enough stuff that most people would want to go off and be a hermit somewhere. But he was so happy and so funny. Did you see how many people he made laugh? Oh, and there was this woman who had three kids, and she had lost custody of all of them. It was so heartbreaking to hear how sad she was around the holidays. I wanted to just wrap my arms around her and hug her for days.”

  As they talked, he rinsed each item as she finished, then put it in the rack, then dried and put away while she told story after story. He was surprised that she had talked to so many people in the time they had.

  Okay, all that seemed authentic. She had even talked about trying to set up rotating help from ZentCube employees at their local homeless shelter once they got back, and he had no doubt she would. But maybe that was just her thing—something that spoke to her heart.

  So he looked for a different subject. Everyone had complaints about their boss, even if the boss was a great one, so he started asking about Liz. If Kelli had complaints, she didn’t voice them, no matter how many opportunities he gave her to.

  On the ride back to the resort, he started a conversation with all ten of them in the van about things that annoyed them. Kelli did join in with her own list of annoying things, but she mentioned things like taking out her contacts at night and putting on glasses, and the curvature of the lenses making her always question whether she was on the bottom step or still had one to go. Or thinking she had plugged in her phone to charge, then realizing that the cord wasn’t pushed in all the way. Annoyances about things, never about people.

  He still wasn’t convinced, so he decided to check on one of the many things that really annoyed Stephanie. When they pulled to a stop light, he saw a man wearing a navy sweater with jeans walking down the street next to a woman. He hadn’t known it until the end of their relationship, and had probably annoyed her countless times over the nearly two years they had dated, but Stephanie thought it was wrong and was personally offended by anyone who wore any shade of a blue shirt with jeans.

  “See that guy?”

  Kelli nodded.

  “What do you think of his outfit?”

  “I think he feels good in it. Look at how confident his walk is.”

  “But what do you think of the color of his sweater?”

  She gave him an amused smile that said she knew what it was he was really asking. “I think that color would look great on you. Why? Did you buy one like it while you were out shopping today?”

  He chuckled inside. She very much didn’t really understand why he was asking. He pushed further. “What do you think about it with jeans, though?”

  He got that same amused smile from her, and she motioned at his pants. “You look mighty fine in jeans, Parker. How about the hair? I can compliment the hair, too, if you’d like.”

  This time, he laughed out loud. But he pushed, making sure he was specific this time. “But if you’re talking style, the color of the shirt is fine when worn with jeans?”

  She gave him a look that told him she was confused as to why that could possibly be something he was wondering. “I think people should wear whatever they like, especially if it makes them feel great. If whatever you’re wearing makes you feel as confident as that guy looked, what you’re wearing is going to look good to everyone. That’s all anyone needs to worry about.”

  He leaned back in his seat and smiled. He might be sitting next to the least judgmental woman he’d ever known, and she’d been right under his nose for two and a half years.

  Chapter Eleven

  Kelli wasn’t the only one crowding around the points board in the family room before heading to the activities building to make gingerbread houses. There were a few people trailing who were never going to catch up and probably had no plans to. She had hoped that she was enough in the lead to skip gingerbread house making, but she was sitting at eleven points, and so was Parker. And a couple of people were only a point behind them, so she couldn’t risk it.

  Especially because it was a two point activity, and especially because she really, really wanted to win that weekly lunch for her team. And close behind that was her desire to not let Parker have her parking space for a full year.

  Addison must’ve noticed her looking at Parker’s points, because she glanced around to make sure he wasn’t in the room and then said, “You work with him, right?”

  Kelli shrugged. “Not really. We’re in the same department, but very different teams. So I see him daily, but all along we’ve been rivals more than anything else.” She felt like they still were, but they were also something that they weren’t before, and she wasn’t quite sure what exactly that was. But she found herself wanting to know more and more.

  “Do you know if he’s seeing someone? Or hoping to? Because he said he was single, but I’m having the hardest time getting him to pay any attention to me.”

  Kelli opened her mouth, but had no idea what to say. Luckily, she was spared trying to come up with a reason, because Addison said, “Shh. Never mind—he’s coming in.”

  A text on her phone buzzed, so she stepped away from the points chart and to an area where she was alone and pulled out her phone. It was from Valeria.

  Hey, girl! How’s the vacation? Full of the magic of Christmas?

  You know it.

  Does that magic include a certain single man?

  Her cheeks blushed just thinking about Parker before she realized that Valeria had probably been asking about Davis. She had danced with him twice more at the Tinsel and Tidings Ball, but with Parker’s very timely help, Davis had seemed to understand that she didn’t want anything resembling serious or exclusive, and he had backed off and just danced with her for fun. Davis really was a good guy, and at another point in her life, she would’ve gladly dated him and probably would have be
en happy. Davis was a light in the darkness.

  But Parker harnessed the power of the sun, and her mind couldn’t seem to do anything other than crave its light and warmth whenever she wasn’t focused enough on what she was doing to keep her mind from wandering.

  She hesitated a moment, staring at Valeria’s text, before typing in, Yes, but not the single guy you’re thinking of.

  The text showed as read for a slight pause before she got Valeria’s response.

  PARKER?!

  It’s Parker, isn’t it?

  Oh my. After all this time, it’s Parker, isn’t it?

  My girl has a thing for Parker Brockbank in Trade Shows!!!!

  Kelli held her phone closer, glancing around to make sure no one was near enough to see.

  Shh! I don’t even know. He’s just...

  And I’m...

  I know he just sees me as the awkward girl. But he’s pretty great.

  And now I don’t know what to do.

  My current plan is to run far away.

  She looked up and saw that Parker had turned away from the chart, and looked like he might be doing his own running away.

  Gotta go.

  “Parker,” she called out, and he turned toward her. She took a few quick steps to reach him. “Where are you going?”

  He glanced back at the points chart, and then made a face. “I’m just not really feeling like making gingerbread houses.”

  “I appreciate you being the gentleman and letting me win the parking space, but I would rather win it fair and square.”

  “I still plan to win it.”

  She shook her head. “You’re practically gift wrapping it and putting it under the tree with my name on it if you walk out on this one.”

  She didn’t want to go herself. And she would actually be fine—grateful, even—for less competition. But she wanted to win, and against her better judgement, she really wanted him there, too. So she had no problem taunting her biggest rival.

  He took a longing gaze at his escape route before meeting her eyes. “Okay, but only if you promise that when I win, you’ll wrap it and put it under the Christmas tree with my name on it.”

  “Deal,” she said, thrusting out her hand. He shook it, and they joined the group heading to the activities center.

  They gathered in the activities building—eleven of them from ZentCube and fifteen or so from other parts of the resort—and a woman in her early twenties stood in front of them. “Hi, y’all! My name is HallieMae, and I’ve got a great activity for you today. Now as you can see, there are tables all around the room. Each spot at the tables has the same supplies—frosting and candies and a base to build your creations on. Y’all have a stack of gingerbread rectangles in front of you, and we do have some more in case you need them right there in the middle.

  “At the end, we’ll have a few judges we’ve grabbed from among our more elderly full-time residents, and we’ll give awards to the tallest, the most creative, and the most beautiful. But the catch is, you only have one hour. Now go find a spot! We’ve got them on both sides of the table.”

  Kelli found a spot first and was looking at what she had to work with, organizing and straightening everything. When someone took the spot across from her, she looked up and was surprised to see Parker. Especially since there were still open spots available. He had seen her embarrassingly less than perfect so many times. And not just on the plane or at the dinner or a million little things at the mansion, but over years. In fact, anytime she did something embarrassing, it seemed to be when he was around to witness it. It was baffling that he sought her out.

  Especially since there was a spot conspicuously open next to Addison.

  Not that she was complaining.

  But as much as she felt herself being pulled toward Parker, a warning voice kept nagging at her, reminding her that things might not work out. She didn’t have the best track record with guys, and she knew she was feeling more vulnerable than usual right now and needed to be cautious.

  “Ready?” HallieMae called out. “Go!”

  She smiled at seeing Parker straighten and organize all of his supplies before he got started, too.

  But then she turned her focus to her gingerbread house. She had gotten the idea last year to do a standard house with a pointed roof, then have a slightly smaller house stacked on top of it, with the front and back with a triangle cut-out so it could sit nicely on it, then a third house on top that was slightly smaller than the second. Then she wanted to decorate it whimsically and fun. But an hour wasn’t much time, so she’d have to work quickly.

  Every once in a while, she’d glance over at Parker’s creation, which was looking like a cute beach cottage, and those art skills of his were definitely at work. He was working just as focused and furiously as she was.

  She glanced up when his phone buzzed on the table and saw a picture of an adorable woman, with the name showing as “Mom.” With as little time as they had, she figured he would ignore it and call her back later, but he didn’t. He picked it up and answered as he was walking away to the other end of the big open space to chat.

  Watching him compromised the time she had to work, but she couldn’t help glancing up every few seconds and trying to guess how well he and his mom actually got along. Every time she looked, he was laughing and smiling. It might have possibly made her heart melt into a giant puddle of goo. She knew several people who had perfectly wonderful moms, and they got annoyed when they called, and didn’t have a clue how lucky they were to even have a mom!

  She knew she could never seriously date a guy who didn’t respect his mom. He got bonus points if his mom was amazing and wonderful and there was a possibility that she could one day be her mother-in-law. And when that day came, she wasn’t going to call her by her name—she was going to call whoever it was “Mom.”

  Kelli! She practically shouted to herself so she’d stop. Thinking those kinds of things, while she was watching this beautiful man she shouldn’t actually date, seeing him smile as he put everything on hold to talk to his mom, was as good as walking right into the danger zone and completely ignoring the flashing warning lights.

  So she turned all of her focus back to her gingerbread house, and before long, Parker finished his call and came back and did the same thing.

  Once she got the structure all in place, she started with the decorating. For the bottom house, she decided to use the pastel-colored circular flat wafer candies as the shingles. It was her dad’s favorite way to decorate the roof, so she did it to bring a little bit of him here. She put the frosting on as glue, and then started placing the wafers.

  As she placed the first row of shingles, her annual discussion with her dad of whether the colors should be random or done in a pattern came to mind. She let her dad win this one and placed them randomly.

  With each one she placed, though, the sadness at not doing this with him started creeping in. Making gingerbread houses wasn’t something she had ever done with her mom—it was something her dad had started their first Christmas without her, because he said they needed to come up with some new traditions that were just for the two of them, since that was their family now.

  That first Christmas had been hard, and Kelli hadn’t dealt well with everything. But her and her dad creating something unique and very much them had made her feel like maybe the two of them could take on the world, as long as they had each other. She missed him.

  Before she knew it, a tear was running down her cheek. She brushed it away and kept working. It just felt wrong to be doing this without him. This was their thing. She and her dad together. Doing this by herself wasn’t right.

  Not sharing all of their Christmas traditions together wasn’t right.

  Not spending Christmas with him wasn’t right.

  More tears fell. One even splashed down onto the table next to her gingerbread house.

  Her dad taking off with his new family and not inviting her wasn’t the same as her mom leaving. She could still
text her dad, after all. But somehow that familiar grief of being left behind by a parent, of not being good enough to keep them around, settled on her and made her feel like she was going to crumble in on herself.

  Her breathing quickened and hitched and she tried to keep it under control and quiet so it wasn’t obvious to anyone else. And then she couldn’t see the gingerbread house at all through the tears, so she turned and hurried the direction of a hallway she thought the restrooms might be down.

  It had been the wrong choice. She tried the knobs on all three doors, but there weren’t restrooms there—just locked storage areas. She turned to run out of the building itself if she had to, and ran right into Parker’s chest.

  “Hey, are you okay?” He put his hands on her shoulders and pushed her back just enough to see her face. A face she very much didn’t want him to see, because it was tear-stained and mascara-stained and probably all red and blotchy and she knew she wasn’t a pretty crier. That was why she never did it in public. But she was a mess and couldn’t exactly stop the tears.

  He only glanced at her face long enough to see she was upset, though, before he wrapped his strong arms around her and held her tight. She felt like she was completely falling apart, but he held her, keeping all the pieces together as she sobbed. As she grieved over the mom she lost half a lifetime ago, and the dad she had been losing slowly over the past year, and then very quickly over the past week. She grieved for the scared little girl she was, the girl who couldn’t seem to be perfect enough to keep either of them.

  Parker didn’t talk; he just held her as she silently cried, soaking the shoulder of his shirt. She felt the losses so strongly and so deeply, yet as she wept in Parker’s arms, she felt more safe and protected than she’d felt in her life.