by Meg Easton
But he had thought that things were going well between him and Stephanie, too, so he didn’t trust that he could tell when things were going well or not.
As it came time to open Secret Santa presents, Merit and Elise sat next to the tree and started handing them out, one at a time. After a handful of people opened their presents and then found out who their Secret Santa was, more often than not it was from someone each person had clearly shown signs of liking over the course of their trip.
When Thomas stopped grinning enough that he could talk after opening a Chia Pet that was a sculpture of Bob Ross and finding out it was from Joy, he said, “I’m having a hard time believing that the names we drew for Secret Santas was random.”
“No, at one point they were,” Graham said, “I swear. Carla gave me the random list. And then I shifted things around just a bit when I thought it might be more...beneficial for someone to try to get to know someone else a little better.” The man just grinned, unapologetic for switching around names.
Parker wondered if his Secret Santa had been selected by Graham, or if it had actually been random. He had gotten Kelli’s name, and with what Merit had told him at the Christmas Village, he assumed it wasn’t random. He wasn’t all the way sure, though, until Elise handed him a package and the wrapping paper on it was of cats, all wearing Santa hats. He laughed out loud and looked at Kelli as soon as he saw it.
He carefully took off the paper and opened the box. A shirt was folded in an exact rectangle, with a handwritten paper on top that was so perfectly written it could’ve been a font. He read it out loud. “I’ll tell you right now that you will look great in this. Paired with jeans that you also look great in. And your hair looks pretty fantastic, too.” And, of course, the shirt was blue.
Kelli hadn’t known the deeper meaning behind the shirt, which kind of made it mean even more to him. He smiled at her, and said, “Thank you,” and she grinned back, until Elise handed her a gift. Then she looked at it with curiosity, and he was suddenly nervous.
But he loved the sound of her laugh when she saw the wrapping paper. He’d been so excited when he found the paper at a gift shop on the Boardwalk. It was silver and gold and sparkly, so it kind of fit the Christmas theme, but it was probably meant to wrap a New Year’s gift, because it was covered in glasses of champagne. They weren’t water goblets, exactly, but he’d gotten a Sharpie and personally drawn a mushroom at the bottom of every glass.
She unwrapped the gift and lifted the lid on the box. He watched her face closely as she picked up the paper where he had written, “For next time, when we continue our new Christmas tradition.” Then, still holding the paper in one hand, she lifted the “Hallmark movie-watching blanket” out of the box and hugged it to her chest.
He had sat at the desk in his room for a long time, pen hovering over the paper, trying to figure out what he wanted to write, and then being nervous about writing something so bold and presumptive. Eventually, he just did it and hoped for the best. By the heart-stopping way she was looking at him now, he’d made the right choice.
Not long after the last present was opened, he felt the buzz of a text and pulled out his phone, expecting it to be from his parents or his brother, but it was from his friend, Josh.
Hey, buddy! Merry Christmas!
I was just thinking of you, and wondering if you’re leaning one way or another on that job offer. I would love to start working with you again.
No pressure. You have until New Year’s to decide, of course. I’m just curious.
Parker excused himself and headed away from the group in the family room and found a seat in the living room at the front of the mansion, trying to figure out how to respond to the text. He hadn’t spent much time even thinking about it while they’d been on this trip. Before he left, he had been seriously considering taking the job. Josh was a good friend, and it would be great to work with him again. And it really was a great offer.
Although he hadn’t put a ton of thought into it, he knew himself well enough to know that his loyalties lie with ZentCube. And whenever the job offer did happen to cross his mind while he’d been at The Royal Palm, all he could think of was Kelli. He had spent two years and seven months working on the same floor as her as co-workers and occasional pranksters. How great would it be to see her daily while they were dating?
He took a moment to imagine it, his smile growing bigger the longer he pictured it.
But what if he messed things up? What if he hadn’t actually been ready to start dating again like Sam thought he was? What would happen when she discovered all the negative things about him that Stephanie had discovered?
Because by that same token, how awful would it be to see her daily if things didn’t work out between them? Sure, they had known each other for quite a while, but their relationship was new. There were so many ways he could screw it up, and it didn’t matter how awkward their first date was and the months working together following it, it would be nothing compared to how awful it would be to see her daily if they broke up.
He knew her now. He loved her now. He wasn’t the same person who had shown up to the airport last Saturday morning. Even the thought of their relationship not working out felt like a stab to his chest. He wasn’t sure he could fully comprehend how painful it would be to see her daily if they broke up.
Maybe getting this other job offer right now, where he not only got to spend the equivalent of a month and a half of dating Kelli during a single week, but he got space to decide if the job change was right, was some divine timing. He took a deep breath, and then responded to the text.
The thing is, Josh—there are a lot of things keeping me at ZentCube.
A lot of people, too. One in particular.
I’m not ready to say no to your company’s offer yet, though. I just need to see how a few things here work out first.
Ahh. I understand. No worries. You’ve got time to figure it out.
And remember that I’m happy to answer any questions, anytime.
Or do anything else I can to sway you to join our team, especially since you have so many things swaying you ZentCube’s direction.
Thanks, Josh.
Parker put his phone back in his pocket and hoped—even made a Christmas wish—that he would be able to turn down Josh’s job offer. Because nothing would make him happier than spending every day at ZentCube with Kelli.
Chapter Fifteen
Kelli admired the impossibly soft blanket that Parker had given her as she took it up to her room, folded it neatly, and placed it at the bottom of her bed and put his note on the night stand. She was still on a high from their kiss last night and from their conversation on the bench. It had felt like a magical place where the two of them were the only people in the world, and they had all the time they wanted to just talk about everything.
The more she learned about Parker and the more time she spent with him, the more in love she fell.
Around the Christmas tree, she had caught him looking at her several times, and the look on his face was so sweet that it had made her heart do little leaps of joy. It was still doing little leaps of joy.
Someone yelled, “The power’s back on!” and even though she could hear the hum of electricity, she still ran to the light switch in her room and turned it on just to check.
Yes! It really was. Her phone was still plugged in and sitting on her nightstand from last night. It had died before the power went out, but she hadn’t made it upstairs to plug it in before they’d gone outside to enjoy the storm. She had hoped that the power would come on during the night and she’d wake up with a charged phone, but of course it hadn’t.
She sat on the bed, trying not to bounce in anticipation as she waited for it to charge enough to power back on. It took forever. After a minute or two, she checked to make sure that the cord was plugged in tight to her phone. It was. And then another minute or two later, she checked behind the night stand to see if it was plugged tightly into the wall. It was.
But when the lock screen finally showed, she only found one text—a video from her dad. He was in his suite in whatever Cabo San Lucas hotel he was staying in, an explosion of wrapping paper all around him.
“Hi, Sweetheart! Merry Christmas! I hope you’ve been having a blast on your trip. Sorry I don’t have time to chat—JoAnn and the girls have our day packed so full—but I’ll call in a day or two. In the meantime, you keep living it up in Myrtle Beach and soaking in that sun. Talk soon. I love you.”
She didn’t even respond to the text. She took a slow, deep breath, then placed her phone back on her night stand and walked out of her room.
As she was walking past Parker’s room on her way back downstairs, through the partially open door, she heard him call out, “Hey, Kelli, wait!”
She stopped, and he was at his door in a flash. “I’m video chatting with my family, and they want to meet you. What do you say?”
She should say no. Family was her weakness, and she knew it. But she was so curious about his, and she wanted to learn everything there was to know about him. Family was a big part of who a person was; how was she supposed to really get to know him without getting to know his family? She should meet them.
No, you shouldn’t, a voice said. But she reminded the voice that everything was okay, as long as she was recognizing her weakness and being cautious about it.
Besides, she was falling hard for Parker, and she really wanted to. And all she had gotten from her own dad was a seventeen second video text, so she felt a little cheated and was very much craving a family chat.
She smiled, said yes, and went in his room to where a laptop was open on his desk, with three faces smiling at her. Parker offered her the desk chair, and dragged over an armchair for him to sit in next to her.
“Kelli, I would like you to meet my mom, Jessica, my dad, Bennett, and my brother, Ethan. Everyone, this is Kelli Ellis.”
His mom had his same dark eyes and hair, only with grays throughout that looked elegant on her. And she had crow’s feet at the sides of her eyes, like she was a woman used to smiling. Kelli liked her instantly. His dad had lighter brown hair, but the same strong jaw line and strong shoulders. And his little brother was adorable. Like he was just as used to getting into good-natured mischief as he was to helping old ladies carry their groceries.
“Oh my goodness,” his mom said. “Parker told us you were beautiful, but clearly that was an understatement.”
Kelli knew she was blushing. So much heat rose to her cheeks that they must be bright red.
His dad nodded. “He also tells us that you are smart, and creative, and talented, and dedicated, and that ZentCube wouldn’t be as successful as it is if it weren’t for you and your marketing skills.”
She looked over at Parker, and saw that he was blushing, too, and looking down to hide it. It was so cute.
They started out asking questions about her, but they all seemed to enjoy chatting, so she started asking them questions about them and about Parker. Then they were all just chatting about random things—their three different trips, how Ethan was liking school, what his parents did for a living, favorite Christmas traditions—all five of them. She had thought she would be in his room for five minutes or less, but before she first even thought about what time it must be, a good half hour had already passed.
As they said their goodbyes, Kelli realized she was falling in love with the whole family, and as she was getting ready for their carriage ride that evening, she felt like she was floating.
By the time they walked out front to meet their carriages, she had to remind herself to pull her heart back and give some space between it and Parker’s family. Without even realizing she had done it, she had fallen in love with James because of his family, and she didn’t want to do the same thing ever again. And she knew that right now she was especially vulnerable, since she was feeling particularly lacking in the family department.
Four beautiful horse-drawn carriages were waiting outside, majestic horses at the front of each, standing tall and occasionally pawing a hoof on the wet road or making a snorting sound. There were spots for four people per carriage, so Parker and Kelli sat in the back seat in one carriage and Joy and Thomas sat in the seat facing them.
“They have blankets for us, too,” Kelli exclaimed, pulling theirs up to her shoulders and snuggling up to Parker. He put an arm around her shoulders, so she reached up and adjusted the blanket so it would go over her shoulder enough to cover his arm. It wasn’t as cold as last night, but it wasn’t the warm weather they’d had the first few days, either.
As the carriages pulled away and started heading down the road, Joy said, “I can’t believe they are awarding points to us for this. I don’t know about you guys, but I didn’t need to be bribed.”
Parker chuckled. Kelli was sitting close enough to him that she could feel his laugh rumble in his chest. “Even the people who have no chance of winning are here, so I think you might be on to something.”
“Who do you think’s going to win?” Joy asked.
“Me,” both Kelli and Parker said at the same time. They all laughed, and so did she, but it wasn’t a joke—she really was determined to win.
Thomas tapped a finger to his bottom lip. “So you’re saying I should either kick it in high gear, or just accept the fact that I’m not going to win.”
Kelli liked Joy and Thomas. And by how close they were sitting, they liked each other, too. Maybe she and Parker could go on double dates with them once they were back in Denver.
Her stomach fluttered at the thought of her and Parker dating when they got back. Everything here felt like a magical dream—one that would disappear and be forgotten once they left.
But it wasn’t. She was going to be able to see Parker every day at work. After their hours of chatting on the bench in the snow last night, she knew that’s what they both wanted.
But what if she wasn’t as ready to head into another relationship as she had thought she’d been last night? Her fluttery stomach turned into a quivering one.
Then Parker pulled her in a little closer as they went over a little bump and the carriage turned off The Royal Palm’s property and onto the streets of Myrtle Beach. She just fit so well next to him. And he was so kind and chivalrous. And any time she saw him, her entire body felt like it was filled with twinkle lights and Christmas magic. Maybe she was ready after all.
As they drove through the streets of Myrtle Beach, looking at all the Christmas lights stretched across the main streets and decorating the buildings, Kelli lay her head on Parker’s chest. He had unzipped his coat, so apparently he was plenty warm with just the blanket. She put her hand right over his heart, feeling the strong, steady rhythm of his heartbeat.
He kissed her forehead, and when she looked up at him and smiled, he said, “Stay until New Year’s Day with me.”
She sat up straight so she could get a better look at him. “You’ve decided to stay?”
He reached out a hand and brushed a lock of hair off her cheek, then ran his fingers down her cheek, across her jaw and stopped at her chin, using one finger to trace her lips. His touch sent electricity zinging through her and made her long to have his lips on hers again.
“If I could stay here with you forever, I would.”
She was so hopelessly gone at his words. She just stared into those dark eyes with the honey color nearest his pupils and forgot how to speak. How to think. How to do anything but fall into their depths.
He cupped his fingers under her chin and leaned forward to brush his lips against hers and then smiled, showing that dimple that she loved so much. With his lips only an inch from hers—close enough that she could feel
each beautiful breath—he whispered, “Is that a yes?”
She laughed, realizing that she hadn’t managed to get an answer out. “Yes, Parker. I would love to stay here with you until the very moment they kick us out.”
She felt a buzz in her coat pocket and jumped before she remembered that she had brought her phone along just in case her dad got a chance to call or text. She pulled it out and looked at the screen, surprised that it was someone other than him.
It was a text from James’s sister Catherine, the sister that she had gotten closest to. The text simply said, I miss seeing you at family things.
She tried to push down the memories of good times with Catherine and James’s family that the text brought back, and shoved the emotions right along with them. She’d try to respond later, but she couldn’t now. She pushed the phone back into her pocket.
Parker looked at her, concern all over his face. “Are you okay?”
What was she doing? She had let herself bond with James’s family, so she knew first-hand how painful it was to get close to a boyfriend’s family, knowing that if you ever broke up with the boyfriend, you could never see his family again.
She was trying to not let herself fall for Parker so quickly and so fully and so completely. But it was Parker. And the man was just way too easy to fall for. She still had no idea how she had worked on the same floor as him for two and a half years without falling blindly, madly, fully in love with him.
“I’m great,” she said, and flashed him a big smile.
Chapter Sixteen
Parker woke up happy before his brain was even awake enough to remember why he was so happy. The carriage ride last night had been so amazing, and he’d spent the whole time memorizing how it had felt to have Kelli in his arms. To have her head on his chest, to have her breath on his neck.