* * *
AN HOUR LATER, she was in her car, still not sure what to do about Ben’s text or where she was going. He’d texted I need an emergency gift. Can you help me out? Call me. Please.
It was business. She had to call him back, right? This was dumb. And he spelled all the words out. She liked it when people did that in a text. Half the time she struggled to know what people were trying to say. Megan only used emojis. Ainsley had yet to figure out what ice-cream cones, flowers and clowns stood for in a conversation.
Just call him.
She pulled into a grocery store parking lot because she didn’t trust herself to drive, but before she could push the call button, her mother’s number flashed across the screen.
“Hey, Mom.”
“Hello, my lovely child. Where are you?”
“Heading to a client meeting.” She was worried her mom would keep her on the phone for a while; technically, she was picking up lunch because she’d been so rude to Bebe about the coffee earlier and the guilt was still weighing on her. And she needed to get away from the knowing looks from her friend. Bebe shared Ainsley’s intuitive nature, which was good for their business, but bad when Ainsley was trying to hide something from her friend.
“Oh, I was hoping we could have lunch before I head back to San Antonio to meet your father and some friends for dinner.” Her parents had pretty much moved their base of operations to San Antonio two years before she’d graduated college, though her mom was in Corpus Christi at least once a month for a charity function or to visit friends. And they’d kept their house on Ocean Drive in Corpus. The monstrosity sat empty most of the time.
“Sorry. Crazy day ahead. It’s my—”
“Busiest time of year. I know, dear. Are you going to be coming up for your father’s football party this weekend? I can’t remember which game it is. Anyway, he had some people he would like you to meet.”
That was code. By people, she meant eligible bachelors. Ones who were well pedigreed, and probably boring, or really narcissistic jerks. She never liked to generalize, but the men her parents thought appropriate would never be her type.
If she had a type. Which she didn’t. But if she did, it might be Ben.
No. Not Ben. Why couldn’t she get it together? It wasn’t as if she’d never had sex before—just not like that.
“Ainsley? Did you hit a bad cell area?”
She had to stop thinking about him. “No, I’m here. Was just checking my phone. Sorry, no can do. Busy, busy this weekend.” That wasn’t a lie. Her parents, or more specifically, her father, didn’t see her business as something relevant. He thought it was more of a hobby for her. Her father didn’t understand why she couldn’t drop everything when he expected her to be around.
“How about the Christmas party? You’re not going to disappoint us, are you? The whole family will be there, and won’t your busy season be over by then?”
Not exactly. The last few hours before the holidays were insane. Last year, they were still dropping off presents at midnight on Christmas Eve, mainly for men who had somehow forgot to buy a gift for their significant others. How did you forget your partner? It didn’t say a whole lot about marriage.
There was no getting out of her parents’ holiday party, though. It was a family tradition, and they always had their big family get-together the next day. That part she liked. The party, not so much. Despite the decorations, drinking and general merriment, it always seemed a bunch of people trying to kiss up to her parents.
“Of course, wouldn’t miss.” And she’d already made plans with Bebe to hire some part-time staff to help them with the last-minute deliveries.
“Lovely. I’ll tell your father you can meet his friends then. Bye, darling girl.”
“Bye, mom.”
Oh, well. Maybe she could find a date for that party. That would show her dad. She’d never understood why he raised her and her sister to be decisive, independent women, and then he wanted to pair them off with the nearest available bachelors. Correction, the nearest available well-connected and usually shallow bachelors.
She loved her dad, but she was tired of the game he’d been playing the last two years.
A plan began to form in her brain.
She couldn’t. No. It was so very wrong.
Oh, but she was so going to do it.
7
BEN HAD MADE a deal, and he always kept his word. As he pulled up in front of Ainsley’s office, he couldn’t for the life of him figure out why his palms were sweaty. She was kind and beautiful and there was no reason for him to be nervous.
She’d offered to get some gifts together for him to pick out for the CO. All the officers had chipped in, and because he’d lost that original bet, he was still having to find presents for several events they had. Two more and he was done. But the next one was the CO’s annual holiday party on Friday night. The whole platoon had been invited, and that was when the officers gave the CO their gift.
He’d wanted to ask Ainsley to the party, but she’d made it clear Saturday had been a one-and-done kind of night.
The problem for him was he wasn’t done. It was hard for him to concentrate while at work. At odd times during the day he’d wonder what she was doing. And then at night, yeah, he couldn’t think about that, either. No way he was going into her house thinking about the constant hard-on he’d had after their fun on Saturday night.
He could do this.
He double-checked the address on his phone, and then glanced up at the two-story house. It was white brick with shuttered windows and a large porch across the front. The door was painted a dark blue, the same color as the shutters. It was fancier than he’d expected. Her business must have been doing very well. Or maybe she shared the place with several other businesses.
She answered on the first knock. And darn if she wasn’t the freshest thing he’d seen all day. Her hair was piled on top of her head. She didn’t have a bit of makeup on, and she was dressed in a tight red skirt and white blouse, and was wearing glasses.
A librarian fantasy sprung to life in his head. He wasn’t sure he’d ever fantasized about a librarian before, but Ainsley did those sorts of things to him. All the time.
“Oh, it’s you,” she said, frowning. “You’re early.”
Not exactly the welcome he’d hoped for. Well, that settled it. She wasn’t interested in anything but business. And not the going-to-bed business he’d had on the brain for the last two days.
She glanced down at her phone. “Nope, I’m running late. Sorry about that. Come on in.”
He followed her into the foyer, where there was a stairway to the left. “This is your business?”
“The downstairs is. The upstairs is where I live. Let’s go into my office.” Her black high heels clacked along the hard floor, and he remembered those legs being wrapped around him.
Dude. You’ve got to stop that! “It’s very nice,” he said, trying to act normal. What was wrong with him? So she lived in a nice house. Didn’t matter. He was here to find something for the CO’s gift, and then he was gone.
“I have some executive items for you to see. You mentioned your CO likes golf, which makes this a whole lot easier. One of my dad’s companies makes all kinds of golf accoutrements. He has some new products that are going to be out in the spring catalog, but I have several of them. And then I have other gifts that might work if you don’t feel like those are appropriate.”
“You live upstairs?”
She turned and smiled at him. “Yes. Cuts down on the commute time in a major way. The house was kind of dated when I got it, so Bebe and I fixed it up.”
“Bebe?” Why was he only asking questions? Because she was so strikingly beautiful he couldn’t think straight.
“Oh, I keep forgetting she wasn’t at the auction the other night. She was v
isiting her mom in Fort Worth. She’s my business partner and best friend. She started out as my assistant but we soon learned she was really good with the finances. Way better than me about budgets and making sure we got paid.
“She is also great with the clients, so we both do a little bit of everything. About six months after she started, I asked her to become a partner. We say that means half the headaches are hers. And I’m rambling. I tend to do that when you’re around.”
Good, he made her nervous, so maybe it wasn’t just him.
He followed her into her office. It was girly, with soft blue-gray walls and mostly white everything else. But it was classy, it fit her. There were pink flowers on her desk. And touches of pink around the room.
“You like pink?” Wow. He had to stop with the twenty questions, but he couldn’t. Seeing where she worked, well, he wanted to know more about her.
“Yes. It’s bright and happy. And I know, it’s a little girl’s color to most people. But I love it. For me it’s a neutral. It goes with so much.”
“It’s my sister’s favorite color. She’s seventeen, and she’s liked it, hmm, I’m pretty sure since birth.”
Ainsley pointed to a side table. It was painted white like her desk. “Well, I promise you’ll find no pink in the gifts I picked out for your boss.” Right. This was about business.
She showed him a variety of products, including a putting machine that seemed tailor-made for the CO’s office.
“Choosing was easier than I thought it would be,” he said when they were done. He was disappointed because now it was time for him to leave.
“I’ll get it wrapped and to you before your event, when did you say it was?”
“Friday.” This was the perfect opportunity for him to ask her to go with him.
“Okay. Friday. Great. No problem,” she said. “Will that be cash?”
He paid for the gift, and then put his wallet back in his pocket along with the receipt.
“Guess I should go,” he said.
“Oh. If that’s what you want, sure.” She acted like maybe she didn’t want him to leave.
This woman was the queen of mixed messages.
“There was something—” They’d said the same words at the same time.
And then there was a bit of nervous laughter.
“You go,” he said.
She shook her head. “No. Go ahead. What did you want to ask?”
“Right. Like I said, the CO’s party is Friday night. And I was wondering...”
“Yes?”
“If maybe you could help me find a date? I get that it’s kind of last-minute. But I don’t know that many people in town. And...”
“You want me to find you a date?” Her face fell. She was upset.
Wait. What did he say? Find him a date. Not what he meant.
Retreat. Retreat.
He’d just had sex with her on Saturday night. “I wanted to ask you,” he said quickly. “That came out wrong. Not what I meant to say. I meant, I’m trying to find a date. I know you said you weren’t interested in seeing me again. I think your words were ‘one and done.’”
“Yes. That is what I said.” She chewed on her bottom lip. He had the urge to kiss it.
No. Focus.
“And it would be as friends because, as I explained the other night, I don’t really date. I’m concentrating on my career. But if I show up alone, I’m going to get stuck with the CO’s niece. You know her, Clarissa. She’s nice but she—”
“I’ll do it,” she said quickly.
Well, okay. That was great. There wasn’t anyone he wanted to be with more than Ainsley. And she hadn’t punched him for the idiotic comment about her finding him a date, so there was that.
“I’ll go with you. You know, as friends... To help you out. But I need you to do me a favor on the twenty-third. Do you have plans then? It involves going to San Antonio for an event.”
He was still wrapping his head around the fact that she was willing to go with him to the CO’s party. Well, she was doing it to give him a hand, but he wasn’t about to say no to spending even more time with her. “What day was that again?”
“The day before Christmas Eve.”
“Oh, I was going to Austin to see my mom and my sister for the holidays,” he said. It was true. He hadn’t been home for Christmas in years, and he’d promised his mom he wouldn’t miss it.
Ainsley’s face fell again, and she leaned back on her desk. “That’s okay. I’ll still help with your thing.”
“Nah, you’re being a champ about the CO’s party. It’s the least I can do to help you in return. As long as I can leave sometime that night to get to my Mom’s for Christmas Eve morning, I’m good. It’s only an hour away from San Antonio, so it shouldn’t be a huge deal.”
She gave him one of those devastating smiles. But there was something else there. Maybe relief? “So, what’s going on that night?”
“Well, um, it’s my parents’ Christmas party. They throw it every year.”
He wasn’t following. If it was her family, why would she bother having him there?
“And you need a date because...? I mean, I don’t mind, but you ought to look in the mirror. You could have any guy you wanted.”
She gave an unladylike snort. “You’re sweet. My parents use a party like this, or pretty much any time I’m home, to put eligible bachelors in front of me. And I’m about to be a lot more honest than I should.”
“Okay,” he said, curious as to where she was going with this.
“My dad has terrible taste in men when it comes to finding a mate for me. Like, the worst. I don’t know why he can’t see that these men are mostly narcissistic jerks, maybe because he can be a bit of one himself. Don’t get me wrong, I love him. He’s my dad.
“But everything is about him. He has it in his head that I have to marry so I’m taken care of. What he doesn’t understand is that isn’t what I want. I can take care of myself. If I ever get married, and that’s a big if, I will marry for love. Not a bank account. Or invitations to galas and the Riviera. Shoot. I did it again with the rambling. Sorry. I’m frustrated with my parents right now.”
“You’re still so young, I don’t understand why they’d want to marry you off.” He wasn’t going to explore the reasons why every time she talked about being with someone else, he wanted to punch something. They weren’t dating. He needed to get his head straight.
She shrugged. “It’s that protective instinct, I guess. Dad started off poor, never had enough to eat when he was a kid. When it comes to his daughters, he’s always wanted to make sure we’re taken care of. But what he doesn’t see is I’m a lot like him. I’m making my own way in the world. I don’t need someone to take care of me.”
“Isn’t that what marriage is, taking care of each other?”
She pulled the pins out of her hair and then put it back up. He wished she’d leave it down. He wanted to wind his fingers through it and kiss her again.
“Yes. But, I mean, my mom is always trying to please my dad. And a lot of the guys I’ve dated expect me to drop everything for them. If ever I’m crazy enough to say ‘I do,’ it will be to someone who sees me as a full and equal person in the relationship.”
“How is taking me to the Christmas party going to help you with your dad? I’m not wealthy. Your dad will see right through that.” No way could he compete with the kind of guys she was talking about. And he was curious about her dad. It was obvious she was used to money. He’d seen that at the charity event the other night. Just how rich were these people? Not that it mattered to him, but it did make him wonder.
“If I show up with you, you’re an officer in the military and respectable. A Marine, which automatically makes you superbrave, and we already know my mom likes you. With you there, my
dad won’t keep questioning me on when I’m going to settle down. The parade of men will stop, at least, maybe for that one night. Then I can go on avoiding them for another year. It’s terrible, but part of the reason I don’t go see my parents as much as I should is every time we’re together, they have a guy they want me to meet. And I have to go to this party and I do enjoy being with my family the next day.”
“I don’t mind helping you, but you’re a successful businesswoman, a grown, adult person. I mean, you can do whatever you want.”
“Right? And when I’m ready to settle down, I will. I make my dad out to sound like an ogre. He’s not. He’s old-fashioned. For some reason, to him, marriage means I’ll be safe. Protected. But I’m perfectly happy to take care of myself, thank you very much.”
She was. But he understood where her dad was coming from. If he was honest, he was pretty protective of his mom and sister. What didn’t make sense to him was that he also felt protective of Ainsley. He had no right to those kinds of feelings. They barely knew one another. “I haven’t been around you for long, but you do seem smart and capable.”
“Sorry for ranting. By doing this, you will help me out. No matter how capable I seem, every year it’s the same thing. I’ll even throw in finding gifts for your mom and sister. What do you say?”
He stuck out his hand to shake hers. “Buying for them is tough. Deal.”
She wrapped her fingers around his, and the heat nearly scorched him.
They both stood there, staring at their hands.
“I should go,” he said.
“Sure. Thanks for agreeing to my plan.”
This was getting awkward. “No, I’m the one who’s grateful. And the gift you found for the CO is going to save my butt.”
There was another long pause, and they both stared down at their hands again, letting go when they realized they were still connected.
“I was going to order pizza,” she said. “It’s weird eating a whole pizza by myself.”
She wanted him to stay.
“Sure. Um, pizza’s great.” Again, it was something he didn’t normally eat.
Christmas with the Marine Page 6