The Billionaire’s Christmas Miracle
The Billionaires’ Christmas Gifts Romance
Chelsea Hale
THE BILLIONAIRE’S CHRISTMAS MIRACLE
Book One in A Billionaires’ Christmas Gifts Romance Series
by Chelsea Hale
Copyright © 2019 by Chelsea Hale
Published by Crescendo Ink
All Rights Reserved.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either a product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
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Cover Design by Crescendo Ink
Interior Design by Crescendo Ink
201911161
For those who keep Christmas all-year,
not just in December.
“Blessed is the season which
engages the whole world in
a conspiracy of love.”
—Hamilton Wright Mabie
Contents
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Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Epilogue
Sneak Peek: Her Fake Christmas Eve Billionaire Boyfriend - Chapter One
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Prologue
The salty air whipped around Troy on the top deck of Hunter’s yacht. He’d spent the last three days catching up with his three college roommates, enjoying the Mediterranean breeze. Getting out of New York City always did him a world of good.
“This has been a great trip,” Jared said. “I’m sorry to see it over so soon. Are you sure you can’t stay another week, Kyle?”
Kyle Montgomery laughed. He was the only one of the group that was married, having married his high school crush after college. “You guys are welcome to stay, but my team won’t be happy if I miss Saturday’s game. We’re up against the rivals. Just missing practice this week might get me in trouble.”
“We can’t stay without you,” Hunter said. “It wouldn’t be the same without the four of us.”
They lounged on the top, watching the land in the distance. Europe was beautiful this time of year.
“Just like old times,” Troy said.
“Old times?” Kyle repeated. “I suppose, but not really like old times. I haven’t been a bachelor in a long time. I have kids now. It’s not the same for me.”
“How’s your charity going?” Jared asked Kyle.
“Every year it does more good in the world,” Kyle said vaguely. “Happy Moments is dedicated to just that. Bringing happy moments to others. It’s rewarding. It’s too big for us to manage on our own any more, but Kandice and I still play an active role in it.”
“I think I’d like to do that,” Troy said. They were all billionaires; all of the friends had reached success and recognition in their own way. But something felt missing, and Troy had a feeling it had more to do with charity work than anything else. Kyle seemed to have it all. Maybe it was the NFL fame he wore so casually, or maybe it was that he spent his time when he wasn’t on the field, helping others.
“Having a charity foundation and being involved in the work are two completely separate things,” Kyle said. He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “But I could help you, if you’re interested in getting involved or starting your own charity.”
“I’d like that,” Troy said.
Jared laughed, tilting his sunglasses down. “I bet you a million you couldn’t do it.”
“I’ll take that bet,” Troy said.
“A million for what?” Hunter asked. “I’m in for a million.”
Jared rolled his eyes. “You don’t even know what the bet is.”
Hunter shrugged. “It’s only a million. Chump change.”
“Betting for charity seems to defeat the point,” Kyle said.
Troy nodded. “Fair point. How about when I win your money goes to the charity of my choice?” Troy looked at Jared.
Jared shrugged. “You can do whatever you want with money you win. But you’re not going to win, so it’s a non-issue.”
“I’ll win,” Troy said confidently. “Just give me the stakes.” He always won. It was what made him successful.
“You have to start a charity,” Jared said.
“Or, we could open up the entire bet to everyone,” Kyle said.
“It wouldn’t be fair to include you,” Jared said to Kyle. “You already own a charity.”
Kyle leaned back in his chair. “I’ll be the moderator then. The judge.”
“What are the rules?” Troy repeated.
“How about start a charity by Christmas,” Jared suggested.
Hunter shook his head. “It’s mid-October. If you want to make an impact by Christmas you need to scale it back.”
“What if you have to help a charity that’s already up and running,” Kyle suggested. “That could be done before Christmas.”
Jared tilted his head. “How would we determine the winner then?”
Troy sat quietly, trying to think of an answer to the question Jared posed. He’d win, so it was just a matter of what the rules would be. Waves against the side of the boat pulled his attention to the water, and he watched the sun gleam on the ripples.
Kyle snapped his fingers. “I’ve got it. You need to be personally involved with helping a charity succeed. I like the deadline of Christmas, and it would be nice to pick a winner before the New Year. Entrance fee is one million dollars. The winner gets the three million dollars to donate to the charity of his choosing—most likely the one that you choose to help, but I’m open to negotiation on that point. The person who donates the most will win.”
Hunter laughed. “I can donate the most. I can write a check tomorrow. Easy enough.”
Kyle shook his head. “Not monetarily. I’d say you need to cap your own personal or business donations to $10,000.”
Jared scoffed. “How do we determine a winner if we’re only allowed to give such a small amount. We’ll all just give that amount and then we’ll be tied.”
“You have to make a difference in the charity. No assistants can help, and you can’t just assign it to a team of people from your companies. You have to personally be involved with it. Help with your time.” Kyle shrugged. “Be creative. You’re all brilliant, you can all figure out a way to do something.”
“And w
e only have from now until Christmas?” Jared confirmed.
Kyle nodded. “What if we make the deadline December 23rd, and the winner could be announced on December 24th.”
“And you’re the judge?” Troy asked.
Kyle scrunched his face up. “No. I don’t want to be accused of being partial to anyone. I’ll have Kandice be the judge. Maybe we’ll have a weekly check-in phone call and she can hear all of your progress and what you’ve been up to. She can be the one to make the final decision. Whatever she decides, stands.”
Hunter, Jared and Troy all nodded.
“Sounds fair,” Troy said. “I’m in, if everyone else is.” It was easy to take on this challenge. He would have this bet in the bag, no problem.
Jared shrugged. “Why not? My company is a well-oiled machine right now. I have some extra time. Hunter, what about you?”
Hunter sighed. “This eats into my plans to spend the next month on my yacht, but yeah, I’m in. When do we start?”
“As soon as it works for everyone,” Kyle said.
“I have a few things to wrap up at work before I can take the time off,” Jared said.
Kyle nodded. “How about we start in two weeks? Maybe that will give you time to research which charity to help.”
“And we need to spend the full eight weeks helping the charity of our choice?”
Kyle nodded. “Eight weeks of helping. No assistants helping you with the charity. And don’t try and get past the rules. Kandice will find out.”
All of them laughed. They shook hands on it and within an hour they’d wired money to Kyle for the bet.
The Billionaire’s Christmas Gifts Bet was officially underway.
* * *
One week later Troy walked into his New York office in Midtown Manhattan. The humidity here was more unbearable than it had been in the Mediterranean on Hunter’s yacht, but that might have also been the fact that he was now in a suit. “Cara, I need a list of charities that I can help between now and Christmas. Probably something local. See what you can find.” He headed into his office, without waiting for her to respond.
Cara was only a step behind him. “Mr. Rasmussen, you know I can’t help you on this project. I received a call from Mrs. Montgomery yesterday. She emailed me all of the rules. I don’t want to hurt your chances of winning by helping you.”
Troy looked at her. “Research is considered helping?” He blew out a breath. He supposed he could search the internet for opportunities—how long could that really take?
“According to the official rules, I’m not allowed to help at all,” she said the words hesitantly.
Troy nodded. “I’m not trying to get around the rules,” he assured her. “I’ll start searching for it after my morning meeting.”
Troy spent every spare minute he wasn’t in meetings researching for a charity to help with. The possibilities were endless and that was just locally. His vision blurred as he bookmarked a few more webpages with possibilities.
A knock sounded at his door. “Come in,” he said.
Cara poked her head in. “How is the research going?” she asked.
He looked up from the monitor where he’d spent the better part of the entire day trying to find the right fit. He sighed. “I don’t think I tell you enough how much I appreciate all the work you do on the back-end of everything. I assume things are easy to look up and information is just there, but you make it seem so seamless.”
“Web surfing isn’t working?”
“I’m still looking.”
“Have I ever told you about one of my favorite Christmas traditions?” she asked.
He tilted his head, not sure where she was going with this. “The tree lighting at the Rockefeller Center.”
“That one is up there,” she said. “But I mean from my childhood. There’s this small town in upstate New York, and every winter my family would go there for Thanksgiving and then for the Christmas Forest Festival. It was an amazing charity event.” Cara’s eyes sparkled as she emphasized the word “charity.”
Troy nodded. “That’s an interesting idea, Cara.”
She nodded. “And where your company already does so much locally, and the rules specifically state that you can’t do anything with a charity or foundation that you’ve done before.”
“That could be a great opportunity. Where is it?” Troy asked.
“Upstate a couple of hours from here, in a town called Red Oaks.”
“Thanks for the idea,” Troy said.
“I didn’t give you an idea. I just told you what I like.” She gave him a grin and left the office.
Troy spent the next hour online reading all of the testimonials on the Forest Festival. The fundraiser helped those in need of a Christmas have a Christmas. It worked with the local children’s hospital in finding temporary housing while parents stayed close to the hospital during their children’s treatments. The entire project looked like the kind of thing Kyle had described on the yacht. He copied the foundation’s address onto his calendar. This weekend he was going to drive upstate and figure out a way to help. Finding an opportunity like this so quickly would give him an advantage.
Chapter 1
Hailey’s heart almost burst when she saw her aunt’s name, “Helena Waters,” light up on her phone. It was a passing excitement. “Hello?” she said, knowing that there was no way that the person on the other end was actually her aunt. Not unless she went back in time to May, before her aunt passed away.
“Is this a Ms. H. Waters?” a woman’s voice asked.
Hailey sucked in a breath, glancing at the large calendar on her wall. October. Not May. For a moment, she wished time travel was real. She mustered a voice that wouldn’t crack. But seeing Aunt Helena’s name on her screen—the woman who’d felt like a second mom to her—had thrown her for a loop.
“This is Hailey Waters,” she finally choked the short sentence out.
“Ms. Waters, my name is Edna. I was a friend of Helena at the foundation. I’m so sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but The Red Oaks Foundation is looking to expand its building and try a few new things this year. Plans have moved faster than we anticipated and the wrecking ball will be here by next week. There’s a closet, well a couple of closets, that are full of items that specifically belonged to Helena. We wanted to make sure you were able to look at the items first before they were donated.”
Helena had been an amazing decorator, and Hailey could only imagine the treasures she’d find in such big closets, but everything that she’d wanted from her aunt’s house she’d taken with her in the summer after the funeral. How much more could there be? She drew in a slow breath. She’d already made peace with this. She’d already said goodbye to the town this past summer. Hailey closed her eyes, hoping the words would come easier. “I’m okay if anything that was stored at the foundation stays at the foundation. After all, the Forest Festival will only be enhanced by the beauty of what my aunt picked out.”
The pause that filled the space on the phone felt like the distance between where she was in Seattle, to where her aunt had lived in upstate New York. “Ms. Waters, as a foundation, we’ve decided to dispense with the Forest Festival this year.” Hesitancy laced Edna’s voice.
“What? Why?” This was her aunt’s legacy in the small town of Red Oaks. They’d put on the Forest Festival every year for thirty-seven years. How could it just stop? Her aunt had been involved in it since it began. It was what she’d spent all of her free time doing. Helena had practically adopted the whole town through the event, though she’d never had children of her own.
“I’m sorry, Ms. Waters. I know it must come as a shock, but without your aunt, it just won’t be the same. She was the reason the Forest Festival tradition lasted as long as it did. She knew exactly what to do and how to do it so that the Festival ran like clockwork.”
The idea that Helena was the lifeblood of the Forest Festival came as no surprise to Hailey. Memories from so many Christmases spent with her aunt an
d attending the Forest Festival hit her like a tide breaking against the shoreline rocks. Hailey pushed away the wave of grief that threatened to knock her over. “You need me to come and clean out a closet?”
“I think it’s best if you are here in person. I heard that you were already out here in the summer for the funeral. I’m sorry to make you come back again, but I’m sure your aunt would want you to go through her things before the building is torn down.”
With the building being the priority, Hailey wanted to clarify. Maybe it was just balancing the new building that was too much to do with the Forest Festival. They’d have it again when the foundation moved to their new building. The tradition wouldn’t just end. It couldn’t. “So will the Forest Festival take place again next year? You’re just taking a break from it this year?” She couldn’t even imagine winter in Red Oaks without the Forest Festival. It seemed wrong somehow. Another wave of sadness hit her. She wouldn’t be visiting in the winter again—wouldn’t be going to her aunt’s house for Christmas or for any of the days before when the Forest Festival was in full swing. The house had been left to her in the will, but back in June, when she was given the deed, she couldn’t think straight enough to make a decision about what to do with it, but now …
Edna’s voice cut through her thoughts. “Ms. Waters, I don’t think we will continue this tradition. It had a good run, but it’s time for us to try new things. The foundation is moving in a new direction.”
A new direction? What did that mean? She drew in a small, shallow breath. Maybe it was time to sell her aunt’s house too. And move on. She could keep everything in her memory, but without the Forest Festival, Christmas in Red Oaks would be bleak. “When would you like it cleared out again?” she asked.
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