The Best Man's Holiday Romance

by Gail Sattler

  So, the first thing he was going to do was to return the favor.

  Besides, it might be fun. He didn’t like shopping but he could appreciate toys, and Tasha was a Christmas junkie.

  He pulled into the parking lot, and gave her a big smile. “I’m all yours. Lead the way.”

  Chapter 6

  Natasha stood beside Jeff as he once more repositioned the boxes in the trunk of the car, stepped back to judge the height and carefully pushed the trunk closed.

  She tried not to cringe as the latch engaged, knowing he was watching her out of the corner of his eye.

  He slapped his hands together. “See? I told you I could make everything fit.” He turned toward her, grinning ear to ear.

  Her breath caught. A flock of butterflies went to war in her stomach, even though butterflies were well out of season right now. If only he would smile like that more often.

  No, she didn’t want him to smile like that. When he did her brain short-circuited, and she needed her brain to be working at peak efficiency right now. She had too much to do—she couldn’t allow herself to be distracted.

  His grin widened. “I saw your expression. You didn’t think I could do it.” His grin dropped as he turned back toward the store. “I almost didn’t, though. I don’t understand how baby stuff takes up so much room.”

  She hiked her purse strap over her shoulder, then turned to reach for the car’s door handle. “Because baby stuff is made from big pieces.” Since all three of the babies were under nine months old, and one wasn’t even born yet, she’d been pretty safe to guess none of them were walking. “My boss said to buy toys, not child-care items. Stuff like diapers and clothes are mostly for the parents. He only wants to give toys and fun stuff, so that’s what I’ve got to do. I think so far so good. We bought some nice big, bright stuff that babies will enjoy.”

  Interestingly, Jeff had seemed fascinated with much of the baby paraphernalia. She’d thought at first it was because he’d never been in a store that sold products exclusively for babies, but there was something more, and she couldn’t put her finger on it.

  “I hope you’ve got batteries on your list,” he said. “That’s how all this stuff moves and lights up, you know.”

  “Of course I know. Now let’s get home and get unloaded so we can make a second trip before everything closes.”

  “What do you mean, second trip? Just how many toys do we need to buy today?”

  “We have more to shop for than we can buy in one day.” Natasha gulped and tried to look cheerful when she dropped the bomb on him. “Four down, forty-six to go.”

  Jeff froze. “Excuse me? Did I hear you right? That means you have to buy fifty Christmas presents?”

  “I told you, I have to buy a toy for every child under eighteen of every employee.”

  “Wow.” He ran his fingers through his hair. “When I saw the list on your tablet, I didn’t know it scrolled to more pages.”

  “Yes. Multiple pages.”

  “I hope you’re being adequately compensated for this.”

  “Yes. I’m not getting money, but he’s giving me an extra week of paid vacation.” Not as if she had anywhere to go on that vacation, but at least she’d be able to put her feet up and relax in the comfort of her own home. When Heather wasn’t there. Come to think of it, she really didn’t want the extra time off with nowhere to go.

  Jeff turned toward the driver’s door and opened it, speaking to her as they both seated themselves and fastened their seat belts. “I can’t believe all we bought was four things and the car is full.”

  Natasha turned around to look at the two boxes that filled the entire back of Jeff’s car. Mentally she calculated how much wrapping paper she would need just for the four gifts they’d bought today. “I think that’s because everything we bought today is mostly assembled and all large pieces. Plus everything is surrounded with Styrofoam.” Natasha bit back a grin, remembering his frustration that they had to move the car to open the door wide enough to fit the large box now in the backseat, and he’d barely closed the trunk.

  “That must be it. If we’d bought one more thing, one of us would have had to walk home.” He turned to her and grinned. “And it’s my car.”

  “If that happened, then you’d walk, and you’d let me drive your car home.”

  He opened his mouth, but no words came out, as if he were picturing himself taking the bus home.

  She checked her watch. “We still have lots to buy, so we need to get moving. After we get the car emptied we’ll grab a quick burger and go to the mall. Next on my list is the preschoolers.”

  “Oh. The mall...” His voice trailed off as he started the motor.

  She turned toward him. She knew Jeff better than he thought she did, and one thing she knew without a doubt—he hated the mall. Not that he didn’t like shopping. He had a basement full of tools she didn’t think he’d used more than once, but most of that he got at Home Depot. “We have to go to the mall. We’ll be able to buy more things. We need to organize. I think it’s more efficient to buy everything on the list from youngest to oldest.” At his sullen expression, she rested one hand on his forearm. “I could really use your help in picking out gifts for the boys.”

  “I don’t know how much help I’m going to be with this. I said I’d help, and I will. But I really don’t remember what I liked to play with back then. I can remember some things around kindergarten, but not much before that.”

  Natasha stilled. “It can’t be that hard. The preschool kids are probably easy to please. I can’t imagine the toys at that age are all that gender specific. For the teen boys, probably handheld games and electronics. It will be fun buying for the teen girls. But I have no idea what to buy for the preteen boys on my list. That’s what I need you for.”

  He turned to her as they stopped for a red light. “That’s easy. If you were going to buy something for me, what would you buy?”

  Natasha stared into his dreamy blue-gray eyes.

  She would buy him a durable coffee mug with a lid that was obvious it came from a woman. Using it would tell everyone that he was taken.

  Except all they were ever going to be was friends. He hadn’t actually said that, but she more than got the message when they’d talked about fleeing temptation. He saw no need to flee from her—just the opposite. They’d seen a lot of each other when he was engaged to marry someone else, and he thought nothing of it, so she obviously didn’t tempt him. It wasn’t what she wanted, but to not have him as a friend would be even worse than not seeing him at all.

  She cleared her throat. “I’d buy you a model car that was the same make and model of your real car.” Like most guys, his car was his pride and joy. He’d bought it new, so he’d had his choice of colors and all the options, which included a heated seat and a stereo that could be heard for blocks, if he turned it up.

  His eyes widened. “Really? Wow. That’s such a nice thought. Do you think you could find one? I’m better at welding than the little intricate stuff, but you’d help me put it together, wouldn’t you?”

  She shrugged. “Probably. But for now we need to stick to my list.”

  Jeff shook his head. “Now that I know how much stuff you need to buy, I don’t think you have that much room in your apartment. I have two relatively empty bedrooms. Would you like to keep everything at my house?”

  “That’s a great idea. Are you sure?”

  His mouth opened, but it took him a few seconds to speak. “Probably. I guess. You’d have more room to wrap stuff, too.”

  She wasn’t sure he’d really thought through his offer, but the opportunity was too good to pass up. “That’s great. I’ll do that.” Also, his house was closer to the mall, which meant more shopping time and less travel time. And she hadn’t thought about it until now, but it would be much easier t
o transport everything into his house than up to her sixteenth-floor apartment. “That’s great. Let’s do that.”

  It didn’t take long and they were at his house, which she now viewed from a different perspective. It wasn’t a big house, but it was certainly big enough. His furniture was more functional than decorative, and mostly in neutral colors. Everything he valued, which was his television, his stereo and his laptop computer, was in the living room. A snowboard and some sports equipment were piled in the corner of one bedroom, beside the computer printer, and the other bedroom was completely empty. They piled the recent purchases in the corner of the unused bedroom, then headed to the mall.

  * * *

  Jeff took the last bite of his hot dog and crumpled the wrapper. Instead of stopping for a burger, he and Tasha had opted for mall hot dogs to save time. While she finished hers, he leaned back on the mall bench and watched the crowd go by. “I can’t believe how many people are here. If it’s bad now, what’s it going to be like after Black Friday?”

  Tasha tossed her wrapper into the trash bin. “I don’t know. I always try to have most of my shopping done by then. Adding fifty to my shopping list is a little overwhelming for me. Let’s go.”

  As he pushed himself up, he thought of his own Christmas shopping list. Nine. Or now eight, because Heather was officially off.

  Heather.

  He didn’t want to think about it, but he couldn’t help realizing that, right about now, he would have been getting ready to take his place at the front of the church, preparing to take his life in a new direction of responsibility.

  Instead, he was at the mall. With Tasha. Looking for toys.

  They didn’t get very far when Tasha skidded to a halt beside one of the kiosks.

  “Look! Handmade puppets! Aren’t they cute?”

  “I guess. But you spent a lot more money on the baby gifts you’ve bought so far. Shouldn’t you be spending equal amounts on each kid?”

  Tasha nodded. “Within reason.” She pointed to a display below the puppets. “They have costumes. I can buy a puppet and a few outfits. This is perfect for a little girl.”

  “Clothing for a hand puppet? Are you kidding?”

  She turned and rolled her eyes at him. “Kind of like clothing for a duck, who shall remain unnamed?”

  His mind flashed back to visions of Daffodil in various things his mother had made. Daffodil didn’t mind being treated like a dress-up doll until the third or so time his mother changed her. The memory made him smile. “That wasn’t really clothing. It was just diapers, and my mom fancied them up.” But the more he thought about it, Daffodil’s own diapers had lacy frills. His mother had used Daffodil as a model when they took pictures for the online catalog. While a number of them looked like dresses, a bunch were made from dark colors and had pockets. Hmm. His mother had made gender-specific duck diapers. “Never mind.”

  She turned and smiled at the clerk, and began to select clothing...for the puppet.

  After she paid for everything and tucked the receipt into her wallet, they continued on.

  “Five down, forty-five to go,” he muttered, trying to sound more enthusiastic about their task than he felt.

  “Don’t be like that. We only just started. We’ve got lots of time.” However, he did note that she never checked her wristwatch. Or her calendar.

  Next she led him to one of the large department stores. “They have a sale on the young children’s toys this weekend. This is our next stop.”

  It impressed him that she wanted to save money, even though it wasn’t her own money she was spending.

  She pulled her tablet out of her purse. “I’ve got a huge amount in the toddler age group.” She handed it to him. “Here’s the list of the boys, with their general interests beside their names.”

  “Okay...”

  “We have five boys and six girls under the age of three. I think we need a shopping cart.”

  Jeff pulled a cart out of the row and they proceeded to the toy department.

  There were a few lone men and a few unaccompanied women, but mostly young couples with a small child or two in a stroller browsed the toys.

  He’d expected to be like that soon, a small family on an outing, not necessarily to the mall, but being together as a unit.

  But that wasn’t going to happen now. Instead of getting married today, here he was with...Tasha...who was currently making angry faces as she poked at her tablet while she bought toys for other people’s children.

  “Having trouble with something? I’m sure your tablet didn’t mean it.”

  She sighed, lowered the tablet and stared at him. “I’m trying to put it into a different format—a table would be good—so I can organize it better. I guess I’ll do that when I get home. Let’s see what we can find.”

  First she picked up a toy puppy that barked when she squeezed it, then a set of soft blocks. Jeff found himself getting distracted trying to figure out a cow that mooed when it was moved, then put it down before she caught him. Next he stopped at a small table with a large pile of interlocking building blocks in a well in the center. “I had a set of those when I was a kid. I wonder if they’re still the same...”

  Feeling no guilt at a delay in the shopping project, he abandoned the cart and approached the small table. He didn’t want to crush the toddler-size chair, so he lowered himself to his knees and picked up a few blocks. Gently he pressed a few together.

  He grinned up at Natasha. “They’re still the same. Watch this.” Of course he couldn’t remember anything he’d created as a kid, but he did love to build things—he always had. Rather than build an ordinary house, he built a boat, then snapped some toy people onto it. He made a small fish that was, of course, disproportionately large compared to the boat, but every boat needed a fish. Then he needed a small plane, along with a tree. With the remaining blocks he made a small fishing shack so he had something to fly over. As he searched for the right-size window, a small hand appeared, holding the piece he needed.

  “This one?”

  Not taking the piece from the child’s hand, he turned to look into the face of a small boy with big brown eyes. “Can I play with the boat?” the boy asked.

  “Can I have the fish, mister?” another little voice piped in.

  He turned to stare into the wide eyes of the cutest little girl he’d ever seen.

  “Yeah. Here.” He gave his creations to the two children, and a few more appeared, helping themselves to the other things he’d made.

  “Mister, can you help me?” Another child had picked up the window piece and was struggling to snap it into place in the building Jeff had half created.

  Jeff sank until he was sitting on the mat, finished the shack, gave it to the little boy, then watched the children play with the things he’d made.

  He couldn’t believe it. Right at that moment he should have been dressed in a tuxedo and walking down the aisle with his bride. Instead, he sat on the floor, wearing jeans with a hole in the knee that he hadn’t noticed when he got dressed, playing with building bricks.

  “I wish I could do that,” came a man’s voice from above him.

  Grateful for an adult to join the group, Jeff looked up into the face of a guy about the same age as himself who was keeping an eye on the little girl who had asked for the fish.

  The man smiled, watching his daughter play. “All I can make is buildings. That’s pretty good.”

  Jeff pushed himself to his feet. He wasn’t sure if he should acknowledge the compliment, considering the recommended age level of the bricks.

  The man tilted his head toward Natasha, who had the cart nearly full. “Your wife is doing all the shopping without you. Looks like she’s got quite a selection there.”

  Jeff felt his throat tighten. “Uh... She’s not my wife. She’s...” His voic
e trailed off as he tried to think of how to explain her. His now-ex-intended-wife’s sister? But she was more than that. He almost said, “A friend,” but knew the man thought they were shopping for their alleged children. Saying they were only friends looked as if he was downplaying their relationship, which cheapened it. But now that he thought about it, he wasn’t sure what kind of relationship they had.

  He ran his fingers through his hair. “It’s complicated,” he muttered.

  The man held up one hand. “No need to explain. Not my business.”

  “Daddy! Look!” The man’s daughter ran to him, wrapped one arm around his leg and held up the fish made of bricks. “Look what the man made. Can you make me one?”

  The guy smiled. “I can try. But there are no instructions.”

  Jeff looked at the holder clipped to the man’s belt. “Take a picture with your phone. That’s what I do when there’s only one set of blueprints.”

  “Good idea. Thanks.” While the two of them walked to the table to take pictures, Jeff looked around for Tasha.

  She placed one more toy in the cart, then pulled her tablet out of her purse and tapped on it.

  He had to figure out exactly what kind of relationship they had.

  He approached her as she slid the tablet back into her purse. “Sorry. I think I got distracted.”

  “No worries. I actually got a lot of ideas watching all the parents do their shopping.” She smiled graciously at him. “This is it for today. I got everything I needed.”

  At her words, Jeff suddenly felt as if he needed something, except he didn’t know what. He felt strange and unsettled, which was probably normal, considering what day it was. He’d failed at his relationship with Heather, he’d failed at defining his relationship with Tasha and now he’d failed at helping her choose toys. Instead of analyzing them, he’d been playing with them.

  Tasha ignored his inability to speak, grabbed the cart and started pushing toward the cashiers. They were almost there when she stopped and selected a few packages of wrapping paper. “It was actually helpful seeing the children watch you. I saw what interested them.”