'Tis the Season for Love: A Charity Box Set

by Maggie Dallen

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  Keep scrolling! Her Christmas Crush by Lacy Andersen is up next!!

  Next up...Her Christmas Crush

  Eve Walker finally has the chance to showcase her talent by putting on the Christmas program for her small town of Snow Pines, but finding the perfect male lead seems impossible. That is, until Jordan rolls into town...and Eve comes up with a deal that could serve them both.

  After a rough childhood, Jordan Davis doesn’t hold much stock in romance or Christmas. But he’ll do whatever the beautiful Eve tells him to do as long as she upholds her end of the bargain and gets him the job interview of his dreams.

  They’ll both find out soon that Snow Pines has a way of making people want to stick around...and the magic of Christmas might just bring the healing they both need.

  Chapter 1

  Jordan Davis belted out the last line of You Give Love a Bad Name, playing over the fuzzy Minneapolis radio station, and tapped on the fuel gauge of his silver Grand Am. The little red arrow flickered back and forth and then settled resolutely on empty. He swore and tossed the empty soda can into his passenger seat, where a collection of fast food containers and his briefcase sat.

  “Come on, baby.” He stroked the rippled dashboard with the tips of his long fingers. The last few chords of Bon Jovi’s ballad crackled through the speakers, momentarily leaving the car silent. “Just ten more miles to Snow Pines. Don’t fail me now.”

  He should have filled up on gas at that little dive of a town outside of La Crosse, but he couldn’t bring himself to step on the breaks. It had been years since he’d stepped foot in Junction. His mom and step-dad still lived there, according to the measly one card he got from them each year at Christmas.

  This year’s card was laying in the back seat of his messy car, the envelope ripped in two and then abandoned. On the front of the card was a silhouette of a manger scene. Inside, four measly words: Love, Mom and James.

  There was no way he was going to risk running into someone he knew from Junction. So instead of filling up his tank, he’d sailed on past with the hope of making it to the Snow Pines motel before his tank ran out of fuel. It hadn’t been his idea to make this trip, after all.

  If he had his way, he would’ve quit working for the State of Minnesota months ago. Right when his old boss retired and the new one took the helm. Marie was a pain in Jordan’s rear – the kind of boss who liked to check in all the time and track his every move. He couldn’t breathe at work. He used to like numbers and accounting and the peaceful quiet that came with them – but not anymore. Now, it just meant another day with Marie breathing down his neck.

  “Right on cue,” Jordan moaned as his phone began to ring. Sure enough, Marie’s number came across the screen. If he didn’t answer, she’d just keep calling and bog down his already dying phone with voice mail after voice mail. “Hello?”

  “I’m assuming you’ve already checking into the motel,” her brisk tone cackled through the speaker. He held the phone a few inches from his face, willing the call to drop, but his luck wasn’t that good. “I hope you know this isn’t a holiday vacation. I expect strict regiment from my auditors. Three weeks away from the office doesn’t give you the right to slack off. You will hit all the deadlines I’ve set for you.”

  Jordan fought the desire to bang his head against the steering wheel. He ran his fingers through his short blond hair and took a steadying breath. “No, Marie, I’m not checked into the motel yet. It’s a four hour drive from Duluth to Snow Pines. You had me scheduled to leave at six this morning. I left on the dot and I should be there in a few minutes.”

  “Hmmm…” The silence told him she was probably consulting the line by line time schedule she’d made for him and emailed over last night. “I suppose that would be true. But, as soon as you get into town, I want you over at that office. If the Department of Education is going to be increasing funding through this new Foundation, we have to make sure their ducks are all in a perfectly arranged line.”

  “I know, Marie.” She’d only been driving that point into his skull every chance she could get this past week. He realized she was new on the team and had something to prove, but she didn’t need to breathe down his neck so much. “This isn’t my first audit. It’ll be fine.”

  “It better be.” She breathed heavily into the phone, like Darth Vader summoning some mind control abilities. The noise sent a shiver of doom down his spine. “Evaluations are coming up, Jordan. Don’t forget it.”

  She hung up before he could respond to her thinly veiled threat. He tossed the phone into his briefcase and slapped his hand against the steering wheel, instantly regretting his violent outburst and stroking the dashboard to apologize.

  His last boss had loved him. Never questioned him a day in his career at the state department. All of his evaluations had been spectacular. Not a red mark in his file – yet. And now, he couldn’t risk one. Not when his dream job was right around the corner.

  Word on the street was that the Minnesota Vikings had an opening on their accounting and financing team. He’d sent in his resume five times already to the sound of crickets. If he could get a spot working for his favorite football team in the world, he’d die a happy man at the age of thirty. Nothing could surpass that goal. And nothing could stand in his way. Not even evil Marie with her thick glasses and intimidating stare.

  Snow Pines appeared in his windshield. It was a small town at the most southeast tip of Minnesota. Population: seven hundred and twenty-three. It reminded him of Junction. It was the kind of place people went to die and kids tried to escape, only to end up stuck working at the nearby factory, just like their pops did for the past twenty years. He shuddered at the thought. He’d worked hard to get away from that kind of life and he wasn’t going to get sucked back in.

  The motel sat just outside Snow Pines on the south side of a long stretch of highway. Jordan kissed two of his fingers and pressed it to the steering wheel as his car rolled to a stop in the parking lot. They’d made it.

  The motel was everything he’d dreaded – a dinky little place with about five rooms and a mini office to the right with cigarette smoke wafting out the open window. It was the kind of place you saw in horror movies. Oh, well. Too late to back out now.

  He hopped out of the car and pulled his coat tight around him, the bone-chilling December air instantly seeping into his bones. His coworkers were loving the snow season, looking forward to the holidays. Jordan hated everything about this month. As far as he was concerned, December could be blotted off the yearly calendar. Which was probably why he was the only employee available to do this audit before the end of the fiscal year.

  “Are you Mr. Davis?” An old man with a crooked back and a cane hobbled out of the office, a cigarette dangling from his mouth. He pointed an arthritic finger at him, the skin wrapping around his limbs nearly translucent, and coughed. “We were expecting you an hour ago. A lady named Marie kept calling here for you.”

  Jordan rolled his eyes. Of course she had. She’d been checking up on him, trying to catch him in a lie. “Yes, sir. I’m here now.”

  “Good, good. Welcome to the Snow Pines motel. My name’s Eddie Lauer. My wife’s Edna Lauer. Ed and Ed.” He smiled, displaying a missing tooth on his bottom row. “Almost sixty years together and that never gets old. Here, let me show you to your room.”

  The cloud of smoke that followed Eddie around was nearly unbearable. Jordan wondered how his wife could stand it. He kept a safe distance, grabbing his suitcase from the car and trailing a few steps behind the old man.

  “It’s too bad you caught us at our worst,” Eddie explained as the sound of hammering broke the silence. “My nephew’s remodeling for us. All rooms except for yours are under construction. With only one room available, I’m
afraid you’re going to have to deal with some of the overflow from my wife’s decorating.”

  He pulled a diamond shaped key-chain from the pocket of his over-sized jeans and dangled it for Jordan to see. A key hung from the loop with the number five printed on it in black sharpie. He stopped in front of the furthest room from the office with a matching number five on the door.

  “She’s been known to go a little overboard,” Eddie said apologetically as he unlocked the door and opened it for him.

  Overboard was putting it lightly. Every conceivable inch of the small motel room was covered in green and red shiny tinsel. The shelves had been wrapped in tinfoil paper with intricate snowflakes that glistened. A giant painting of Santa Claus and his reindeer hung above the bed, staring down on the place Jordan was supposed to sleep.

  A dancing elf began to move when they walked in, swinging it’s hat from side to side as a squeaky little voice sang out that Santa was coming to town. Green garland hung from the windows and a red and white comforter graced the bed.

  “It’s a little much,” Eddie said, shifting uncomfortably. “But if she didn’t decorate the motel, it would’ve been our house. And I don’t need a singing elf giving me a heart attack on my way to the toilet every night.”

  Jordan held back a laugh and threw his suitcase on the bed. Whatever. He could deal with it. This was only temporary. At least it got him out from under his boss’s thumb for a little bit.

  Right on cue, his phone began to buzz from his briefcase. He didn’t have to guess who it was. Walking away from the vibrating bag, he ignored the sound. She could wait another minute…or two.

  “I’m guessing that big red box over there with the bow is the TV?” he asked Eddie, pointing at the rectangular wrapped present on a stand. At least he’d have cable while he was here. Could catch a game or two in the evenings.

  “Indeed,” Eddie smiled his gap toothed smile. “We get ten channels all the way from Eau Claire. My wife likes Downton Abbey on PBS.”

  Jordan could feel the smile on his face stretching thin. If he had to watch Downton Abbey every night in this room where Christmas threw up, he might go insane. “Thanks. I guess I’ll have to see what’s on.”

  His phone began buzzing again like a wasp caught in a can. Marie was really on a roll this morning. It wasn’t smart to keep her waiting long. He waved Eddie out the door, trying to get the old geezer to move as fast as his feet could handle.

  “You’re going to love Snow Pines, young man,” Eddie said on his way out. A piece of ash from his cigarette fell on the carpet and smeared as he shuffled over it. “It’s a lovely place. Changes lives, it does. You might just find yourself wanting to stick around.”

  “Doubtful,” Jordan mumbled loud enough for only him to hear.

  He waved goodbye to Eddie and shut the door behind him. Pressing himself to the wall, he waited for the cigarette smoke to fade before falling onto the comforter. It felt nice to be alone for a moment, the quiet soothing his tired head.

  That moment didn’t last long. His phone began to ring for the third time. As he went to answer it, the elf started to sing and dance again. Throwing a pillow at the singing monstrosity, Jordan couldn’t help but worry about the next few weeks. How was he going to survive without cable TV and a boss that harassed him every few minutes? He was going to go insane.

  If he was lucky, Eddie’s nephew would collapse the building on him as he slept, putting him in a coma for the rest of the holiday season. It was the only pleasant thought he could muster about the motel and the town as a whole.

  Anything would be better than a Christmas stuck in Snow Pines.

  Chapter 2

  Children hung from the rafters of the church, howling like monkeys and scratching their armpits. A few ran around old pews in circles, screaming at the top of their lungs. Eve Walker looked upon her newly minted cast members of the Christmas Eve musical and tried to hold in the dramatic sigh she felt building up inside her.

  She’d wanted this job. It was a dream come true.

  If she kept saying that, maybe it’d stay true.

  “They’re cute,” her best friend and coworker Laurie Fink cooed beside her. She’d been cast as the angel, Gabriel, for the modern day manger scene and was sitting in as one half of Eve’s audition panel. She was one of the few people Eve trusted with this job.

  “Yeah and I think I just felt my ovaries die,” Eve mumbled back. She shooed the children toward the back door where their parents stood devouring the free lunchtime snacks and coffee. “If I make it through the next three weeks without losing my sanity, I’ll call it a win. Even if the musical stinks to high heaven.”

  “It won’t stink.” Laurie smiled and tilted her head, her long red hair falling across her shoulders. “I’ve read the script. A modern day take on the manger scene is brilliant. There’s a reason they chose you to put on this year’s Christmas Eve community play. I still can’t believe you wrote it.”

  Eve felt a pleasant heat rise to her cheeks. She grinned to herself and then fanned her face with a spare church bulletin that had been stuffed into the pew rack in front of her. “It’s always been a secret hobby of mine. Accountant by day – playwright by night. Like Clark Kent and Superman, I guess.”

  “Or Bruce Wayne and Batman,” Laurie said with an eager nod of her head. “Except, without the billions of dollars.”

  “Or the alien superpowers.”

  “Or the helpful butler.”

  Eve grinned, flashing two rows of brilliant white teeth. “Why do I need a butler when I have you? Isn’t that what friends are for?”

  Laurie gave her shoulder a playful shove and shook her head. “Right? Why have a butler when you’ve got a helpful dog like Daisy around? Even Batman didn’t have a trusty canine sidekick.”

  They both looked down at the sleeping pup on the floor at their feet. Daisy was their newest arrival from the Snow Pines Pet Shelter where the girls volunteered. She was a golden lab mix and not even a year old. Her white fur felt as soft as feathers and she had the sweet temperament inherent with her breed. Unfortunately, she also had a habit of chewing on shoes and Eve had already lost a pair of leather boots in the short two weeks she’s been fostering Daisy. Regardless, the pup was perfect for the musical. She’d be accompanying her modern day Joseph through the trials of his life. There wasn’t much people liked more than seeing a dog on the stage.

  The phone in Eve’s front pocket began to trill an alarm. They were on an extended lunch break from work, so she had to keep on schedule. The Department of Education was sending an auditor to the office to go through her books. It was a task she hated with all the fiery power of the sun. She was good at her job. She didn’t make mistakes. But if they wanted more money from them, she had to play ball and letting someone else get their grimy fingers all over her files was part of the game. She hushed her alarm and leaned back into the hard wooden pew.

  It was time for a new round of auditions, for a much more important role. She needed a Joseph for her mini modern day Christmas musical. A man with the voice of an angel and enough acting skills to move an audience to tears. He was out there, but finding him in this town was going to be like searching for a sewing needle in her mother’s junk drawer.

  “Let’s bring out the first candidate,” she shouted to Vicky, the church secretary manning the front for Eve.

  Through the double doors to the rectory entered Calvin Nelson. He’d graduated two years behind her at Snow Pines’s public high school, but she remembered who he was. All-star athlete. Handsome as a tall glass of lemonade on a hot summer’s day. Beautiful man, all around. And perfect for the role of Joseph.

  Maybe filling the role wouldn’t be so hard after all.

  “Starting this show off on a good foot,” she whispered to Laurie, who giggled. “What do you have for us, Calvin?”

  He smiled, displaying two rows of beautifully straight teeth. Then, running a hand through his jet black hair, he dropped to his knees and did a stunn
ing rendition of an excerpt from Hamlet. The ladies watched breathlessly. They gripped the back of the next row of pews, hanging on his every word.

  “Beautiful, beautiful,” Eve shouted when he finished, clapping her freshly polished red manicure. “I think we can call off the rest of the auditions,” she added out of the corner of her mouth.

  Laurie held up her finger and shook her head. “I think you’re forgetting one minor thing.”

  “What?” Eve wanted to throw the hymnal at her. Hadn’t she seen that perfect performance? “The man is perfect.”

  “Yes, but can he sing?” She held up a copy of the piano music Eve had given her that morning. “You seem to have forgotten that the manger scene you wrote includes a beautiful solo piece from Joseph. You might want to have Calvin sing a few notes before you cancel the rest of the auditions.”

  Eve pressed her lips together and clenched her teeth, but couldn’t get too frustrated. Her friend had a point. Maybe she was jumping the gun. But surely, a man like that could carry a tune. “Okay, Calvin. I need you to sing a bar or two for us, just so we can get an idea of your singing voice.”

  He grinned and leaned against the piano, flashing a Hollywood smile. “No problem, ladies. How about a little 8 Mile?”

  Eve glanced at Laurie, momentarily confused. She’d never heard of a musical called 8 Mile. Laurie seemed similarly bewildered by the way her eyebrows pinched in the middle. They didn’t have to wait long to discover what he meant – Calvin leapt into a hacking and spitting version of Eminem’s 8 Mile rap. Eve shuddered with revulsion. She was pretty sure this was the first time in history Eminem had been used as an audition piece for a Christmas play. Hopefully, it would be the last. She looked down in pity at the dog, Daisy, who’d awoke from her sleep and covered her eyes with her paws, as if she were blocking out the awful song.

  You and me both, dog, Eve thought to herself.