'Tis the Season for Love: A Charity Box Set

by Maggie Dallen

  She gasped in delight and grabbed his hand, giving it a strong shake. Truly, this was a Christmas miracle. She’d found her Joseph. Plucked him out of obscurity. And all because he’d been sent to audit them. All of a sudden, auditing didn’t sound so terrible after all.

  His phone began to buzz on his desk. Jordan groaned and raked a hand through his hair, desperation filling his eyes. “Why can’t my boss leave me alone for five minutes?”

  He marched back to his desk to answer the phone. Eve watched him put it to his ear, her nerves bouncing around in her stomach. He could be the answer to her problems. With a voice like that, the service would be epic and Ashley Lynn could go cry crocodile tears into her fuzzy pink sweater.

  “Let’s just hope he can act,” Laurie whispered next to her.

  Eve nodded and smiled. “Don’t worry. He’s perfect.”

  Chapter 5

  Jordan couldn’t say for sure why he’d agreed to do the play. Yeah, the idea of getting an interview with the head CFO of the Vikings football team was a sweet payoff, but that wasn’t the real reason. And it was no guarantee of a new job. But it was the way Eve had looked at him – so hopeful that he could be the one to save her play – that had struck a chord.

  Those big brown eyes and her set of full lips with the red gloss had drawn him in. Mesmerized him into saying yes. Even if he wanted to back out now, it was easy to see from just a few hours spent together in the office, no one said no to Eve Walker. Not without a fight.

  He liked that about her. She was spunky. She held her own. And it seemed like she was the type of person who kept her end of the deal. All he had to do was just get through the next few weeks and this would pay off.

  No more working for his micro-managing boss.

  He couldn’t even picture a future like that.

  Eve wasted no time. The next day after work, she marched him right up to the church, the unassuming brick building bright and welcoming. She held Daisy’s leash, the retriever dancing around as if she knew what was coming. Jordan followed at a distance, trying to keep from staring at the beautiful back of his new play director.

  She’d worn a pair of tight black jeans today that were just as appealing as yesterday’s skirt. Heck, she could wear a trash bag and still look gorgeous. It was dangerous territory and not something he wanted to dwell on. Instead, he looked down at the script she’d printed off for him just this afternoon.

  “Have you ever acted before?” Eve asked, opening the door to the church.

  He shook his head. “Not really. I had to do a skit once in speech class, but that was a long time ago.”

  She pushed her hair over her shoulders in a determined movement, pressing her lips together into a thin line. “That’s okay. We’ll walk you through it. At least I know you can sing. That’s the hardest bit.”

  The inside of the church was alive with the sound of children squealing and running around. Eve’s pretty redheaded coworker, Laurie, was already there, attempting to wrangle the children and rein in the mass chaos. She had a halo headband on her head, the golden ring dangling above her wavy hair. A couple of the children wore wire wings. A young woman with long black hair wore a blue veil over her head. She had a gigantic stomach that resembled a soccer ball stuffed under her shirt.

  “Jordan, meet your costar, Amanda. She’s got a degree in musical theater and teaches drama at our high school.” Eve pointed to the hugely pregnant woman. “That belly’s real. Let’s just hope she doesn’t pop before Christmas Eve.”

  Amanda smiled and shrugged. She had a pleasant face with olive skin and laugh lines around her eyes. “Not due until January tenth, but anything could happen. It’s our first.”

  Jordan shook her hand and tried to keep his cool. Any minute now, Eve was going to expect him to sing in front of an entire room of strangers. The only audience he was used to were the fast food containers in his car. This was a whole different ball game.

  “Right, let’s run through the lines,” she called, clapping her hands. Laurie snagged the two sprinting angels and kept them still. “Work off the script for now. I want all lines memorized by next week. Three weeks until curtain call.”

  He didn’t see any sign of a curtain. Only empty pews and an intimidating alter at the top of the aisle. This wasn’t exactly the Orpheum. Still, he held up the script and squinted at it. It read like one of those romance novels, the kind his mom used to hide beneath her pillow. He’d found one when he was eight and spent an afternoon eagerly scanning the pages for the hot stuff, only to be sorely disappointed. Now-a-days, his entertainment usually focused around the sports channel.

  “Here, you take Daisy.” Eve handed the dog’s leash to him.

  Jordan looked sideways at Daisy smiling happily at his feet. “I don’t seem to remember a dog in the manger scene.”

  “It’s a modern take on the manger scene,” Eve said, a teasing smile on her lips. She leaned closer to him and placed a hand on his arm. “I couldn’t very well have a donkey in my musical. A dog is the next best thing.”

  He chuckled and watched as Eve walked away. His arm was still warm where she’d touched him. He liked the way she strolled around the church, with all the confidence of a woman on top of the world. It was insanely attractive. Even when she was bossing him around.

  “Laurie, you start,” Eve backed into a pew and sat, her eyes bright. “Angel comes in first.”

  They worked through the first few pages of scene, piecing together each step and action the actors were supposed to take in this modern day take of the manager scene. Eve had assured him this play would only last a half hour, but running through it like this made it seem like a drawn out version of Les Mis. He’d made the mistake once of taking a date to that movie. It could have been the horrible movie selection that caused her to never call him back. Or his snoring during the middle. He couldn’t be sure.

  Finally, when Eve was satisfied with the lines, they moved into learning the songs. Jordan felt a little more relaxed for this session of the practice. Maybe he couldn’t deliver lines, but he could at least hit all the right notes. And singing in front of an audience wasn’t as bad as he’d expected. In fact, it was almost fun.

  When he sang along with Amanda, their voices blended in a perfect harmony, the rest of the actors quieted to listen. Even the wild little angels paused a game of tag and perked up their ears. Eve sat watching them from a stool, her eyes glistening with excitement. Clapping wildly when they finished, she whistled and launched herself from the chair.

  “Beautiful! This just proves I made the right casting call,” she exclaimed with a smile stretching across her cheeks. Jordan liked it when she seemed to forget herself in these little moments. Gone was the sassy and cool exterior. In its place was a childlike enthusiasm that made her cheeks rosy.

  “Alright, I’m ready. What time’s the performance?” Jordan asked, rubbing his hands together.

  He could do this. He’d managed to survive this mind-numbing session. Showtime wouldn’t be so bad, after all.

  A light thrill of laughter pulled all their attention to the back pew. A beautiful young woman with dark hair wearing a tight yellow cardigan with a black scarf sat with an amused expression on her face. Her gaze met Eve’s and she raised a single eyebrow, as if in a silent challenge.

  “Ashley Lynn…” Eve growled under her breath.

  He wasn’t sure who this Ashley Lynn was, but he could tell there wasn’t much love lost between the girls. After a few moments of an awkward stare down, Ashley Lynn got up from her pew and left with a condescending twinkle in her eyes.

  “Right!” Eve forced a laugh and her eyes went wide. There was a glint of crazy in them. She reminded him of his Uncle Irwin when he went off his meds. “We’ve got more than a dozen rehearsals between now and the show. We need to work on hitting our marks and timing and not to mention, choreography. There’s still a lot of work to be done. We can’t get too confident yet.”

  Jordan could feel the warm sense of
accomplishment drain from his body. That sounded overwhelming. He was starting to resent this pretty little package of energy bobbing around in front of him, waving her bright colored nails.

  “Laurie needs to project more,” Eve said with a finger pointed at her friend. “The angels needs to learn how to sit still. I’ve got two shepherds who can’t seem to stop giggling and a wise man who has been playing on his phone all night.” She gave each of them a fierce glare. “Not to mention you, Mr. Davis.”

  Jordan took a step back, afraid of her tone of voice. “Me? What do you mean?”

  “I need you to feel the dialogue. You were as flat as a railroad tie, delivering those lines tonight. I need more from you.”

  A bit of resentment flared up inside him, but he managed to tamper it down. “Wait a second, you said you needed a man who could sing. I sang. That’s all you asked of me.”

  “I asked you to be in my musical.” She placed her hands on her tiny waist and pursed her lips. That woman didn’t give an inch. “That includes singing and acting. Don’t worry, we’ll work on it.”

  He threw his head back in frustration and walked back down the church aisle, shaking his head in amazement. For one small moment, he’d been thinking maybe this wouldn’t be so bad. Sing a few songs, get the interview of his dreams. But with a miniature General in heels barking orders at him, he wasn’t sure he was going to make it until Christmas Eve. Even if the General was the most beautiful thing he’d ever laid his eyes on.

  “Alright, that’s enough for tonight.” Eve’s clipped tone set his teeth on edge. “Everyone go get your eight hours of sleep tonight. I want you here the day after tomorrow, on time. I’m looking at you, Shepherds.”

  Jordan was the first to leave the church. He rolled the script up and stashed it in his back pocket, ready to sink into that Santa comforter waiting for him in his hotel room. The night had turned crisp and frigid. His breath appeared in front of his face in little puffs of white.

  Popping the collar of his coat up, he pulled it in tight to keep out the chill. Springtime couldn’t come fast enough. No more of this holiday nonsense and brutal cold. Give him football and green lawns and warm breezes. He’d take those any day.

  “You sang great,” a voice said from behind him. He turned to spot Eve wearing a deep purple pea coat with matching leather gloves. Daisy stood beside her. Eve gave her a little tug of the leash and they jogged to catch up with him. “You really did. I’m sorry if I was too harsh about your acting skills. You’ve got a wonderful voice, but we’ve got to work on your romance.”

  He smiled incredulously at her, putting a hand to his chest. No woman had ever accused him of that. “Excuse me?”

  “Your romance.” She smiled and blinked up at him. “It’s dead. This is the greatest love story of all time. Joseph was a man who would do anything for the woman he loved. I need a little more love from you.”

  Shoving his hands deep in his coat pockets, he shook his head and started off toward his car. He was too exhausted to think about romance or his lack of romance. Eve didn’t seem bothered by the brush off. She settled into a walk beside him, buzzing like a fly in his ear.

  “Come on, I’m sure you know how to put on the moves,” she said. He grimaced at her, but she wouldn’t give up. “I think most people don’t realize what kind of love story there is between Marie and Joseph. That’s what I want to expose with my musical. And you need to bring the romance. They’re in love, for goodness sake.”

  “Well, I’m not sure I’m going to be able to help you,” he finally said, coming to a halt behind his car. He sighed and scratched his head, trying to put together the words to explain it. “I don’t really know anybody in love.”

  “You don’t?” She looked up at him with eyes wide in horror. “You’re serious?”

  “I’m serious. Besides that, I don’t really believe in the whole romance thing.”

  Her eyebrows shot to the sky and for a moment, he thought she was going to hit him with her tiny fists. “You don’t do romance…? But Christmas is all about romance and love and family.”

  Leaning his hand on the car, he smiled at her. What a charmed life she’d led. He wished for a moment that he could trade places with her. To live one moment without the pain and scars of his past and the fear that came with the future. He didn’t have anyone he considered family left in his life and it had been a long time since there was any kind of romance.

  “I don’t really do Christmas, either,” he said matter-of-factly. “It’s all a big scam to me. A way to get people to waste their money.”

  He could tell he’d hit a nerve by the way she brushed invisible dirt off the front of her coat and huffed. Despite the annoyance he’d felt only minutes ago, he couldn’t help but admire the curve of her lips when she was angry. Never had he met someone who could be so attractive and furious at the same time.

  “My parents split when I was young,” he added, although he wasn’t really sure why he was telling her. He never told people that. “My step-dad treats my mom like dirt. Not exactly Romeo and Juliet. There was never any romance in my life.”

  That made her look back up at him. She opened and shut her mouth, as if she couldn’t find the words to say, and then her eyes filled with sympathy. For a moment there, he thought she was going to relieve him of his part in the play. Take back her offer. He wasn’t exactly the best candidate for a love story, so he wouldn’t blame her if she did. Instead, she sighed and touched him on the arm.

  “I’m sorry, I had no idea.”

  “It’s in the past.”

  “Still, I shouldn’t assume everyone’s had a childhood like mine.” She gazed up at the sky. Stars had begun to reveal themselves in the inky blackness. “I guess this just means we’ve got more work to do. Goodnight, Jordan. See you tomorrow.”

  He watched her walk toward her car. It was no wonder she could boss around an entire room of actors and demand perfection. She’d led the perfect life. Her daddy probably bought her whatever she wanted and her mother probably adored her. He didn’t know what that was like.

  He sighed and press his back against the cold metal of his Pontiac, closing his eyes to the dark memories threatening to overcome him.

  Chapter 6

  The next afternoon found the three women of the Snow Pines Foundation gathered around Rhiannon’s desk. They’d just finalized their Christmas calendar of events and somehow their conversation had drifted onto a certain gentleman in the other room.

  Rhiannon got up from her desk, wrapped her scarf around her neck and gave Eve a disapproving glare. “He’s perfect, you know.”

  Eve nodded her head and stretched her arms high above her. It’d been a grueling day of work, staring at charts and graphs until her eyes went blurry. Five minutes until five o’clock and she couldn’t wait to get a little fresh air. “I know. He’s just about the perfect Joseph for my play. You should’ve heard him sing last night.”

  Laurie exchanged glances with Rhiannon. They laughed and looked out the door, as if to make sure Jordan couldn’t overhear them.

  “She means that he’s perfect for you,” Laurie said with an eager smile. Eve grimaced and opened her mouth to argue, but she held up her finger to stop her. “Come on, not only is he a particularly beautiful specimen of the male variety, but he’s sweet and charming…”

  “And doesn’t take your crap,” Rhiannon interrupted.

  They both grinned at her as she struggled to find the words to argue. Sure, Jordan seemed to be able to roll with the punches she threw. That was hard to find in a guy. And she wasn’t going to deny he had a perfectly angled face and chiseled arms. But the boy had been here for three days and never even hinted at being interested in her. And that was fine with her. She had more important things to worry about during the countdown to Christmas.

  “I’m getting out of here before you get any ideas,” she announced, snatching her coat off the rack. “Take your silly little matchmaker thoughts somewhere else.”

&n
bsp; Sometimes she swore her friends acted more like middle schoolers than women in their late twenties. She could hear them giggle and cackle as she left Rhiannon’s office and strolled over to Jordan’s desk. He sat hunched over a file, his white shirt rolled up to his elbows, revealing lovely muscular forearms.

  It’d been a struggle sitting across from him all day, listening to him hum and sigh to himself, wishing she could straighten his collar that he’d flipped under sometime around lunch. But that would’ve been intimate and unprofessional. And totally leading down a road she didn’t know if she wanted to travel. Instead, she’d finally escaped to Rhiannon’s office to clear her head.

  Last night’s first rehearsal had been nothing but a disaster. The dialogue was stale and forced. Children running everywhere. Her piano player couldn’t hit the right notes. Ashley Lynn had witnessed the entire thing with glee in her eyes.

  The only bright spot in the whole night had been Jordan and Amanda’s song. Jordan’s voice sounded soulful and rich, like he’d lived a hundred years instead of thirty. She could melt into that voice. Dip it into chocolate and savor it for dessert.

  His acting, on the other hand, left a lot to be desired. Stiff and unnatural, he’d smiled during the wrong parts and grimaced during others. Amanda had given him plenty of cues, helped him along with the actions, but he’d been about as romantic as a Raggedy Ann doll propped up on stage. Eve had some work cut out for her, that was sure.

  “Come on, you two.” Eve stopped beside his chair and poked him in the shoulder. Daisy sat at his feet, getting in her fifth nap of the day. Eve’s eyes darted to Jordan’s muscular arms one last time and then back to his face. “We’ve got homework to do.”

  He turned to her and groaned, rubbing a hand over his blurry eyes. “Homework? I thought I was done with that after I graduated school.”

  “Not yet. I’m going to teach you some romance, boy.”