Melissa Mcclone - Santa Brought A Son

The wedding invitation sat in the middle of Reed Connors’s desk. The embossed ivory card should have blended in with the other pieces of paper competing for his attention, but the invitation might as well have been printed on orange fluorescent paper. No way could he ignore it any longer.

Reed had received the invitation a month ago. His best friend from high school was getting married. But Reed had been too busy to reply, had shoved the damn thing in his briefcase and forgotten about it. Until now.

He replayed the voice mail message.

“Hey, Reed, it’s Mark Slayter,” his best friend’s familiar voice said. “Long time no see, bud. I know you’re busy, but we’re trying to get a final head count for the caterer so I need to know whether you’re coming to the wedding or not. All the guys will be there and we’d love to see you. It’s been too long. Don’t know if it makes a difference, but Samantha Wilson will be there, too. I know you remember her, even if you forgot the rest of us losers. Take care, dude, and let me know ASAP.”

Mark would mention Samantha Brown Wilson. No one else knew about Reed’s special friendship with the most beautiful, most popular girl at Fernville High School, and Mark had never told a soul, even though the group of nerds they’d hung out with pretty much shared everything. Reed had never had a friend as loyal as Mark had been. Reed doubted he ever would.

Thinking back, he remembered what a fool he’d been with Samantha—a lovesick fool. Not surprising. He’d been the stereotypical geek and could have written the book on being a high school loser. He’d come a long way since then.

As Reed stared at his schedule for December, he tapped his pen against a stack of manila folders. The rapid tattoo helped him concentrate when he brainstormed the newest marketing strategy and tried to build brand equity for Wintersoft Software, but in this case it was only making an annoying sound. A trip to Frankfurt, a conference in San Jose, a tradeshow in Las Vegas. Meetings with investment analysts. A trip to Fernville, Virginia, for Mark’s wedding was impossible.

“Working late…again?” A cheery, feminine voice asked from the doorway of his office.

He didn’t have to look up to know it was Carmella Lopez, Executive Assistant to CEO Lloyd Winters. She reminded him of everyone’s favorite aunt except she dressed like the perfect professional in stylish jacket and skirt ensembles, cooked the most amazing rice and beans this side of the Rio Grande and was easier to confide in than an anonymous bartender.

“It’s not that late.” Reed glanced out the window behind him and saw lights from the other Boston skyscrapers in the night sky. He’d not only missed the sunset, but dinner. Worse, he was still wearing his jacket and tie. “Lost track of time.”

“Seems to be a habit of yours.” The warmth of her smile echoed in her voice.

“You shouldn’t talk. You’re here, too.”

“Lloyd likes me to be around when he’s in the office.”

“You treat him too well.”

“He’s a good…boss.”

“Exactly.” Reed grinned. “Don’t want the boss to think I’m a slackard.”

“With the hours you put in, no one would think that.” She walked to his desk and handed him a folder. “Lloyd wants you to review the latest info on the Utopia project.”

Reed placed it on the top of the media plan and advertising-effectiveness reports in his jam-packed in box and made a mental note to call Nate Leeman, Senior V.P. of Technology, to see if Utopia was on schedule or not. “I’ll read it tonight.”

“It’s already so late.” Carmella’s gaze clouded with concern. “You have to sleep sometime.”

“Who needs sleep when I have all this?” He motioned to his office full of artwork from the countries he’d traveled to with his job—a job he loved more than anything. Ensuring Wintersoft’s product names and marketing strategies were meaningful and translatable into all markets and cultures was challenging. Dealing with all the planning surrounding a new product’s introduction when he could never count on the delivery date could be a huge headache and stress, but he wouldn’t change a thing. At twenty-eight, he was the youngest V.P. at the company and he wasn’t about to stop there.

She pointed to the top of Reed’s cluttered desk. “Is that a wedding invitation?”

He nodded. Carmella stuck her nose into everyone’s business, but he didn’t mind. She truly cared about her coworkers and dispensed advice with motherly warmth.

“Is another V.P. getting married?”

“Not that I know of.” In the past three months, three of Wintersoft’s male executives had gotten married or engaged. First Matt Burke, then Grant Lawson and the latest, Brett Hamilton. The whole thing made Reed wary. Marriage was the last thing on his mind. Work left little time for casual dating, let alone anything more serious. “Brett had better be the last one or I’m going to stop drinking the water around here.”

“Now that Arianna has had her twins, we’ll have to see if that’s in the water, too.”

“Not funny.” A girlfriend was a time drain, but children? Forget it. His job left no room for a family. He had the perfect life. Why spoil a good thing?

“So who’s getting married?” Carmella asked.

“My best friend from high school.”

“Sounds like fun.”

About as much fun as a four-day marketing blitz through ten European countries with your boss at your side. “I’m not going.”

Carmella sat in the chair opposite his desk. “Why not?”

“Too busy.” Work was the way to achieve all he wanted. Reed had tasted success and wanted more. That took a sacrifice—his personal life—but it was worth it. “I’ll send a nice gift.”

“But if he was your best friend…”

Reed shrugged, though blowing off Mark’s wedding might be a bigger deal than Reed was making it. “I was close to Mark and the few others we hung out with, but we all drifted apart after high school.”

“He still invited you,” Carmella said. “That has to count for something.”

“I get invited to a lot of weddings.” Reed stared at the invitation. “Co-workers, work-related acquaintances who just want something from me.”

“Your friend only wants a day. That isn’t a lot to ask of a best friend.”

“If I didn’t have so much work—”

She tsked. “Work is an excuse.”

Reed didn’t—couldn’t—answer. Carmella had a way of seeing through a person. She considered it a gift, but on more than one occasion, like now, he wished she’d returned it and exchanged it for another.

“It’s the same one you used when I asked why you haven’t been in a serious relationship since you started at Wintersoft.”

“I date,” he said finally.

“But never the same woman.”

“Nothing wrong with that.”

“There is if you don’t want to spend the rest of your life alone.” She stared at him with an observant gleam in her eyes. “I’m wondering if there isn’t another reason. The only woman you’ve mentioned by name is Samantha, your high school sweetheart. I know that was years ago, but are you sure you got over her?”

“Yes.”

Carmella didn’t look convinced.

“Samantha wasn’t my sweetheart,” Reed admitted. Only in his dreams had she been his. Except for six wonderful days. “We were only together a short time when I was in college. I was too much of a geek to have a girlfriend in high school. Brainy not brawny.”

“You must have been a late bloomer because you have both now.”

“Thanks.” Reed had struggled and worked hard to become the man he was today.

“So…will she be at the wedding?”

“Yes.” He thought about Samantha. Her long, silky blond hair. Her sparkling blue eyes. Her warm, seductive laughter. Reed’s collar felt a little tight. He loosened his tie. “And so will her husband,” he added more for his benefit than Carmella’s.