Darlene Gardner - Cole For Christmas

Walk away, she ordered herself. Walk away while you still can.

“I’m having dinner at my parents’ house,” she answered, then swallowed the huge lump in her throat before she asked the question that had been inevitable since she’d seen the light shining under the door. “Want to come?”

COLE FOLLOWED THE taillights of Anna’s Christmas-red Miata through the hilly streets of Shadyside, which looked so different from the flat, palm-tree-dotted southern California landscape that it felt surreal.

But then nothing had been routine for Cole since seven months ago when he’d inadvertently discovered that the man who raised him wasn’t his biological father.

The man who’d helped to give him life had been equally in the dark until Cole had picked up the telephone and called him. After he’d gotten past the initial shock of discovering Cole was his son, they’d instantly hit it off.

Within three months, Cole had a second man in his life he called Dad. Before six months had passed, he’d relocated to the Pittsburgh area in order to fill in the blanks that had always been missing in his life.

That feeling of unreality continued tonight as it sunk in that he was looking forward to the evening ahead.

After scratching plans to fly back to California for the holidays when his parents announced they were taking a Christmas cruise, Cole had originally planned to spend Christmas Eve with his biological father.

It turned out his father’s wife had an impromptu vacation to the Hawaiian islands on the mind. Reluctant to leave Cole alone, he’d offered him a plane ticket to Hawaii.

Cole had refused the gift. As much as he burned to get to know his father, he hadn’t wanted to be the odd man out at anyone’s celebration—until Anna Wesley had walked through his office door wearing her red winter coat and Santa hat.

She’d looked so festive standing there with her cheeks rosy from the cold and her hands clutching the bobblehead doll that going home to an empty apartment had suddenly seemed extremely unappealing.

Anna, surprisingly, had struck him as the picture of appeal.

He followed the Miata through city streets festooned with tiny colorful lights and lampposts hung with Christmas wreaths, refusing to think about the very valid reason he shouldn’t fraternize with anyone from work. Especially Anna Wesley.

Surely he wasn’t expected to keep the Skillington Ski employees at arm’s length on Christmas Eve, he reasoned. Having a holiday dinner with Anna wasn’t the same as becoming involved with her. It didn’t mean she’d get close enough to him to discover his true motive for taking the job at Skillington.

Eventually they reached a neighborhood of wide, handsome streets and large Victorian homes with candles burning in nearly every window.

After a couple of turns, he followed Anna’s example and pulled his SUV up to an already crowded curb next to one of the houses, which was set back on a rectangular lot.

Cole didn’t know which was more impressive, the stately beauty of the two-story house or the hundreds of twinkling white lights that turned the place into a winter fantasy land.

He got out of his SUV and joined her on the sidewalk in front of the home, where she seemed to have frozen in place. In addition to the bobblehead doll, she carried a dark-green overnight bag.

She was tall for a woman, probably five eight or nine, with a curvaceous figure and long, shapely legs that were, at the moment, mostly hidden by her calf-length coat.

Her eyes were big and brown, her face heart-shaped and her curly brown hair just long enough to brush her shoulders. She was wearing the Santa hat again but, underneath it, her expression was anything but merry.

“Something wrong?” he prompted, reaching out to touch her on the sleeve of her red coat.

When she stepped away from him and nodded, his stomach pitched to the frozen ground. Could she have guessed his secret? Had he done something tonight to give away that he wasn’t exactly what he seemed?

“It struck me while we were driving over here,” she said and paused, “that you’re a man.”

Relief poured through him. She didn’t know.

“Last time I checked, that was true. I am a man,” he said and wiggled his eyebrows. “You want proof?”

“Of course not,” she said in her businesslike office voice, but he thought he caught a fleeting glimpse of something in her doelike eyes. Had it been awareness? “You don’t understand. I don’t bring men home to my family.”

“Ever?” he asked, alarmed that the prospect pleased him.

He’d felt the zing of attraction for her at his job interview, an instantaneous pull that had his loins tightening before she’d said much more than hello.

He’d thought his immediate reaction to her would be a problem, but it had paled over the next month when she’d treated him with an air of detached professionalism.

The coolness was still there, but now the attraction was back. Maybe it had reignited that instant in the office when he’d noticed her brown eyes contained warm golden lights.

“Ever,” she confirmed with her customary firmness. “But especially not on holidays. I can’t have them jumping to conclusions.”

“Aaah,” he said as understanding dawned. “You don’t want your family to think I’m the boyfriend.”

“Exactly.” She nodded in the direction of his SUV. “Listen, I’ll understand if you make a quick getaway. Unless they’re peeking out the windows, nobody’s seen you.”

She wanted him to nod and go meekly into the night, which would have been the safe choice considering what he was hiding and the way he was reacting to her.

Had they been at work, no doubt she’d have issued an order in that confident way of hers. But they weren’t at work and he didn’t feel particularly cautious.

“I can handle your family,” he said, planting his feet and crossing his arms over his black wool overcoat.

“You don’t know my family,” she countered, her jaw set at a stubborn angle.

“Then introduce me,” he said just as steadfastly.

He would have taken her elbow and steered her toward the door, but she pivoted on her heel and headed for the house without any help from him.

“Fine,” she called over her shoulder, “but don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

He followed her up the sidewalk, inexplicably annoyed that she didn’t want her family to think of them as a couple.

It didn’t seem to matter that up until she’d invited him to dinner, he’d tried very hard not to think of her as anything other than his cool, standoffish boss.

Because now…now his perception of her was changing.

He frowned, uncomfortably aware that he couldn’t afford to get too close to her. If he did, he might let it slip that he’d only recently discovered his biological father.

Then her view of him would change, too, only he doubted it would be for the better.

Not when that man was Arthur Skillington, owner and chief executive of the half dozen stores that made up Skillington Ski.

ANNA GAVE HER ELBOW a little shake as she preceded Cole through the door of her parents’ house, the better to dislodge his hand, but he held fast.

Didn’t the man understand he was adding tinder to a fireplace bound to be blazing without it?

“Let go,” she whispered, but evidently not loud enough to supersede the buzz of conversation and the carols that played through the stereo speakers.

“What did you say?”

Cole bent his dark head close, bringing his face so near that she could feel his warm breath on her cheek. Her parents’ house smelled of pine needles and pecan pie, but his scent was stronger. Warm wool mixed with something outdoorsy, like the smell of a winter breeze tempered with the heat of his skin.