Page 5 of Big Mistletoe

He just smirks at me. “Joy…”

I blink. “Yeah?”

He puts his hands on my shoulders. “Tell me you don’t feel something when you look at me.”

He’s looking at me expectantly. I could lie to him and tell him I feel nothing, but I shake my head. “I will have lunch with you and go over the proposal, but that’s all I’m committing to.”

He lifts his hand and tucks a stray lock of hair behind my ear. “That’s good enough… for now.”

The way he’s looking at me makes me wonder if he’s going to kiss me. He smiles as if he knows exactly what I’m thinking. I take a step back. “I am going to take some pictures of the rooms if that’s okay. I don’t want to hold you up any more than I already have.”

His smile gets even bigger. He knows that being this close to him is making me crazy, and I roll my eyes at him.

He gives me his phone. “Put your number and address in there.”

I jerk my eyes to his. “My address?”

He nods patiently. “Yeah, this is going to be a real date tomorrow, Joy, and I’m picking you up for it.”

I can’t even look at him. I take his phone, and after the third try, I finally get my number and address put in. I give the phone back to him, and as soon as our hands touch, I feel the jolt through my body. Yeah, going on a date with Nicholas Winters is not a good idea… but I’m still looking forward to it.

3

NICHOLAS

My day is full of back-to-back meetings, and my assistant is still out, but all I can think about is lunch with Joy. I’ve been at work for hours, and I keep looking at the clock counting down the minutes until I can see her again.

At 11:30, I finally give up pretending I’m getting anything done and drive across town to Joy’s apartment. I sit in the parking lot for a few minutes, and at exactly noon, I knock on her door.

It opens almost immediately. The smile on her face tells me she’s just as excited to see me as I am to see her. That same feeling as yesterday comes over me, and my heart starts to race. It wasn’t just a one-time thing. “Hi.”

She bites her lip, and it takes everything in me not to lean down and kiss her. She takes a deep breath. “Hi.”

I step back so she can come outside, and once she locks the door, I put my hand at the small of her back and guide her toward my truck.

When we get there, I open the passenger door and help her inside. She settles into the seat, and before I really think about what I’m doing, I lean across her and pull the seat belt over her. I know she’s perfectly capable of doing this on her own, but there’s a protective instinct that comes over me, and I want her protected.

She goes still, and so do I. For a second, we’re way too close. Her perfume hits me, cinnamon and vanilla again, and I have to force myself to straighten.

I shut the door and walk around the truck before I do something stupid like kiss her in the parking lot.

I drive us across town to Wood Fire Steakhouse, one of the nicer restaurants downtown. When we walk inside, the hostess leads us straight to a private room in the back.

Joy slows beside me and looks around. “Is this for us?”

I nod. “Yeah. It’s for you.”

Her eyes widen slightly, and I can tell she’s surprised.

Before I can enjoy that too much, she walks over to the table and starts fumbling with the folders in her hands. The second we sit down, she opens everything between us.

“So I put together a few ideas.”

Her voice changes slightly, more businesslike now, but I can still see how excited she is. I lean forward as she starts showing me the proposal. “This is what I was thinking for the lobby.”

She points to a picture of garland wrapped around the mantle, covered in soft white lights. There are wrapped packages underneath it and a large Christmas tree in the corner.

“Then I thought we could do something a little simpler in the conference center so it doesn’t interfere with events.” She flips the page and shows me another design. Then the break room and even the hallways.