Holiday Treasure (Billionaire Bachelors - Book 10) (12 page)

Chapter Twenty-Two

O
nly a day
to go in his previously rodent-infested, leaky-piped, ball-freezing building. OK, the temperature was still miserable in here, but everything else was so wretched, the temperature might as well follow suit.

Tanner had to smile when he found himself humming Christmas carols. He was done for the day — the mall closed early on Christmas Eve so the employees could celebrate with their families — and he’d donned a Santa suit for the last time. With something approaching glee, he tossed the stupid suit into the costume return, giving it an extra little shove just to say
good riddance
, and he walked away from the mall with a smile.

Kyla hadn’t been working there that day. Lucky girl. She was at her other job, which had to be better than dealing with snot-nosed kids, whatever it was. But he wasn’t so lucky, because her absence had made the time drag by for him. The uncertainty and anticipation didn’t help. It was his last night with her and he wanted to make it count. She hadn’t said what her plans for the evening were, but since she didn’t have any family left, he was hoping they could spend it together. He’d ordered a nice catered dinner, which would arrive in a couple of hours.

The two of them could eat an exquisite meal and then cuddle up on the couch. The night before, she’d rejected his offer of watching another cheesy Christmas flick, but she couldn’t do that now, could she? Not on Christmas Eve. And this time she wouldn’t fall asleep, because he’d be treating her to all of his best moves. And he already knew how much she liked them.

It was time they got reacquainted. Since they’d made love nearly a week ago, the sexual tension had been building to the boiling point — at least for him — and he was more than ready to refuel the magic the two of them made together. It was tonight or never, because once he left this building, he wouldn’t be back.

As usual, that thought sent an odd pang through him, but he chose to ignore it. Sure, he’d been getting a bit sappy about this particular woman, but people in extreme circumstances tended to act against their character. He’d heard about that in the movie
Speed
.

This wasn’t his life. He was happy with who he was outside of this alternate reality, living in his penthouse apartment, working day and night, and sporting a tuxedo when he consumed champagne and caviar instead of beer and hot wings.

This existence was beneath him. He didn’t consider himself a snob; he was just a man who had worked hard and liked the finer things in life. There was nothing wrong with that. Okay, he conceded, he did have a wealthy family, and he did seem to have the Midas touch.

When he reached the apartment building, Tanner’s imagination was running along so vividly that he could practically taste Kyla’s skin on his lips. And as he turned the corner to their end of the hallway, he wasn’t paying attention and ran smack dab into her, nearly making her fall back on her tush.

She was in an awful hurry.

“Oh, sorry,” she gasped before looking up and discovering who it was. “Hey, Tanner. Sorry, I don’t have time to chat. I’m running late,” she said as she attempted to get past him.

“Where are you going?” he asked, resolutely blocking her path.

“I have plans tonight.”

Vague, to say the least, and he wasn’t about to let her get away with it. “What plans?” he asked suspiciously. This was supposed to be their night together. She couldn’t possibly be seeing another man. He would know. Wouldn’t he? Maybe not. She’d been able to avoid him way too often for his liking.

“I just have plans.” She looked down, refusing to meet his gaze.

Instant jealousy slammed into his gut. Maybe she
was
seeing another man.

“I thought we’d have dinner together tonight. I ordered it in.”

Her eyebrows rose. “You ordered Christmas dinner? Doesn’t a holiday meal mean that you’re supposed to slave over a hot stove all day?”

“I don’t cook elaborate meals, just breakfast, and preferably after a night of working up a good appetite,” he said as he tried to turn her around.

“Yeah, my dad ‘helped’ my mom once or twice in the kitchen for elaborate dinners,” Kyla said, “but it was an utter disaster. Whenever he tried to again, she would end up chasing him away, telling him he would mess everything up.” A melancholy smile rose up on her lips.

“Besides, isn’t it better to have a nice meal without being exhausted from cooking all day and night?” he asked, trying to tempt her into changing her mind.

“No, Tanner. Part of the appeal of a great Christmas dinner is in knowing that it was prepared with love.” Even the little smile she’d had not so long before disappeared when she said those words.

This wasn’t good. He wanted her happy and carefree tonight, not sinking back into a happy past that she could never have again.

“I’ll have to remember that,” he said, but he wouldn’t — at least if he avoided family at big holidays as often as he did. Would he remember her? After tonight, they wouldn’t see each other again.

“I really do have to go. I’m very late.” She tried to get around him for the second time.

“Seriously, where?”

If she wasn’t going to stay in with him, then he damn well wanted to know where she was in such a rush to go.

She hesitated, then sighed. “I’m serving dinner tonight at a homeless shelter nearby.”

Whew. It wasn’t a date with someone else, after all. A date on Christmas Eve probably meant the relationship had to be going somewhere — like church.

“Why?” he asked before he was able to stop himself.

“Because I don’t have a family to celebrate with anymore, and I figure I can give something back. I know it’s what my mom would do if she were still here and all alone.”

“I’ll come with you.” Oh, no. What had he just said? The last thing Tanner wanted to do was hang out in some crappy kitchen and serve food to people who lived on the streets. Why were they homeless, anyway? It didn’t make sense to him why anyone would choose that kind of life. They were clearly too lazy to work.

“Um…you don’t need to do that,” she said, looking at him coolly.

Was his disdain so obvious?

“I want to.” He told himself it was just because he wanted to get her alone later. Surely, if he were to come with her to serve food to these homeless people, she would thaw enough that he’d finally get her into Santa’s sack again.

“I don’t know, Tanner. I don’t think it’s really your kind of place.”

Her lack of faith in him rankled. Granted, he was thinking the same thing, but to have those words come from her mouth didn’t make him happy at all.

“Let me just go and make a phone call. Promise not to leave without me,” he said, giving her his sternest look.

“I guess,” she replied, and she leaned against the wall. She didn’t look at all convinced that he’d come back from his apartment.

Tanner rushed inside and pulled out the card for the police station monitoring his ridiculous ankle device. Damn! He hated that he had to ask for permission to go anywhere. One more day, he told himself. He only had one more day. Actually, less than that!

His call was picked up on the third ring, and though the officer, who just happened to be the one who’d dropped him off on that first day, gave him permission to serve a meal at the homeless shelter, the guy actually had the audacity to laugh and tell Tanner, “
Good luck!
”

Still, Tanner probably needed all the luck he could get.

His second call was to his assistant. Het told Randy to have the meal set up and ready for when they returned. They might be starting later than Tanner wanted, but he was still going to follow through on his plans of seducing his little Christmas elf. That one night wasn’t anywhere near enough.

When he walked back out into the hallway, he was relieved to see her still there. She was looking at her watch with a frown on her face, but she’d waited for him.

“All set,” he said, with the best smile he knew how to fake. He took her arm, placing it through his. “How far away is this place?”

“It’s only about a mile, but we’re running really late, so we’d better get a cab,” she told him.

It took only a couple of minutes before a taxi drove by, and Tanner flagged it down with no problem. The cab driver talked nonstop, and Tanner had to fight his irritation when Kyla leaned over the seat and started to converse with the guy. She even sounded excited. Of course, Tanner had nothing to be jealous about, so why did it bother him to share her attention? Ridiculous.

When they got to the shelter, it took everything in him not to wrinkle his nose at the crowd before him. There was a group of men outside, some in threadbare clothing; had those guys bathed in a month? The pungent smell of urine and body odor wafted in his direction. How was he going to get through the night?

“This way,” Kyla told him and led him down a small alley and inside through a side door. It took all his willpower not to turn and make sure someone wasn’t coming up behind him to pick his pocket or rob them outright.

“Kyla! I’m so glad you made it,” a harried woman said. “I was beginning to worry. The twins both got food poisoning and we’re a couple of people short.” She tossed an apron at Kyla before noticing Tanner. It was almost comical the way the woman’s eyes widened.

“Hi, Maggie,” Kyla said. “This is Tanner, my neighbor. He wanted to help tonight. Maybe since he’s the size of the twins put together, he can make up for their absence.” With a laugh, she went over to the sink and began scrubbing up.

“Well, I won’t complain about an extra set of hands.” Maggie walked to a small desk, grabbed another apron, and tossed it to Tanner.

He took off his coat, slipped the apron on, and washed his hands at the sink Kyla had just finished using.

Maggie got into work mode, directing the two of them to where she wanted them, and the next couple of hours passed by in a blur as Tanner stood at a long table in between Kyla and a girl who couldn’t have been more than sixteen, and they proceeded to dish up dinner to a seemingly never-ending line of people.

“Bless you.”

Tanner woke up from his daze to find in front of him a petite, dark-haired woman with a small child clinging to her leg. What in the world was a woman like her doing homeless — and with such a young boy? He wanted to ask, but he held his tongue.

“Merry Christmas,” he replied instead, surprised by the number of people he’d served who didn’t seem at all the type he would classify as homeless.

“Not everything is as it appears,” the woman said, as if reading his mind.

“I’m not judging,” he said quickly, feeling like an ass, knowing full well that’s what he’d been doing.

“You are, but that’s all right. I used to be exactly the same way while I worked for a prestigious law firm. My husband died and then my boss decided that since I was single, I must be a merry widow and I’d make a great plaything. When I didn’t give him what he wanted, he fired me. I tried filing a sexual-harassment suit, but they didn’t become the top lawyers in the area because they were stupid. I soon found that not only was I out of a job, but I also couldn’t get another one anywhere else — my former boss had been smearing my name. Nice guy. Anyway, just because people find themselves running out of options doesn’t mean they chose that life for themself.”

Weird. She sounded strong but still defeated. At the same time.

The boy tucked in at her side couldn’t have been more than three or four. He was wearing warm clothes and good shoes. It was obvious that all she had went into caring for the young lad.

“I’m sorry,” Tanner said. He hoped he didn’t look as foolish as he felt.

“I’m used to it now. All of that began a year ago. We recently ran out of money and lost the house. My husband was a good man, but he didn’t make a lot of money and our savings were small. I tried to make what we had last, but it could only go so far. I won’t stay down for long, though. I have my son to worry about.”

Before Tanner could say anything more, she moved on, and the line continued. When the last of the people got their plates, Tanner found himself gazing at the empty trays and the smiling faces of the patrons.

Though some were obviously disheartened to be in this situation, they were still grateful to be in a warm room with a bunch of people who, for this night at least, were their family. Even though they were strangers.

Tanner found it humbling.

Kyla went out among the people, taking them extra biscuits and filling their glasses with water. Other workers were passing out candy to the children and small items such as new toothbrushes and toothpaste.

The people’s eyes lit up as if they were receiving priceless gifts. How long had Tanner taken everything he had for granted? He’d grown up wealthy, never having a thing to worry about. He knew that he’d always get his next meal, that there would always be a warm bed for him to crawl into. His life had been easy.

Well, it had been tough since the beginning of the month. And what if it became like one of those lives he was seeing now, and for the long term — what if his luck suddenly ran out, and fate just kept throwing him curve ball after curve ball? He’d been thrown a few in his life, but never to this extent, never to the point that he had to worry about keeping a roof over his head or food in his stomach.

Wandering around the tables set up for people he was only beginning to understand, he didn’t take long to find the woman and her small child. She was smiling as she unwrapped a chocolate bar for her son and handed it to him. The boy took a bite and grinned so sweetly that it took Tanner a moment to clear the lump in his throat.

“What’s your name?” he asked when he could finally speak. Then he sat next to her.

“Morgan,” she said somewhat warily.

“What did you do for the law firm, Morgan?”

She looked in his eyes, as if assessing his motives for asking. Tanner wondered how many people had tried to take advantage of her since she’d been on her own. He probably didn’t want to know.

“I’m a paralegal, so just about everything. I miss the hustle and bustle of the business world, but I try to look at the positives. I have a so much one-on-one time with my son, after all, even if it has to be done in a shelter.”