beamed at the teenager, baby Peaches on her hip. “Thank you so much, Toby. Here, wait.” She reached into her purse on the table in the foyer and pulled out a twenty-dollar bill. “Merry Christmas.”
The boy’s cheeks reddened even more than they had from the cold. Dani’s smile could melt a snowman at fifty paces. “Merry Christmas, ma’am. Happy to do it.”
“Will you stay long enough for me to make some hot chocolate?” Dani asked.
Toby grimaced. “Wish I could, but I’d better get back to the store. Your baby is cute.” Peaches flirted with him unashamedly.
Dani blinked. “Oh, well, she’s not mine, but thanks.”
Toby shot Nathaniel a raised-eyebrow look. The baby wasn’t Dani’s, and Nathaniel had said he didn’t have kids. No wonder the boy was confused.
Nathaniel decided to hurry the goodbyes along. “Too bad you can’t stay. Thanks for your help. Tell your father thanks, too. Merry Christmas.”
When the door closed behind the teenager, an awkward silence fell, one that weighed a thousand pounds. Nathaniel cleared his throat. “I got a tree,” he said.
Dani nodded, eyes wide, cheeks flushed. “I see that.”
“I thought you’d like it, it being Christmas Eve and all.” He didn’t tell her it wasn’t his idea.
“I think it’s wonderful,” Dani said softly. She went up on tiptoe and kissed his cheek, so quickly he barely felt it. “Thank you, Nathaniel.” She paused. “If you don’t mind taking the baby, I’ll start putting the groceries away. Would you like something warm to drink? I have a fresh pot of coffee brewing.”
“Give me a minute first,” he said gruffly. “I need a shower and different clothes.”
* * *
Dani regretted the kiss as soon as she did it. She wasn’t sure what had come over her except that she had been so darned touched by Nathaniel’s effort. Toby had helped significantly, but still...
She suspected she had either shocked her boss or made him extremely uncomfortable or both. She came from a very affectionate family. For a moment, she had forgotten where she was. It was a mistake she wouldn’t repeat. Nathaniel had disappeared so fast, he probably left a trail of steam.
Before Toby departed, the two men had hefted the full-to-the-brim canvas duffel onto the granite-topped kitchen island. Even with Peaches on one hip, Dani was able to begin putting cans and dry goods into the cupboard. She often enjoyed watching cooking shows on cable, but she didn’t consider herself a pro. Something about Christmas Eve, though, gave her a tingling sense of anticipation for the dinner to come.
“Here’s the thing,” she whispered to Peaches. “It would be super helpful if you would take a nice long nap. Nathaniel needs one, too, and I have a ton of cooking to do.” The little girl gazed up at her, fist in mouth. She didn’t look at all sleepy.
“Okay, fine. Stay awake. But Santa doesn’t visit cranky children, now does he?”
After half an hour, Nathaniel still hadn’t appeared. Was he avoiding her? If they were to eat at a decent hour, she needed to get the roast in the oven and start on the pecan pie. For Christmas morning, she had planned a coffee cake with streusel topping and mimosas. Christmas lunch would consist of open-faced beef sandwiches with a cranberry salad.
Without the internet, she would have been lost. Her phone was her lifeline. It helped that Nathaniel kept a drawer full of extra charging cords. Impromptu travel with literally nothing except her purse was not the easiest thing in the world.
When four thirty rolled around, she decided to go in search of her missing boss. She found him facedown on his mattress, sound asleep. Poor man. She knew he wouldn’t have left her to handle everything on purpose.
He was bare from the waist up, his tan evidence of holidays spent in tropical climates. His shoulders and back were smoothly muscled. The pair of navy knit pants he had pulled on rode low on his narrow hips.
This was what Nathaniel Winston would look like on lazy Saturday mornings before he climbed out of bed. Or maybe he sleeps in the nude, Dani. He can’t very well do that with his executive assistant and a baby in the house.
Her cheeks hot, she debated her course of action. Peaches took it out of her hands. The little girl chortled loudly. Nathaniel shot straight up in bed, wild-eyed. “What’s wrong?” He scraped his hands through his hair.
“Nothing,” Dani said quickly. “Sorry to wake you. But I need to start dinner, and I can only do so much one-handed. I thought Peaches would be asleep by now, but she obviously knows it’s Christmas Eve, and she’s too excited to close her eyes.”
Nathaniel didn’t seem amused by her whimsy. “Let me have her. We’ll play in the den and stay out of your way.”
“How thoughtful,” she said, deadpan.
His sharp look questioned her sincerity, and rightly so. It didn’t take a genius to see that Nathaniel wanted to avoid Dani as much as possible. Fine. She didn’t need him in the kitchen getting underfoot anyway.
Fortunately, her ambitious Christmas Eve dinner menu consumed her attention for most of the subsequent hour. Once she had seared the roast and tucked it in a deep pan flanked with carrots and potatoes, she put the pie together and popped the sweet treat in the oven with the meat, very glad both dishes cooked at the same temperature.
The condo had a small dining room just off the kitchen. Inside a modern-looking buffet, Dani found navy placemats that matched the navy-and-cream stoneware in the kitchen cabinets. It frustrated her not to have the trappings of holiday colors or even a store-bought poinsettia. Even a couple of red candles would have been nice.
That was the problem with bachelors. They didn’t know how to set a scene anywhere but in the bedroom.
Oops. Thinking about Nathaniel and bedrooms was bad mojo. She was already in trouble for her innocent thank-you kiss. Best not to let him see that she was curious enough and attracted enough to be fascinated by thoughts of his private life.
Which brought her directly back to Peaches and Ophelia. Damn Nathaniel’s mystery woman. How had she found the chutzpah to pull off such an outrageous stunt?
Brooding over the baby’s lack of a proper Christmas didn’t help matters. Best to concentrate on what she could control. The only thing left was to put together a spinach-and-almond salad and prepare a light dressing. Serving pieces were ready. She and Nathaniel could take turns holding the baby during dinner, if necessary.
The roast and pecan pie had to cook for thirty more minutes. Plenty of time to put the Christmas tree in the den and decorate it. That meant running into Nathaniel again, but at least he had put on a shirt before he left his bedroom.
She knew that only because he had made a quick appearance in the kitchen earlier to grab coffee. Neither of them was dressed for a formal Christmas Eve meal. She supposed he had kept his appearance very casual in light of her predicament.
Wistfully, she imagined what it would be like if they were actually dating. She might find herself wearing a very special, sexy dress, knowing, or at least hoping, that Nathaniel would remove it at the end of the evening.
After her boss’s chilly reception earlier, it took a measure of courage to intrude on his privacy. But the den was arguably the best place for the tree, and this designer condo needed a punch of color and light, tonight of all nights.
Nathaniel didn’t look up when she entered the den dragging the tree along behind her. The fir had lost a significant percentage of its needles en route from the store, but it was still presentable. With the heavy plastic base already attached, all Dani would have to do was add some water tonight before going to bed. After all, the tree would stand guard beside the fireplace barely twenty-four hours before the lord of the manor tossed it out. She was pretty sure she knew Nathaniel that well.
Without speaking,