Christmas Eve Love Story

Fourteen

“Hold that elevator!” Braden. Striding toward her and looking like a dream wearing his lopsided grin. Annie mashed the button on the elevator panel, stilling the door’s retreat, and Braden stepped inside the cramped space, his lemony-spicy scent filling the air.

No one else was on the elevator but them. Still. Annie tried not to stand too close. He radiated so much hotness, she feared she might combust. He didn’t know he was going to offer to help her later, and ask her out for coffee, but she did. And the knowledge was killing her. It was like knowing what he was going to know before he knew it. Or something very confusing like that. This was their fourth Christmas Eve together, and each time she saw him she only liked him more. It was probably too much to hope he recalled something of their previous conversations.

She hoped anyway.

He narrowed his eyes at her. “Have we met?”

So much for that! “Er, no. Nope. Don’t think so. I would have remembered you.” Ack! She’d said that out loud?

“Ah, yeah. Right.” He raked a hand through his hair. “I normally work nights.” Didn’t she know it. She also knew he was going to spend part of this night with her. At least, she hoped they’d still go to the Blue Dot. That outing had been fantastic. So had their walk to the subway. Although her second coffee date with him had seemed a bit more serious, she intuited they were growing closer. Even if their recollections of that were slightly one-sided.

He held out his hand. “I’m Braden.”

She squeezed his grip and swooned. Touching him was like falling into a time warp—or out of one. Whatever was happening, it always felt so good. He tucked his hands under his arms and stared at the ceiling, then around at the elevator’s walls. Also, down at his feet. He finally looked up, surveying her outfit.

“Cute pin,” he said, commenting on the decorative holly wreath jewelry on her vest.

Annie grinned tightly. “Thanks! Nice…” She studied him, searching for a way to return the compliment. Badge? Silly. No. “Uniform,” was all she could think of. Her face flamed— ouch —so hot.

He scratched his head. “Standard issue.”

Annie mentally face-palmed. “Well, you wear it very well.”

His ears went red. Great. Overly personal.

She had to fix this. Divert. Divert. Divert.

“I mean, er.” She pointed to his duty belt. “You seem really well equipped.”

He arched one eyebrow, and her cheeks steamed.

Gah! Way to make it worse. Frying pan into the fire.

“What I meant to say was”—Annie bit her lip—“you have so much junk there!” Oh. My. God. She did not just say that while apparently staring at his crotch. Annie tugged at her too-tight turtleneck. “I uh—meant st-stuff .” Boy, it was stuffy in here. She fanned her burning face with her hand, but it honestly didn’t help. She pointed to his flashlight. “Guess that comes in handy in power outages!”

“It can.”

Her view bypassed the handcuffs. No, she wouldn’t dare. “And I see you’ve got a baton.”

“Yep.”

“What’s that?” she asked, noting the dual containers.

“Mag pouches.”

“Mag?” Oh. “ Ohhh. ” She glanced at his holster. “Right.” She stared at the elevator floor numbers above the door. This was the slowest ride on earth. “Not much call for that at Lawson’s, I guess,” she said lightly.

“Not usually.”

Sweat broke out on her brow. “And that one?” she asked, pointing to a smallish canister.

“C.O.”

“What?”

He peered into her eyes, and her skin tingled all over. “Pepper spray.”

Ouch. That did not sound fun.

She was not, not, not going to ask about his gun.

They reached the ground floor— finally —and he gave her a curious grin. “Are you aiming to make some trouble, Annie?” His thumb grazed over his handcuffs.

She wanted to die, die, die . “Who, me?” her voice squeaked. “No.” She wiped the sweat from her temples. Gross. She cut him a glance, prepared to make her escape. “It’s just nice to know we’re in good hands, here at, ah—Lawson’s.”

The elevator doors opened, and she scurried out of there as fast as she could go.

“Bye!”

She got halfway through Homewares and held her breath, daring to peek over her shoulder. Braden seemed to be mumbling to himself and walking away. She was sure she’d made a great impression.

You wear it very well. Gah!

Although—honestly—he did. Maybe he wouldn’t remember this tomorrow? In any case, if it was another redux day, she was not getting back on an elevator with him.

She obviously couldn’t handle it.

***

Annie walked past Patrice in Bridal carrying her package of jumbo lights. “Got it!” she said before Patrice could say a word.

Patrice blinked. “I was just about to tell you—”

“No problem! I’ll fix it.”

“Annie, wait!”

Annie spun around to face Patrice by the second-floor escalator fronting the shoe section. “I’d like to have a minute”—Patrice pushed back her glasses—“upstairs.” Meaning on the third floor in the employee conference room.

“For a little chat?”

Patrice gaped at her. “What?”

Annie couldn’t spare the time. “Hold that thought!”

Patrice lowered her voice. “Is something going on, Annie?”

Annie blew out a breath. “I’ve got to save my window before Ms. Lawson gets here.”

Patrice blinked. “Ms. Lawson’s not expected today.”

“Oh yes, she is!” Annie said, wheeling back around.

“Annie!” Patrice called.

“I’m sorry, Patrice,” Annie said over her shoulder. “I’m trying to save my job.”

She almost bulldozed Kira in Juniors. “Kira! Oh! Sorry!”

“Annie?” Kira scooted out of Annie’s path, yanking the headless mannequin toward her. She’d been dressing it in a sparkly red top and jeans. One of its arms fell off, but Kira caught it. “ Where’s the fire? ”

Annie raced down the escalator two steps at a time, taking care with her footing in her heels. “I’m trying to put it out!”

Annie weaved through the crowd, circumventing the ladies with their shopping bags. Here comes the guy leaving the jewelry counter. He moved aside just as Annie did, stepping right in front of her. “Ooh! Sorry!” He shifted to one side. The same side as Annie. She tried to get around him, but he got in the way. What was this? A dance?

“Sir. Uh, excuse me.”

“Sure, sure.” He finally stepped back so she could get through.

“No, Dylan! Let me!” The young boy raced past Annie, darting through Homewares.

Another kid yanked on his arm, scooting in front of him. “No, Marcus! Me first!”

“Dylan! Marcus!” their mom called, chasing after them.

You’ve got to be kidding me.

Annie scurried toward her display window as Braden turned, noting the commotion.

Noooo!

She dropped the lights and raced for the falling Christmas tree, the same time as Braden. It slipped through their grasps…and they stumbled forward. Both of them landed in a heap in the fake snow, with Annie on top of Braden, her chest bearing down on his.

Ooh, it’s rock-hard. Solid.

Every. Inch. Of her broiled.

“Are you all right?” he asked with his arms around her.

“Yeah, uh—” She pushed back on his shoulders and tentatively patted herself down—the parts of her that she could reach that weren’t smashed up against him. “Fine.”

His heart pounded against hers, and his hard duty belt pressed up against her. At least she thought it was his duty belt. His face went beet red, and she scrambled to her feet. Braden pushed himself off the ground and dusted off his pants. His uniform shirt, as well. He snatched a peek at her, turning away to report the incident to the security office. “Mike, we’ve had a little incident down here.”

Mike’s chortle crackled back through the radio. “Yeah. We got it all on CCTV,” he teased. Mike cleared his throat. “But seriously, I’ll send Charlie to assist and get Lou on the door.”

“Thanks, Mike.”

Annie’s pulse raced. First, she’d nearly kissed the gorgeous guy in front of Veronica Lawson. Now, she’d landed smack on top of him right here in her window. Talk about making a display. Maybe the camera footage wouldn’t keep? She couldn’t keep doing this day after day.

“Boys!” the dismayed mom shouted. “What have you done?”

Santa strolled over, addressing the boys with arms akimbo. “You were coming to see me?”

Annie avoided Braden’s eyes as the blur of events unfolded. Every instant she was around the incredible guy, she kept falling for him harder, but could she just get through one day with him—without things becoming incredibly awkward? At this particular moment, the answered appeared to be nope .