Welcome Home for Christmas Read online

  Julie considered this. “Only one thing to do then.”

  “Right.” Allison knew exactly what she had to do. “I should cancel this idea and just make good on the money I donated.”

  Julie shook her head. “No, you shouldn’t. I say you need to buy more hours and spend enough time with Troy to make this convincing.”

  Allison furrowed her brow. Her mind was spinning. “How do I do that? I’ve never been able to pull the wool over my mother’s eyes.”

  “Just go on a few dates with the guy. Trade off your life stories and enough information to get past your mother’s lie-detector instincts. There’ll be so much going on at the party that she won’t have time to scrutinize. People will see you with a handsome guy on your arm, you’ll feel great, and then, once Christmas is over, you can return to your regularly scheduled single life. Until next year.”

  Hope sprang up inside Allison’s chest. “That…might…work.” She nodded to herself as she thought about it. Then she smiled as she looked up at Julie. “It’s actually a good idea.”

  Julie shrugged. “I have my moments. I wish I would’ve bought Lawson. It’d be nice to make him do whatever I wanted.”

  “He pretty much does that now,” Allison said.

  Julie grinned, a blush coloring her cheeks. “You’re right.”

  Allison had to admit, she was a little envious of people in love. Most looked genuinely happy. If not for her own experiences with the feeling, she might be a believer. In the last five years, though, she’d dated a man with a whole lot of forever potential, who also happened to be gay. Her mother had spotted that immediately. She’d dated a guy who liked to steal things from her. Her mother had labeled him as “shady” at their first meeting. Shady was an understatement. And the last guy Allison had dated, James, had been the biggest heartbreaker of all. She’d fallen head over heels for him, and just as her mother had predicted, he’d cheated on her.

  The whole love experience was torture. Allison wasn’t ready to make herself vulnerable to that kind of heartbreak again. But she could appease her mother and make it seem as if she were dipping her toes back into the dating waters. That seemed harmless enough.

  Julie touched her shoulder, gaining her attention. “Better now?”

  Allison nodded. “Yes. Much.”

  “Good. Because I think we need to get back out there to the party. The auction should be ending, but we still have to entertain the wives and make sure no one drinks and drives.”

  “Good idea.” Allison straightened and did another discreet round of deep breathing. All she had to do now was locate Troy and do whatever it took to get him to agree to go on a few dates with her, to get to know each other as intimately as a real couple would. How hard could that be?

  She entered the banquet room and broke off from Julie, who went to discuss auction numbers with her sister Kat. They wanted to announce how much money had been raised for the children’s shelter by the end of the night.

  Allison’s gaze moved over the crowd, looking for Troy, hoping that he hadn’t left yet. He’d appeared to be heading toward the exit the last time she’d seen him. Her gaze snagged on a broad-shouldered man standing in the corner. Troy. He was standing with an attractive blonde, her back toward Allison.

  Jealousy sprouted up like an unwanted weed, which wasn’t the right reaction. Troy wasn’t hers. He was free to talk to other women.

  Troy looked up as she drew closer. “Hey,” he said, smiling at her. How could he smile at her like that, like he was happy to see her with those twinkling eyes and sexy grin, when he was mingling with another woman?

  “Hi,” she said.

  “Oh, hi, Allison.” The woman Troy was talking to turned around. Shelby Summers. She was married with three children.

  Allison looked down at Shelby’s large, taut belly. Three kids and one on the way.

  “I stopped Troy before he could run out. He’s going to help me with a home alarm system. I bid on him up there, but you beat me out.”

  Allison felt a little guilty. Someone had actually needed Troy’s help. A pregnant someone with three kids. That was the whole idea of the auction, but Allison had snatched him up for herself. She needed him, too, though. This idea could work; it could make her holidays with relatives tolerable.

  “Did you know Troy installs alarm systems on the side?” Shelby asked.

  Allison shook her head. “No.” She knew very little about Troy Matthews at the moment. But she planned on changing that. She planned on knowing everything about the man before the bells tolled on Christmas Eve.

  —

  Troy suppressed a laugh. Allison was jealous over the fact that he’d been talking to an eight-months-pregnant woman. It was cute, really. Allison’s cheeks were all flushed and her eyes were wide.

  “The recent burglaries have me a little anxious,” Shelby admitted. “Especially with Robert deployed right now.”

  Allison nodded. “Hopefully, they’ll catch the guy soon.”

  “Well, no one’s getting into my home. Not after Troy gets done with it.”

  Troy grinned. “That’s right. I’ll call you tomorrow about the home security.”

  Shelby nodded. “Thank you.” She turned to Allison. “This was a great party. I hope you raised a lot for the orphans.”

  “Thanks. Me, too.” Allison watched Shelby waddle away.

  Troy waited for her to face him. When she did, he lifted his brows. “Something wrong?” he asked.

  Allison shook her head quickly. “No. Not at all.”

  She licked her lips. Was she nervous? Preparing to ask him for something?

  “You sure?”

  Allison intertwined her fingers in front of her. He had the urge to reach out and settle her hands, but he shoved his hands in his pockets instead.

  “How would you like to make a little more money for the kids at Mercy’s Place?” Her gaze lifted to meet his. Those green eyes of hers were as vibrant as a Christmas tree. In fact, with her red hair and green eyes, she was the picture of Christmas. Something he was actively avoiding this year, but for some reason there was no avoiding the woman in front of him.

  “Okay. I’ll bite. How would I do that?” He leaned against a wall, trying to look as casual as he’d been while talking to Shelby a few minutes earlier. But he didn’t feel as relaxed at the moment. His heart was beating a lot faster. His blood had new life and his body wanted to move. Why did this woman have this effect on him?

  “Well.” She secured her hair behind her ears—another sign that she was nervous. Whatever she was about to propose, she didn’t think he’d be entirely happy with it, Troy guessed. “As you know, I bought you to be my date to my family’s Christmas Eve party.” She laughed under her breath. “That sounds illegal, doesn’t it? I bought you to be my male escort.”

  “Only illegal if you were buying my, ah-hem, services.” Troy winked at her.

  She shook her head. “No, definitely not…Anyway, like I told you earlier, my mother is a psychologist. She knows people and she knows me. It’ll be hard to convince her that we’re, um, dating.”

  Troy nodded.

  “So I would like to purchase more hours from you.”

  “What for?”

  “To date me. Just a few times so we can get to know each other. Then, when we go to my family’s house, it won’t look like we’re strangers. And it won’t be so much of a lie when we present ourselves as a couple because we’ll actually have gone on a few dates. And by dates I mean you and me sitting together somewhere and gathering facts on each other. Nothing more. I have absolutely no interest in you in that way.”

  Ego-punch.

  Troy watched her, suspecting her statement wasn’t entirely true, though, judging by how nervous he made her. She made him a little antsy, too. “You’ve never lied to your mother, have you?”

  The corner of her mouth twitched. “I have. Once.”

  “She found out?” he asked.

  “And I was grounded for a month.”


  Troy tsked. “I lied to my poor mother all the time when I was younger, and I rarely got caught.”

  “So there’s one thing I now know about you. You’re a good liar.” Allison folded her arms across her chest.

  “Good, maybe. But I value honesty. Sometimes lying to someone is for their own good, though. A little white lie never really hurt anyone. Here’s one for you”—he leaned in closer and lowered his voice—“I have absolutely no interest in dating you, either.”

  Her cheeks flushed.

  “And I don’t think you’re the most beautiful woman in this room, and the thought of taking you out does not appeal to me whatsoever.” He shook his head. “Nope, not one little bit.”

  She smiled. “Now I know two things about you. You lie well and you’re a smooth talker. So, do you agree to my proposal?”

  Troy could have just said yes, but he was enjoying engaging her in a conversation. “You know, when I was a kid, Christmas was always magical. I’d sit with the toy catalog and create this huge, mile-long list of the things I wanted. I never got so excited about a pencil and paper.”

  “Did you get everything on the list?” she asked.

  “Usually.”

  “So your family had money?”

  He nodded. His family practically owned the town he’d grown up in. He didn’t know what it felt like to want for something until his cousin Dale had died on 9/11. That had been the deciding factor for his joining the military. “I figure the more money raised for those kids, the better their Christmas will be.”

  “That’s my goal. I want this to be the best Christmas Mercy’s kids have ever had.”

  “So, if I have to take you out…” He trailed off, smiling at her.

  “We’re just going to talk. Have a meal or something together. No kissing, no hand-holding.”

  Troy held up his hands. “I’m an honorable guy. I don’t force myself on women. Truth is, I usually have to fight them off.” He winked again.

  “And you can’t act like that when you meet my mother.”

  “Like what?” he asked.

  “All flirty and charming. She’ll never believe that I’d fall for someone like that.”

  He tried not to take offense because no matter what she was saying, she was attracted to him. He could see it in her dilated pupils and the way her chest rose just slightly under her racing pulse. “No? What kind of guy exactly would you fall for?”

  Allison looked around the room. There was still a nice-sized crowd laughing and mingling. Christmas music filled the merry air. “I wouldn’t fall for any kind of guy right now. That’s why I’m pretending with you.”

  His gut signaled a little alarm. There was something there that caught his attention. A backstory that he had no business investigating. Except he’d never been able to accept a cold case or an unsolved mystery. “Okay. How about I pick you up at your place tomorrow night and take you to dinner? Sound good?”

  Allison stuck out her hand to shake his.

  He enjoyed the feel of her smooth skin sliding across his. He had the sudden desire to feel more of her skin over his.

  Pulling her hand away, she located a small piece of paper and a pen in her purse and wrote down her phone number and address, then handed it to him.

  “You live one road down from me,” he said, reading the paper in his hands.

  “Really?”

  “So close, we’re practically living together.” He winked.

  She flushed from her cheeks down to the low-dipping neckline of her dress.

  A little charge rode through him. “Okay, Allison,” he said finally. “It’s a date.”

  —

  The next morning, Allison drove to Mercy’s Place feeling like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders. They’d raised a lot of money for the kids last night. Enough to give them a great Christmas. Today, as she did several Saturdays a month, Allison was going to do an activity with them. Christmas cookies. She parked at the children’s shelter and walked inside, waving at one of the ladies in the office.

  “Good morning, Allison. Go on back, dear,” Ruthie, a middle-aged woman, said. “The kids are waiting for you.”

  Allison walked a little faster. She didn’t want them to wait. She didn’t want them to be disappointed or upset.

  A squeal pierced the air as she entered the large kitchen in the house. One of her favorite children, little Lucy, came barreling forward with arms outstretched. She wrapped herself around Allison’s legs and squeezed tight.

  “Miss Allison! You came!” the little girl cheered.

  “Of course I came. I told you we’d make Christmas cookies together last time I was here,” Allison said, stroking the back of the girl’s long hair and looking at the group. There were about fifteen kids staring up at her expectantly. Margaret Mills, the director, waved at her from the opposite side of the room.

  Lucy reached for Allison’s hand and pulled her toward the table. “I want to make the cookies with the red and green sprinkles. And I want to save a few of mine to leave for Santa on Christmas Eve.” She spoke quickly, excitement pouring out of her.

  “Okay. I’m sure we can freeze a couple. I think Santa prefers it if his cookies aren’t fresh, actually.”

  Lucy looked up, meeting Allison’s eyes. Lucy’s were large and brown. Clay-colored freckles were haphazardly sprinkled over her nose and cheeks. She had dark wine-colored lips and red-brown hair. Allison thought she looked a lot like Punky Brewster, from the eighties show that she’d loved as a child. “I want the Feed Me Betty doll for Christmas,” Lucy told Allison as she climbed into a chair at the long kitchen table.

  Allison nodded. Then the other children at the table started excitedly telling her what was on their Christmas wish lists, too. Suddenly Allison felt like the mall Santa, smiling and nodding as she heard their requests. “Well, I’m sure Santa will do his very best,” she finally said, happy that those weren’t just empty words. There really was a Santa Claus out there, thinking of these children. It was the combination of all the people who’d donated their time at the auction last night—one of which she’d purchased to be her pretend boyfriend.

  “There’s no such thing as Santa Claus,” Miles, a little boy around eight years old, muttered. He tipped his chin toward his chest as he sat at the end of the table. “My daddy told me before he left me here.”

  Allison’s heart fractured. “You have to believe.”

  “Yeah,” Lucy said. “If you don’t believe, you won’t get a present.”

  “I’m not getting one anyway. And neither are you.” He shook his head, looking angry. Allison could feel his hurt, though. She’d been only five when her birth father had left. She remembered watching him walk to his car in the driveway. She’d run across the lawn and clung to him the way Lucy had done with her a few minutes earlier.

  He’d gently pulled her off. “Be a good girl and go back to Mommy,” he’d said. No I love you. No I’ll miss you. He’d just walked out on her and her mother, leaving them crying on the porch steps.

  Allison stood and walked over to Miles, laying her hand on his shoulder. She dipped down to whisper in his ear, “You will be having Christmas. I promise. And things will get better. You’ll see.”

  Things had gotten better for her. Her mother had met her stepfather, Jerry, and he’d been like the father she’d never had—even when she’d had her birth father. Things had worked out.

  “Now help me get the cookie dough out of the refrigerator. You’re my helper this morning.”

  Miles looked up. His eyes were glassy, but he was too tough at eight years old to cry. He nodded quietly and walked to the fridge. Allison blew out a breath and shared a look with Margaret, who was helping another child gather a cookie sheet and the needed utensils. Caring for these children had to be emotionally exhausting.

  Lucy leaned back and summoned Allison’s attention, waving excitedly again.

  And emotionally fulfilling, too, Allison thought, catching the child’s ent
husiasm, pulling it in, and making it her own.

  An hour later, the kids were all smiling, even Miles.

  “Thank you so much for coming over,” Margaret said, as Allison prepared to leave. “And for raising money for more presents.”

  “Anytime. I can pick up the presents on the list this week and bring them over to you if you want.”

  “Perfect.”

  “Any adoption interest this week?” Allison asked hopefully.

  Margaret shook her head. “No. They all belong to me this holiday.”

  Allison nodded. They talked a little while longer, then she left. It was midday, only a few hours from the time when Troy would be picking her up for their date. Instead of going home, Allison headed to Seaside Drive for a little shopping. The last couple of weeks she’d been purchasing gifts for others. She’d needed an excuse to buy something for herself. A date, even a fake one, warranted a new outfit. Something to make her feel attractive as she sat across from Troy. Desirable.

  She remembered the way he’d leaned in and called her the most beautiful woman in the room at the auction last night. He’d definitely been the most desirable man. His was the kind of attractiveness that grew as you spoke to him, as his smile pushed up sexy crinkles at the corners of his twinkling eyes. The little micro-expressions of his face were fascinating.

  Which was why tonight she should keep her eyes off. Troy was definitely her kind of catnip, and she wanted to stay in control. She needed to have no emotional investment in this pretend relationship, so that it wouldn’t matter when her mother uncovered Troy’s inevitable character flaw next weekend. All that mattered was that Allison looked like she was putting herself out there in the dating world again. Even if that was the furthest thing from the truth.

  Chapter 4

  Troy arrived at Allison’s town house at six o’clock on the dot. It was that Marine Corps discipline that had been instilled in him. He rang the doorbell and blew out a breath. He’d considered bringing flowers, but this wasn’t a real date. Allison had made that perfectly clear, although he would be paying for tonight’s meal. That was the Matthews family values that had been instilled in him. His mother had taught him to open doors, to never curse in front of a woman, and to always pay for your date—pretend or not.