Read A Daddy for Christmas: Holiday Romance (Holiday Romance Collection Book 2) Online
Authors: Danielle Lee Zwissler
A Daddy for Christmas: Holiday Romance (Holiday Romance Collection Book 2) (12 page)
Three years ago
“
J
ason, are you ready?” Kasey Billings said. She was packing her suitcase, getting ready for the Holiday cruise that the family had been planning for months.
“I’m sorry, Kasey.”
“Don’t say it, Jason! We’ve been planning this trip for a long time. Don’t you dare back out now!”
Jason could tell this wasn’t going to go over to well. “It’s not that I don’t want to go, but the pricks aren’t going to let me. They said if I do this last job, they will offer me a partnership with the firm. I’m sure you can understand.” He felt like a heel. It wasn’t the first time he backed out of a family event.
“Jason, don’t you realize they keep doing this to you? It’s always the last one before the offer! They can’t keep doing this to you. You need to stand up for yourself, and let them know you aren’t staying, unless they have it in writing.” She was outraged. Jason wasn’t the type of person who took a stand. He was the relaxed, sweet guy, that everyone knew how to take advantage of. And sadly, she was trying to work him over herself. She wanted to have that vacation with him.
“Sis, I know. I just. I can’t right now. I have the loans, and the rent to think about. I really need this job, and I’m afraid if I don’t stay, they’ll fire me.”
“Jason, don’t you see. They aren’t going to fire the one guy that always lays down as a damn doormat for them. Where are
they
going to be? Home? It’s Christmas, Jason. Mom and dad have been looking forward to this, too. We were supposed to do this as a family. I’m sure they are going to be with their families! No one is open on the holidays, Jason. No one. Look around. It’s a damn ghost town. Why do you have to be the one person that stays at the office, while everyone else around gets to enjoy life?” She started to cry now. It was always the same sad story. Jason didn’t have a life, and she felt sorry for him. This trip was for him. She planned everything down to the sports-bar for him and dad.
“Well, you can be the one to tell mom and dad. Another year of disappointment… is that your gift to us?”
Kasey could just be mean sometimes. “No, Kas… I’m so sorry. I’ll make it up to you, I promise.”
“One day, you are going to be all alone, and wonder why your life has passed you by. Remember your family, Jason. We love you very much. We look after you.”
Jason nodded and swallowed back his retort. He felt like an asshole.
Kasey walked out the door a few hours later, with their parents. They didn’t say much, only that they were a little disappointed with the turn of events. His dad, as usual, was the understanding kind.
Fifteen minutes after that, he received a phone call from one of his buddies. The call had changed the course of his next three years. His family was dead.
He put his coat on, and drove to the scene. The car was smashed. It was a fairly new Pontiac Grand Am; its top was completely crushed in. He could see his sister’s pale face through the window. Patrol cars were everywhere. Jason just stood there, unable to move. The next thing he knew, he woke up in the hospital.
Present
J
ason wiped his eyes. His breath stuttered as he looked at the photo. He read the article and stopped when he saw two names that until recently, he didn’t know.
***
“Katelyn, how are you?” Carolyn Jefferies said. “I haven’t seen you in a long time.”
Carolyn worked at the local Wal-Mart. It had since turned it into a superstore, and it was now open twenty-four hours. The convenience of it was another chance of fate.
“I’m great, thank you, Carolyn. I… I can’t find anything here. Everything has changed.”
“Oh, you haven’t been coming here?” Her look was one of complete shock. Katelyn practically pulled up tent to this place a few years ago. Between diapers and everything else, she may have just moved in if it weren’t for Mark.
“Well, let’s just say I haven’t been doing much these days. I’m going to start, though.” She probably sounded weird. Her voice was a mixture of pure elation and weirdness… almost cryptic.
“Okay, well, what do you need? I can steer you in the right direction.”
“It may just be easier for me to give you this,” Katelyn said, and handed her the list.
“Oh dear.”
***
Jason didn’t know what he was going to do. If possible, he felt like he did three years ago. Walking over to the window, he pulled the curtains shut. Re-living that day was a huge mistake. Who was he kidding? He wasn’t ready for anything. As he walked back to the couch, the phone rang. It was Katelyn’s ringtone.
He wanted to answer. He didn’t want to answer. Hell, what the hell was he supposed to say? Do you remember the night we met? Oh, you do? Which time?
Instead he settled for hello.
“Jason? Hey, it’s me,” she paused, and took a breath. And sounding very unsure of herself, she uttered, “Katelyn.”
“Hi, Katelyn.”
He was still mad; she could tell. “Well, I just wanted to tell you that I’m living. I’m really doing it, Jason. I’ve… I’ve gone shopping! I’ve decorated for Christmas. I just bought makeup!”
She sounded so happy that he wanted to go over there and kiss her. It would be their first kiss. Sadly, they hadn’t gotten to that part, and he was already in love with her.
Love. It’s a funny thing, isn’t it? It happens when you least expect, by the people that you wouldn’t expect at all. And for him, the person shouldn’t at all be Katelyn.
“Jason, are you there?”
He had to quit daydreaming. “Yes, I’m here. Is there something that you needed?” He sounded like a dick, but she was the last person, and the only person that he wanted to talk to. He needed help.
“I’m so sorry. I just. I don’t want to bother you, but I was wondering… do you have plans for Christmas?”
His heart started hammering. She wanted to see him. “I, um.”
“Actually, do you have plans tonight?”
Jason turned and looked at the clock. It was now eleven p.m. and he was sitting in his boxers. He should just see her and get it over with. Nothing like ruining her newly found freedom. “I don’t know, Katelyn. I’m not good company right now.”
Katelyn’s shoulders fell. The hope that she had had run short. She had hurt him pretty badly. “Jason, I know it’s late, and I know that I don’t deserve it, but if you let me make it up to you, I promise you will be fine. It’s going to be great, Jason. I’m going to make cocoa.”
Her voice rose at the end, like a little kid’s would. She was excited about cocoa. He smiled.
“If you’re sure? I have to talk to you about something tonight, Katelyn.”
“Okay. Please, don’t be mad. I really am sorry for the way I acted towards you.” She was almost desperate in her pleading.
“I’m not mad at you, Katie. I just.”
“What did you call me?”
“Katie. I’m sorry, is that okay?”
Katelyn blushed. The things his voice did to her should be illegal. She wanted more than anything for him to be the one for her. She thought Mark was the first and last of her life. She loved Mark, but she couldn’t wait to be with Jason. It was almost as if her life depended on it.
“It’s wonderful, Jason.” Her voice sounded sexy. It was low, and he could tell that she was starting to feel the same for him. He stood up quickly, and went to his closet for some clothes.
“I’ll be at your house in a half hour.”
“Sounds wonderful.”
Three years ago
“
K
atie, I’m going to take Lilly into town to get some cat food for Simon. Need anything?” Mark called from the kitchen. Katelyn was sitting at her computer, finishing up on some medical transcriptions. It was hard to concentrate sometimes. Having a two year old was a tiring event, but she wouldn’t trade it for the world.
“That would be great, Mark. I need a little bit of quiet. Lilly’s been wild today. I think she must be teething again. You would think she’d have all of her teeth by now.”
“Yeah, poor little girl. Her nose has been running all day. Do you need anything, baby?”
“No, well maybe just a kiss from both of my loves. You first,” she said seductively. He leaned down and she pulled him to her lips. “I love you, Mark.”
“I love you, too, Katie.”
Thirty minutes later…
“
I
’m coming!” Katie called from the computer desk. Mark must have forgotten something. It hadn’t been that long since he left. “Did you,” she said as she opened the door. Two policemen were standing on her steps.
She couldn’t say how she knew, but she did. She collapsed to the ground. One of the officers helped her to a chair.
“Where are they? Where are they?” Katelyn cried. She was in hysterics. “My babies, where?”
“Ma’am, I’m sorry. They are at Union General right now, but I’m afraid they didn’t make it.”
Katelyn collapsed in sobs, and the officers did the only thing they knew. They waited for her, and took her to the hospital.
“Three others were there as well,” the officer said. Katelyn was sitting in a chair beside her husband’s bed. Her daughter was in her arms. She couldn’t believe this was happening.
“Three? Are they okay?” she said quietly. She could barely breathe. It felt like her insides were crushing. “Were they hurt?”
“I’m afraid not, Ma’am. We believe the hit was instant for all involved. The couple that died had one son that is in the next room. One of our other officers brought him here while we were getting you.”
Katelyn looked up from her baby into the officer’s eyes. “Could you please let him know that I’m sorry?”
“Yes, ma’am.” The officer stood up and walked towards the door. “I’m so very sorry, ma’am. Is there anyone that you would like me to call?”
“No, they were all I had.” She started crying heavily and moved her head to her daughter’s. She still smelled like the baby lotion she put on earlier. Her baby was dead. How was she going to go on?
Forty five minutes later, she walked out of the room. They had to take Mark and Lilly to the funeral home, and she was just supposed to go home, and do what? She didn’t know what to do with herself. She started walking down the hallway. The hall was bare, with the exception of one man. His hand was in his hair, and he was up against the wall. She could tell that he was crying. His shoulders were slumped, and he was alone. She couldn’t explain why she did it, but she walked right over to him and put her arms around him. They stood like that for what seemed like hours and just held each other.
Present Day
T
he doorbell rang, taking her out of her dream-state. She opened the door and saw her sadness reflected into Jason’s face. “It was you,” she cried.
“Yes, and it was you,” he said. “I’m so sorry, Katelyn. I only just figured it out.”
“Your family?” she said. Her shoulders shook.
He nodded his head. His eyes were red. “Yes,” he croaked.
“You were here a few weeks ago, why?”
“I used to live here. I know this house. There up on the hill… my family is buried.”
Katelyn closed her eyes. She hadn’t been up there, but she knew from the realtor that there was a small cemetery on the hill. She thought it was a very old site. “They hit the car?”
Jason nodded. “They told me that with the snow it was impossible to see. They didn’t know how it happened.”
“They told me the same,” Katelyn said. “What are the odds that you would show up here?”
“What are the odds that you would buy the house?”
Katelyn walked further into the room. The cold from the outside flew into the house, blowing snow on the hardwood floor. Katelyn grabbed the afghan from the couch again.
“I love you, Katie.”
Katelyn turned and Jason was standing in front of her. “I’m so very sorry about that night. I don’t know what to say, I should have explained to you about the house, but I didn’t realize. I haven’t been back since. I haven’t been able to. My sister said something to me before they left that day. And I think she did this. I think our families did this.”
“What did she say?” Katelyn asked. Her hand moved up to his face and cradled his jaw. He put his arms around her waist.
“She said that one day I would find myself all alone, and not even realize that life has passed me by, but she said that she would always watch out for me. I thought it was odd at the time since she was my little sister, but I think she brought us together. Our meeting was fate, Katie.”
“I believe it was, Jason. I love you, too.”
They finally kissed, and the feeling of love was all around them. They stood like that for hours it seemed, in each other’s arms. When they finally moved to sit on the couch, Jason turned to Katelyn. “So, do you have any plans for Christmas?”
Katelyn smiled. “I do now.”
Danielle Lee Zwissler
Bestselling Author of the Cowboys & Cowgirls Series
Danielle Lee Zwissler is an Ohio author. She is a big fan of romance as well as fantasy, and she likes her characters to have larger than life personalities, a fair amount of money, and if possible, red hair!
The first book that she had published was "Her Last Chance" and immediately after was the second book of the Daniels Dynasty, "The Art of Seduction". Soon after, Books-to-go-Now! put out an erotic title of hers "The Trio of Sin".
Now, Danielle is currently working with four different publishers as well as a group of writers called "The Iron Writer Challenge" a challenge in which 5 writers compete against one another with stories that they've written of only 500 words! Thus far, Danielle has won 8 out of the 11 challenges that she has taken.
Currently her list of novels includes several erotica, written under the pen name Heather Lane, western romance, romantic comedies, flash fiction, and soon to be released a young adult fantasy series!
Danielle believes her storytelling and love of writing stems from reading J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter Series as well as great romance writers, Linda Lael Miller, Bella Andre, and Diana Palmer.
If you are in the Ohio area, and would like to visit with Danielle, you can most likely find her at a book convention, or hanging out at the local library. You can also contact her through her email at:
[email protected]
, website-www.danielleleezwissler.com, twitter-twitter.com/danielleleezwis, or on facebook @
www.facebook.com/danielleleezwissler
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