The Billionaire's First Christmas - Contemporary Romance (17 page)

“I am,” I told him. I made my kiss
kiss noise and Mr. Pibbs came out of hiding. He’s a twenty pound
Siberian cat that had been with me since my first week in New York.
I’d found him in an alleyway and begged Melissa to let him stay
with us. When I moved out, she begged me to take him. She always
accused him of having an attitude. Personally, I think he’s just
misunderstood.

“Mr. Pibbs, Aaron. Aaron, Mr.
Pibbs.”

He smiled and gave the cat a nod. Mr.
Pibbs chose to remain silent. “Have a seat,” I told him. “Do you
mind if I go and at least brush my teeth?”

He grinned again and said, “I was
hoping…” Silly sarcasm… It was a side of him I had glimpsed that
day at the Christmas fair. I’d liked it then, and I liked it even
more now.

I went in and got dressed and cleaned
myself up. When I came back out, I found Aaron on the couch with
Mr. Pibbs curled up in his lap.

“You’ve made the cut,” I told him.
“Mr. Pibbs doesn’t usually like anyone but me.”

“He didn’t bother to ask me if I liked
him before he climbed up here either,” Aaron said with a
smile.

“I’m going to make some coffee, would
you like some?”

“I’d love some,” he said.

“How about breakfast? Are you
hungry?”

“The invitation only said “dinner.”
I’d hate to impose…”

“Well, I’m starving. So, I think I’ll
make some Belgium waffles and fruit. If I make more than was
intended for only myself, maybe you’ll join me?”

“If it will help,” he said.

“Oh it would, very much. I hate to
waste food.” I went into the kitchen and started making the coffee.
I couldn’t stop smiling. I couldn’t believe he’d shown up. I was so
happy. I had bought two steaks and two lobster tails… just in case,
but I’d planned on keeping the other one frozen for New Years. I
thought I was kidding myself that he would ever show up. Now, I was
very glad that I’d been persistent.

“Cute kitchen,” I heard him say. I
turned around and he was standing in the doorway. He had taken off
his ugly sweater and was in a white button down shirt with the
sleeves rolled up to the elbows.

“Thanks,” I told him. “I like my cozy
little apartment.”

“I like it too. And, it looks and
smells very festive,” he said. It was funny, because he almost
sounded like he approved of the festivity of it all. I finally had
to ask.

“So what made you decide to show up?
Didn’t you have an Island vacation planned somewhere?”

“I did. I should be basking in the sun
in Belize by now. Instead, I’ve re-scheduled it. I have forsaken it
for the snow and sleet and numb fingers and toes. But Robyn, this
is your entire fault.”

“My fault?” I asked him, as innocently
as I could.

He grinned and said, “You got under my
thick skin somehow and I couldn’t resist. I had to find out what
this Christmas stuff was all about for someone like you who loved
it so much. If it’s still okay, I’d love to spend it with
you.”

My mouth was stretched out into a
permanent smile like I’d slept with a coat hanger in it. “It is
absolutely okay,” I told him, excitedly. “Wait until you taste my
waffles!”

We ate the waffles and fruit, making
casual conversation about work and some of the projects Max had let
me take on since I became his assistant supervisor. Aaron seemed
impressed by the work I was doing and my knowledge of the
company.

“So what did you do yesterday on
Christmas Eve?” he asked.

“I went back to the fair and
finished my shopping, I passed out the rest of my gifts and I
visited my parents. Then Mr. Pibbs and I watched
“It’s a Wonderful Life”
and ate chocolate chip cookies until I passed out
crying.”

He raised an eyebrow and
said, “A movie called
“It’s a Wonderful
Life”
made you cry?”

“Oh my goodness, you’ve never seen it,
have you?”

“I’m afraid not.”

“Well, then it’s on the agenda for
today. It’s part of Christmas you can’t have Christmas without
it.”

He laughed, “Okay, just keep me posted
on the agenda as the day goes by. Can I ask you a personal
question?”

“Sure…”

“I was just wondering about your
parents.”

It had been seven years since I lost
them, but it still hurt to talk about it. I poured myself another
cup of coffee and said, “They both passed away when I was
nineteen.”

“I’m sorry for your loss and for
bringing it up. I was curious because you speak so highly of them,
but you never mentioned they were deceased. I was certain you’d be
with them on Christmas if you could.”

“Definitely, my parents were the best.
I told you about me and my dad at Christmas. It was our favorite
time of year. I don’t talk about them like they’re deceased because
I still feel them so strongly in my soul that sometimes I honestly
let myself forget. I guess it’s just my way of coping.”

He nodded and said, “We all cope in
different ways. Do you still do the Santa Claus thing or was my
sweater an impulse buy?”

I laughed at that and said,
“Definitely not an impulse buy. I put a lot of thought into it. I
went to three different stores to get it just right.” He laughed
again. I loved the sound of it. “I do still do the Santa thing,” I
told him. “It wouldn’t be like Christmas without it.”

“So how do you do it? I mean decide
how many to buy for and who and what and all of that?”

He sounded so sincerely interested. It
was like he was from another planet and he wanted to know about our
customs here. I was so happy to be the one that got to help him
learn.

“First, since I’m now the financier, I
decide how much is in my budget to spend. I have a special
Christmas fund that I give to every month all year. I give to a few
charities first and then use what’s left for my Santa project. Once
I know how much funds I have available, I do just as my father
taught me. I try to think of something that people I knew or saw
daily needed dearly.”

“And you clearly saw that I needed an
ugly sweater dearly…?”

“It was something that I’m sure you
didn’t have and would never buy for yourself, right?”

“That’s for sure,” he said with a
grin.

Then seriously I told him, “I saw that
you needed a smile dearly. I was hoping to give it to
you.”

“It worked,” he said. “I’ve been
smiling since I opened it this morning.”

He was looking at me with that intense
look that he got that made me just know he had feelings for me. I
wanted to kiss him so badly. I wasn’t going to make the first move
again though. The ball was in his court. I took a deep
breath.

“Anyways, that’s how I do
it.”

“It’s an amazing thing you do,” he
said.

“You do the same. I passed out all of
the gifts you bought, remember?”

“It’s not the same at all,” he said.
“I don’t shop for the gifts or wrap them or hand them out. I
suppose I only do it to assuage some of the guilt I have for
ignoring Christmas the way that I do… So! What about this movie?”
he said, changing the subject. I was hoping since he brought up his
lack of knowledge about Christmas that he’d go on to tell me why he
disliked it so much, but he was obviously not ready for
that.

“Let’s go in the living room and I’ll
put it on,” I told him. “Mr. Pibbs will probably refuse to watch it
again. He’s a little snobby about it because it’s in black and
white.”

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

~

AARON

I’d left my apartment the day before
with the knowledge that I wasn’t going out of town for Christmas
this year. I would have been sitting on the beach but my mind would
have been here in New York. Rather than put myself through that,
I’d just stay here. I made the phone calls to cancel all of the
arrangements and when I called Jeffrey to let him know the plans
had changed, I could hear the smile in his voice. I had to call
Janice as well. If something came up when I was in Belize, she’d be
looking for me at the hotel. I needed her to know that I’d be in
town. She literally squealed when I told her.

“Oh Mr. Winters! You’re staying home
for Christmas this year? I’m so happy. It’s really the best time in
the world to be in this city. You won’t regret it. You can have
dinner with us…”

When I was able to find a way in I
said, “Thank you, Janice but I think I already have plans.” Like
Jeffrey, I didn’t have to see her to know she was gushing with
delight. I never really thought about how many people were affected
even just a little bit by my aversion to Christmas. It was all
about me for so long. I’d caused people to worry about
me.

After I’d taken care of all of that, I
had shopping to do. I spent hours trying to decide what to get for
Robyn and I got a whopping big dose of what it was like to last
minute shop on Christmas Eve. The thing that struck me the most
about it was that people were basically nice although everyone was
fighting for a parking spot and grabbing for the same things off
the shelf. It seemed like a “Merry Christmas” was readily on
everyone’s lips and people were quicker to smile at a stranger than
usual. I suppose that’s the “Christmas spirit” people go on about.
At the last store I went to I found it. It was as if it had been
made for her. I handed the man my credit card and pointed at it
under the glass.

“I want that one,” I’d told
him.

“Of course, sir. Wouldn’t you like to
look more closely at it, or know how much it costs?”

“No, I’ve seen enough and I don’t care
how much it is. That’s the one.”

He wrapped it in a beautiful silver
box and for the first time in my life I was thrilled to buy a
Christmas gift.

It was late evening when I got home. I
was sorely tempted to open the present Robyn left for me, but I
didn’t. Instead I went through the mail on my hall table from the
week and I actually opened the Christmas cards, read them, and put
them out on the mantle. I felt like Scrooge waking up after the
visits from the three ghosts. It had only taken one spirit to open
my eyes and that was Robyn’s.

After a light dinner I went to bed
hoping the night would pass quickly. I woke up at five a.m. like a
boy anxious to see what Santa brought me and couldn’t go back to
sleep. I remembered that I did have a present to open this morning.
Once I saw what was in the package, I was glad I waited. I wouldn’t
have time to think about changing my mind now. I pulled out the
sweater and I laughed out loud. I rarely laughed and even more
rarely when I was alone. Robyn had touched me in so many ways in
the short time that I’d known her. I pulled on the sweater and wore
it proudly through the lobby of my building and out the door. I
could tell the doorman wanted to laugh. I found myself wishing that
he would. The difference between Robyn and everyone else was that
she would laugh at me just like I was a normal person.

When I got to her place and she opened
the door, I literally felt my heart jump up into my throat. She was
standing there in a tattered old robe and slippers with long, curly
tendrils of hair sticking to her face and looking at me with those
sexy blue eyes. All I wanted to do was take her into my arms and
kiss her senseless. She had no idea how beautiful she
was.

After eating a delicious breakfast we
went in to watch this movie that she loved so much. Mr. Pibbs
didn’t snub it as she thought he might. Instead, he climbed up into
my lap and made himself comfortable. I was growing fond of the cat,
but had I a choice; I would have had his beautiful friend in that
spot instead. For the time being, I pet him and settled down into
the couch to watch the movie. I wasn’t a snob like Mr. Pibbs, but
it had been a long time since I’d seen a black and white film. It
was strange and hard for me to get used to at first.

In the beginning of the movie when the
stars were talking to each other about the little boy who fell
through the ice I thought, “Oh great, a silly movie that I’ll have
to pretend to like.” It hurts my manhood a little bit to admit
this, but by the time it ended, Robyn wasn’t the only one with
tears in her eyes. I remembered bits and pieces of it. This was the
one Robyn had quoted in the emails she sent me and the one my
mother always watched on Christmas Eve when I was a boy. She had
been right again; it was a very touching movie, and it touched me
deeper than ever because I was again reminded of my mother and
happier times. Christmas had been a small part of the movie, but
the message had been clear: Be kind to others and your rewards will
be reaped ten-fold.