Читать книгу: «Merry Christmas, Daddy»

Chapter One

When the elevator doors opened, Gabriel Cayne thought he had walked into an ad for blue jeans. Bent before him, encased in prewashed, natural-fit jeans was the most perfect derriere he’d ever seen. The woman unsuccessfully tried to gather groceries, as they rolled in all directions down the hall, but Gabe didn’t pay too much attention to her dilemma. For this short span of time he had nothing on his mind but enjoying the view. And what a view. The right kind of curves in all the right places.

His vision of perfection lasted three more seconds, then—after snagging a can of green beans—his quarry straightened, and Gabe saw she was his stuffy, conservative neighbor who lived in the apartment across the hall with her two equally stuffy friends. He almost sighed.

He didn’t care to run into her on a normal day, but on this cold, rainy December day, after receiving the news his grandmother was dying, he’d rather take his chances in the rain again than have to make small talk.

“Good evening,” he mumbled, trying to be polite, anyway.

Pushing her blond hair off her face, she glanced at him. Even in the dim hall light, Gabe could see her eyes were green. Despite their many “encounters” over her contention that he played his stereo too loud, his parties lasted too long and his friends made too much noise, he’d never noticed them before.

“Good evening,” she mumbled, then she bent again, grabbed a jar of mayonnaise and set it along the wall by her door since her shopping bag was so wet it had disinte grated.

Looking down the corridor, Gabe saw her groceries had traveled the whole way to 3C. Though his key was two millimeters away from his lock, the gentleman in him couldn’t leave without helping her. He set his briefcase beside his apartment door, placed his wet trench coat on top of it, then strode down the hall as he said, “I’ll get these.”

But Kassandra wished he wouldn’t. Really wished he wouldn’t. Not on the day she’d discovered one of her roommates had eloped. Not on the day the engine in her car had caught fire. And not a week before her second roommate was transferring to Boston. She wasn’t in the mood to have to be friendly to the six-foot-three playboy from across the hall, no matter how good he looked in his striking black suit….

Or maybe because of how good he looked in his striking black suit. The expensive suit—tailored to fit his perfect body—personified everything she disliked about him. He had a flawless life—an easy life. Since he ran his family’s company, he not only didn’t have to worry about money, but he could do anything he wanted, including have parties until all hours any day of the week. Every time he had a party, Kassandra’s baby, Candy, cried all night.

And when Candy didn’t sleep, neither did Kassandra…and then she’d miss school the next day.

It was no wonder she found it so hard to be nice to him.

“Here you go,” he said, striding toward her, holding an odd assortment of canned spaghetti and soups, most of them with cartoon characters on the labels. Her food choices seemed odd to Gabe. Almost odd enough to tease her about. That is, if she had been someone with whom he actually wanted to speak. He made a move to give her the cans, saw her hands were full and looked at her.

Great! Now she was going to have to let him in. They both stifled a sigh.

Kassandra turned and inserted her key into her lock, and the door gave easily. Standing directly behind her, Gabe noticed that her hair looked almost the color of wheat, and was, in fact, quite pretty. Surprisingly pretty. And sweetsmelling, too.

Deciding that train of thought was ludicrous, Gabe moved away from her hair. He bent down to gather a few more items from the floor. Then he followed Kassandra as she led him through her foyer and into her kitchen.

All the apartments in this reasonably new building were neat as a pin, elegant in a functional sort of way. Gabe had decorated his ultramodern—flashy black lacquer trimmed in gold—from the bedroom to the bath to the kitchen. But Kassandra and her two friends had used a softer touch. Though Gabe couldn’t say he would want to live here, he sort of liked her overstuffed floral sofa and chair and the green-and-white leaf pattern incorporated into the all-white kitchen. He knew she couldn’t afford this apartment on her own and neither could either of her friends. He’d expected it to be an inexpensive nightmare, decorated with everybody’s gaudy taste. Instead, he found they must have compromised….

Which amazed him because Kassandra O’Hara had never tried to compromise with him, only demanded that he tone it down. Twice she’d even called the police on him.

That still rankled, particularly since his family owned the company that owned this building. His parents and grandmother continued to get activity reports from the superintendent. Those reports, brief as they were, had to list any visits by the police. And every time the police came to his apartment, his father called for an explanation. Thirty years old, president of a multinational corporation, and he’d had to answer to his dad for making too much noise.

It was no wonder he found it hard to be nice to her.

“I’ll just gather the rest of your groceries,” he said, and bolted toward the door. He wasn’t sorry he’d stopped to help her, but that didn’t mean he wanted to spend an extra minute in her company if he could avoid doing so. The sooner he got this over with, the sooner he could leave.

A few seconds later, he returned with soup, frozen vegetables and a loaf of bread. “Where do you want these?”

She forced a smile. “Oh, just leave them on the table. I’ll put them away.”

“No, no. I don’t mind helping,” he assured her, also forcing a smile.

But to Kassandra it sounded as if he would rather be wrestling an alligator than helping her, and she didn’t want his help, anyway. She was tired. She had some major problems to think about, and worse, Candy would be here any minute. Kassandra had never tried to hide her eight-monthold daughter from Gabe Cayne, but she’d never gone out of her way to introduce them, either. If Gabe had ever given any thought about Candy, he would put two and two together and figure out Candy was the reason Kassandra always complained about his noise. As president of the company that owned this building, Gabe had the power to alter the building’s general lease to exclude children, and that wouldn’t just hurt Kassandra, it would hurt other people, as well. As long as Candy wasn’t too obvious or too visible, Gabe might never make the connection and no one would have to worry.

“I think I can handle things myself from here,” she said, trying hard not to sound like she was kicking him out, though she was. “So, you can leave now.”

“Gladly,” he said, and pivoted away from her. But just as quickly, he turned to face her again. “You know, you’ve done nothing but harass me for the past several months. You call me if my stereo gets too loud and call the police almost every time I have a party. It was actually very nice of me to be so considerate of you tonight. The least you could do is appreciate it.”

“I appreciate it,” Kassandra said, straining for a courteous tone as she stowed her groceries and wished he’d just leave.

“No, you don’t,” Gabe insisted, and Kassandra’s temper began to sizzle. “You don’t appreciate anything. Sometimes I think you’re nothing but a spoiled brat who has to have everything her way….”

Her temper leaped from sizzling to boiling to bubbling over in about three seconds. “Well, isn’t that the pot calling the kettle black,” she yelped, spinning to face him. “You, Mr. Born-With-a-Silver-Spoon-in-His-Mouth, have no right to call me spoiled or a brat.”

“Then how do you justify kicking me out?”

“I’m tired,” she said honestly. “But more than that I have problems. Big problems I need to think about. My roommates are gone…or going. Janie eloped last night. Sandy’s leaving for Boston next week, which means I’m stuck with six months of a lease I can’t afford. Then my car broke down this morning and had to be towed. Unless I find a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow, I won’t be able to attend this semester of college—can’t afford to,” she said, gathering steam as rehashing her problems fueled her anger. “Which is something you wouldn’t understand because you don’t know the first thing about trouble. You’ve always had everything handed to you!”

“Oh, really, Miss-High-and-Mighty,” he shot back. “Try this on for size. I had to wrangle my family’s company away from an overpossessive board of directors. I still have a few enemies on the staff. And my grandmother is dying. Dying! My favorite person in the world has terminal cancer and she may not live past Christmas.” He didn’t even pause for breath, but kept on speaking as he took slow, measured steps toward her.

“And if all of that isn’t bad enough,” he continued, “I now have to go down to Georgia for Christmas vacation and explain to the woman I love most in the world that I don’t have a fiancée.”

Though his situation was bad—sad—the last of his tirade struck Kassandra as funny, at the very least out of place with everything else he’d said. She didn’t smile, wouldn’t smile over something so tragic, but she couldn’t stop her retort. “What a pity.”

“It is a pity,” Gabe angrily said, pacing away from her. “I’d made up a story that I was engaged to make my grandmother happy for the past few months, but now it’s backfiring. She called me this afternoon and told me that her only wish before she dies is to meet my fiancee.”

If his story hadn’t involved a dying grandmother whom he obviously loved, Kassandra knew she might have gloated over the fact that he’d made his own bed and now he had to lie in it. Instead, Kassandra felt more than a stirring of compassion. She cleared her throat and said, “I’m sorry.” She paused. “Really sorry.”

Gabe was really sorry, too. Not merely sorry for antagonizing her, but also sorry that he’d told her so much. No one, but no one, knew about his made-up fiancée except the people he’d made up the fiancée for—his parents and grandmother. Now Kassandra something-or-another, the grouch from across the hall, knew his deepest, darkest secret.

“I’m sorry, too,” Gabe said, rubbing his hand across the back of his neck. “I shouldn’t have burdened you with my troubles, but it just hit me like a ton of bricks today and I couldn’t seem to stop myself from taking my anger out on you.” He paused and caught her gaze. “In fact, that’s probably why I yelled at you about not appreciating my help. I’m sorry for that, too.”

“That’s okay,” Kassandra said quietly.

A strange, uncomfortable silence settled over them. They’d never had a civil conversation before, and it appeared to Kassandra that neither one of them knew what to do or say next.

“Is there anything I can do to help?” Kassandra finally asked, filling the awkward pause.

Gabe shook his head. “Not unless you’d like to go to Georgia with me and pretend to be my fiancée through the Christmas season.”

The absurdity of the suggestion made Kassandra laugh. They couldn’t get along for the five minutes it took to gather her groceries. There was no way they could spend three weeks together—particularly not as two people in love. She almost laughed again. “No, I don’t think so.”

“Yeah,” Gabe agreed. Evidently following her line of thinking about the absurdity of the situation, he smiled. In fact, he smiled at her.

She found she rather liked it.

He realized it didn’t kill him.

They’d actually made some progress.

Ill at ease, he rubbed his hand across the back of his neck again. “So, your roommates are leaving, huh?”

She nodded, regretting that she’d revealed so much to him. Then she realized it didn’t matter. She didn’t have a fairy godmother. There was no gold at the end of the rainbow. And she wasn’t going to be able to keep this apartment. Period.

“I’ll probably be turning in a request to get out of my lease.”

“That’s too bad,” he said, and Kassandra could tell he genuinely meant it. “This is a good building, a safe building.”

“I know,” she agreed. “That’s why I liked living here. To tell you the truth, I’m not quite sure where I’m going to go….” Kassandra trailed off, watching as a curious expression crossed Gabe’s face.

He looked her up and down, from her feet to her head, then from her head to her feet.

He smiled wickedly, handsomely. “You know, if you think about this, we could be the answer to each other’s problems.”

Kassandra shook her head. “I don’t think so. Unless you’d be willing to let me live here rent free until I get my degree, there’s nothing anyone can do to help me.”

“But I would be willing to let you live here rent free while you get your degree. I’d even be willing to help you with your other expenses, if you would go to Georgia with me for the holidays.”

“Thanks, but no thanks,” Kassandra said, thinking distress had driven him just slightly delirious and he didn’t realize what he was offering.

“Don’t say no so quickly,” he insisted, this time sounding as if he were getting a little desperate. “I’m serious about this. Rent and help with your other expenses. Figure out how much money it would take for you to finish school and give me a number. I don’t care. I really need this favor.”

“You must,” Kassandra agreed, overwhelmed by his generosity. “But whether you’re serious or not doesn’t matter, because I can’t do it.” First, she knew she couldn’t impose on her parents to take care of Candy for the better part of a month. Second, she didn’t want to miss Candy’s first Christmas. Third, she didn’t think Gabe Cayne would appreciate her bringing her daughter on a holiday visit with his family—particularly since she didn’t know if Gabe knew Candy existed.

And, fourth, his proposition was just a little too good to be true. She’d been around long enough to know there had to be a catch. There was no way she’d hungrily jump at this chance and make a fool of herself.

“You have to do it,” Gabe said. “There is no other way out for you.”

“Of course there is,” Kassandra argued casually. “I might have to adjust my schedule and put back graduation, but I’ll get there.”

She set some more things in the refrigerator. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Gabe staring at her, clearly thinking she was crazy. “I know what you’re thinking,” she told him as she busied herself with storing some canned goods. “That I’m nuts. Well, I have a news flash for you. For every bit as much as you might think I’m crazy to turn down such a lucrative offer, I think you’re equally crazy for making it.”

“Why?”

“Because people who don’t have money are always suspicious of people who offer it so freely.” Smiling smugly, she tossed a can into a cupboard. “There’s a catch. I know there is, so I’m not buying into this.”

“What if I told you there was no catch?” he asked.

“There’s always a catch.”

“Not this time.”

His quietly spoken statement stopped her. “You’re kidding? You’d let me live here for eighteen months and you’d shell out enough money to take care of my other expenses?”

“I have money. You need it. And you’d be giving up your holiday. Two-thirds of December and a few days into January. To me it’s worth it.”

Flabbergasted, she shook her head. “You rich people kill me.”

“Why?” he countered. “I’m offering you a simple way out of this and you’re too…too…”

“Stupid?” she inquired, her eyebrows raised questioningly.

“Stubborn,” he corrected her, “to take it. Why?”

“For a million reasons,” she said. “First of all, I don’t know you.”

“Ah, come on. Everybody in this city knows me, at least by reputation—good reputation, I might add. Even you, if you’re honest. In spite of the fact that you think my parties are too loud and too long, you know I’m basically a person of integrity. So, saying you don’t know me is no excuse.”

What he said was true. She did know him by reputation, but more than that she knew his family. Everybody knew his family. They weren’t merely pillars of the community. Until a few years ago when they retired in Georgia, they were the community. The most generous, most benevolent people in town…

Which made his offer even more than tempting. Knowing the family she’d be visiting were such likable, easygoing people made his offer possible. Very possible. Rent and expenses for eighteen months. She could actually quit her job as a waitress. Study full-time. Graduate early.

Suddenly he turned and strode toward the door. “I’ll tell you what, since this was a spur-of-the-moment idea, I’m going to give you some time to think about it. I’m leaving in my family’s private plane Friday afternoon at two, municipal field. If you’re not there, I’ll understand.” He paused and faced her again. “But if you want to come with me, pack for three weeks.”

Kassandra watched the door close behind him, then fell into her chair. She could tell from the way he issued that last order that he expected her to be at that airport at two o’clock on Friday.

He’d made an incredibly generous offer—one she could hardly walk away from—and he knew that.

But, then again, he obviously didn’t know about Candy….