Read Online The Billionaire's First Christmas - Contemporary Romance by Holly Rayner - Free Book Online Page A

“What now, boss?”
     
    “Shopping,” I told him. He raised an
eyebrow but he didn’t argue or complain. I led him to a little
jewelry stand we’d passed. The lady working the stand told me that
her pieces were all hand-made by her and her husband. It was all
lovely, sturdy jewelry made out of delicate silver and shaped or
hand etched with unique designs.
     
    “Are you looking for something in
particular?” Aaron asked me.
     
    “Nope, that’s the beauty of shopping
in a place like this. Whatever is here wouldn’t be something you
would have been looking for, because it’s all handmade and
original.”
     
    “So, how do you know what you
want?”
     
    “I look for things that match my
people,” I told him. “For instance, see this necklace? It looks
just like my friend, Heidi. She would love it.” I looked at the
price tag and sat it back down. “Unfortunately, Heidi’s friend
Robyn is on a budget, maybe next year.”
     
    We left that booth and went to the
next one. It was all decorations for Christmas. “So here, you’re
not looking for anything in particular either?” Aaron asked
me.
     
    “Well here, I kind of am,” I told him.
“I collect Santa Claus ornaments for my tree. I buy one or two
every year, but I have so many now I have to really look for unique
ones.”
     
    “Hmm, Santa Claus, huh?”
     
    “You’re not a believer?” I
asked.
     
    He gave me a half smile and said, “Not
since I was about eight.”
     
    “That’s too bad,” I told him. “What do
you like to put on your tree?”
     
    He shrugged. Then he said, “I haven’t
had a Christmas tree in my own home ever.”
     
    I thought that was so sad. “Why? You
really dislike Christmas that much?”
     
    “I really do,” he said. I wondered
what had happened to him. It had to be something traumatic to make
him hate Christmas so badly that he left town because of it every
year. I didn’t want to ask him. I thought that he’d share it if he
felt comfortable doing so.
     
    “What about your family? Do they
celebrate Christmas?” I asked.
     
    As I watched his face change, I knew
that question too had gone one step too far. His eyes seemed to
cloud up; the light that had briefly come into them again while we
were having lunch was gone.
     
    “No,” he said. “They
don’t.”
    I let it go at that and changed the subject back to my own tree.
Picking up an old-fashioned looking Santa ornament I said, “What do
you think of this one?”
     
    He barely glanced at it before saying,
“It’s fine.” I’d lost him again. I went ahead and bought the
ornament and we moved on. Between that booth and the next one was
another alley that stretched out lengthwise and was similar to a
midway at the fair.
     
    “Let’s play a game,” I
said.
     
    He pulled his brows together in the
middle and said, “A game?”
     
    “Yes, you can win me a stuffed
animal,” I said. “I’ll pay for the game of course.”
     
    He didn’t look thrilled, but he
followed me. I sought out a game I remembered from last year where
the prizes were all in the form of some sort of Santa Claus. Aaron
would have to shoot a gun filled with water into a clown’s mouth
and make his balloon burst before the others. He looked at the
three boys less than fourteen year’s old sitting on the benches and
then back at me.
     
    “You want me to compete against three
adolescents for a Santa Claus doll?”
     
    “Sure, why not?” I said.
     
    “I can buy you one if you want it that
badly.”
     
    “No, I don’t want a bought one,” I
told him. “It will mean more that you won it for me.”
     
    He shook his head and smiled, “What is
your obsession with Santa Claus?” he asked me.
     
    “I’m not obsessed,” I told
him.
     
    “Okay, not obsessed but you seem
pretty fond of him. What’s the deal?”
     
    “Tell you what, you sit down here and
win me one of these fine Santa’s and I’ll tell you why I love him
so much.”
     
    He raised an eyebrow