Read Online The Mistletoe Promise by Richard Paul Evans - Free Book Online

“That’s totally disrespectful.”
    “Not to you,” he said.
    “And thank you again for the mirror. It’s beautiful. As is the thought behind it.”
    “Did I impress you with the cleaning tips?”
    “I was very impressed.”
    He smiled. “I thought you would be. So are you ready to order?”
    “No.” I looked through the menu. “What do you recommend?”
    “The tomato soup is always good,” he said.
    “Why don’t you just order for me?”
    “I’d be happy to. Something to drink?”
    “I’d like a glass of wine.”
    “Okay,” he said. He ordered a glass of Chianti for me, a cranberry juice for himself, and our meal. That was the first time I realized that I had never seen him drink. I wondered if he did.
    As the waiter walked away I asked, “So what’s next on our agenda?”
    “It’s your call. You were going to come up with something for our weekend.”
    “I have an idea,” I said. “There’s something I’ve always wanted to do.”
    “Name it,” he said.
    “Do you sing?”
    “In the shower.”
    I nodded slowly. “That will do.”

CHAPTER
    Ten
    The Golden Rule is a two-edged sword. If some of us treated others as we treat ourselves, we would be jailed.
    Elise Dutton’s Diary

I had always looked forward to Fridays, but now even the weekdays were better. The whole office anticipated Nicholas’s daily gifts. The FedEx man delivered my Friday gift around eleven.
    “What is it?” Cathy asked as I opened the box.
    “It’s New York cheesecake. It’s really from New York.”
    Cathy read the label. “S&S cheesecake from New York. Zagat rated number one.”
    “I’ll get some plates,” I said.
    “Really?” Cathy said. “You’re going to share?”
    “If I ate that much cheesecake by myself, I would look like our Christmas tree.”
    “Bless you, child,” Cathy said.
    Mark walked out of his office. “Did someone say cheesecake?”
    “Elise is sharing the cheesecake her friend sent her.”
    He walked over and looked at the box. “S&S cheesecake,” he said. “I’ve heard of that. It’s the best. And pricey. They sell it by the ounce. Like gold.”
    I cut the cheesecake up with a plastic knife, and work stopped while everyone ate. Mark closed his eyes as hesavored a bite. “Incredible,” he said. “If you don’t marry that guy, I will.”
    “Your wife might have something to say about that,” Cathy said.
    “It doesn’t matter,” Zoey said. “I’ve got first dibs.”

    Nicholas and I didn’t have lunch that day because he was in court, but that evening he picked me up at my apartment at six.
    “How was your day?” I asked, as we walked to his car.
    “Good. We won.”
    “Do you always win?”
    “No. But more than I lose.” He opened the car door for me then walked around and got in. “How was your day?”
    “Good,” I said. “The cheesecake was a hit.”
    “It doesn’t get better than S&S.”
    “How did you know about them?”
    “I’m not as provincial as you might think.”
    “Believe me, I’ve never thought of you as provincial. You’re the most cosmopolitan person I know.”
    “Well, I’m definitely not that either. I just love cheesecake, and I discovered S&S from a client who sent me one last Christmas. That’s one of the advantages of having rich clients.”
    The holiday traffic was heavy as we made our way downtown to Abravanel Hall, Salt Lake City’s main concert hall and home to the Utah Symphony. The hall was designedby the same acoustical consultant who had designed the Avery Fisher Hall renovation in New York and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. In the gold-leafed lobby was a thirty-foot-tall red blown-glass sculpture designed by renowned glass artist Dale Chihuly.
    The event I had chosen for us was a Messiah sing-in with the Utah Symphony, which basically meant that we were part of a three-thousand-member choir. To make sure we sounded good, the singing organizers brought in a few ringers, peppering the audience with about a