My Only Christmas Wish Read online

She gave him a sharp glance. “You could say that, but usually I fill in working a register, or fitting some shoes. Department store…uh…stuff.”

  Darcy knew Bennett’s from the ground up. Every summer when she was off from school, she’d worked in a different department, from restocking to theft prevention, maintenance to food service and returns. She’d even learned to operate a forklift on the docks. Her grandfather had demanded she understand how Bennett’s worked no matter how small the details. He demanded she know every man and woman who worked at Bennett’s. She didn’t have to be their friend, but she did have to understand their needs and concerns. Happy employees made for a better store.

  From the day she could walk, Darcy had explored every nook and cranny from the littlest hidey-hole in the subbasements to the air-conditioning vents on the roof. She’d worked valet parking and scraped gum off the parking lot concrete. She’d scrubbed elevators, restrooms and changed out toilet paper. There wasn’t any place or anyone in the store she didn’t know.

  Eli seated himself on one of the two chairs in front of her desk while she struggled to get around her desk to sit on her chair. Maybe she could have opted for a slightly larger office, but so much of the running of the store was done elsewhere. All department managers reported to the general manager who reported to her. And if she needed to talk to someone, she had a tendency to go to their office rather than demand they come to her. She wasn’t into power plays.

  The door burst open and hit the back of Eli’s chair. He fell forward with the momentum, first looking surprised, and then irritated at the interruption.

  “Ms. Darcy. Ms. Darcy.” Clara Shaw, the Santa parade coordinator, burst into the room wringing her hands.

  Clara was a tiny woman with glasses perched at the end of a narrow nose and a snowy-white Gibson Girl bun at the top of her neck with pencils stuck into it for easy access. Christmas was her main focus every year. Since Darcy’s grandfather’s death, Clara had become the sole coordinator of all the seasonal projects. Clara, like Silas, was a fixture at Bennett’s.

  “What’s wrong, Clara?” Darcy asked calmly. For Clara everything that didn’t work properly was a cause for drama. Drama Darcy didn’t have time for today.

  Eli leaped to his feet, his arms outstretched as though he expected Clara to faint dead away.

  Clara held up her hands, tears leaking out of her crinkled blue eyes. “Santa, Santa…he fell down and…and broke his leg,” she wailed. “What are we going to do? He’s been our Santa for…for thirty-five years.” She ended her statement on a dramatic up note that told Darcy she was truly upset. The woman was as high-strung as a poodle on espresso, but she was the best seasonal coordinator in the business.

  Darcy put a hand on the older woman’s shoulder. “Clara, take a breath.” Darcy inhaled, and Clara followed her. She couldn’t stop a little smile when she realized Eli was doing the same thing. Darcy’s father had stolen Clara from Saks Fifth Avenue more than twenty-five years ago, and Saks had been trying to lure her back ever since.

  “What will we do?” Clara asked, brushing tears from her eyes. Her mouth was tight with stress.

  “You’re going to call his son,” Darcy responded calmly. “Daniel retired from the police force this year and he’s been waiting for ten years to be Santa. Tell him this is his big, shining moment.”

  Clara put a hand to her pale cheek. “I knew you would know what to do. You’ve saved Christmas.”

  Eli grinned at Darcy and she found herself grinning back. She could see he understood all about Clara. Clara was…well, Clara. She fussed, worried and fussed some more and in the end everything always turned out much better than expected.

  Clara left, searching through her pockets for her cell phone. Darcy closed the door. “You’ll have to excuse Clara. She gets a little excited this time of year. Now where were we?”

  Eli looked around. “So tell me why you are in this little room and not in a big, ostentatious and pretentious office like your stepfather.”

  “Because I like to think I was raised properly and hopefully words like ostentatious and pretentious will never be used to describe me,” she answered. “I do hope you aren’t planning on occupying his office because it’s the new day care center. It was the perfect size.”

  “I recall reading something about a day care center. I didn’t realize it would be that office.”

  “Did you have plans for it?”

  “Apparently not,” he replied.

  She knew he’d decided on today for the takeover, thinking she would be too preoccupied with the Christmas season to pay attention to him. “Don’t worry, I found a great office for you. Right next to mine and it’s even bigger by all of three feet.”

  “You’re not going to allow me to be ostentatious or pretentious, are you?” Amusement showed in his eyes.

  “You’re the head honcho of the Dollar Bin empire and one would think you know the value of a lean, mean operation.” She studied him in his handmade, pin-striped suit that had “private English tailor” written all over it. He flaunted his money and his power, albeit discreetly, which she could appreciate. “I’m assuming you want to talk to me about the changes you intend to make to Bennett’s. I would be happy to listen to anything you have to suggest in making this store more efficient and profitable without damaging our customer expectations.”

  He said nothing for a moment as though considering her words. “I would like to settle in before I make any drastic changes. Seeing the running of the store on paper and observing it from the outside isn’t quite the same as walking my new territory. My people did have a few suggestions, but I prefer to wait.”

  She wondered what he considered drastic and what did his people think needed to be changed? His new territory! She swallowed hard, exerting every bit of self-control she had not to grab him by his three-thousand-dollar tie and yank it tight. She had to play this cool, the last thing she needed was for him to see her unnerved, which she could see he was trying to do.

  * * *

  “I should think Simon might have objected to your dispossessing him of his office.”

  “I hate to speak ill of the vacationers, but my stepfather didn’t care what I did as long as it improved the bottom line.” She tried to act modestly, but sometimes thinking about her stepfather sent her anger into overdrive.

  His lips quirked, and she watched him fighting not to smile. He found her amusing and she could use that somewhere down the line.

  “My stepfather,” she said, “tended to use the store as a huge ATM machine, and as long as I made sure the ATM kept running, he didn’t care.”

  He nodded and gave her a small, indulgent smile as though talking to a child. “I can understand the idea of the day care, but how do you see it helping the store?”

  “Number one, it cuts down on absenteeism. It’s free to employees’ children up to the age of twelve. We offer after-school programs as well as day care. Customers who want to use the facility pay for the privilege. People who don’t have to shop with their children shop longer and buy more things. The day care center will be a self-sufficient entity that will pay for itself by the end of the Christmas season and possibly show a profit. I thought I was quite clear with your lawyers about the day care center.”

  “I did read the projections on the day care center, I just wanted to hear you say it,” he said, his eyes thoughtful as he studied her.

  She tried not to grind her teeth. He wasn’t going to make things easy.

  Her stomach suddenly growled, surprising her. She glanced at her watch, barely an hour had passed since the store opened and she hadn’t had breakfast yet. “Can I offer you breakfast in the employee cafeteria?”

  * * *

  Eli didn’t want to eat breakfast with her. He wanted to find a way to convince her to sell him the land the store was on, get her packed up and moved
out before she could disarm him again. She was too charming, too smooth, too much all the things he was attracted to in a woman. He didn’t need her distracting him from his mission. He needed her gone and Bennett’s completely in his hands from the ground up.

  Darcy’s late father and Eli’s father had been competitors in a friendly manner for most of their lives. At least until the “thing” happened. That’s what Eli’s father had called it. In the matter of a few months, Eli’s father had gone from a prosperous department-store owner to a bargain-basement store owner.

  Eli was never certain what had happened, since his father refused to tell him anything other than the fact the friendly competition had turned to intense hatred —hatred that had broken Eli’s father. By the time Eli had taken over the failing store two months after his twenty-first birthday, his father had turned into a bitter, broken old man and somehow Darcy’s family was at fault. And somehow, a bit of the anger stayed with Eli. He had loved his father and hated to see him just give up after so many years of struggle.

  As he followed her down the hall, he couldn’t help but admire the way she looked, from her delicate heart-shaped face and coffee-colored skin to the graceful sway of her hips beneath her skirt as she walked. She had wide eyes that reminded him of Bambi. She was curvy in all the right spots, yet tiny, with a fragile air about her that he just knew covered a core of rock-hard titanium. What had seemed like an easy campaign on paper to get her gone was looking to be a lot more difficult. Especially when she made his blood race and his fingers ache to touch her skin. He mentally shook himself. Darcy Bennett was off-limits.

  “Shouldn’t you be out on the floor overseeing the festivities?” he asked.

  She glanced back at him. “Everyone knows their jobs. We’ve been doing this for years.” She had an air of smugness about her that irritated him.

  “Morning, Ms. Darcy,” a man with a pail and mop said as he wiped down the tile floor. He gave her a sincere smile that reminded Eli of that guy in the elevator. Everyone seemed truly happy to see her. His own employees never looked at him that way.

  “Mr. Austin, let me introduce you to John Cook,” Darcy said.

  Eli stared at the man, wondering why she would introduce him to the janitor. “Good morning.”

  “Morning, sir,” Cook said with a deferential tilt of his head. “Welcome to Bennett’s.”

  “John has been the senior maintenance engineer here for fifteen years,” Darcy said in a chatty, casual tone. “We couldn’t keep this place clean and running properly without him.”

  Eli tried not to frown. What did he care who kept the place clean, as long as it was clean?

  They walked another ten feet and someone else stopped her and again Darcy introduced him, this time to Lisette, a beautiful blonde woman with wide-spaced blue eyes and a thin smile.

  “Bonjour, ma petite,” the woman said as she kissed Darcy on one cheek and then the other. She started rattling something off in French and Darcy waited patiently for the woman to take a breath.

  Eli tried to be polite, but Lisette continued to rattle on as though Darcy had nothing more important to do than listen to her. When Darcy replied in French, the blonde woman flounced off with a frown, marring her attractive features.

  “You’ll have to forgive Lisette, she’s a little excited today. She’s our wedding consultant. The governor’s daughter is marrying a country-and-western singer, and they’re coming in today to file their registry and do some wedding planning as well as their Christmas shopping.”

  “I noticed you had a wedding planner on staff,” he said. “She’s an extravagant expense.”

  “You’ve looked at the numbers. Ninety percent of the weddings she arranges use our catering service, register with us, rent their tuxedos, purchase their wedding dresses and bridesmaid dresses, and book the receptions with several banquet rooms that pay us a commission. We even did a theme wedding in the toy department last summer. It was a tremendous success.”

  “What are you trying to do, be all things to all people?” His philosophy was to do one thing and do it well.

  Darcy shrugged slightly. “In this economy you have to diversify. Bennett’s is an institution in Atlanta.”

  “I’ve seen your profit margin. You have diversified too much.”

  “Our profit margin is fine.” Maybe not great, she thought, but nothing to be ashamed of. “And by attempting to make the entire process as painless as possible, we attract a lot of young, upwardly mobile couples who want the perfect wedding, and we give it to them. This is a one-stop wedding operation. And Bennett’s gets a little piece of everything from gift baskets, wedding dresses, tuxedos and food. And a lot of free advertising. Most of our new customers are referrals from other couples who used our services.”

  Eli’s head whirled. This woman was tireless, and he liked that in her. How was he going to contain her? He would have to think about that.

  “When I got married…”

  “You’re married!” He felt a stab of disappointment, though he didn’t know why. What did he care if she was married?

  She waved her hand. “Not anymore. But when I was planning my wedding, I had to work with ten different people from caterers to the dresses to the music director. I thought I’d go mad. By streamlining the process here, we sell peace of mind and the knowledge that the whole wedding will go off without a hitch. And trust me,” she said in a stage whisper, her eyebrows slightly raised, “people are willing to pay for that.”

  Eli couldn’t stop the small thrill of anticipation that coursed through him. Not anymore, she’d said. Did that mean she was divorced? He forced himself away from that volatile thought and said, “If engaged couples want the perfect wedding, you should charge appropriately. From what I can tell, you have a flat fee. When things don’t go right, the amount doesn’t cover the problems.”

  She stopped and turned around to look at him, amazement in her eyes. “You are such a man. You probably want to pick out your tuxedo, the time and the date and just show up.”

  “That’s what I did.”

  “You’re married?”

  “Not anymore,” he said with a wicked grin. “I’m a widower.” The grin faded away as a shadow slipped into his eyes. The memory of Angela’s last days before succumbing to the cancer ravaging her body flashed through his mind.

  “I’m sorry.”

  He heard the sincerity in her voice, but brushed aside her words. She wasn’t being polite; she truly was sorry. “And what about you?”

  “Divorced,” she replied in a regretful tone.

  She pushed open a door and stepped into the cafeteria. Eli paused in surprise. The cafeteria was large and bright with a bank of windows on one side letting in early-morning sunlight. The room was painted in cheerful yellows and greens. A buffet table was set up along one wall with steaming pans of food under bright lights.

  “Where are the vending machines?” he asked in astonishment. This couldn’t be the employee’s cafeteria. He saw a salad bar and a dessert table. A food handler stood at a station setting up a fruit display. “This is your cafeteria?”

  She turned and gazed at him in surprise. “Yes. What did you expect?”

  “Vending machines are much more economical.” He offered vending machines in the break rooms of all his stores along with a bulletin board of restaurants that delivered. “Where’s the burgers? The French fries? The pizza?” He glanced at the buffet table filled with—ugh—what appeared to healthy food.

  “Two years ago, I revamped the company menu, substituting healthy food for the old standbys. Our insurance carrier gave me a great discount on our health coverage if we made some changes in our food. By going to healthier foods, we’ve discovered a number of employees have been losing weight.”

  “Twenty-seven pounds today, Ms. Darcy,” a man called as he sat down at a table wi
th several women.

  Darcy spread her arms. “With a healthier menu our sick days have decreased, a number of our staff have quit smoking and—” she pointed at a large graph covering one wall “—my employees have lost a grand total of 3122 pounds.”

  Admirable, he thought, but at the same time the expense of organic food seemed too high for employees. “Why do you care?”

  “Healthier employees work better, and we decreased the amount they pay for health insurance without sacrificing benefit coverage.”

  “That’s a lot of work to get a discount,” he said, thinking the employees should pay more not less. He provided insurance only to the managerial staff.

  She studied him. “Why do I get the feeling that you are impressed by the fact I’ve saved the store money, but not by the fact that I’m attempting to make my employees’ lives better?”

  “Department stores are notorious for having a high turnover rate. It hardly seems worth the bother.”

  She gave him a look that had a Queen Victoria regalness that made him catch his breath.

  “You already know Bennett’s is very stable. And my caring for them is one of the reasons why.”

  She looked fierce, like a tigress protecting her cubs. For a second he was taken aback by this woman who showed absolutely no fear of him. Mentally, he rubbed his hands together. He was so ready for this fight. After all, he’d come here with the idea of offering her a princely—no, a queenly sum for the property the store sat on. He was determined to own it all, lock, stock and barrel and no society girl who looked as luscious as she did was going to stop him—despite his attraction to her.

  He chastised himself and tried to push the unwanted feelings into the background. He’d had enough of marriage. Not that it had been unhappy, but he’d stayed more out of loyalty, than love, especially after his wife’s cancer diagnosis. And now he was left to raise his daughter on his own—

  inadequately, he believed. His wife had been a good mother, giving up corporate America to stay home once their daughter was born. He hadn’t been able to give his daughter the kind of attention her mother did.