My Only Christmas Wish Read online

  He took a tray and placed a plate on it. He glanced at Darcy. His employees ate off paper. How could she justify real plates? And stainless-steel utensils? Plastic should be good enough. He needed to change this.

  He walked down the buffet line. He stopped at a tray of whole-grain waffles. “Don’t you have any regular waffles?” he asked, realizing all the food would be classified as healthy.

  “Multigrain is good for you,” Darcy said as she reached for a plate of fruit.

  The attendant studied him, one hand on her hip and a formidable look on her face. Like the other attendant behind the counter, she wore a white apron over a white uniform. She’d bound her gray hair into a tight ponytail.

  “How long have you worked here?” he asked.

  “Thirty-five years. You must be the new boss,” she said in a tone that grated on his nerves.

  Taken aback, he almost dropped his whole-grain waffle. “Excuse me.”

  “Mabel,” Darcy intervened, “be polite.”

  “Humph!” She slapped the waffle on his plate and added a couple strips of bacon.

  “Bacon?”

  “It’s turkey bacon,” Mabel snapped. “Please move on, there are people who are working and need to eat. And I intend to feed them.”

  “Be careful,” Darcy warned. “I’ve ended up on the wrong end of her wooden spoon way too many times.”

  “She hit you?” He was appalled.

  “She never hit me, but she did spank me pretty good when I was four.”

  “Don’t these people know who you are?” He’d always thought spanking was a barbaric practice.

  “I don’t think they cared. These people are my village.”

  Confused, he could only stare at her.

  “You know,” Darcy said almost impatiently, “it takes a village to raise a child. And when I get around to having children, I want this—” she spread her hands to encompass the cafeteria “—and the rest of the store to be their village. And feeling the business end of Mabel’s palm didn’t do me any harm, in fact, it probably did a lot of good. And I hope she gets the opportunity to do the same for my children.”

  He finished the line and looked around for a place to sit down. “Where’s the private dining room?”

  “A private dining room!” she said in amazement. “We don’t have one, we’ll have to mingle with the ordinary folks.”

  He gazed down at her, his lips puckered in disapproval.

  “You really think you are lord and master of all you survey, don’t you?” she said in an exasperated tone. “Have fun trying to get Mabel to bow to you, she’ll take her spoon to your back end and she doesn’t care how old you are.”

  “I’ve done my time in the trenches,” he replied, thinking of the one summer he’d interned in the mail room. That had been enough manual labor for him for the rest of his life. “And I’ll let the police handle any attempt to smack me with a spoon.”

  Darcy’s mouth twitched. “Good luck with that. I’m sure her son, who is head of the detective division, will probably have something to say about that. If he lets that fly, then her daughter who is a district attorney will. Mabel spanked them, too.”

  She gestured him to sit at a table in a corner. He sat stunned. He hadn’t bought a department store, he was in the loony bin. What had he gotten himself into? Every step he’d taken to take charge had been derailed by this woman.

  “If you’re thinking you can fire anybody because they aren’t subservient enough for you, think again. If I can beat the unions and keep them out, trust me, I’m not afraid of you.”

  “I should think you’d be pro union.”

  “I let the union come in and allowed them to do their song and dance, but when we started comparing figures, my employees found out they would have to take a two-dollar decrease in pay to support their union dues and our insurance package was better than the minimum standards set by the union. Trust me, when it came to a vote, there were only two yes votes, and one of those was mine. I think the other yes vote was my stepfather.”

  “But,” he said, looking around at the cloth-covered tables, “there are so many things you could do to trim the fat and increase the profit margin.”

  “Number one, you’re talking about your profit margin. And number two, what you call fat, I call flavor.”

  She drizzled maple syrup over her waffles, cut them and dug in. He watched her eat. “But with the economy in the shape it’s in, you…”

  “Listen,” she interrupted, an impatient tone in her voice, “yeah, the economy has made a dent in our sales margin, but we have incredibly loyal customers who know that Bennett’s will do everything possible to stay open, and if that means less profit margin, then that’s how it will be. I will not allow Bennett’s to compromise on quality.”

  “You don’t own Bennett’s anymore.”

  She stopped eating and simply studied him. “I can go to a banker whose wife is a long-time customer of mine and get financing to open another store. And if I do, I can guarantee you will not have only some stiff competition, but every employee in this store will go with me. You’ll have to immediately train 450 people to replace those who will desert you to go with me.”

  Okay, he thought. The gauntlet had been thrown, and this was war. “When I walked in this morning, I saw this delicate creature who I thought I could just run roughshod over, and now I find you have a spine of titanium. That surprised me and nothing surprises me anymore.” He pushed his chair back and stood. “Ms. Bennett, be prepared. I’m unleashing my dogs of war.” The thought excited him. He hadn’t had a good battle with a worthy opponent in a long, long time.

  He stood, turned around and walked away.

  Chapter 2

  Before he’d gone two feet, he bumped into Mabel. She glared at him. He glanced back at Darcy who had an innocent look on her lovely face. His dramatic exit had been ruined.

  Mabel stood with one hand on her ample hip with her wooden spoon shaking in his face. “You better sit down and eat my waffles.”

  For a second he felt five years old and in trouble again. Before he could analyze why he felt a little afraid of this woman, his cell phone rang. The ring tone was Sophia’s favorite tune from How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

  “Daddy,” Sophia said.

  He couldn’t help smiling. “Roo, what’s going on?” Just the sound of his seven-year-old daughter’s voice gave him such joy. Sometimes he looked at her and couldn’t believe she was his daughter. In his own way, he was building her future with the purchase of Bennett’s.

  His daughter sighed, an almost resigned tone. “Ms. Battles just left with her suitcase. She said she was just going to the grocery store, but I don’t think she needs a suitcase for shopping, does she?”

  “Where is Mrs. Emery?” Mrs. Emery was his housekeeper and had worked for him since Angela’s death.

  “She’s gone. You gave her the weekend off.”

  “What about Judy?” Judy was his personal assistant and was the most reliable employee he had.

  “Judy tried to call you, but couldn’t get through. There’s a big accident on the highway and she’s stuck and doesn’t know when she’ll be back.” Roo sounded more than scared, she sounded panicked.

  “I’ll be home in thirty minutes,” he said. “Make sure all the doors are locked and go up to your room and stay there.”

  He took a step forward and Mabel stopped him with a hand planted in the center of his chest. “Wait.”

  “What?” he said.

  “Don’t hang up yet.” She whipped her phone out of her pocket and dialed. “Lamont,” she said, “this is your mama. I need you to send a cruiser to—” she looked at Eli “—what’s your address?”

  “1120 Parkwood.”

  “1120 Parkwood,” Mabel said into the phone
. She listened for a moment, and then explained the problem. “What’s your daughter’s name?”

  “Sophia, but I call her Roo.”

  She repeated that, and then closed the phone. “My son will have a cruiser at your address as soon as possible. You tell her a policeman is coming to sit with her until you get home.”

  He looked at Mabel in total surprise. He passed the info on to his daughter and she sounded relieved. He put the phone in his pocket. “Why are you doing this?”

  “You’re family now. Though the jury is still out, you’re one of us.” She glanced around Eli, then at Darcy who sat poised on the edge of her chair, a slight frown marring her features. “Ms. Darcy will drive you home.”

  “I don’t need anyone to drive me home,” he said, annoyed that an employee had just issued him an order.

  “Ms. Darcy will drive you home,” Mabel said, and turned away as though she’d won the argument.

  Darcy jumped up and grabbed him by the arm. “Come on.” She half dragged him toward her office where he’d left his coat.

  “I can drive myself,” he said.

  She flung open the door to her office, grabbed his coat off her desk and tossed it at him. She pulled her own coat off the tree behind the door and pushed him out the door. “You’re already starting to perspire. I would do this for anyone who worked with me.”

  “Why don’t I find that strange?”

  “I don’t know why. Do you?” She pushed the key for the elevator, and when Silas opened the door, she said, “Parking garage, Silas, and no stops.”

  “Yes, ma’am.” Silas closed the door.

  Eli pulled his coat on. Nerves fluttered through him.

  “Does this happen often?”

  “Roo’s kind of hyper and it’s gotten worse since her mother died,” he said, trying not to sigh. “It’s hard to keep a nanny.”

  “She’s a child,” Darcy said. “How bad can she be?”

  He gave her a sidelong look. “You don’t have children.”

  “I do want them eventually.”

  The wistful look on her face sent a small jolt of electricity through him.

  “Look,” she said, “we’ll bring her here and put her in the day care center. And if that doesn’t work, we’ll put our heads together and come up with something else.”

  The elevator stopped on the ground floor and opened. Silas tipped his hat at Darcy as she stepped out of the elevator and walked rapidly to the doors that led to the parking garage.

  “Why do you care?” Eli asked. He almost had to trot to keep up with her.

  “Why do you care that I care?” she asked, shoving open the door.

  Cool air, with a hint of moisture and a promise of snow, surrounded them. He didn’t like her butting into his business, but he didn’t know how to keep her out. She was like a hurricane with two legs and enough power to knock a fifty-story building down.

  She walked to the nearest car and clicked on her remote. A Mercedes beeped and as he approached he saw that it was a brand-new hybrid. He didn’t even know Mercedes produced a hybrid.

  Darcy’s cell phone chirped. She answered and listened for a moment. Then closed the phone. “That was Mabel,” she said as she sat down and put her key into the ignition. The car purred to life. “The officer arrived and is with your daughter.”

  “Nice car,” Eli said, feeling relieved that Roo was safe, as she backed out of her spot and he saw her name, Ms. Darcy in large letters on the wall of the garage.

  “Thanks. It’s a Christmas present to myself.”

  “Don’t you think it’s in poor taste to spend this amount of money in this economy?”

  One elegant eyebrow rose and for a second he was back in second grade with a teacher who’d used the same “we are not amused” look.

  “I bought this from Hanson’s Mercedes-Benz. Mrs. Hanson and her five daughters are some of my best customers. If we are going to get out of these recessions, we need to spend money and since I have money to spend, I did. Eventually I’m going to get it all back when Mrs. Hanson and her daughters show up today for their annual Christmas shopping spree. And finally, we should all be driving a hybrid.”

  She paused at the stop sign at the exit, and made a right turn when a break in traffic allowed.

  I’m not going to feel guilty about my Escalade. I’m not going to feel guilty about my Escalade… I’m going to feel guilty… Great, now she had him worried about the environment.

  She’d programmed his address into her GPS and as they slid through the downtown traffic the voice-activated directions took her directly to his house.

  Chapter 3

  Darcy parked in the circular drive that curved around the front of a pleasant two-story house with a veranda that completely surrounded it. Lush gardens flanked the house and spreading oak trees shaded the veranda. At the bottom of the stairs leading up a wide front porch sat a police cruiser. Before she’d even put the Mercedes in park, Eli opened the passenger door and was sprinting up the stairs to the front door.

  Darcy turned off the motor and jumped out, racing after him.

  He left the front door open and she stepped into a tidy foyer with marble tile on the floor, solid wood paneling on the walls and a round table in the center with a floral arrangement on top. She stopped in the archway leading to the living room and found herself smiling.

  A little girl, maybe seven years old, sat on a sofa clutching a pink teddy bear to her chest. Her skin was a beautiful golden brown and her eyes were brown with hazel flecks. Next to her sat the officer. He held a storybook on his lap and was reading, his voice changing as he spoke each character’s dialogue. The little girl giggled when his voice rose up and down and she giggled again when he growled. “You sound just like my daddy when he reads to me.”

  “Roo,” Eli said.

  Roo looked up. “Daddy!” she cried, and jumped to her feet. She wore dark blue pants and a light blue T-shirt with a bow on the neckline. She ran to Eli and he swept her up into his arms and kissed her.

  Darcy watched enchanted, surprised at the tenderness in his eyes and careful way he handled her. The bullheaded businessman had been replaced by a caring father and Darcy was impressed even though she didn’t want to be.

  “Sir, I’m Officer Mike,” he said with a grin.

  “Thank you, Officer,” Eli said.

  “My pleasure, sir.” He picked up his cap, smiled at Darcy and headed out the front door.

  “Hello, Roo,” Darcy said.

  Her head appeared around her father’s neck. “Only my daddy calls me Roo. My name is Sophia.”

  Darcy repressed a laugh. “Of course, Sophia. My apologies. I’m Darcy Bennett.”

  Sophia struggled out of her father’s arms, and Eli set her down.

  Darcy stooped to kneel on the floor. “Hello, Sophia. Would you like to come with me and your daddy to…m—the store?” She’d almost said “my store,” but managed to stop herself in time. “We have a nice area for playing and even story time. And Santa is arriving at noon.”

  “Santa!”

  “Yep!”

  “My daddy says there’s no such thing as Santa.” Sophia slanted a glance at Eli from beneath her lashes.

  Darcy rocked back, surprised. This little girl was too young to have her dreams taken away. She fought the desire to glare at Eli. “If that’s the case then why would he come to Bennett’s?”

  “But…”

  Darcy leaned forward. “You know, Sophia, sometimes daddies are a little confused.”

  Eli glared at Darcy, but she shrugged it off.

  “I’ve never gone to work with Daddy before,” Sophia said as she slid her hand into his.

  “I used to go to work with my daddy all the time. Why don’t you get what you need and we’ll b
e on our way.”

  Sophia tugged on her dad’s hand. He leaned down and she whispered in his ear. Then she trotted off.

  When she was gone Eli turned to Darcy. “Don’t you toy with my daughter’s affections,” he growled.

  Darcy pushed herself back up on her feet. “I didn’t know being nice to a seven-year-old was toying with her affections. Your opinion of me is a little skewed. I’ll be waiting in the car.” She turned around and walked out.

  * * *

  With Sophia safely with the day care staff and playing with another little girl around her age, Darcy took Eli on his first official tour of Bennett’s as the new owner.

  Darcy was proud of what her family had done. She took him down to the first floor and started introducing him to the staff who weren’t with customers. Darcy felt a little pang seeing how many people weren’t shopping. Though the doors continued to open and close, only one or two entered instead of the crowds they’d had in the past.

  As they made their way through the store, working their way up floor by floor, Darcy explained each department, who headed it and even introduced him to customers. Every few moments he made a note in a small notebook he held in one hand and Darcy wondered what he was writing down. What was he planning on changing in her store? She took a deep breath to control her racing emotions. Darcy promised herself that when her mother and her gigolo got back from their vacation, she wasn’t going to hit them with the heel of her Manolos.

  She knew things weren’t great at the store, but they were holding on. Darcy was hurt that her mother let her stepfather do this to Darcy. She had wanted to be a fine artist but her passion was greater than her talent. Coming back to run Bennett’s had been the smartest choice she’d ever made and she’d discovered she was terrific at it. She should have known; she’d always loved it here. Every employee was a member of her family.

  And here was Eli planning to change things, to take away the magic. She was going to have to fight and she’d never had to fight for something she loved before.

  At the end of the tour, Eli sat across from her in her office. The notebook was opened on his knee.