Kissing Secret Santa: Christmas Sisters, #1

By Emily Josephine

Snuggle up in front of a blazing fire, your favorite quilt, and a piping mug of hot chocolate as you delve into this sweet, holiday romance.

 

     On the other hand, forget the hot chocolate, or it will end up coming out your nose from all the chuckling and laughing you're going to do.

Kylie Dennis, one of the top sales associates for the department store where she works, has given up on men. Not a one can live up to her standards. And they're not even that high: be an interesting, kind person whose main goal in talking to her is to get her into bed with him.

     When the H.R. department asks her to work in appliances for a couple of weeks, until Christmas, she seethes at the inconvenience. She's always worked in women's apparel, and knows nothing about appliances. But then, she begins to see the manager of appliances, Michael, in a different light. He's kind, fun to be around in a quiet way, and handsome.

     She lets her feelings for him grow.

     Until the day she catches him kissing one of the temporary sales associates.

     Oh, how she would love to drop him from her life. Except for two things. She needs to keep working in appliances in order to earn more commissions due to a family crisis.

     The other problem? She drew Michael's name during the annual staff Secret Santa meeting.

     Michael Harrison knows that a woman like Kylie Dennis is way above his pay grade. Especially since he has to walk with a cane, thanks to an old accident. But when he draws her name to be her Secret Santa, he wonders if giving her the right kinds of gifts might be a way to subtly woo her.

     Problem is, Kylie alternates between warm and cold in her treatment of him. And like a typical man, he has no idea what he's done to deserve it.

***********

     This clean and wholesome holiday romance novel is the first of six novels in Emily Josephine's "Christmas Sisters" series. Although it's not strictly a rom-com, the wild misunderstandings between Kylie and Michael, helped along with the intrusion of the zany Luna Bell, the temporary associate in question, will have you giggling and tittering, sometimes outright laughing. Get ready for heartwarming moments as well, that will have you letting out holiday cheer-filled sighs of satisfaction.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Emily Josephine
• Release date: Sep 1, 2022
• ISBN: 9798215490006

Book preview

Chapter One.

December 1

Michael Harrison stopped short of the half-open breakroom door. Someone else was inside, and whoever it was, was sniffling.

Crying? Of course, it was cold and flu season. Could’ve been stuff in the nose. He stepped a little closer to the door and heard a soft sound that was a cross between a moan and a sigh.

Crying. Definitely crying. Likely as not one of the female clerks or salespeople. Even more likely, a situation he didn’t want to intrude upon. Mainly because the last time he ran across a crying co-worker, she ended up throwing a half-eaten hamburger at him and told him that men were scum and that if he so much as blinked at her ever again, she was going to throw a sexual harassment suit against him.

All that for asking her if she was okay.

He didn’t think he’d experienced a more exhilarating day than the one when he found out she’d quit and moved to the other side of the country.

Deciding not to take any chances, Michael turned to leave. But a clatter from inside the breakroom had him spinning around and moving through the door as fast as his lame right leg and cane would allow. He glanced around to see what had happened, relieved when he noticed a plastic plate and metal fork on the floor.

Is everything okay? he asked the woman at the table before he could think better of it, then prepared to duck. The redhead was seated in the chair closest to the fallen items, and in one smooth, swift move could snatch one of them up and turn it into an anti-Michael missile.

She cast her emerald gaze up toward him. He recognized her, had a passing acquaintance with her. Kylie. One of the floor salespeople for the women’s apparel department, and, as far as he was concerned, the most beautiful woman of all those who worked for Reynolds department store at the Pine Grove Mall. With auburn hair cut just above her shoulders in a simple layered style and a subtle sprinkling of freckles over her nose, her looks were a blend of elegance and innocence.

Oh. Hi. She did a quick swipe on the phone in front of her before looking back at him. Michael, right?

A good sign. No imminent hurling objects or lawsuit threats. Probably.

His dark blue eyes dipped down toward his name badge. Her laugh sounded forced. I didn’t even look at it, I promise.

He grinned. I’ll bet you say that to all the first-line supervisors, he said.

Her brow crinkled. You don’t work in HR? she asked.

Guess she didn’t remember everything about him. But who could blame her? The store had over a hundred employees, and though the benefits were good, turnover still happened as college students earned their degrees and found jobs in their chosen careers, and many of the best-performing older employees often went on to bigger and better things.

He hitched a thumb toward the door, saying, Supervisor in major appliances.

Sorry, she said with a sheepish smile. And, yes, everything’s okay. She began to bend over to pick up the fallen items.

He stepped over to where they lay. Allow me.

They both reached down toward the plate at the same time, and their hands brushed. She giggled, pulling her hand back, and went for the fork instead.

When both the rogue kitchen items were back on the table, he began, So, I thought I... Then he realized that what he thought he’d heard wasn’t any of his business. And that finishing the question might cause the currently peaceful situation on its head.

Kylie lifted a brow in question.

He suddenly felt like his necktie was choking him. He cleared his throat. Um, I thought, he stammered, since I was here, I’d remind you about the staff meeting this afternoon.

Thanks, she said slowly. You know my own supervisor sent a reminder text this morning.

Oh, yeah. Sure. Heat crept up his neck. He decided he should leave before he made a complete fool of himself. Well, I guess...I just wanted to grab my yogurt from the fridge.

His mission accomplished, he was out of the breakroom and hobbling down the corridor to his office, the whole time resisting the temptation to bang his head against the wall.

KYLIE DENNIS WATCHED Michael’s disappearing form. For a guy who used a cane, he could move pretty quickly. Had she made him nervous? Then the feeling was mutual. Despite the bad news she’d just received, she couldn’t help her heart skittering when she’d looked up into his handsome face. She hadn’t run into Michael much during the several years she’d worked at this store. But the little she’d interacted with him, she’d come to know him as quiet, considerate, and kind. Combined with his good looks, the perfect man.

The thought, no matter that it was a far-reaching fantasy, made her smile. A smile that evaporated in the next second as she remembered the text her mother had sent. Good thing she’d already finished eating when she read it, or her leftovers would’ve ended up on the floor along with the plate when she’d made an angry gesture and accidentally pushed the dish off the table. 

With a sigh, she dropped her phone into her purse, tucked the dirty dishes into the plastic shopping bag, and stood up. She still had ten minutes left on her break, but didn’t want to chance another person coming in if she lost it again.

By the end of her shift, she was wondering if she should have just gone home early, claiming an illness, for all the sales she’d made.

A total of two.

That would have been bad for any afternoon any other time of the year. Considering it was the beginning of December, it was pathetic. Sure, many people were shopping online these days. But there were still plenty of women who loved in-person browsing, or who wanted to be able to try on clothes before buying them, and Reynolds continued to be one of the few brick-and-mortar department stores that was keeping its head above water.

In other words, she’d had plenty of opportunity to make some good commissions this afternoon. But she’d been totally off her game.

The last thing she wanted to do was attend the staff meeting, but it was the annual Secret Santa kick-off. It was always fun, surprising people with little gifts for a few weeks, then having the big reveal at the staff Christmas party on the twenty-third. It was the biggest team-building event of the year at the store, so big that even a couple of the Jews and sworn atheists who worked there participated.

Kylie slunk into the large storeroom that was used for all-department staff meetings. The sound of voices echoing off the high ceiling and metal chairs scraping against the floor aggravated the burgeoning headache inside her temples. She squeezed her eyes closed for a moment, then found a seat next to the assistant HR person, a silvery-headed sixty-something woman named Carol.

Kylie glanced down at the older woman’s name badge. Yep. She’d already changed out the standard silver-colored badge with a factory-printed name for her large, green wreath pin with the words Christmas Carol emblazoned around it in red. Seeing it made a little of the day’s stress shrivel away.

It’s that time of year, the plump woman told her with a wink.

The meeting began. It was short and to the point, with the district manager giving the Secret Santa rules: no more than three gifts per week, each gift under five dollars, the largest gift to be given at the staff party, which was to cost between twenty and thirty dollars.

Since Kylie was toward the back of the room, she was one of the last to pull a name. When she did, and read the name on the paper, her eyebrows shot up. She wasn’t one for believing in coincidences.

She folded the paper and took a surreptitious glance around. Michael had to be here somewhere. But there were too many people, too many rows of chairs. Since he was one of the supers, he was probably sitting toward the front.

She waited until she was in the car again to take a better look at the paper. His favorite color was beige. She snorted. Typical man. Favorite music style, jazz. Favorite treat, kale chips.

She laughed out loud. What man –

Never mind. Anyway, she had witnessed him taking a yogurt from the breakroom refrigerator. A plant-based one, on top of that. Maybe he’d gotten involved with a lady who was a health nut.

She continued down the page to Favorite movie. Any that has any reference to the Escape song, he’d written. Well, sometimes employees wrote down crazy things to let their Secret Santa know that they didn’t care what gifts they received, that they’d just as soon be surprised. That had to be what Michael had done.

But...the Escape song? That sounded pretty specific. A quick search on her phone brought up a bunch of results for Escape (The Piña Colada Song).

Oh! That old one, about liking piña coladas and walks in the...

Shrek. He had to be talking about the movie Shrek. Not that she watched every single movie that came out, but it was the only one that popped into her head in reference to that song.

Okay, if it was Shrek that Michael wanted, Shrek he would get.

She loved it when her Secret Santa gig was easy.

Especially this year.

When she’d just found out that her parents’ farm was going into foreclosure in a month.

Chapter Two.

Michael leaned his cane against the wall next to the sofa, then sank down into his recliner with a groan. He bent over to rub his aching knee. Since the accident almost seventeen years ago, he hadn’t needed the meteorologists to tell him when the weather was about to change.

But right now, the pain didn’t just result from the cold front that was on its way, bringing rain for the next couple of days. The deep ache was equally from making his knee work more than usual. He’d been on his feet more than usual, and he hadn’t helped things with the way he practically ran away from Kylie Dennis.

A smile curved his lips. He only knew her last name because he’d picked her name during the staff meeting this afternoon. He also knew her favorite color, favorite music, favorite food, and several other favorites. If he ever worked up the courage to ask her out, he’d consider it their second date since the Secret Santa detail paper revealed everything a couple usually talks about on their first.

He shook his head with a self-deprecating laugh. Right. As if a woman like her would give a guy like him a second glance. He’d be surprised if a woman that classy and attractive didn’t already have a boyfriend. If she didn’t, she sure wouldn’t pick a crippled dude out of the large pool available to her. That was beside the fact that he didn’t have a high-class career. His salary covered his basic living expenses and a little more, but he’d learned by hard experience that most women of Kylie Dennis’s caliber wouldn’t settle for anything less than a six-figure take-home pay from their significant other.

His rumbling stomach distracted him from his depressing thoughts and pulled him to his feet. He limped over to the small kitchen a few feet away. Pulling open the freezer drawer at the top of the refrigerator, he removed one of three remaining frozen dinners. He really needed to learn to cook. It would save him some money.

The enchiladas and rice heated, he plopped the container down onto a hot pad on the small dining table just outside the kitchen. Normally, this was one of his favorite meals. Tonight, the cheese tasted like glue and the tortilla like cardboard.

He was tired of eating alone. Tired of being alone. He stared at the empty spot across from him. As he did, a vision of a beautiful, red-haired woman smiling at him floated into the space.

In his dreams. After the New Year, he really needed to try one of those online dating sites. He’d like to be married before he turned forty in three years.

In the meantime, he was going to be the best Secret Santa Kylie Dennis had ever had.

He forked up some rice, stuck it in his mouth, and began to think.

WHY DIDN’T YOU ANSWER my text? Carla demanded.

Kylie had just walked in the door of the apartment that her adopted sister and her next-oldest biological sister, Leila, shared.

Kylie gave her blond sister a look. You mean, the text you sent thirty seconds ago? she said. Asking me if Mom had sent me a text?

Carla threw her right arm into the air. So I’m impatient. You could at least get one of those earpieces so you could talk on the phone while you’re driving, she retorted.

Kylie dropped her purse onto the console table by the door. You’re lucky I even have a cell phone, she countered.

You’re so Amish.

You’re so space-age.

They did a hip-bump. But you love me anyway, they said in unison.

Kylie nestled her head against Carla’s shoulder. Always and forever. She pulled away and headed for the bathroom.

Seriously, what are we going to do? Carla called through the closed door.

Let me pee! Kylie called back. Sometimes, she wondered that they’d been able to live together for so long without one of them strangling the other. Four years, three months, one week, and two days.

Not that she was counting.

When she got out of the bathroom, she spent an entire two minutes convincing Carla that they should wait until Leila got home before they talked about their parents’ difficulty. Carla had texted all five of her sisters, and as Kylie began to prepare dinner, she read off the various responses.

Nothing from Becky, Carla concluded as Kylie raised the chef knife and pointed it toward the potatoes in a silent command-request.

With a sigh, Carla set down her phone and took the knife. She cut the first potato in half, and her phone buzzed.

I’ll check it, Kylie said. The text was from Leila to let them know she’d be fifteen minutes later than usual.

She was actually twenty-three minutes later than usual. She practically fell through the door, her long, brunette hair looking like it had gone through a hurricane, her eyes wide, her lungs heaving. Oh, guys, I stopped by the farm, she said as her two older sisters rushed to meet her. Mom didn’t tell us the half of it.

She reached out and grasped one of each of her sisters’ arms, exclaiming, They won’t have any money to help Becky with her tuition next semester!

Chapter Three.

December 2.

Michael eased onto one of