Total pages in book: 41
Estimated words: 38786 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 194(@200wpm)___ 155(@250wpm)___ 129(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 38786 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 194(@200wpm)___ 155(@250wpm)___ 129(@300wpm)
When I stop near the customer inquiries station to prick my ears like my father did thirty-one years ago in another country far from here, I overhear the pleas of a desperate man. “I can’t wait until tomorrow. I have to go to Lastres tonight. Tomorrow will be too late.”
“I’m sorry, Sir. The last flight to Lastres left this morning.” The clicks of a keyboard are the only noises heard since I’m too shocked by the coincidence not to eavesdrop. “If you’re willing to take a connecting flight, I could get you on a plane that leaves in an hour—”
“I’ll take anything as long as it arrives in Lastres by Christmas Day.”
“I’m sorry, the connecting flight isn’t until tomorrow afternoon. You’ll spend Christmas in Doha Airport.”
The same children from earlier take up this traveler’s campaign as well. “You’re not listening to what he’s saying. By then, it’ll be too late. He’ll no longer hear Santa’s calls.”
The airline assistant peers down her nose at them. “Santa doesn’t exis—”
“Don’t you dare,” says a voice so clear his identity can no longer be hidden.
“Zane?”
Santa’s hat slips from my grip when the man begging for a flight to my mother’s hometown spins to face me. He was supposed to depart this airport a week ago. He’s meant to be on the other side of the world, so why is he still here, seeking a ticket to my mother’s country?
I give Zane’s belief that Santa is stalking him more thought when the children at his side snatch up Santa’s hat from in front of me before they race to a hatless Santa’s at the entrance to the departure gates.
After securing his hat back on his head, Santa’s eyes twinkle with mischief as he bounces them between Zane and me. He watches us until I’m on the verge of booking a psych evaluation before he taps his nose and then disappears into a sea of charity Santas.
“I… Is he…No…” I shut my mouth before I say something that will see me irreparably branded as brainless as a little old lady adds to my assumption.
“I think it’s a sign, dear.” She nudges her head to the mistletoe I swear wasn’t above my head only a second ago before giving me a gentle shove toward Zane. “A girl who refuses to be kissed under the mistletoe will still be single next Christmas.”
“That’s okay. I’m fine with that. There’s nothing wrong with being single.”
“There isn’t,” agrees the man I’d rather oppose my theory than harmonize it. Zane waits for our eyes to lock and hold before he adds, “But how will I ever learn that lifelong love exists if I don’t get the chance to unwrap the best present Santa has ever brought me?” He already has my heart over the line, but he secures my head too when he adds to the saying my father used on my mother on this day thirty-one years ago. “December is a month full of blessings, but if my life is blessed with a woman like you, Kelsey, it’ll feel like Christmas every day of the year.”
Epilogue
KELSEY
Almost a year later…
As my phone unexpectedly buzzes, I startle to within an inch of my life. It isn’t the ‘ho, ho, ho’ ringtone I set since it is only two weeks from Christmas causing my new coronary. It is Zane’s deliriously handsome face popping up on a monitor in front of me.
He’s being interviewed about his new book adeptly titled Single All The Way, and the charity organization now funded solely by its sales.
His hair is longer than when we first met, but his outfit of choice remains the same. Dark jeans, a white undershirt, and his Christmas red button-up dress shirt with its sleeves rolled to the elbows.
The first handful of questions Zane faces are the standard questions any author is asked during a book tour, but they delve a little deeper into the nitty gritty when a familiar voice whispers, “Tell her it was Santa who led you to your ultimate calling. I’m sure she’ll believe you.”
Zane’s cheeks glow before he follows Casey’s instruction to the T. “It was Santa who led me to my ultimate calling.”
“Santa… right?” stammers out the blonde interviewing him. “And how did that happen?”
I can’t hold back the giggle that erupts from my throat when Zane answers, “He was kind of stalking me, so I returned the favor and ended up at the airport, seeking a ticket to a foreign country.”
The interviewer’s next question exposes she’s done her research. “Was that where you ran into Kelsey again?”
Zane nods before he licks his suddenly dry lips.
His mouth dries for an entirely different reason than the steamy kiss we shared in front of thousands of Christmas travelers when she asks, “She was one of your previous… clients, right?”
Zane hears her final word in the same manner as me. She’s referring to him as if he was an escort. “No. Kelsey was never a client of mine,” he replies, his tone stern like when he testified for the prosecution indicting Peter for multiple counts of embezzlement.