Blurb
Ethan St. James is the Scrooge of my Life...
Most people have heard of love at first sight, but what I experienced with Ethan St. James was the opposite. He’s the brother of my best friend Taytum’s boyfriend and an absolute horror. I can’t believe I have to spend the holiday season with him.
The problem is, he thinks my best friend is an opportunist using his brother because he’s rich. And now, due to a misunderstanding, he thinks I’m trying to snag his other brother. Like, I need to trap someone into a relationship with me. There’s no planet in the galaxy where I would feel desperate enough to date a St. James.
But when Ethan approaches me with an offer to stop my best friend from leaving and traveling across the world, I stop and listen. He wants us to pretend to get engaged to show his brother and Taytum that they are moving too fast. I don’t think it’s the best plan ever, but I’m not ready to lose her from my life. Especially considering she hasn’t had the best taste in men in the past.
So now, here we are. Pretending we’ve fallen in love at first sight. I’m not sure we’re convincing anyone, but the Christmas season seems to make everyone believe in romance.
Chapter 1
Three children dressed in bright-colored thick wool coats stood on the street in front of me, singing “Silent Night.” Their voices were quite beautiful as they sang their hearts out on the cold street. Reaching into my wallet, I pulled five dollars out of my purse and dropped it into their bucket.
"Thank you, ma'am."
"Thank you. Have a Merry Christmas." I nodded at the girl who had spoken. The other two continued singing, and I soon realized that the main girl had been the harmony in the group.
"You too," the girl with the snowman headband beamed and then started singing again.
"Happy Hanukkah," the girl next to her said.
"Happy Kwanzaa," the one next to her said. And we all laughed. It really was the holiday season, my favorite time of the year.
"Merry Christmas. Happy Hanukkah and Happy Kwanzaa to you, too." I continued on my way to Penn Station. I loved living in New York City. I loved being around so many diverse cultures and having the opportunity to try so many different restaurants full of delicious foods. I could have Ethiopian one night and Chinese another; Mexican on the weekend, and if I was just feeling absolutely homesick, I'd grab a slice of Chicago-style pizza.
“I hope Little Kimble has some good food,” I mumbled before pulling my phone out of my handbag. I checked my phone screen as I made my way into the train station. I had no more text messages from my best friend Taytum, and I was worried about her. Taytum had gone to Little Kimble, hoping to surprise her boyfriend, Donovan. She thought he'd be exhilarated and excited that she wanted to join him and his family for Christmas. Unfortunately, it hadn't worked out that way.
He'd been cheating on her, and to her surprise, the journey ended up with her being dumped. It hadn't surprised me, though. I knew he was a jackass from the first moment I met him because he'd asked if I wanted to go to the bathroom and suck him off for a hundred dollars. I’d tried to tell Taytum, but she thought he was joking and testing me as a friend. She was naïve like that. She always wanted to see the best in everyone, especially the men she dated. Unfortunately for her, every last guy she dated was an asshole.
However, even though Taytum had bad taste in men, she just wanted to be in love, so she never listened when I told her I could tell right away that she was dating an asshole. I still loved her and would always support her, but I didn’t want her to have another bad relationship. That was why I was now on my way to Little Kimble to save her from a potentially horrific new relationship. When she got dumped by Donovan, she pretended to be a girl named Annie, and took a nanny position with this rich family, St James's.
Everything had gone smoothly the first couple of days until one of the brothers arrived and had blown her cover. He’d recognized her from the train and knew she wasn’t Annie. She’d fallen out with Noah, the eldest brother, but now supposedly, he’d forgiven her, and they were in love. I wasn’t sure what to think about the situation. It all seemed way too fast for me. So I’d decided to go to Little Kimble to check on things myself. I’d even taken off work even though my job didn’t know that yet.
I slipped out my phone and quickly pulled up my work number. It rang a couple of times, and then the receptionist, Candace, answered the phone.
“Thank you for calling Clean Harbors Accounting services. How may I help you? This is Candace speaking.”
“Hey, Candace, it’s me, Danielle.”
“Hey, Electra,” she said, giggling.
“I’m not going by Electra anymore. It didn’t quite fit me.”
“I was wondering why you said Danielle again,” she said in an absentminded voice. “What’s going on? How come I haven’t seen you this morning?”
“I’m at the train station.”
“Oh? Going somewhere?”
“Yeah. I’m headed to Little Kimble in Connecticut.”
“Connecticut?” She sounded surprised. “Why are you going to Connecticut?”
“Do you remember my best friend, Taytum?”
“Yeah. She’s the girl with the long dark hair, right?”
“Yeah, well, she’s kind of got a job there now, and I’m not sure it’s working out, and she might kind of need me to rescue her.” I knew I sounded vague, but I didn’t really want to get into the entire story with her.
“Oh gee.” Candace sounded worried. “I hope she’s okay.”
“Me, too. Well, anyway, I was just calling to say I won’t be in to work for the rest of the week.”
“Oh, okay. What do you want me to tell the boss?”
“Can you just say an emergency came up?”
“Sure thing. Will you be back next week?”
“I don’t know. Depends on if Taytum is okay and if I need to take her on a de-stressing trip. Her boyfriend dumped her, and she just lost her job. And well, you know how it goes.”
“You’re such a good friend, Danielle.” I could hear the sounds of clacking as she typed something.
“Oh, thanks, Candace, but I should go now. I want to try to catch the next train, and I think I only have fifteen minutes to buy the ticket and get to the platform.”
“Okay, sounds good. Tell Taytum the way to get over one man is to get under another one.”
I started laughing at her comment. “I think that might be the problem.” I hung up quickly before she could ask me what I meant and made my way to the ticket kiosks so I could get a ticket to Little Kimble. I was excited to see these St. James brothers. The way she talked, they were the younger and better looking Baldwin brothers of Connecticut. Super hot and super rich. And even if I was only there for one night, I needed to see some eye candy and possibly get my flirt on.