Page 25 of Oh My Secret Christmas Baby
"Thank you for letting me make the wedding cake. It will be my gift."
"Oh, ah—" Candy stumbles over her words. She may have thought she was only doing the tasting for the party, but I have other plans as well.
"We'll do that, Rosemary." I turn Candy toward the door. "Let's get home." I drop a kiss on top of her head before grabbing the boxes off the counter.
Candy doesn't say anything until we're back inside the gator heading up toward the house.
"I think today has been one of the best days of my life." I glance over at her. I can see unshed tears in her eyes. "This place is really special." Her pink tongue comes out, swiping across her bottom lip. "You're really special."
"I told you I was going to raise that bar."
A full smile takes over her face. "You'd be a great girl dad."
My chest tightens. "I'd try my hardest."
"I know you will," Candy says. "Would," she quickly corrects. I've made some headway, maybe not enough, but I'll keep giving it time. That's all I can do. "We should, ah, talk about things when we get back home. I mean back to your place." She grows quiet again on me. I let it go until I'm pulling up right out front of the main door.
"I'm going to be straight with you, Candy," I tell her when I park. She sucks in a breath. All she's used to is bad news, and I fucking hate that, but again, with time, I can work on that. Show her how different her life will be with me. "I didn't care for any of those corrections you made.”
"Really?" She tilts her head toward me.
"Really." I stare straight in her eyes, wanting her to know how serious I am.
"Mmkay." She gives me a shy nod paired with a docile smile. It makes me want to wrap her up in my arms and take care of her. Shield her from the rest of the world.
"Come on. I want to get you inside, and I'll bring this stuff in."
"I can help."
"You can help by getting your cute ass in the house. Why don't you go up and change for the night? We'll start our Christmas plans unless you want to lie down."
"My feet are a little sore, but I could lie on the sofa," she suggests. "I don't want this day to be over, and I want to havethis talk." Her face takes on that serious expression again. The one that tells me she’s worried.
"Then that's what we'll do," I tell her. “Stay put; I’m coming around.” I hop out of the gator and go around to her side. The snow is melting as it hits the drive, letting me know it’s been fixed.
I walk Candy into the house, and she bursts into laughter when she sees all the shit we got today. Thankfully I had them go ahead and set up the trees into their stands and place them where she had suggested.
“It’s going to take forever to put up all of this,” Candy says through giggles.
“I’m good with that.” The happiness I see in her eyes at my words makes me want to go back to town and buy more Christmas decorations, but this will do for today. I watch her head up the stairs before I go back out and grab the rest of the items, bringing them in.
I head toward the kitchen and send Kindred a thank you text for the groceries she dropped off. She’s going to get one hell of a Christmas bonus this year. I wanted as many healthy foods as I could get to cook with.
I check the time before heading into my office to see who all has been trying to reach me. I see a few messages from my mom, but one stands out. It's from Nick, who I use to run background checks and other security issues. He'll do deep dives on people I might invest with and so on. He's quick and thorough. The subject line is a name I haven't seen in a while.
Maxwell Holmberg
TheMaxstands out loudly.
The Holmberg name is well-known. They have oldish money and run averytight ship. They have one black sheep in the family, and it is Maxwell. He makes one bad deal after another.I don’t understand why they didn’t just trust fund him and be done. That would be a hell of a lot cheaper.
Maxwell also dabbles in insider trading. I’d been the one to learn that when he was trying to impress me at an event years ago. I don’t know if he thought we were in some boys’ club. I’m not a boy.
I hadn’t turned him into the feds. No, I let his father know what his son was up to and a handful of others that I have worked with through the years out of respect. You don’t want to do business with Maxwell because one day when he gets busted, you wouldn’t want your name anywhere near his.
I click the email and see what I already know: the Max Candy has spoken of is in fact him. I’m not surprised in the least that he tried to pull some shady shit with Candy. Nick also implies carefully that Candy could be under Max’s hold, and he’s not sure what the man is up to, but this isn’t a coincidence. My connection to Candy is Maxwell. At least the dumb fuck is good for something.
I wouldn't give a shit if she had been under Max’s control and she's here doing his bidding. I’d find a way to pull her out, but I don’t believe that. Oh, I believe he’s got a plan against me, but if Candy was really his, he never would have let her slip away.
