Page 7 of The Santa Swap

Luke shrugged at Thomas. “It doesn’t matter now. I don’t think things would have gone anywhere real.” How could they when Luke had been lying to her from the minute they met?

Thomas held the door open for Luke. “If you change your mind, you know where to find me.” He gave Luke an exaggerated wink. “I’ve been called a gossip recently and I do have skills to help in trying to track people down.”

Luke grinned. “Hey, if the shoe fits. . .” He headed to his car, ready to feel the purr of the engine beneath him. Driving the Ferrari to work was one of the perks of living in the penthouse. He was just far enough away to consider it a commute, although a ten-minute Uber drive would be just as fast.

Tara was waiting for him when he entered the office, her dark hair thrown into a messy bun. People often overlooked her because of her disheveled appearance, failing to realize she was actually one of the vice presidents of the company. She looked at him over the top of her glasses and handed him a stack of file folders. “Sorry they aren’t sorted for the meeting. I had a bit of a morning.”

Luke nodded. Tara had been working at the office for as long as he had. Her rough mornings and wild hair almost inevitably had something to do with her children. “Which twin was it today?”

She pushed her glasses up her button nose and smiled. “Braxton. He’s on a tear this week.”

The two-year old twins were one of the reasons Luke knew he was nowhere near ready to get married. He had watched Tara go from a woman who never had so much as a hair out of place to someone who juggled a full-time job and full-time parenting. He didn’t know how she did it.

“I’ll take care of it. Thank you, Tara. See you at the meeting.”

Luke headed to the elevator, but Tara called him back. “Hey, Luke? Remember that our new office manager is starting today. I won’t be at the meeting but I’ll bring her by later so you can meet her.”

“That’s right. Good luck with the training. I hope she’s a better fit than the last guy.” He headed to the elevator and pressed the button for the tenth floor. The metal doors opened with a ding and Luke stepped in, cracking his neck from side to side. He had ten floors to get his mind into business mode. As soon as the doors opened, Olivia would become a sweet memory to tuck away. He needed to be in top mental shape to face his brother for the second day in a row.

As expected, James was sitting in Luke’s chair at the board room table when Luke entered. James stood, reaching for his brother’s arm with an exaggerated smile. “It’s so good to see you,” he said.

“Hello, brother,” Luke replied. He glanced around the room at the rest of the people watching their interaction with interest. “Thank you, everyone, for coming. As you can see, James is joining us for the day.”

He clapped James on the shoulder and pointed to a seat, further down the table. “Lisa and Terry, do you mind if James sits between you two?”

“Of course not,” Terry answered. He moved a stack of papers to the side, clearing space for James.

James grabbed his things and leaned close to whisper to Luke. “Power play so early in the morning, little brother? Interesting.”

It didn’t feel like a power play, but perhaps James was right. Luke didn’t want the meeting to be completely derailed by his brother. Especially with Luke’s mind not completely present. Everything kept reminding him of the lovely red-haired beauty he had met last night. Why hadn’t he gotten her last name? Proper introductions were part of his job as a professional business owner. They made the difference between landing a job for the high-powered corporation of Jacey’s Juice versus the much smaller knock off brand, Jerry’s Juice.

Luke opened his laptop, syncing the Bluetooth to the projector screen behind him. “First things first. Here’s a spreadsheet of our clients along with the portfolio growth this year. We have just a few more weeks to finish this quarter strong.”

James cleared his throat. Luke held up his hand to silence him. “I’ll get to the questions in a moment.” He flipped to the next slide. “This is a look at the clients the New York office is bringing in. As you can see, their numbers are much higher. That is why I asked James to come.”

James cleared his throat again, and puffed out his chest. “I’m glad to be here. As you can see, my branch is far outperforming the branch here.”

Luke wasn’t ready for James to step in, but at the end of the day it didn’t really matter. James was going to talk, no matter what Luke did. There was a reason James had flown out, and the reality of the situation was that the company needed input from him.

Rather than roll his eyes at his brother, Luke walked to the end of the conference room and filled a cup with water. He was pleasantly surprised to see that someone had filled the back table with an assortment of pastries. The board members always responded better to meetings when they had sugar in their hands.

One of the trays of doughnuts was perched alarmingly close to the edge. Luke was shoving the platters to the side to make more room when the door opened behind him. He reached for a powdered doughnut, shoving a large bite in his mouth before turning back to the presentation.

Tara tapped his shoulder. Luke looked up and she began to laugh. “I have always wondered what you would look like with a makeover, but I don’t think powdered doughnuts are quite your color.”

Luke reached for a napkin, but as he did, his eyes drifted to the person standing next to Tara. The curly red hair was difficult to miss, as were the wide brown eyes that stared at him. “Olivia,” he said, mumbling through a bite of the doughnut. He swallowed quickly. “What are you doing here?”

“Hi Jake,” she said. The world slowed to a stop, with James’s words fading to the background. Luke lifted the napkin to his mouth, dabbing at the sugar while his mind raced.

“This is Luke Stringer, president of the company,” Tara said. “Luke, this is my new assistant, Olivia.”

Olivia’s brows furrowed, but she held out her hand for Luke to shake. “I apologize. I was mixing you up with someone I thought I knew.”

Luke opened his mouth, but there was really nothing to say. He had found an incredible woman, shared a magical kiss, and thrown away any chance of connecting with her in less than a day. From the thin line of her lips, Luke knew there wouldn’t be any kissing happening any time soon. He needed words to smooth over the situation, but Tara was already pulling Olivia out of the room.

“It was nice to meet you,” he said, but the door thudded shut behind the women. Apparently, the powdered sugar on his lips wasn’t going to be the biggest mess he would be cleaning up today. He reached for the door handle but James called his name.

“Can you help with the presentation, Luke? The PowerPoint doesn’t seem to be working.”

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