Lily

Tugging down the short red dress with the ring of white fluff around the bottom, I hurried through the kitchen entrance into the penthouse apartment. No easy feat considering the ridiculous black patent leather high heels I wore.

“Who are you?” a woman in a Santa hat and holding a clipboard snapped at me.

And a holly jolly holiday to you, too. I gave a mental eye roll, but managed to smooth out my expression. I hoped.

“Bartender,” I said.

“You’re late.”

Maggie, my best friend and the person who helped get me the job tonight, came skittering into the kitchen. “Lily! Thank goodness. I’m so, so sorry.” She turned to Santa’s least merry elf. “Sasha, this is my fault. I sent the wrong directions…”

Ah, Sasha. From what Maggie had told me, Sasha loved giving the wait staff a hard time. Seeing Sasha’s eyes narrow on Maggie now, and knowing how much my friend needed her catering job, I cut her off.

“That’s okay Mags. You don’t have to make excuses for me.” I offered Sasha a saccharine smile and decided ditz was the way to go. “She sent me directions. I’m just the worst with them. I totally got on the wrong subway. If you already replaced me…”

I let the sentence hang there. The chances they’d replaced me in twenty minutes over the Thanksgiving weekend were slim to none. I was placing the odds on her need to have a body behind the bar outweighing her need to bitch me out.

She huffed out a breath. “Fine. Just go. Maggie show your friend where the bar is and then get back to your station.”

I offered her a big, sunny smile. Wish I’d had money to bet on that one.

Maggie showed me where to stow my coat and bag and then linked her arm through mine. “You didn’t have to do that,” she whispered. “It was my fault you had trouble finding the place.”

I shrugged. “No big deal. All’s well that ends well.” I wrinkled my nose and took in the sexy Santa getup she wore, identical to mine. “Though I don’t think that goes for these outfits.”

“I think they’re cute.” Maggie paused and stuck out a leg encased in a black fishnet stocking and a patent leather high heel shoe just like the ones I wore.

I shook my head and tugged her arm to get her moving again. Of course Maggie liked these outfits. Her taste tended to run to old-school Brooklyn—short skirts, high heels, and big hair. One of the many reasons I loved her.

“Come on. I’m losing out on tips with every passing second.” And I needed every last one of them. The countdown was on. Heaven only knew how much time I had left to save up for the down payment for my dream house.

And that’s the only reason Maggie had been able to convince me to haul my cookies into Manhattan in full-on slutty Santa gear. I was so close, I was afraid to even think about it much for fear of jinxing myself.

“Fine.” Maggie pulled me through a throng of elegantly dressed people toward the side of the room. “But this conversation isn’t over. You’re always trying to save everyone else. You’re not in charge of taking care of the world, Lils. You can lean on your friends every once in a while. Let us feel useful for a change.”

I smiled at her and pressed a kiss on her cheek, leaving a bright red lipstick outline that made me bite back a laugh. She was so sweet trying to make it sound like I had a gaggle of friends waiting to do my bidding. The truth was my group of friends could be counted on one hand. One finger, in fact. And she was the person currently pulling me through the incredible penthouse apartment of someone who obviously had oodles more money than me.

My jaw might have dropped as we pushed our way through the crowd. The penthouse was not what I expected. I figured the billionaire media mogul who constantly graced the covers of business magazines and society pages, not to mention hosting this very shindig, would live in a designer nightmare of leather, glass, and lots of black and white.

But the reality was something very different and I stopped in my tracks for a second to take it all in. Despite the room full of people in designer duds, the apartment was not a showplace. It was very obviously a home. From the cozily arranged seating area complete with fuzzy Christmas throws to the antique angel on top of the tree, this place screamed home and hearth and family.

A sharp pang of longing shot through me so strong it would have knocked me to my knees if Maggie hadn’t continued to yank me along.

“Come on. This way.” She steered me to the back of the room.

We arrived at the bar set up in a corner of the room. A line of impatient people waited for drinks, and a young woman with a panicked expression on her face as she fumbled to get ice into a glass stood behind it.

“Please tell me you’re the bartender,” the girl demanded.

“The one and only.” I rubbed the lipstick off Maggie’s cheek and winked at her before sliding behind the bar. “I take it you’re not here to serve drinks?”

“Technically, yes. I’m supposed to be circulating with trays of champagne and the signature cocktails. Mixing drinks? Not so much.”

“Gotcha.” I did a quick stock of the inventory under and behind the bar. “I think I can handle things from here.”

“Oh, thank God.” She scurried away faster than I could say, “Winter Wonderland.”

I turned to the people crowded around the bar, now staring at me with unconcealed irritation. Lovely. I gritted my teeth into some semblance of a smile. At least they’d keep me busy enough to push all thoughts of comfy homes and loving families from my mind.

“Whose up for some Christmas spirit?” I held up a bottle of rum and a container of eggnog and got down to work.

* * *

Will

“Will, you made it.” Jared walked over and clapped me on the back. “You been here long?”

“Nah. A couple of minutes.”

I looked around the posh penthouse apartment. All the guests were dressed to the nines and standing in small clumps, chatting quietly while uniformed servers circulated with trays of fancy looking finger foods and Christmas music played quietly in the background.

I turned and raised an eyebrow at Jared. “This gives a totally different meaning to the phrase partying like a rock star.”

Jared grinned. “Yeah, we’ve got nothing on Nate.” He referred to Nate Wilder, resident billionaire and host to tonight’s soiree. Nate’s woman, Emma, was best friends with Jared’s girlfriend, Paige. Which is how I ended up with an invite.

Looking around the large living area, my gaze caught on Jade, another of Paige’s besties. Seeing her reminded me of my reluctance to attend tonight. How had I gotten talked into coming?

Jade had caught my eye at another party. Only nothing as fancy as this one. That one had been all about beach, bikinis and beer. We’d spent a good portion of the day flirting outrageously, but she ended up flat leaving me for another guy.

As if my thoughts had conjured him, the guy she’d ended up with that night strolled up to her. She tilted her head back invitingly when he made it to her, and he obliged by laying a lingering kiss on her lips.

“I guess Jade and her guy are still together.” I couldn’t help my sour tone. Not that I’d been looking for more than a night or two of fun at the time. But I hadn’t been shot down like that in a long time. My ego took a minor blow.

Jared laughed. “You need to get over it, man. Those two are like Paige and I. Meant to be.”

I shook my head. Hearing my best friend, the guy I’d seen talk a girl out of her panties in two seconds flat, casually mentioning things like destiny in reference to a woman made my head spin. Even after all these months I couldn’t quite wrap my head around the idea he’d settled down.

But I guess I shouldn’t be surprised anymore. After all, the reason we were spending the month in New York with no touring or time in the recording studio scheduled until after the New Year was so Jared could spend time with his girl.

“Yeah, I definitely wasn’t looking for my soulmate when I tried to hook up with Jade,” I admitted dryly.

Jared patted me on the back again. “Pretty sure I know what you were looking for, Will.” He shook his head before he went on. “But head’s up. One of these days you’ll understand. You’ll look up and see a woman and it’ll be like a shot to the chest. You’ll be a goner, too.”

I held back a snort. I couldn’t imagine giving up my freedom the way Jared had. I mean, Paige was great and as long as Jared was happy, I was happy for him. But settling down was not for me. At least not anytime soon. Right now nothing sounded more perfect than the life I was leading—playing our music, traveling the world, experiencing something new around every corner.

I didn’t share all that with Jared. “Thanks for the head’s up, man. I’ll be sure to be on the lookout so I can dodge that bullet.”

“Don’t say you haven’t been warned.” He tipped his chin toward the far corner of the room. “Why don’t you hit the bar and grab some food and then come over and say hello to Jade and Logan. Her husband.”

“Holy shit. No kidding? They’re married already?”

Jared shrugged and repeated his earlier words, “He’s a goner. She’s it for him and vice versa. Why wait?”

I shook my head, feeling better about being at the party and facing Jade again. If she was looking for that kind of relationship, she was much better off with Logan. Getting thrown over for him might have been the best thing that ever happened to me. I was so not ready to go down that road. Or aisle, as the case may be.

“I’ll catch up with you after I grab a drink,” I said, now much more in a party mood than I’d been when I walked through the door.

Jared gave me a chin lift and then made a beeline for his woman. I shook my head and, I swear, behind the Christmas music, clinking glasses, and laughter and talking, I heard the sound of a whip cracking.

Totally dodged a bullet.

I wended my way through the crowded apartment in the direction Jared had pointed. I scanned the room as I went, and noticed a few sets of feminine eyes had landed on me.

I grinned. This might not be my typical party, but looked like the game was the same. Might as well enjoy myself.

As soon as I had that thought, the crowd in front of me parted and I had a clear path to the bar in the corner. I raised my eyes as I moved forward and…

Holy shit. I stopped dead as my gaze caught on the woman tending bar. Her dark hair fell in curls from underneath a Santa hat. Her wide smile didn’t quite reach her bright blue eyes as she handed the guy across from her a drink.

The skintight red velvet dress with its poofy white trim showcased her pale skin and ample cleavage in a way that made my mouth go dry and my dick go hard.

And all I could think was Jared was wrong. It wasn’t like a shot to the chest. It was more like a poleax to the gut, stealing my breath and making me want to throw a few punches at the guys surrounding her. The world screeched to a standstill around me.

Fuck me. Destiny must be laughing her ass off right about now.