Yours for Christmas

As soon as Chloe was out of earshot, he turned to Jenel. “I’d like that small silver heart, too,” he said quietly.

Jenel nodded. “For the little girl?”

He nodded.

“I have the perfect chain. When she outgrows it, we can exchange it for a longer one.”

“Good. I’ll pay for these now and pick them up later.” He didn’t want Chloe to see the second box.

After he’d signed the credit card slip, he walked over to Chloe. On the way, he saw the display of diamond engagement rings. For a second, he wanted to stop and look. He wanted to dream about possibilities. Because Chloe wasn’t the only Voss female tugging at his heartstrings.

Only he wouldn’t give in. Wouldn’t think about what could be. He was successful in life because he learned from his mistakes. And lesson one was not to repeat them.

* * *

BAILEY STOOD ON the walkway in front of her apartment, prepared to give thanks to whomever had arranged for perfect weather on her moving day. The sun was out, the temperatures had climbed to nearly fifty and there wasn’t any wind. She couldn’t have asked for more.

At some point she was going to have to pause and be grateful. Which she would...just as soon as she managed to recover from the shock of her moving crew.

As promised, Kenny had come through with a rental truck and a few friends to help. But somewhere along the way, the few friends had turned into something so much more.

Sam and Jack were there, along with all the guys from the bodyguard school. In addition, there were Dellina’s brothers-in-law, two of the three Stryker brothers, Tucker Janack, Josh Golden and Raoul Moreno. She thought it was very possible there were more men milling around her place than she had boxes.

Kenny climbed halfway up the staircase, then turned back to the crowd. “All right, here’s how we’re going to do it. We’ll empty from front to back here and load from back to front at the new place. If you pick up a lamp or a table, remember where it came from. You’ll be responsible for getting it in the right place. Chloe’s furniture is being dropped off at the donation center. She has a new set waiting in her new house. Everything else is going with us.” He paused. “Oh, and if you break it, you’re buying a new one.”

Jack glanced at Bailey and winked. “Want me to drop the TV?”

“Only if you want to buy me a new flat-screen,” she teased.

“The Super Bowl is coming. You’ll need a big TV for that.”

She laughed. There was no point in mentioning that football wasn’t a sport that especially interested her. Except when it came to Kenny, she thought. Of course, when it came to Kenny, many things interested her. Which was all fine and good, but she had a move to focus on.

Kenny led the way up into her apartment. Faster than she would have thought possible, it was empty and the truck was loaded. He drove it to her new place while everyone else walked over. As the truck pulled into the driveway, Bailey saw it was barely ten-thirty in the morning. At this rate, she was going to be moved in today with no problem.

Getting everything into her house went just as quickly. She stood in the hallway by the stairs and directed the guys. Kenny was upstairs and occasionally yelled down questions.

Around eleven-thirty Dellina and her two sisters showed up with lunch. There were sandwiches and soda, along with brownies and cookies. Bailey had arranged the lunch a few days ago and had called that morning to up the order when she’d seen how much help she was going to have. Given how much the guys were doing for her, it was the least she could offer. By twelve-thirty, the men were gone and Bailey faced the daunting task of unpacking.

“We’re not leaving,” Dellina told her, as she put sandwich wrappings into a large trash bag.

“That’s right,” Fayrene, her sister, added. “We’re going to help you unpack.”

Bailey shook her head. “I don’t want to keep you. I really appreciate the offer, but I can do it.”

She would be up all night, but she would get it done.

“Don’t be silly,” Dellina said. “We’ll go room by room. We’ll pull stuff out of boxes and you tell us where to put it. We’ll be finished before Chloe’s out of school.”

Dellina turned out to be right. With four of them unloading boxes and Bailey directing them on where to put things, they got dishes into the cupboards and food into the pantry. When the kitchen was done, the rest of the house was easy. She’d spent the previous afternoon driving over carloads of their hanging clothes, so that was already in place. Their few DVDs were lined up in the entertainment unit. Chloe’s stuffed animals were in place up on the shelf Kenny had installed over the weekend and the cleaning supplies were placed neatly on the shelves in the laundry room.

At two-forty-five Bailey hugged her friends goodbye and walked toward Chloe’s school. She was tired and happy and still in shock over how the day had gone. Yes, her feet hurt and her back hurt and there were a thousand things to do, but she and Chloe had their forever home and nothing was ever going to be better than that.

Chloe raced out of school and ran up to her. “Did it happen? Are we in our new house?”

“We are. I’m very excited.”

“Me, too!”

They walked back to the house. Chloe told her about school and how all her friends wanted to come over.

“We’ll have a party,” Bailey promised, thinking how great it was going to be. With Chloe’s new bedroom set, sleepovers would be easy.