Just as I’d finished the process of moving the presents from under my bed to the living room, the doorbell rang.
Adrenaline coursed through me. I hadn’t been expecting anyone, and a horrible feeling of déjà vu hit as I remembered the police coming to my door to tell me that my husband had been killed in an accident.
My heart raced as I peeked through the peephole.
The man who met my eyes was perhaps the last person I ever expected.
It was Bryce, the gorgeous man from Kline’s.
What?
And he was holding a large, wrapped box.
My heart pounded.
The robot?
How did he find me?
I opened as a rush of frigid wind hit me in the face.
“Bryce! How did you know where I lived?”
His eyes widened. Cold air billowed from his mouth as he just stood there for several seconds. Then he finally said, “You live here?”
“Yes. I can’t believe you found me, and that you brought…the robot?”
“Yeah…” He blinked.
“I can’t thank you enough. Did you feel sorry for me because of what happened? I don’t know what to—”
“I can’t believe this.” He just kept shaking his head.
In my stunned state, I hadn’t even invited him in from the cold. So I stepped aside. “Please. Come in. Just keep your voice low. My son is sleeping.”
Bryce placed the wrapped present under the tree, then turned to me. “I hope the doorbell didn’t wake him.”
“He’s a pretty heavy sleeper overall, and I don’t hear him. So, I think we’re good.” I exhaled. “How on Earth did you find me?”
He looked a bit dazed. “Holly…I’m in total shock right now.”
“Why?”
“I didn’t think I was coming to see you. I thought I was dropping off the toy to the little boy I’d promised it to.”
For a few seconds, I was totally confused. Until it started to click.
“Are you saying my son is the boy you were trying to win the robot for?”
“If he’s Mason Gallagher at this address, yes.” Bryce smiled. “He visited Santa Claus at Kline’s earlier today, right?”
My eyeballs moved from side to side. “Yes. My sister took him.”
He nodded. “I told you earlier my family owned a chain of stores. We own Kline’s, actually. I left that little bit of info out. Every year, I volunteer to be Santa Claus on Christmas Eve. Today when I was in my suit, a little boy sat on my lap and told me how sad he was that his dad wasn’t around on Christmas.”
I covered my mouth. “Oh my God.”
“He wasn’t specific as to what happened, whether his father had died or was just not around. But it really hit me hard. I asked him what he wanted for Christmas this year, and he told me that he just wanted his mom to be happy, that it made him sad to see her cry over the holidays. That touched me even more, because most of the kids always have a list of material items at the ready when you ask them what they want.”
Oh my heart.
“He’s a special kid,” I said.
“He insisted that he just wanted his mom to be happy again. I told him I really admired him for that. But because that’s obviously not something I could promise him, I didn’t quite know how to react. Before he left, I said to him, ‘are you sure there isn’t anything I can bring you?’ And he was really funny. He said, ‘well, if you insist…the only toy I really want this year is the TechBot.’ He then blurted out his address, and I knew that I had to get it for him. But with so little time on Christmas Eve, I couldn’t pull any strings. Whether I owned the store or not, there just weren’t any left. So after I changed out of the Santa suit, I decided to check the shelves just to be sure. And that was when we met.”
I looked up into his gorgeous baby blues. “I’m blown away. I don’t even know what to say.”
He shut his eyes momentarily. “I’m sorry. I was so shocked to see you that I didn’t even ask how your son is doing?”
“He’s fine, thankfully. No serious damage from the impact. We were lucky that the hospital wasn’t too busy. We were cleared and discharged fairly quickly.”
“I’m relieved to hear that.” He blew out a breath. “I’d been looking for your contact information all night, ever since you left the store.”
Scratching my head, I said, “Wait, I’m confused. If you didn’t know I was Mason’s mother, why were you looking for me?”
“After you told me about your husband dying on Christmas, I decided you deserved to win the robot. I made a decision to give it to you either way, but you left before I could tell you. I scoured the Internet for your name, and nothing came up in the area. I finally decided to go with the original plan, to give it to the boy from the store since I couldn’t find you. I figured, at least that way, someone would get their Christmas wish.”
My cheeks burned from embarrassment. “I’m a bit ashamed to say that I gave you a fake last name, Bryce. When you asked me…it was sort of right before the point where I started to trust you a little. I made a split-second decision, and it was the wrong one.”
He nodded. “Okay, so you’re not Holly Johanssen. That explains a lot.”
“Johanssen was actually my grandmother’s maiden name. But it’s not mine.”
“Holly is your actual name, though?”
“I can understand why you would doubt that, but yes, it is.” I sighed. “And again, I’m so sorry for making that asinine decision.”
“You’re Holly Gallagher…” he said.
I smiled. “Yes.”
“So, my Holly Holloway joke wasn’t in vain, then.”
I chuckled. “No.”
“Well, that’s good, at least.”
I looked over at the robot he’d placed under the tree. “I just realized you wrapped that yourself.”
“How did you know?”
“Because it’s horrible.” I started to laugh, but then suddenly tears sprung to my eyes out of nowhere.
“Did I upset you?” he asked.
“No.” I wiped my eyes. “I’m pretty sure they’re tears of joy. Because you’ve seriously made me so happy tonight.”
“Well…I’m glad. Truly. You’ve been through a lot. It makes my entire Christmas to know that I could bring some happiness to your holiday.”
A whiff of his delicious, manly scent wafted in my direction. There was no way I wanted to send this guy back out into the cold just yet.
“Do you have somewhere else to be?”
“I left my family party earlier, and probably won’t be heading back. I was just gonna head home.”
“Can I make you a cup of hot cocoa or something?”
His mouth spread into a smile. “I would seriously love that.”
“Make yourself comfortable. I’ll be right back.”
A chill ran down my spine as I made my way to the kitchen. I had a hard time believing that things happen for a reason, especially after the way my husband died. What was the reason for that, you know? It was totally unfair and nonsensical. So, in general, I’d always felt the idea of fate was one big lie. But something about this night certainly felt like fate. What were the chances that my son and the boy he had encountered were one and the same?