Harlequin Holiday Collection - Four Classic Seasonal Novellas

“tell me about him .”
    Olivia rolled her eyes. She should never have mentioned in a weak moment that there was a guy at work she was attracted to. “He still doesn’t know I’m alive. Not in that sense, anyway.”
    “Then we’ll have to do something about that.” Gerald sipped his coffee. “Have you thought about inviting him over for dinner?”
    Olivia told him the story about her car troubles. That was another thing that had made today suck. A new starter, the labor for replacing it and the towing had set her back considerably.
    “It’s your turn to go to his place,” her neighbor suggested.
    “What?” He had to be out of his mind. She knew where Jacob lived, but only because each staff member’s name, telephone number and address were on the personnel roster.
    “Make up an excuse.” Gerald shrugged. “Bring him a gift in thanks for rescuing you. Just show up at his door.”
    “What if he has company? He could have a girlfriend or something.”
    Gerald shook his head. “You told me that one of your coworkers said he was a loner. No attachments.”
    True. She laughed. “How do you remember that?” Even she’d forgotten.
    “Just do it,” her nosy neighbor insisted. “Show up at his door with a gift and—” he grinned “—dressed for seduction.”
    It had been so long since she’d tried, Olivia was pretty sure she had forgotten how to seduce a man.

Chapter Seven
    Four days ’til Christmas
    Only four more days until Christmas and Olivia was at home alone. Except for the two bags of newly purchased Christmas decorations sitting at her feet.
    The only good thing about today was that none of her test results had gotten lost or otherwise corrupted. Work had actually gone fairly smoothly. Maybe because she’d slept like the dead the night before. She couldn’t remember when she’d been out cold like that.
    After leaving the lab, she’d stopped to buy decorations, come home, given half a minute’s consideration to Gerald’s suggestion and promptly decided her neighbor was nuts.
    Showing up unannounced and uninvited at Jacob’s door was completely and utterly out of the question.
    He would think she was insane. Like her neighbor.
    Don’t think about Jacob . He’d ignored her all day, just like the day before. Clearly strong-arming him into dinner the other night had been a big mistake.
    Office romances were not a good idea, anyway, even when there wasn’t an unwritten rule about them. When Callie had interviewed Olivia she had mentioned that avoiding that kind of relationship with colleagues was preferred. Considering all the strange mishaps with her work lately, Olivia didn’t need anything else to put her on Callie’s bad side.
    Why was it that having a boyfriend suddenly mattered so much? Back home in Boston, she’d rarely thought about her social life. Now she obsessed on it.
    That wasn’t true. She obsessed about Jacob. He was…handsome. Extremely intelligent. And she loved the way he talked. His voice was deep, his words always chosen carefully.
    Stop. “Decorate the tree, Olivia.”
    The distraction worked for about an hour. She wound the strands of lights and the glittery strands of pretend snowflakes. Then she hung four different types of glass ornaments. Last but not least, she topped the tree with an angel.
    When she plugged in the lights and stepped back, she beamed in satisfaction. It looked nice.
    Jacob had said he didn’t have a tree yet. Hadn’t bothered with one in a long time. She wondered about that. Had he lost his heart once and decided it wasn’t worth the pain, like she had?
    The telephone rang. “Saved by the bell.” She’d been about to go off on another long analysis of the man. One glance at the caller ID screen and she smiled. Her mother.
    The conversation lasted nearly an hour. Both her mother and her father updated her on things in Boston—from different perspectives, of course. They were so funny. Outwardly they never appeared to agree on anything. But where no one could see, they were completely in tune with one another. The perfect couple. That was what Olivia wanted.
    She heaved a big, loud sigh. She could go for a run. But running a few miles wouldn’t help. If talking to her parents for the better part of an hour didn’t do the trick, nothing would.
    There was only one thing to do.
    Bring Jacob a thank-you gift and see what happened.
    The only question left was, what kind of gift? She chewed her lip, thought about something sweet