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“Oh, no,” Ryan groaned, pushing the third-floor button. Nothing happened. The car remained solidly wedged between floors.
On one of her most hectic business days, she was stuck in a service elevator. With Santa Claus. She groaned again.
“Now what do we do?” she asked aloud, as much to herself as to her companion.
“Push the red alarm button,” the bearded man suggested kindly. “That will alert someone that there’s a problem.”
Ryan obliged, though she couldn’t imagine anyone actually hearing the muted buzz over the frenzied commotion of the mall. They could be trapped in here for hours. She pulled at the high neckline of her Christmas-motif sweater, wondering if the elevator contained enough air.
“You don’t suffer from claustrophobia, I hope,” Santa said, watching her closely.
She managed a weak smile and shook her head. “I never have before.”
“That’s good. I’m afraid I have little experience dealing with hysteria.”
Ryan lifted her chin. “I never,” she said precisely, “get hysterical.”
His smile was almost hidden by his lush, white, amazingly realistic-looking beard. “What a relief.”
Ryan mechanically pushed the alarm button again. “I don’t suppose you have Rudolph trained to rescue you in cases like this,” she said inanely, trying to distract herself from noticing how small the car actually was, or how the walls seemed to be inching a bit closer to her.
“I’m afraid not. But I’m sure maintenance workers are already on the way. In the meantime, why don’t we introduce ourselves? I’m Santa Claus.”
Ryan laughed wryly. “Yes, I know. And I’m Ryan Clark.”
“You work in the lovely doll shop on the third floor.”
“I own it,” she acknowledged. “You’ve been in?”
“Oh, I know all the best toy stores. Yours is delightful. I’ve recommended it to several shoppers.”
“Why, thank you.”
“You’re welcome. And now, since we seem to have a few spare moments on our hands, why don’t you tell Santa what you would like for Christmas?”
Her smile deepened. His calm, cheerful attitude relaxed her, making her realize there wasn’t any real reason for panic.
“I want to have a successful, profitable season for my shop,” she replied in answer to his frivolous question.
He frowned and shook his head, the fluffy white ball at the tip of his red cap bouncing with the movement. “I wasn’t talking about business,” he answered, reproving her gently. “I was asking about your true heart’s desire. That’s what the Christmas season is all about, after all.”
“My heart’s desire?” Ryan repeated, taken aback by his quaint phrasing. “I, er—”
“Surely there’s something you want very badly. A cruise, perhaps? A trip to Europe?”
“I’ve seen Europe. I lived there for a year.”
“Ah. So, what would you like?”
Ryan shrugged. She could hardly tell him that she had everything she wanted—with one quite notable exception.
She told herself that it was only the season making her so painfully aware of her single state. So many of her friends were looking for the perfect gift for their mate, making holiday plans for their children, anticipating the Christmas-morning rituals. Ryan was just feeling a bit left out, that was all.
Not something she could admit to a shopping-mall Santa Claus. No one, except maybe Lynn, knew how badly Ryan longed to find the right mate and start a family.
She wanted love. And commitment. A lifetime pledge. Babies. Deep, soul-warming contentment.
For some reason she thought of Max Monroe, with his take-me-if-you-dare smile and don’t-expect-too-much-from-me eyes. For a man like Max, marriage was a four-letter word—like jail. Or hell.
Santa was watching her with an enigmatic smile. “Love isn’t such a difficult thing to ask for, Ryan,” he said, making her stare at him in surprise. “It’s taking a risk on it that’s hard for most people,” he added gently. “All you have to do is open yourself up to possibilities and be ready to act when the opportunity presents itself.”
“I’ll—” she swallowed “—I’ll keep that in mind.”
She wondered if he was putting her on, or if he’d been spending too much time in his Santa suit. Maybe his hat was too tight. Or maybe he’d watched Miracle on 34th Street a few too many times.
The older man chuckled. “What a cynic you are,” he chided, but his tone was good-natured. She assumed he was responding to her expression, since she was reasonably confident that even the “real” Santa’s talents didn’t extend to mind reading.
Her companion reached into a deep pocket of his red velvet jacket and pulled out a peppermint cane. He extended it to her with an old-fashioned flourish. “For you,” he said.
She took the candy with a weak smile. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
The elevator suddenly hummed, jerked again and then started upward.
Ryan smiled in relief. “We’re moving!”
The car stopped on the third floor. The doors slid silently, efficiently open. Ryan stepped out and drew a deep breath of fresh mall air.
She turned to look questioningly at Santa, who hadn’t moved. “Aren’t you getting out?”
He smiled. “No. There are children waiting for me downstairs. Have a nice day, Miss Clark. And don’t forget about those possibilities.”
The elevator closed before she could answer.
Ryan stared in bemusement at the metal doors, the candy cane gripped in one hand. And then she shook her head. “Weird,” she murmured, turning away.
She put the incident out of her mind as she hurried back to her shop. She had many hours of hard work ahead of her. No more time to waste on silly fantasies.
PIP AND KELSEY CAME IN to visit the doll shop after their lunch, as Ryan had invited them to do. From behind the counter, Ryan smiled a greeting, though she was busy with a customer and didn’t have time to chat. She noticed that Kelsey stopped in front of the dark-haired doll at the front of the shop, the one that had so fascinated the little girl the day before.
The children didn’t stay long. By the time Ryan had a break and could have spoken to them, they were gone.
She busied herself behind the counter, picking up a jumble of shopping bags she’d dropped during a busy time earlier.
Her assistant suddenly tugged on her shoulder, urging her to stand upright. “He’s back,” Lynn said in an urgent whisper. “And oh, Lordy, he’s even more gorgeous today than he was yesterday.”
Following Lynn’s excited gaze, Ryan swallowed hard when she saw that Max Monroe had just ambled through the open door. She moistened her lips and then frowned at her grinning assistant. “Would you stop it? How would Jack feel about you ogling the customers, hmm?”
Lynn giggled. “He’d approve if he knew I was only doing it for your benefit.”
“Yeah, right.”
Max didn’t pause, but continued to the counter, where Lynn and Ryan waited on customers. “Hi again,” he said.
“Looking for a present for another niece, Mr. Monroe?” Ryan asked as Lynn moved discreetly away.
“No.”
Glancing around to make sure no one was listening, he leaned a bit closer to her. “Actually, I’m here to ask you for a date. Maybe we could see a movie or something?”
“Max—”
He touched her hand as it lay on the counter between them, giving her a look that made her voice fade. “I don’t mean to annoy you with my persistence, but I thought I’d try this one more time. I like the way you smile, Ryan Clark. I’d like to get to know you. I guess that sounds like a line to you—”
“Yes,” she admitted a bit shakily. “It does.”
“Sorry. But it’s true. Will you go out with me?”
“I—it’s such a busy time for me,” she said, wondering why she couldn’t just tell him no.
For some reason, she kept hearing the voice of the mall Santa Claus. “All you have to do is open yourself up to possibilities and be ready to act when the opportunity presents itself,” he’d said.
Maybe she’d leapt to conclusions about Max Monroe. Maybe she’d written him off as a “possibility” without giving him a fair chance. Maybe he wasn’t really a heartbreaker, after all.
And maybe pigs would fly, she thought, eyeing the devilish twinkle in his blue-gray eyes.
“Just a movie,” he said again, his fingers tightening on hers. “There’s a nine-twenty feature in the theater downstairs. I can meet you here at nine when you close your shop and we can see the film without even leaving the mall, if that makes you more comfortable. C’mon, Ryan. It’ll be fun.”
She felt something give inside her. “All right,” she heard herself saying cautiously. “I guess it would be fun to see a movie. I haven’t had a night off in a while.”
His smile was blinding. “Great. Afterward, maybe we could have a cappuccino or something?”
“Let’s just wait and see about afterward, okay?”
He nodded, accepting her equivocation without protest. “Then I’ll meet you at nine?”
“Fine,” she said, hoping she wasn’t making a big mistake. But how bad could it be? If he’d been trying to put her at ease by choosing a safe, very public setting for their first date, he’d succeeded.
She suspected that he was entirely too good at this sort of thing. She’d have to be on her guard against him. But, still, she found herself looking forward to the evening.
It really had been too long since she’d had a night out, she reminded herself. That was all there was to it.
Max didn’t linger, but left the shop looking quite satisfied with himself.
A plump matron with improbably red hair set a Barbie doll and several accessories on the counter in front of Ryan. “If a man like that had flirted with me that way while I was young and single, I know what I would have done,” she murmured to her shopping companion with a wistful sigh, making no effort to keep Ryan from overhearing. “I’d have latched on to him before he’d known what had him.”
Ryan flushed, busying herself immediately with ringing up the woman’s purchases.
“Not many like him come along,” the woman’s friend agreed heartily. “Did you see that smile? If I were ten years younger, I’d chase him down right now.”
The red-haired shopper snorted. “Fifteen years, maybe,” she muttered.
Business quickly became brisk again, to Ryan’s relief. She didn’t want time to dwell on the evening ahead.
SHE THOUGHT OF little Kelsey at a quarter to nine that evening. Ryan was straightening the shelves, returning merchandise to its proper position, setting out a few new items in inviting poses, preparing for the next day’s business, when she spotted the dark-haired doll. Smiling, she picked it up and fluffed its full blue skirt.
It was a pretty little thing, a numbered, limited edition from one of Ryan’s favorite sources. It was the only one like it she had received, and she had actually expected it to sell before this.
She wished Kelsey’s mother would come into the shop so Ryan could mention to her how much the little girl seemed to want the doll. Maybe Kelsey had already told her.
And then Ryan remembered the children’s shabby clothing. She frowned. It was entirely possible their mother couldn’t afford the doll.
Ryan set it back in its place, telling herself that if Kelsey’s mother did come in, she would give her a very good deal. In this case, for Kelsey’s sake, she was willing to forgo her profit.
There was something about that child that had gotten to Ryan. Pip, too.
When she looked up, she saw that Max had arrived for their impromptu date, and everything else left her mind.
IT WAS SOMETIME DURING the latter half of the movie that Ryan realized she’d been right to be suspicious of Max’s seemingly innocuous manner in asking her out.
Oh, he’d started out casually enough. Escorted her into the theater as easily as if they’d known each other for years. Bought soft drinks and a huge tub of popcorn for them to share. Chatted about trivialities during the few minutes they waited before the feature started. Laughed along with her at the antics of the mixed-up couple falling in love on the screen.
He’d waited until she was relaxed and at ease with him before making his move—which he did with a subtlety and skill that would have made the teenage boys surrounding them green with envy. Ryan couldn’t even have said when he scooted closer to her in his seat or when his arm slipped behind her.
At first she thought it coincidence that his hand brushed hers so often as she reached for popcorn. A very pleasant coincidence. And then she noticed how long his fingers lingered, making her all too vividly aware of the feel of him.
His thigh pressed lightly against hers, and she felt his warmth through the thin layers of clothing that separated them. His strength. Their shoulders touched; she felt him breathing. She could see his shadowed profile from the corner of her eye. His lashes were long, his chin firm, his mouth luscious.
Gorgeous. And dangerous.
The beautiful couple on screen eased into a slow, heated embrace. The background music was deep, stirring, swelling to a crescendo that seemed to throb through her. Max’s hand slid caressingly over her shoulder, down her arm, his fingers lingering just inches from her right breast.
Ryan turned her head to look at him and caught just a glimpse of his smug smile.
She straightened abruptly in her seat, dislodging his hand.
Max immediately moved his arm, his expression innocently questioning. She focused her attention on the screen for the remainder of the movie, shaking her head when he offered her more popcorn.
By the time the film ended and the theater lights came back on, she had herself firmly under control.
Max insisted on walking her to her car, which she’d left in the parking garage behind the mall.” You’re sure you wouldn’t like to have coffee and dessert somewhere?” he asked for the third time since the movie had ended.
“No, thank you,” she said, as she had the other times. “It’s late and I have to work tomorrow.”
Standing very close to her, he backed her against her car and gave her a smile so seductive that Ryan figured he must have started practicing it in the mirror the day he hit puberty. She didn’t doubt that he’d been quite successful with it. It was all she could do to resist it herself.
“I really had a great time with you tonight,” he said, his voice deep and sexy. “Thank you for agreeing to see me.”
