Christmas Romance (The Best Christmas Romance of 2016): The Love List Christmas
Natalie-Nicole Bates, Sharon Kleve, Jennifer Conner, Angela Ford
Surprise! You’re a
Christmas Bride
Naatalie-Nicole Bates
Maisey Gates felt beyond tired. As she sat back in the plush chair, her brown eyes glazed over. An hour or so earlier, she?d been home and contemplating staying there, but the need for friendly human contact pushed her out of her warm home and into a taxi.
She?d only lived in the area a short period of time when she stumbled upon the Que Syrah Syrah Wine Shop, and decided to go in for a few bottles of red to celebrate the upcoming Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. What she found, in addition to wine, was a lovely group of women who met periodically for what she understood to be a book club, but was more of a social gab session with wine and delicious snacks.
As Maisey?s mind drifted to thoughts of deadlines and an upcoming photo shoot for an extremely popular wedding blog she hadn’t even began to prepare for, a basket was placed on her lap, she hadn’t even noticed who put it there. She reached in, figuring it was some delightful petit fours or chocolate treats, instead, what she retrieved was a folded up sliver of stationery.
“Oh…what is this? Some type of Secret Santa?” Immediately, a slew of gift ideas entered her brain. Recently, she?d received samples of gorgeous, nature-based items such as the tiniest rosebuds ever, along with slivers of precious metals, all enclosed in resin. There were necklaces, rings, and earrings to delight any girly-girl.
“Not really,” answered Tegan, the wine shop?s owner. “It’s the man you?ve chosen from The Love List.
“What? ? She heard a bit of a chuckle resonating around the group, and Maisey wondered how long she?d drifted off in the chair to miss this latest, likely crazy idea.
“The names of eligible bachelors are on those slips of paper. Nice guys who have been thoroughly vetted and approved. All you do is call and ask the guy out whose name is on the paper you chose from the basket,” Tegan explained.
At once, Maisey dropped the folded piece of paper back into the basket and passed it on. She was wide awake now. “No thank you. This doesn’t sound like a very nice game. Besides, I’m not open to rejection or blind dates. That’s not my thing.”
“I’ll give it a go,” Finn piped up. She was fairly new to the little group. “There are so few eligible men around, and at least these guys come with somewhat of a recommendation.”
“Me, too.” Dakota sighed. “Holiday parties are the worst without someone on your arm.”
At that moment, a horn blared outside the shop.
Just in time. The perfect escape.
Maisey jumped to her feet and grabbed for her jacket. “Well, ladies, that’s my taxi calling. It’s been a pleasure, as always, but I’ve got work waiting for me at home.” A chorus of goodbyes followed, and Maisey headed to the door, prepared to exit.
“Maisey, wait!”
She turned at the sound of her name, only to be beaned on the nose with a wadded up piece of paper. She caught it at the last second before it hit the floor.
“Just take it,” Tegan implored. “You never know; you might get lucky.”
The cabbie honked again.
Maisey shrugged, forced a smile, and made a production of putting the paper in her pocket. There was no need to upset anyone or be Little Miss Negative, especially with new friends. “Goodbye everyone, and we’ll talk soon,” she said in her cheeriest voice and then stepped outside. She had no intention of calling a stranger out of the blue and asking him out. She wasn’t that desperate for a date.
In just the few hours since she?d left home, the weather had gone from as mild as one could expect for the last days of November, to a full-on freezing. No snow, but a blustery cold that permeated through her jacket, and an icy rain pelted down.
As Maisey slipped into the back seat of the taxi, she was grateful to be heading back home, and even more grateful she worked from her converted attic—well, her house, anyway. It didn’t feel like home yet. Hopefully it would…sooner or later.
Less than five minutes into what should have been a fifteen-minute taxi ride at most, the taxi began to shake and shimmy, and an unpleasant electrical smell filtered the air before coming to a sputtering stop.
Just what I need.
Without as much as a word to Maisey, the cabbie got on the phone with what sounded to be first, his dispatcher, then to some type of emergency recovery service.
“Excuse me,” Maisey began as soon as he disconnected the phone. “Is this going to be a problem for me?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know.”
She rolled her eyes. Already tired, it wouldn?t take much for her to cross the line into impatient and irritated. “Can you call for another taxi to take me home?”