Seducing Santa (Holiday Series Book One)

Chapter Fifteen ~You're A Mean One, Mr. Holiday

Holly kept her eyes closed, afraid of what she would see when she opened them. She had swung the axe and felt it slip from her grasp and knew it had hit her leg. She could feel pain radiating up her calve from her ankle but she was scared that she might be bleeding. She always felt faint at the sight of blood, so she thought it best she did not take a peek. She turned her head away to look around for help, but before she could even lift her eyelids someone was already kneeling beside her, a familiar pine scent filling her nostrils.

“Mayor Holiday?” She gasped, confused as to why he was there.

“Where did you hurt yourself?” He asked in an authoritative voice, it reassuring her that he knew what he was doing.

She pointed at her left but kept her eyes tightly shut, worrying her lower lip with her teeth. She was only wearing leggings and a pair of UGG boots. The leggings were Christmas-themed with geometric shapes and reindeer all in red and white. They were one of her favorite pairs and she always wore them with her red sweater dress that was most likely soiled now since she had landed on the ground on her butt when the axe flew out of her hands. She felt Grayson pull off her left boot and place his big hands around her small ankle, relieved when she did not feel any pain. That was until he turned her ankle to the side.

“Ow!” She cried, trying to pull her leg away, but Grayson’s grip was much stronger than she expected.

“Hold still.” He chided, as if speaking to a small child.

She was about to remind him that she was in her twenties, but he turned her ankle the other way and it sent another pain straight up her leg. She sucked in a breath, holding it in while he moved her ankle up and down, relieved that there was no pain this time.

“Why are your eyes closed?”He asked, sounding like he was trying to hold back a chuckle but not doing a very good job.

“Is there blood?” She asked, knowing that if there was it could not be much, since all the blood seemed to be rushing to her face.

“Blood?”

“Yes! Am I bleeding?”She groaned, annoyed.

There was a long pause and she was about to ask him again, but instead jumped at the feeling of his breath against her ear.

“Open your eyes, Holly.”

She knew she should back away, he was much too close and it was causing her body to react in ways that were no longer acceptable now that she knew who he was. She slowly lifted her eyelids and was not surprised to find those green eyes mere inches from hers. For a moment she thought he might just close those few inches between them and kiss her, but the sound of feet running toward them made him back up quickly, standing from the kneeled position he had been in.

“Oh my lord, Holly, are you okay?” Came Maggie’s voice from behind Grayson, The old lady actually sounded a bit out of breath.

Holly finally looked down at her leg, relieved to not see any blood. However, her ankle was starting to swell. She must have twisted it when she fell backward. She knew she had to get inside and put some ice on it before it got any worse. She tried to lean forward and grab her boot, along with the sock Grayson had taken off, but before she could, she was being lifted up from the ground.

“I can walk!” She screeched, not used to being held and wrapping her arms around Grayson's neck tightly so she would not fall.

He only scoffed in response and told Maggie to take her time getting back up to the house before marching off. Holly looked at her from over Grayson’s shoulder and mouthed an apology, the old lady looking worried but shaking her head and giving her a gentle smile. Holly glared at Grayson who was completely ignoring her as he walked up the steps of the B&B, a couple coming out the front door and quickly moving out of their way. Grayson apologized and put on his best political smile as he thanked them for holding open the door. He even knew them by name, Holly guessing they were either locals or one of the few tourists that came every year.

He headed straight up the stairs but paused when he got to the top, finally looking at her.

“Which room?” He asked, those eyes of his doing things to her she wished they wouldn’t.

“Santa’s room, and you can put me down! The key is in my pocket and I can walk there from here. Your back has to be killing you…”

“Nonsense, you hardly weigh a thing.” He assured her, giving her a cocky grin which in turn made her roll her eyes at him as he strode down the hall.

Once at the door, Holly pulled out her key and put it into the keyhole but she refused to open the door the rest of the way until he set her down. After a two-minute death stare competition, Grayson finally conceded and set her down on her feet, which she immediately regretted. A sharp pain shot up her leg the moment she put any weight on her foot and she nearly fell into the room when the door swung open. Grayson was quick to catch her, however, and she was once again back in his arms as he took her over to the bed and sat her down on the edge.

“This is why amateurs should not be going out and chopping down trees. Especially, silly city girls who don’t know the difference between an axe and a baseball bat.” Grayson grumbled, getting down on his knees to help her take off her other boot and sock.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means that you don’t belong here. You come here believing you are going to help the town when in reality, all your amusement park is going to do is bring in rowdy tourists and shoot real estate prices up so high that people who have lived here their entire lives will have to move. All the small businesses will go under as franchises move in and our once quaint little town will be nothing more than a tourist trap.”

She could tell from the expression on his face that he had said more than he planned to. Holly had to look away, hoping he did not see the hurt in her eyes as tears threatened to shed. Not from sadness, but from anger. She took a deep breath, hoping her voice would not c***k before she got out what she wanted to say.

“That may be your opinion, Mr. Holiday, but I assure you that is not McCormick Attraction’s intention. As I stated before, this will be a family park and the reason we chose Holiday was because of its small-town charm. We have no intention of changing it and only wish to add to it. I can understand your fears and I will take them into account.” Holly stated calmly in her best customer service voice, knowing that what she said was not entirely the truth, but as long as she was in charge she would make sure of it.

Holly happened to take a peek at Grayson out of the corner of her eye and could see the anger still clearly etched on his face. She looked down and saw his fists clenched at his sides as he slowly stood up. The silence was deafening. He let out a loud sigh before charging off, stopping for a moment at the foot of her bed.

“Let’s hope you are right. Ms. McCormick.” He said in a low voice, Holly wondering if he really meant that or if it was some kind of threat.

Grayson took a step toward the open door just as Maggie was walking in and nearly bumped right into her, apologizing before stepping around her and heading briskly down the hall.

“Now now, what's gotten into him?” Maggie pondered, walking over to the side of the bed with a green box in her hands.

She helped Holly move back onto the bed, arranging pillows so that Holly could sit back comfortably against the headboard. Once she was sure Holly was situated, she opened up the green box. Holly noticed the white cross on the top, signifying that it was a first aid kit. Everything inside looked old except for the bandaids.

“This does not get used much, just for bumps and bruises mostly. Don’t get a lot of accidents here, but I do know there is an ice pack. Later I will go down and make you a better one, but this emergency one will work for now.” she explained, pulling out one of those quick-to-use ice packs that you twist to activate.

She had placed Holly’s injured ankle on a pillow and went to cover her ankle with the ice pack. Holly flinched at first, but it actually felt rather nice since the ankle was really starting to ache.

“I’m really so sorry about this.” Holly apologized, able to see how frazzled this situation had made Maggie.

“Oh, don’t worry yourself, honey! Accidents were bound to happen on this farm. I only wish I had been more prepared. I’m going to go downstairs and make you some hot cocoa. I’ll also give the doctor a call.” She said, closing the first aid kit.

“Please, don’t worry yourself too much. I will be fine with this ice pack for now. All I need is my laptop and you can just come up and check on me later.” Holly assured her, reaching out and placing her hand gently on Maggie’s shoulder.

She gave her a gentle smile in return and reached to take Holly’s hand into hers, gently patting it before walking over to the dresser and getting the laptop. She handed it to Holly before picking up the green box and heading to the door. She stopped suddenly halfway and turned back to face Holly.

“Oh! I almost forgot. I found something that might interest you while I was looking for more ornaments for your tree. Let me go get it for you!” She informed her, her face brightening back up like usual, which made Holly feel more at ease.

Maggie was back within moments with a big red box, setting it down on the bed. Holly reached out and pulled open the top, finding many things wrapped up in paper inside.

“This belonged to the original owners of the house. I saw how interested you were in the pictures and thought you might like to go through this box and see if there are any ornaments you might like. Mr. Greenwood was an amazing woodworker and liked to make Christmas ornaments every year from the leftover trees.” Maggie explained, before heading back toward the door, “I’ll come to check on you later and I will have someone bring up the tree and we can decorate later.” She added before closing the door behind her.

Holly looked down into the box, reaching inside and picking out the first thing she could off the top. She unwrapped it from the old weathered newspaper, revealing a finely crafted deer. She grabbed the other ones and unwrapped them carefully, all of them cute carved woodland creatures. She laid them out along the bed, smiling down as she ran her fingertips over a fox's tail.

She noticed some more papers at the bottom of the box and pulled them out, shocked to see they were family documents. A birth certificate for her mother and a marriage certificate for her mother’s parents.

“Charles and Sarah Greenwood, my grandparents.” She whispered, looking over the piece of paper and seeing that they had been married here in Holiday.

She looked down into the box to see if there was anything else, surprised to see the same white sash her mother had been wearing in the “Miss Snowflake” picture. She lifted it up and found a small green diary at the very bottom of the box, her mother's name scrolled over the front in gold leaf.

She picked it up and opened it to the page that was saved with a red ribbon bookmark. The date at the top of the page was about a year before she was born. Her mother wrote about Holly’s father and how her father, Holly’s grandfather, didn’t approve of him. They planned to run away in secret and elope but the entry ended there. Holly turned the page to find the rest of the pages blank. What exactly had her father done that made her grandfather not want him to marry her mother and why hadn’t her mother taken her diary with her?