Baby, It's Cold Outside Read Free

Santa, this is just what I wanted! It’s the next in the series I’ve been reading.”
    Yup. C.J. had done his homework. This was real attention to detail.
    Mitch handed out the presents one by one. Each child seemed genuinely thrilled by his or her gift—even the teens he’d half-expected to be bored by the whole thing because they were more than old enough to know that Santa wasn’t real. Yet they were careful not to spoil it for the little ones. Or maybe they were just joining in the magic, relieved to leave their worries behind for just a little while.
    It was humbling.
    And he understood exactly why C.J. had asked him to do this. Exactly what his boss had wanted him to learn.
    The next name Mitch called was Sam’s. The little boy looked about five years old, and his sulky expression warned Mitch that he’d have to be careful.
    “Merry Christmas, Sam.” Mitch held the present out to him.
    The little boy shook his head. “No, thank you.”
    A child refusing a present from Santa? That hadn’t been in his brief, either. What now? He glanced at the Chief Elf, but she was biting her lip and looking worried. Clearly this hadn’t been something she’d thought to ask about beforehand, either.
    He was just going to have to wing it. As he’d occasionally done in presentations where the account was worth serious money—but this felt much more important.
    “Can I have something else?” Sam asked.
    “I’ll have to see,” Mitch said. “What do you want?”
    He’d half-expected a request for the latest game console, so he was completely floored when Sam said, “I’d like you to bring my sister home for Christmas.”
    Bring my sister home for Christmas.
    A little girl who was in hospice and clearly wasn’t going to be able to go home again, let alone for Christmas.
    This wasn’t his department. No way was he going to be able to give Sam the one thing the child wanted so badly. But he couldn’t take that last bit of hope away. He just didn’t have the heart to trample on the little boy’s dreams. Instead, he said gruffly, “I’ll do my best. I can’t promise, but I’ll do my best.”
    God, how he wished he could make that dream come true.
    And something inside him felt as if it had cracked.
    “In the meantime…” He handed the present to Sam.
    “Thank you.” But the little boy made no move to open his gift. He just went to sit down with all the others, his eyes a little less bright.
    Being Santa really, really sucked, Mitch thought.
    He pulled himself together and took the next present from the sack. “This one’s for Hayley.”
    She came up with a shy smile. “Merry Christmas, Santa. We should’ve left you a cookie and a glass of milk, and a carrot for Rudolph, and I’m sorry we didn’t.”
    Her thoughtfulness surprised him, and built the guilt factor up just a little bit more. He knew he wasn’t that considerate of other people’s feelings. Look at the way he avoided his family.
    “Hey, it’s fine. When you leave me cookies and what have you, it’s when I don’t get a chance to see you because you’re asleep. The rules are different when you see me. You don’t have to give me anything.”
    “Yes, I do.” She gave him a handful of carrot sticks. “I saved them for Rudolph from the party. Will he mind if they’re a different shape?”
    “He won’t mind at all. He’ll love them. I’ll put them in my pocket and he’ll know they’re there. That red nose of his can detect carrots at a hundred yards. Thank you.”
    Then she gave him a Santa cookie. “We all had one. And they’re really special. Just like you.”
    No, Mitch thought, he wasn’t special. He was a fake. And he didn’t dare look over at the Chief Elf, because he knew he’d see that knowledge written all over her face. And that he deserved to see it. “Thank you, Hayley, that’s really kind of you. I’ll enjoy that later when I have to fly off.”
    He’d just given out the last present and was about to make his