Cinderella's Christmas Affair Read Free

glanced over her shoulder at him.
    “Have dinner with me?” he asked.
    “Oh, Tad. I can’t.”
    “Why not? Come on, Cathy Jane, for old time’s sake.”
    “It’s CJ now.”
    She was tempted but knew that nothing good came from dwelling on the past. Besides, Tad had been the reason why she’d moved away from Auburndale. After she’d overheard him talking about her to his friends she’d realized that she needed to start over where no one knew her.
    And Chicago had seemed the right place for that. Except she’d learned that running away meant nothing unless you changed, too. She’d been the same shy, awkward girl until Marcus had left and forced her to take stock of her life.
    She didn’t really know how to handle men one-to-one. She started to shake her head.
    “I know you’ve changed but we were once friends and I’d like to take you to dinner.”
    She couldn’t stop her smile. They had been friends. He’d been the only kid her age in the neighborhood that summer they’d both been twelve—popularity and weight hadn’t mattered. They’d ridden their bikes all over the city and spent all their time together. She’d forgotten those days.
    There was a part of Tad that was very dear to her. Not the teenaged boy who’d been more concerned about his image than her feelings, but the friend she’d had when she’d first moved to the ridiculously small town of Auburndale. “You’re bigger than you used to be.”
    She blushed when she realized how ridiculous that sounded.
    “Geez, thanks! Come on. Just one meal. What could it hurt?”
    She knew she shouldn’t but couldn’t resist the temptation he represented. He’d been her secret teenage crush, and he’d never noticed her as a woman…until now. It was a fantasy and as long as she remembered that she should be fine. “Okay, one dinner but that’s it. We’re probably going to be working together and I don’t want things to get weird.”
    “I like your confidence, Cat Girl.”
    “Uh, Tad?”
    “Yes.”
    “Don’t call me that anymore.”
    “What’s going to happen if I do? I am stronger than you now.”
    “I’m a third degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do.”
    “No kidding. I practice that martial art too.”
    This was creepy. She shouldn’t have that much in common with him—the boy who’d broken her heart and made her doubt she’d be a mate to any man. “I’d love to spar with you.”
    “Call me Cat Girl again and I’ll give you a chance. I don’t want to talk about old times.”
    “I don’t either. I want a chance to get to know the new you.”
    She tried to smile as she walked away because she knew that there wasn’t much new to her. She still felt like the same awkward person she’d always been.

Two

    T ad guessed that CJ had been trying to put him in his place but as he watched her walk away, enjoying the sight of her curvy hips swaying with each step she took, he didn’t mind.
    Man had she changed since high school. He remembered the lonely little girl who’d made him feel like a hero when he’d bandaged her scrapes after she’d fallen off her bike. He remembered her as a sweet shy girl who’d been too smart for him in high school. He also remembered the girl who’d refused to talk to him after senior prom. He’d always wondered why she had cut him off.
    But this woman in the conference room had been a sexy blend of intelligence, savvy and sass. Just what he liked in his women.
    His mom had been bugging him to look up Cathy Jane since he’d moved to Chicago five years ago, but Tad had put her off. Kylie, his college girlfriend, had left him saying she didn’t want to come in second to a sporting goods store just about the time he had moved to the Windy City. Tad had been kind of sour on women then. The last thing he’d wanted to do was catch up with the girl who’d given him the cold shoulder through the last two months of their acquaintance.
    Of course, at the time his mom had been pressuring him to marry as well.