Kissing Under The Mistletoe: The Sullivans (Contemporary Romance) Read Free Page B

stepped out of the large glass doors and
onto the sidewalk. Ten in the morning was a busy time of day in San
Francisco’s financial district, and they had to speak loudly to be
heard over the noise of the traffic and the suited businessmen and
women rushing around them.
    “How are we supposed to give the Pocket
Planner sex appeal?” Howie asked, clearly frustrated.
    “If we could have gotten it out two years
ago, before the economy started to tank, the retailers would have
taken it on without blinking.” Larry’s mouth was turned down at the
corners as he spoke. He was a genius, but more than once he’d
reminded Jack of Eeyore, the morose donkey from the children’s
books his mother had read to him when he was a young boy. “But now?
It will take a miracle to convince them to stock it.”
    Howie was the realist. Larry was the
pessimist. And Jack was the energy that kept their inventive and
brilliant motors running, no matter what.
    “The three of us are going to grab a cup of
coffee and start brainstorming.”
    They’d been planning to pop open champagne
right now, not down more java. Jack pushed the thought away to
focus on the problem at hand: making their device “sexy,” not only
for men but for women, too.
    Of all the problems Jack had faced over the
past decade, worrying about sex hadn’t been one of them. He had a
great appreciation for women. He liked to watch them move, liked to
feel them soft and warm beneath him and enjoyed the way their minds
worked. And yet, just as eating and sleeping had always played
second fiddle to his work, so had women and sex.
    Larry sighed as they got off the trolley and
rounded the corner into Union Square, which was fully decorated
with lights in every store window and huge green wreaths hanging
from the lampposts. “If we can’t convince the retailers to carry
our product this Christmas, we’ll officially be out of money. And
I’m getting too old to keep living on the edge of completely broke
like this, guys.”
    Howie gestured toward the center of Union
Square, where there was a portable trailer on the corner. Several
large lighting rigs had been set up around the area to shine down
on the snow that had been brought in for the scene. Flakes of fresh
snow fell from another rig positioned above the brightly lit
stage.
    “Imagine having the funds to put something
like this together to sell our invention.”
    Their usual coffee place was just ahead but,
instead of heading inside, Jack detoured toward the crosswalk.
    “Where are you going?” Howie asked.
    “To take a closer look.”
    Larry was right. They’d need a miracle in the
next twenty-four hours to keep their dream alive. Jack knew it
wouldn’t be the end of the world if they didn’t make this deal.
He’d easily be able to get a job working for one of the high-tech
companies in Silicon Valley. But he’d never wanted to work for
anyone else. And just as this snowy scene in the middle of San
Francisco had been some director’s impossible vision, Jack wanted
to see his own impossible vision come to life, too.
    A sixth sense had him moving quickly toward
the Union Square set. He didn’t know exactly what he was going to
learn by watching the filming of a movie or commercial. It was just
that today he needed to witness fantasy become reality.
    Turning up the collars of their suit jackets,
and shoving their hands deep into their pockets to try to keep warm
against the strong Bay breeze that whipped between the tall
buildings, the three men crossed at a busy corner. They had just
stepped up onto the sidewalk when the door to the trailer
opened.
    And the most beautiful woman in the world
stepped out.
    Jack stopped so suddenly that Howie and Larry
both barreled hard into his back and a car rounding the corner
nearly knocked them down.
    Glossy, straight dark brown hair moved over
shoulders covered in red velvet. Soft fabric clung to a perfect
hourglass figure and swirled seductively around an incredible pair
of