Romancing Rudy Raindear (Sexy Secret Santas) Read Free Page A

time to figure out how to handle his peculiar predicament.”
    Then he’d laugh.
    But sales at Sugar Plums had taken a real turn for the worse despite Jenny’s secret attempts to improve the flavor of the cookies Gramps was baking. It was time she took action.
    Mrs. Claus was depending on her.
    Not to mention that Christmas was fast approaching and if Sugar Plums had any hope of survival, she needed to find the ancestral recipe book that Rudy’s grandmother kept hidden somewhere in the building.
    Gramps, a nickname everyone in the town had given Mr. Raindear years ago, was losing his memory faster than Santa could zip up a chimney, and she simply couldn’t sit back and let the bakery die. He’d forgotten to add the pecans to his latest batch of pecan sandies, causing his best customer, Camden Kane, the owner of Candy Kane Inn, to threaten to cancel his standing order of five dozen cookies per day in December.
    So, there she was, knocking on Rudy’s door at said inn, sporting a red box of not-so-good cookies, hoping to convince him to help her find the recipe book and save Sugar Plums.
    According to Mary Claus, the Raindear family had been providing Santa with his favorite gingerbread cookie for well over a hundred and fifty years. A tradition Jenny was not about to let die simply because of a missing recipe book.
    Jenny knocked on the door again, and this time she heard a noise inside the room. “I know you’re in there, Rudy. You can run but you can’t hide. This town is way too small.”
    She waited. Nothing.
    From the time Jenny was nine years old, she had been Mrs. Claus’s little helper. A secret position all the women in the Bells family had shared at one time or another. Legend had it that Jenny’s great-grandmother, three times removed, had been their flower girl, dropping poinsettia petals at Mary and Santa’s wedding in the real North Pole on Christmas Eve. Ever since that momentous occasion, the Bells women had eagerly helped out whenever they were asked.
    This latest request was no exception: Save Santa’s favorite bakery. Which at any other time wouldn’t have been such a difficult task, but in this economy, with the way North Pole, Maine had been sliding downhill, saving Sugar Plums bakery seemed almost impossible.
    Until Rudy showed up.
    “You might as well open the door and save me a trip downstairs to get the keycard. You know Camden will give it to me. Everyone wants you to help save your grandfather’s bakery.”
    The door opened and a scraggly Rudy appeared. He needed a shave, and he looked tired, but his nose was none the worse for wear.
    “Maybe it’s time to let the bakery fade into the past.”
    Jenny shoved the box of cookies into his belly. He winced. She walked past him into the shambles of what was once a festive suite, complete with yards of garland, twinkling lights, red and gold furniture and a glorious completely decorated live Christmas tree standing in front of the large window that looked out on the town square.
    “I’ll ignore that and chalk it up to pre-Christmas jitters. Taste these cookies and tell me what’s missing.”
    He chuckled. “Like I could—” but he stopped mid-sentence, and instead let the door swing shut behind him.
    “This room comes with maid service. Perhaps you should call one.” She removed a large bag of rancid smelling food from a red leather chair and sat down.
    “Are you always this bossy?”
    “Only when I’m dealing with someone who obviously can’t think straight.”
    “Define straight?”
    “Have you looked in the mirror recently?”
    “It’s early. I just woke up.”
    “It’s almost three in the afternoon. If you just woke up, there’s a problem.”
    “I’m on vacation.”
    “And your idea of a vacation is to ignore your friends and family and hole up in the most expensive room in town?”
    He tossed the box of cookies on the cluttered dresser and sat down on the unmade bed. His black T-shirt bore remnants of his last