Jingle This! Read online

  But now? She just wanted to crawl under her desk and hide.

  “Well?” Heidi looked at her expectantly.

  “You really think I’m going to be able to write a daily serial about love and the Christmas season after I just got dumped? When I proposed this project in October, I thought I’d be celebrating my own holiday engagement, so it would be the perfect complement. I can’t write about everyone else’s love now.” Not when every holiday decoration or song was like a club to the head, reminding her of the sewer her love life had become. Ever since she and Roger fell in love over the Christmas season two years ago, every twinkling light made her think of him, which had been perfect when they’d been dating.

  Now? The phenomenon was a little more inconvenient. Depressing. Incapacitating, even.

  Right now, thinking of Roger all the time would really not be conducive to her mental or emotional well-being, hence her plan to completely deny the existence of Christmas this year. Which included not writing a story about how the holiday season renews the love of various couples.

  Heidi snorted. “Gah. Could you sound more pathetic? You have a job to do, my friend, so do it you must. You know this entire company is depending on whether we impress this client or not. My future…no, all of our futures are in your hands.”

  Oh, God. Heidi wasn’t exaggerating. Swift was critical to the future of their struggling marketing company. Angie groaned and banged her forehead on her desk. “So you write the damn thing.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous. I’m a copy editor, not a writer.” Heidi popped out of her chair, her elfin balls jangling. “So, there’s a vastly expensive party at lunch today to kick off the Christmas season. All our clients or potential clients are invited. The owners are hoping to bring in lots of holiday business.”

  “Yeah, sure. I’ll be there.” Seeing as how one half of the “owners” was also the loser who’d dumped her four days ago, it was quite likely Angie would get lost on the way to the conference room and not quite manage to find the holiday party.

  Heidi leaned forward and set her hands on the table. “Angie.”

  She covered her head with her arms and pressed her cheek to the cool wood of her desk. “What?”

  “Roger isn’t good enough for you,” Heidi said quietly. “Don’t sweat the breakup.”

  Tears filled Angie’s eyes at the note of sympathy in her friend’s voice. “I know. I know he’s a jerk.” But even though acknowledging Roger’s failure as a human being wasn’t quite enough to make Angie jump out of her chair and start dancing for joy, it still gave her the wherewithal to sit up in her chair and fight for composure. She would not let him ruin her favorite season. She just wouldn’t. “I’ll have the article for you by three. Is that enough time?”

  “Barely. Don’t be late.” Heidi grinned. “Love you, hon. Try to enjoy the Christmas season, okay? You’ll feel better.”

  “Sure.” Angie managed to keep herself vertical until Heidi had shut the door behind her, but the moment Heidi’s cheerful energy was gone, the loneliness and doom settled over Angie again, like some black shadow of Scrooge. With a groan, she laid down on the floor, propped her feet up against the wall, crossed her arms over her face and closed her eyes.

  Okay, she could meditate herself out of this state of misery and apathy, right? Calm her mind. Think of a flowing river, of rainbow fish leaping out of the swirling water—

  Dammit. How was she supposed to write a story about love, romance and the holiday season every day for the next twenty-five days?

  And to think she thought this assignment would renew her enjoyment in her job.

  Fat chance of that—

  “Come on, Angie,” she chastised herself. “Focus.” Let the negative thoughts go. Let your mind be at peace.

  The door swung open again. “Hey, pathetic creature,” Heidi said.

  Angie sighed and gave up on the meditation. “What?”

  “I’m going to Tiffany’s at ten to make my list for Quinn. Want to come? Maybe it’ll give you inspiration for your story.” She grinned cheerfully. “You know, diamonds. You love those sparkly stones. I know you do.”

  Angie opened her eyes and looked up at her friend, who was standing over her. “I can see up your elf skirt. Nice candy cane underwear.”

  “Sweet. I’ll remember that when I see Quinn. Maybe it’ll lead to some good foreplay.” Heidi wiggled her butt. “Think that’ll work? Sexy enough for ya?”

  Angie groaned and closed her eyes. “I can’t deal with you.”

  “Great. So I’ll be by at ten to pick you up.”

  “I can’t go. I have to write my story.” About love and the holiday season. For her boss. Who dumped her. I hate my job.

  “You’ll still be lying here on the floor at ten. Checking out Tiffany’s will be great to help you focus on your client, who is, after all, trying to beef up their department store jewelry counter so they can outsell Tiffany’s this season. What better research than checking out the competition?”

  For a moment, Angie paused, considering Heidi’s suggestion…then she imagined running into some young couple looking at engagement rings, and her throat tightened up again. “I’m not ready to do that yet.”

  “Sure you are. It’ll be good for you.”

  “Go away.”

  “No. Not ‘til you promise to come.”

  So nice to know she had her own personal stalker. “Are you going to wear that elf outfit in public?”

  “Of course. It’s the Christmas season. Want me to get one for you so we can be twins?”

  Angie gave her friend a baleful look. “Seriously? You’re actually asking me that?”

  Heidi shrugged. “Okay, so maybe not today. I’ll see you at ten.” Heidi left the door open behind her, no doubt trying to shame Angie into getting off the floor.

  Heartless fiend. Next time she was going to pick her friends better.

  *

  By Tuesday morning at eleven, it was all Kyle Black could do to keep himself from racing down the hall, grabbing his partner by the neck and demanding that Roger hand over the company before he destroyed it. Instead, Kyle managed to stroll casually, stopping in the kitchen to refill his coffee, then continued down the hall where his friend Roger Lockhardt had his overly plush and not-at-all deserved office.

  Kyle nudged the door open with his toe to find Roger doing pushups. “Roger. We need to talk.”

  “In a sec. This is my last set.”

  “Unbelievable. You’re doing pushups.” The man was actually working on his pecs when their business was crumbling down around them? It was difficult to believe they’d been best friends in college. Kyle found very little to admire about the guy now, knowledge that would have come in handy before he’d partnered with Roger and given the lazy bastard half-ownership of New Age Marketing. Roger had ponied up the dough, Kyle had invested the brains.

  Though Roger bordered on brilliant, his work ethic had never been admirable. Kyle had figured that putting money on the line would get Roger’s attention. It had, for a brief time, but once he’d started dating Angie Miller two years ago, Roger had barely been present. He’d spent his time running off on a moment’s notice to do couple things instead of working until the early hours of the morning to get things done. No small company would survive with nine-to-five leaders. Not only was Roger working half-time, but he was still making decisions as if he had full information. Kyle had cleaned up more than a few messes as a result of Roger making the call when he’d missed key information due to his playing the dutiful boyfriend to Angie.

  Angie Miller and her cute little dimples were the cause of Roger’s abdication of his responsibilities as a leader of the company, and Roger’s abandonment of his role was dragging the company down into the sewer.

  The fact that Angie was tempting enough to distract Roger from their company made Kyle damn pleased he hadn’t followed through on his attraction to Angie two years ago when they’d been working on a project together. The sparks had flown
between them, and he’d almost made a move more than once, stopped only by his realization that he couldn’t afford to do anything that would threaten his company, like dating his best copy writer. Instead, he’d accepted the advances of Angie’s sister, Sheila, a firecracker who could keep a man entertained but who was too independent to cramp his style.

  Yep, he’d always be grateful to Angie for introducing him to her sister before he’d made the move on Angie. Not that the thing with Sheila had lasted more than six months, God help him, that was more than enough time to deal with her hysterics and melodrama. But by the time he was free from Sheila, Angie had her hooks in Roger. She’d been officially off-limits, and Kyle had been able to shove his still-lingering desire for her aside. But after seeing how Angie was dragging Roger away from the company, he wasn’t feeling a lot of love for her these days anyway.

  Roger finished his pushups, then hopped to his feet, sporting yet another brand new designer suit. Were the funds for that coming from the company coffers? Kyle grimaced and decided he needed to take another look at Roger’s expense account.

  “What’s up?” Roger asked.

  “I just got a call from Swift Department Stores.” Kyle wasn’t in the mood for preamble, or for comparing his faded jeans and old sweatshirt to the thousand dollar suit that his partner was wearing. Kyle was putting all his funds back into New Age Marketing. Roger clearly wasn’t.

  Roger stared at him blankly. “Swift?”

  “Our new client.”

  “Oh…the jewelry one?”

  Kyle ground his teeth. “Yes.” How in the hell did Roger pay so little attention to their business? “It’s a department store. We’re doing a campaign for their jewelry department.”

  “Okay, sure. I remember.” Roger grabbed his wallet off his desk and shoved it in his jacket pocket. “Well, what’s the deal? And talk fast. I have to go buy flowers.”

  “Flowers?” Kyle couldn’t keep the bitterness out of his voice. How was Roger able to so blithely run around without dealing with the state of their company? “Why? Is Angie feeling blue?” Kyle had never bought a woman flowers in his life. He felt it was too insincere. His first obligation was to his company, and he wasn’t about to make promises to a woman that he couldn’t keep.

  “Nah. I have a hot date tonight.” Roger shot him a secretive look. “My new woman. I’ve been waiting for weeks to make it official and tonight we’re finally going public.”

  Kyle held up his hand. “Whoa. Wait a sec. New woman? What about Angie?” Was it possible? Had Roger finally seen the light?

  Roger shrugged. “I broke it off. She was cramping my style.”

  “Wow.” Kyle had to sit down for that one. Hot damn. This was great news for the company. He needed Roger back and in a major way. “You and Angie are over? For good?”

  “Yep.”

  Hallelujah. It was about damn time. “So, let’s go to dinner tonight. I have a lot of things I need to fill you in on about New Age. I have some ideas on how to pull us out of this free fall, and—”

  “Tonight? No way. I said I have a new woman, and I mean it.” Roger grinned. “She’s too hot to leave alone. I gotta be there to keep her cool, if you know what I mean.”

  Kyle swore and ground his jaw. “So, you went from Mr. Married Guy to dating a sex fiend?”

  “Yep. I never realized what I was missing. I had one hell of a weekend after I dumped Angie.” He wiggled his brows as he picked up his coat. “I gotta hit the road. I need to spruce up the pad for some hot lovin’ tonight.”

  “Wait a sec!” Sex talk or not, Roger wasn’t going anywhere until they came up with a plan to deal with Swift’s call. “We have a serious situation right now. You can’t go home and do interior decorating.”

  “What’s the crisis?” Roger shrugged on his coat and threw his monogrammed silk scarf around his neck.

  On the plus side, if Roger was no longer drooling over Angie, it certainly made Kyle’s bad news less dicey. “Angie messed up.”

  Roger ran a comb through his hair and checked his mirror. “What’d she do?”

  “She screwed up the first story for Swift. They want to pull out.” Merely voicing the words was enough to make Kyle break out in a sweat. If they failed to land Swift as a client, the chance of avoiding closing up shop was infinitesimal, especially without commitment from Roger.

  Roger frowned. “Do we care if they pull out?”

  “Yes, we care!” Kyle paused to regain control and lowered his voice to a more reasonable level. “We really need Swift for a client. This daily serial project is a small test, and if we fail, we don’t get ‘em. If they love it, they’ll give us more business. And we need them. Big time.” He narrowed his eyes at Roger, who was now inspecting his suit for stains or stray threads or something. “Roger. Pay attention. The company isn’t doing very well. We need this client.”

  “Then get the client.” Roger fingered his tie. “Does this tie match? I want to make a good impression. Should I go buy another one, you think? I’m no good with ties. Angie always picked my ties.”

  “Forget the tie, Roger.” Kyle ground his jaw in frustration. “You need to take Angie off the client and replace her with one of the other folks from Creative. We need someone who can write about love, not hate…” Oh. He suddenly understood why Angie had written such a hellacious story yesterday. It was Roger’s fault. He’d dumped her and then left her to write about love and romance? Shit. That wasn’t going to work. “Apparently, with her state of mind after the breakup, she’s not in the mood to write about love.”

  And that was putting it kindly. The “love story” she’d written was a tragic tale about adulterous spouses, emotional devastation and psychological terror. Not exactly the kind of touchy-feely sentiment that would lure men into buying diamonds for their beloveds.

  Roger was already shaking his head. “No way. I can’t interfere.”

  Kyle felt like he was going to explode with the effort of not shouting at his partner. “Why the hell not?”

  “Sexual harassment. Angie was sleeping with the boss, and then I dump her and take away the best assignment in the company? Nope. Too risky. We should actually give her a raise, and we sure as hell can’t take her off that project. You’ll have to figure out how to get her to write better.”

  A sexual harassment claim? Sweet Jesus. This was getting worse by the minute. Kyle grabbed his arm as Roger tried to shove past him. “Hey! Would you focus for a second? This is the company’s future we’re talking about here. Angie has to get it together by the time she submits her story for tonight. You’re the head of Creative. Edit her stuff, or better yet, write it yourself. You can’t go run off and buy ties while the company crashes and burns.”

  Roger grinned and slugged Kyle on the shoulder. “Sure I can. That’s why you’re my partner. I pay the bills, you save the day. It’s worked so far, right?”

  “But it’s not working now.”

  “Then you’re not doing your job, are you?”

  Kyle swore under his breath. “Listen, Roger. It’s your decision if you don’t want to help run this company, but if that’s the case, you need to get out.”

  Roger rolled his eyes. “Not this crap again. I’m not selling my half of the company to you, so forget it.”

  “If you don’t, you might find yourself with a valueless asset in six weeks.”

  “You won’t let that happen.”

  Son of a bitch. They both knew Roger was right. This company had been Kyle’s dream, his vision. The only reason he’d brought Roger in was for the funding, and he wasn’t going to give up on it. Roger knew him too well. Kyle would run himself into the ground before he’d give up on it, and they both knew it. “Fine. I’ll talk to Angie.”

  “Good luck. She nearly stabbed me with the turkey fork when I broke up with her. She’s a bit volatile.”

  Great. That’s all he needed, to have to deal with some broken-hearted woman with violent tendencies. He wasn’t the touchy feely type w
ho could sweet-talk her into happiness. “Thanks for the warning. I’ll wear my bulletproof vest when I meet with her.”

  “Good plan. I’ll see ya.” Roger socked Kyle in the arm again, then ducked out the door in search of a tie, whistling cheerfully.

  For a split second, Kyle felt a twinge of envy. When was the last time he’d whistled? All he did was work and lie awake at night, sweating about every nickel leaving the company’s coffers. He almost envied Roger, and his ability to simply not worry about things. What would it be like to be so into a woman that the world could crash down around him and he wouldn’t care?

  Hell. As if the day would ever come when he’d cut out of work to buy a damn tie to impress a woman. Roger had gone soft, and he was heading the company toward certain doom.

  Unless Kyle could stop it. And the task started with Angie Miller.

  Chapter Two

  The larger the diamond you buy for your true love, the more useful it will be for grinding into their forehead when they announce they are leaving you.

  –Angie Miller

  Angie stared at the computer screen.

  It was only December second.

  She still had twenty-four stories to go.

  She’d never make it.

  For the twentieth time in the last hour, she growled at herself for such negative thoughts. She was going to make it. She was a brilliant writer. No broken heart was going to stop her from writing fantastic and compelling prose.

  “Um, Angie?” Heidi stuck her head in the door, wearing a Santa hat and a fake beard. Her auburn hair was tumbling down past the white brim, making her look adorable instead of like a crazy bearded woman. “Got a sec?”

  “Sure, unless you’re going to wax poetic about the great elfin sex you and Quinn had last night. I’m really not in the mood for that.” Not that she was ever really in the mood for that conversation. Heidi and Quinn’s sex life far eclipsed any interesting stories she’d ever had to tell about her and Roger. And now that she had no sex life at all to compare? Even worse.