Free The Billionaire's First Christmas - Contemporary Romance by Holly Rayner

this big guy, you’re going to have to give
me a story.” I laughed again, this time because he was calling the
tiny little thing in his hand a “big guy.” What was it with men and
size?
     
    “Okay, here’s the story,” I said, as
we resumed walking through the market. “When I was eight years old,
some kids at school told me that there was no such thing as Santa
Claus. I was devastated. I cried all the way home. When I got home,
I told my mother what they’d said. I asked her point-blank if she
and my daddy had lied to me. I wanted to know once and for all if
he existed.”
     
    “So what did she say?” he
asked.
     
    “She didn’t really say anything. When
I think back on it now, I’m sure that she didn’t know what to say.
When you first tell your kids about Santa, it’s a fun fantasy. But
when they confront you about his existence later on in life, I’m
sure it feels like a lie. My mother never lied to me. She suggested
that we bake cookies and talk about it when my father got home from
work. I also know now that she knew he would know just how to
handle it. So we baked chocolate chip cookies; my mother’s were the
best… warm and gooey.”
     
    “Santa Claus?” he said, trying to
re-direct me back to the subject at hand. I did have a tendency to
get off track, especially with so much stimulus going on around
me.
     
    “I’m getting there,” I told him. “Be
patient.” We were passing the booth to buy tickets for the carriage
rides and I stopped and said, “Ooh! Let’s go for a carriage
ride.”
     
    “What about the story?” he said. I
could tell right then that patience wasn’t one of his virtues. I
guess when you’re Aaron Winters; you rarely had to wait for what
you wanted.
     
    “I’ll finish the story in the
carriage. Come on, it doesn’t feel like Christmas without at least
one carriage ride through the park.” Aaron was eyeing the horse and
the cart suspiciously. He seemed to be checking the wheels on the
cart to make sure they looked like they’d hold up. “It’s safe, I
promise. Have you never been for a carriage ride?”
     
    “I’ve never seen the point,” he said.
“I have several cars and…”
     
    I laughed, “There is no point. It’s
just fun. Don’t you ever do anything spontaneously just for
fun?”
    He looked like he was thinking about
that and then he said, “Rarely.”

CHAPTER EIGHT
     
    ~

 
     
     
    ROBYN
     
     
    I was having a hard time imagining
what a sheltered life Aaron must have led. I wondered if he had
been one of those children who grew up in private school and with a
nanny. I pictured him in a mansion in upstate somewhere with two
driven, focused parents that rarely had time for him. My heart
ached for the lonely little boy who grew up not learning to have
any fun. I’m sure that was where he learned how to be so serious,
he watched his parents work hard and succeed, not having time for
much else… even Christmas for their child maybe. I didn’t know any
of that for sure. It was all just a theory. But, there had to be a
reason that as an adult, everything Aaron did seemed to be
carefully thought out and planned in advance. There was never
spontaneity involved. That may be good for business, but it was not
conducive at all to living life. I realized that my imagination was
getting away with me, but where Aaron was concerned it was really
all I had. He didn’t seem to be opening up much about his life
other than how much he disliked Christmas. I wished that he would,
I’d really love to know him. I hoped if I kept plugging away, he
would crack and it would all spill out. My motto was always that I
only got one chance at this thing called life. I was going to do it
right.
     
    “You really need to work on trying to
be more impulsive,” I told him. “Life’s so much more fun if it’s
not all planned out. Plans are necessary sometimes, but other times
they actually get in the way of trying new things. Come on, let’s
get a hot