Free A Yowling Yuletide by Celeste Hall

 
Angels Among Us
     
    Because he had only passed the bar exam in
May, and was therefore the lowest ranking partner in the firm, it
was Matt who was assigned desk duty after their receptionist gave
her two weeks’ notice.
    But he supposed it was a fitting punishment,
since the receptionist was his sister, and he was the direct reason
for her leaving.
    He scowled at the stack of mail in front of
him, finding it hard to focus on the names as painful memories
flooded up to drown him.
    It was less than a month since his sister,
Rachel, had driven away Matt's fiancé. Leaving him with a
monstrously empty new home and a hole in his chest that he was sure
would never heal.
    He'd loved Tanya since they were in high
school together, although she'd never said more than a few words to
him in passing.
    She'd been the head cheerleader, the queen
of every prom, and the wet dream of every heterosexual male within
the entire town of Aspire, New York.
    Tanya was movie star beautiful, and her
parents had given her every financial advantage their productive
dairy farm could offer. The day she'd finally agreed to go out with
him, Matt had thought his chest might actually explode. He was that
proud to have her on his arm.
    His sister had warned him over and over that
Tanya was only a gold-digger, looking to use him for the money he'd
put aside, and then toss him away as she had so many others. But
when he'd been with Tanya, she'd treated him as if he were the
first man she'd ever loved. And he'd sucked all that affection up
like a damned newborn calf.
    He'd spent his life savings turning an old
stable on their family farm into a beautiful home, to entice her to
move in with him.
    A few months later, he worked up the courage
to propose. And after weeks of persuasion, she'd finally said
yes.
    It wasn't until now that he could look back
at the events and see the financial motivation that Rachel had
warned him about.
    It was just after his mother signed the farm
over to him and his sister that Tanya agreed to date him. And she
hadn't agreed to marry him until Avgard Real Estate Investment and
Development had made a multi-million dollar offer to buy the farm
from him.
    Of course, he'd had no real intention to
sell the farm, and as soon as his new fiancé figured that out, she
quickly canceled their marriage and moved off to the big city.
    He knew that it wasn't entirely Rachel's
fault that his love life had imploded so impressively, but she had
sure given it a few good kicks along the way.
    Her new boyfriend was Tyson Avgard, the man
who'd approached him about selling the farm, and indirectly
encouraged Tanya to accept his proposal.
    He was also the man who'd helped Tanya move
away after she learned that Matt wouldn't be selling and making her
the millions she craved.
    Matt suspected Rachel had a part in that
vanishing act as well, but she hadn't admitted to anything.
    Abruptly, the office door opened and a blast
of frigid December wind threatened to scatter all of the mail and
paperwork he'd been sorting. In a move that was neither masculine
nor attractive, he flattened himself over the desk, using himself
as a giant paperweight in an effort to salvage all of his work.
    When the door closed and he was at last able
to straighten up, he found himself looking up into the glorious
face of a Christmas angel.
    That was the best way he could have
described her, because she looked exactly like the white robed
cherubim that his mother had used to top her Christmas trees for as
long as he could remember.
    Bright red hair glowed like a halo around
her face, perfectly framed by the white fluff on the hood of her
long winter coat. She had beautiful porcelain white skin, now
pinked from the cold, and golden Topaz eyes that sparkled as if lit
from within.
    He was so certain that she couldn't be real,
he actually lost his ability to speak for several long seconds.
    Thankfully, she didn't appear to notice his
frozen state as she shrugged out of the heavy coat and