He’d even pushed aside putting the finishing touches on Naughty Nicks. It was going to be Megs’ present this year—a company she could run herself, something fun. When she’d mentioned the idea of running a stripper Santa company, he’d initially blown it off. But the more she chatted, teased about the premise, the more merit he thought it had. The final incorporation documents were sitting on his desk now, useless. One more good thing she’d ruined.
“Hi there, can I get another three Santa Shots, please?”
A young woman in her early twenties was now pressed against the bar, the outside of her thigh touching his knee. Blake should have pulled away, but it was nice to feel the contact, even if it was incidental. She wouldn’t have come up higher than his chin if he was standing, even with the Santa hat she currently wore. A mess of soft brown curls had escaped from beneath the felt hat, pinning them down close to her shoulders. Her black yoga pants accentuated her firm legs and he chanced a glance at her ass. Nice.
A clearing of a throat had him looking up into an amused pair of brown eyes. Oh shit.
“Sorry.” He did break the contact then and took hold of his mug once more.
“I don’t mind.” Her voice was cheerful, light. She leaned across the bar a bit further and started humming along with Bing Crosby. “I’ve seen you in here a lot this week.”
Frowning, Blake looked back at her. “Umm, yeah. It’s been a bad week.”
“I’ve had party after party. Between friends and clients I feel like I’m living here.” She smiled, making her eyes sparkle. “I haven’t seen you in here with anyone.”
“No.” Was she flirting with him? It felt a bit like flirting. Maybe she was some sort of counselor and wanted to make sure he wasn’t about to become an unpleasant holiday statistic. “My wife left me. I didn’t want to be alone so I figured this was as good a place as any.”
“Oh my God.” She snapped her mouth shut when the bartender came back with her shots. She took two of the three in her hands. “Just a sec.”
He couldn’t stop himself from watching her bounce over to the booth with her friends. Yep, really nice ass. She spoke with her entire body, her hands waving around her head before she leaned in and gave two of the girls hugs and grabbed her purse and coat. When she turned and caught him staring again, instead of giving him the look Megs and some of her friends might have, she simply cocked an eyebrow and smiled.
“I must look pretty pathetic for you to leave your friends,” he said as she pulled a stool beside him.
She stepped onto the rung of the stool and propelled herself up. “No one should be alone at Christmas.” She froze and looked at him with wide eyes. “You celebrate Christmas right? I didn’t just offend you or something?”
The chuckle slipped past his lips before Blake even realized it was there. “I do and you didn’t.” He held out his hand. “I’m Blake, by the way.”
“Kim.” Her fingers were small as he gave her
a gentle squeeze. “And you’re doing me a favor. Miranda over there just got engaged and hasn’t stopped talking about wedding plans all day. If I had to listen to another debate about the merits of a destination wedding versus having it local, I was going to lose my mind.”
“So instead you want to hang out with the old, depressed, recently single guy?”
“You’re not old.” She leaned back and gave him a once over. “You’re what? Twenty-seven? Twenty-eight?”
“Thirty-three.”
“Pff.” She waved her hand. “That’s nothing. You’re only ten years older than me.”
“Ten years can be a lot.”
“Not if you’re with the right person. Age doesn’t have anything to do with it. I mean, Miranda over there is three years older than her fiancé and they’ll probably be married forever. If you click with someone, you click.”
Two weeks ago, Blake would have believed her. “I wish them all the best.”
Bing Crosby was quickly replaced by Brenda Lee’s “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” sending a shudder through Blake. “I hate this song.”
“Why, I think it’s fun.” Kim picked up her shot and downed it quickly.
“Not when you work a retail job and have to listen to it four times an hour over an eight-hour shift. I did that three years in a row back in university. It’s haunted me ever since.”
“Doh.” She giggled, before looking over at her friends. “Do you want to get out of here?”
He opened his mouth, but nothing came out. He swallowed down the last of his beer and spun on his stool to fully face her. “Pardon?”
Kim’s grin lit up her face. “Do you want to get out of here? My place isn’t too far away and I have eggnog. Might even have some rum we can add to it. Then you know...” She shrugged.
“Are you inviting me back to have sex? Because I need to be honest, I’m not reading women very well right now.” If he was ever able to read them at all.