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I stared at the list.HR finally emailed me the lineup of employees in each of Ever After Sweet Shoppe’s departments, including each person’s mugshot.
I didn’t care if Cynthia down in Staffing thought it was an odd request—the only way I could connect a face to a name was with a picture. I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about Ella since our chance encounter, and I wanted to be absolutely sure that once I found her name, it was her.
She’d been so calm, so kind and patient as she’d tried distracting me and keeping me from hyperventilating. That wasn’t the only reason I couldn’t stop thinking about her.
The tension between us anytime she was near strung tightly enough to pluck it with a pick.
She was irresistible. Unforgettable. I had to find her.
I scrolled through screen after screen. Marketing, Accounting, Sales, Human Resources, Production; I browsed through each quickly, eagerly, anxious to see her face again.
I’d even looked her up on social media, but she didn’t have a huge presence there, which brought me to this.
Several times, a brunette woman with brown eyes caught my attention, but none of them were her. One was too old. One had a mole near her upper lip. One woman had audacious bangs. None of them matched the name Ella Embers.
She’d suggested more than once that she worked in my building. The nametag she’d stuffed into her bag implied that she did, anyway.
Her talk about working Christmas Day still threw me. None of my departments would be open. Which one did she work in?
Unless she had a second job. If that was the case, why hadn’t she mentioned it?
I sent a text to Deanna.
Me: Did the emails get sent out?
Deanna: They did, sir. Your entire staff has been invited.
The entire staff?—
Me: Please send me a list of the recipients.
I didn’t care if she thought the request strange. It was normal for me to want to know who’d been invited, wasn’t it?
I knew, at least, a handful of recipients. I’d decided to include the guys from Sigma Phi Rho. Having allthose self-proclaimed bachelors was going to be a riot. It’d been a while since we’d all gotten together.
Duncan and Maddox both lived here in Westville, so I assumed they would be there. For some of the other guys, though, I wasn’t sure whether they would come or not.
River lived in New York now. Wesley had moved in with his mom in some tiny town in Arkansas.
Prince Henrik was a no-go. The ocean between Vermont and his home country of Einvar might make attendance a little difficult.
And the others? I wasn’t as close to Knox, Ulrich, or Hunter, so I really couldn’t say.
I stared at my computer screen. I tapped my pencil on the desk. I got up and strolled around my office, stopping to stare at the Christmas tree by the window, before returning to the desk to check my phone.
Deanna hadn’t replied yet, nor had she sent the list of recipients.
What was taking her so long?
Impatient and agitated, I tapped Adrian’s number. This was bordering obsessive, but for some reason, the necessity to know felt urgent.
Ella was leaving after Christmas. I had to let her go, yet my heart couldn’t take the hint.
It wasn’t Christmas yet. And I’d never been one to let an opportunity pass me by.
I’d meant what I’d told her—we could have had two months together. Why let the next week go to waste?
