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Mia took another bite of her sandwich and then a drink. “My life isn’t as exciting as yours. I’m not a self-made millionaire. I grew up in Philly to a middle class family. I’m the baby. Caden was the golden child. Valedictorian of his class. Top five of graduating class in college. He played sports and he was a model. Like a serious model but stopped when he was in college toward the end to focus on that.”
“I’ve met your brother. I hadn’t realized that, but he is kind of pretty.”
She laughed. “We used to bust his butt about that as a kid. Morgan is the middle child. But the oldest girl. Smart again. I think, though we are close and always have been, we both felt like we’d never measure up to Caden.”
“You both seem pretty successful by the sounds of it,” he said.
“I never got the glamorous life I thought I’d go for when I was in law school.”
“How did you end up doing not-for-profit work?” he asked.
“Your turn. Bakery?”
He winked at her, ate some more of his sandwich and picked at his fries. She said she didn’t like games, but this was a fun way to find out about someone in a short time frame.
“I like sweets,” he said.
“Really?” she asked. “It’s as simple as that? You only own half of it.”
“I do,” he said. “I’m sure you can figure it out so I’ll just say it. My father worked with another officer that got injured and had to retire early. This was about five years ago. They had some young kids and his wife is the other owner of the bakery. When my mother died, Rich was there for my Dad. His wife was there for me in terms of bringing food all the time. Baked goods. She’d had a two-year-old at home and then was pregnant with another. It seemed like the right thing to do. Rich got hurt right when they were getting ready to open the bakery. They didn’t know how they were going to make it work and I stepped in. Lisa runs it. I’ve got little to no say. I get a paycheck each month from it.”
“I’m sure it’s minimal,” she said, laughing.
“No comment,” he said.
“You’re like a regular old Santa Claus to those around you,” she said.
She picked up her sandwich to take another bite and then noticed his smile drop.
“Hardly,” he said. “I’m more like a Scrooge.”
She laughed even harder. Thinking he was joking.
Only he wasn’t and she didn’t know why.
7
SAY SOMETHING STUPID
Hours later, Cal was at the house he’d just closed on, walking around and wishing he could kick his own ass.
Here he was having a great lunch with Mia and then he had to go and say something stupid.
It was like this trigger he had whenever people talked about Christmas.
He always held it in and thought he did well with Mia.
It was the joke about Santa Claus.
Nope. Not him.
It was the one time of year he hated.
He couldn’t stand it.
And the fact Christmas decorations would start being put in stores in a few weeks was only going to annoy him.
He’d gotten used to it though. He looked past it like he did so many other things in his life.
