My Fake Christmas Fiance (Kane Christmas #1) - Julie Kriss Page 0,21

I had hired Sam to work in the warehouse, but I gave a mental shrug. I’d try to remember to mention it later.

When I went back into my office, Penny was standing with her arms crossed protectively over her chest, looking out my window at the snowy Denver landscape. She turned when she heard me. “Everything okay?”

“Yes. Sophie liked you,” I said. The relief on Penny’s face was unexpected, and I realized she’d been worried that Sophie had pulled me aside to say something bad. “What did you say to her?” I asked.

“She asked me about how we met.” Penny shook her head. “We met in a meeting, I think. I had to play along.”

“Well, good job.”

“I like your office.”

I looked around. I had Dad’s office, including his desk, which was a huge old-fashioned thing. I kept thinking I should get rid of it, but I honestly had no idea if it would fit through the office door. Maybe the whole Kane building had been built around this stupid desk.

Still, it made me look legit, like a CEO. I had a nice view of Denver through the windows, plus some chairs and a leather sofa. There was even a liquor cabinet stocked with expensive liquor. Dad had never allowed any Christmas decorations in his office, though, so as a fuck you to him, I’d put up Christmas lights and a light-up Santa on the wall behind my desk. When I pushed a button, he jittered up and down mechanically, played the most obnoxious “Jingle Bells” you’ve ever heard, and shouted, “Ho ho holidays!”

It was terrible and headache-inducing. My father would have hated it. It was perfect.

“Glad you like it,” I said to Penny. “Now I’ll show you around.” I reached out and took her hand, partly for reassurance, but partly because I couldn’t not do it. She just looked so pretty standing there, I wanted to touch her.

When I had her hand in mine, I looked down at it. “You moved the ring.”

“I had to.” Her cheeks flushed a little again. “It’s part of the, you know, the plan.”

Right. We were fake engaged. My sister already believed it, and now everyone else would, too. Suddenly, after a year of only talking about it, this seemed very real. “Come with me,” I said, pushing those thoughts down and leading her out of the office.

I led her around the corner on the executive floor and down the hall. In the open space where we had a coffee station was a table-sized model of a log cabin surrounded with snow, yellow lights in the windows. On the roof of the cabin, Santa had landed his sleigh and was about to climb into the chimney while the reindeer and an elf watched. Black velvet had been pinned to the wall behind the cabin, with white lights poking through to make twinkling stars. The coffee maker had a striped elf on top of it.

“This place is amazing,” Penny said, tugging my hand to slow me down so she could look more closely.

“Didn’t they decorate at The Christmas Experience?” I asked her.

She shook her head, bending to look more closely at Santa. “We put a small plastic tree and a couple of garlands in the break room. That was it.”

“At a Christmas company?” I watched Penny adjust her glasses, her expression lighting with pleasure when she caught sight of the tiny stockings that could be seen through the cabin windows. “If you’re a Christmas company, you should go all out at Christmas. There ought to be some kind of law.”

“We never really thought about it,” Penny said. “We didn’t have much of a holiday party, either. We’d have a fancy buffet lunch at a nearby restaurant on the last day of work, then send everyone home early.”

“Really?” I felt myself grinning as Penny stood straight again. “That’s what we used to do, too—a lame thing where my father made a boring speech and no one had any fun. I changed it. You’re in for a treat at our holiday party. We have an event space on the top floor of this building now. We rented it out most of the year, but as of the twenty-fourth it’s designated for the Kane Co. holiday party. We’re pulling out all the stops. It’s going to be tons of fun.”

Penny’s eyes lit up with excitement. “Will people dress up? What do I wear? Do we have to bring gifts?”

“Wear what you want, and no one has to bring gifts.”