Page 17 of The CEO's Christmas Wife

I laughed and kept tossing it at her until she grabbed some flour and threw it back at me. She laughed so happily that it shot straight to my groin. I let go of the tension and the bad memories once more, and I also released the judgment that I had about Kandi. Instead, I allowed myself to bask in the moment of creating a new memory, one where my fake wife had the key to my heart.

9

LET IT SNOW

Kandi

After the disastrous road trip, searching for a place to stay, getting to know his family, searching for and decorating a tree, and then the food fight and subsequent cleanup last night, I was exhausted. Kayn and I didn’t get to bed until around two this morning. I couldn’t believe that he had such playfulness in him. When he had first tossed a handful of flour at me, I was bewildered. But when he followed it up with a ball of cookie dough, the fight was on.

I saw another side of Kayn last night that I never thought I would and I only hoped he would continue to show after we returned home. His aunt and uncle had come into the kitchen to figure out what all the raucous laughter and noise was about. I was scared, and we both froze, knowing that we would be in trouble.

But they had burst out laughing, shook their heads, and turned to leave. Kayn’s aunt had hollered out, “Y’all better clean my kitchen before you leave it; that’s all I know.”

We looked at each other, laughed, and finished the fight before we proceeded to clean the kitchen. By the time wefinished cleaning, the cookies were done, and we served some to everyone.

I noticed that when I asked questions about his younger pictures, Kayn had disappeared. His aunt hadn’t explained the shift in energy. Instead, she simply patted my hand, stated, “I don’t have those,” and then turned her attention to her neighbors, whom she had introduced me to.

I stretched and yawned. I knew that we had to get an early start if we wanted to be on the road in time for his business meeting this morning. It would be difficult because although I was ready to get back home to my family, I wasn’t ready for this time with Kayn to end. I wanted to hold on to the man I had come to know in the last twelve hours.

I sat up in bed to see if he was still lying on the floor where he had made a pallet, but he wasn’t there. I sighed and climbed out of bed. I headed into the bathroom and washed my face just as I heard the bedroom door opening.

“Good morning,” I called.

“Hope you feel that way after I tell you the news,” he grumbled.

That sounded like the old Kayn. My heart dropped, and I wondered what news it was because he was back to business as usual.

“What news?” I asked, stepping from the bathroom and squeezing toothpaste onto my toothbrush.

“There’s been a blizzard. The weather is worse, and we’re not going anywhere.”

I rushed to the windows and pulled the curtains back. My heart sank at the sight of mounds of snow. I identified most of the shapes as cars and trees. Where stately, festively decorated mailboxes had stood were nothing more than banks of snow. There was no way that anyone would be going anywhere in this.

“All this snow in the last few hours?” I yawned.

“Yeah, while we were sleeping. Uncle JR and I just got back from walking Main Street to see how bad the damage was. We went down to where we left Kyle’s car parked, and it was completely snowed under. We were able to dig away enough snow to open the trunk, but it took almost an hour just to do that. We brought back the rest of our luggage.”

“There’s no way that we’ll be getting out of here today then, is there?” I tried to hide the disappointment in my voice, but the look on his face said I failed miserably.

“No. The weather reports are stating that there’s another round expected by this evening. We’re looking at another day or two here tops before we can find our way out, Kandi. I’m sorry,” he apologized.

“Well, I guess I better get on the phone and see what I can do about rescheduling your meeting.”

“No need. The one in Atlanta has been taken care of already. They’re obviously dealing with the same problem. Carey Carnes’ secretary sent an email last night that we missed. She was informing us that today’s meeting will be virtual a little later this morning.”

I could tell by the tone of his voice that he didn’t like that we had missed the email. Kayn hated missing anything, and he was usually punctual about everything. I knew he had to be thinking about all the things we were doing last night. I hoped he didn’t regret it.

“I’ve got to get ready for it,” he grumbled, pulling his fingers through his beard.

I frowned as I headed back into the bathroom to brush my teeth. I turned the water on and looked at Kayn’s reflection in the mirror. “Aren’t they the same ones who were adamant that the meeting had to be in person in the first place?”

“They were, but they really want this contract done badly so they can get out of the red and start over with a new investment.When people need your money that desperately, they’ll make anything work. I’ll be on the phone with them in a little over an hour. Tim will be joining the call, and so will Sheridan,” Kayn stated of our COO, Tim McBride, and Sheridan Parsley, our director of ops.

I felt bad that I hadn’t been on that in advance. I knew there was a possibility of us running into more bad weather. I should have proposed moving the meeting back or insisted once again that we hold a virtual meeting. The last thing I needed was to lose this job because of incompetence. There were many things that I still needed to learn in this new position, and while others bragged about my work values and ethics, Kayn had not said one thing about how I was working out for him.

I brushed my teeth and glanced up to see him still staring at me in the mirror. He wore a thoughtful expression, and I wondered what was on his mind. I didn’t have to wonder for long because he spoke up.

“Listen, I know that you’re not happy about all this. Hell, I’m not. Though we had our different reasons, we both needed this trip to be over with as soon as possible. Any time that I’m away is costing me money. I know that you want to be back with your family as soon as possible, and I’m going to do everything in my power to make that happen. Until then, though, I can arrange for someone to give you a tour of the town today after the meeting.”

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