Page 6 of Daddy's Christmas Elf
And hadn’t that been a handy stick to beat me with…
He shoved himself away from the door, and rolled his shoulders before he pulled them back.Thatpart of his life was over with, and he refused to prod and pick at the wound which had barely had time to scab over. Or he refused to pick at it most of the time. He shook his head, short and hard. No point in looking back when he needed to look forward. The only problem was, forward seemed to point to nothing other than a featureless infinity.
Maybe he should have his driver drop him off at a bar on the way home. He knew a couple of places which were smart and low key, where the propositions were discreet and the cost of an evening’s companionship, or even just a few minutes, was obliquely agreed to over expensive cocktails, nobody brazen enough to say what the other was.
The thought left him as cold as a blast of Arctic wind. No, he’d go home, open up the fine brandy he’d saved for Christmas even if Christmas was technically still a few days away, and instead give himself up to the winsome, four legged charms of Trevor.
Grey pulled his phone from the inside pocket of his suit jacket; the call was picked up before the second ring.
“I’m ready to be taken home now, Colin… Yes, I’ll see you outside the front of the hotel.” Grey cut the call. If Colin was surprised by the early hour, it didn’t show in his voice.
Grey stepped out of the hotel, just as Colin was gliding towards him in the vintage sleek, black Jag. Grey shivered as a hard wind blew. When had it got this cold? The temperature had dropped by several degrees in just a couple or so hours, he was sure of it. He hadn’t bothered taking his coat into the hotel, leaving it on the back seat rather than checking it in.
“Mr. Gillespie.” Colin tapped the peak of his chauffeur’s cap as he jumped out from the driver’s seat and opened the door for Grey to climb into the back. Grey smiled his thanks. He could just as well have opened the door himself, but Colin was old school, and would have seen it as a slight on his professionalism.
Settling himself into the soft leather seat as the Jag eased its way into the Friday night traffic, all Grey wanted to do was get home and shut the door on the evening. Shifting a leg, he knocked against something solid. He looked down — and met a pair of wide, terrified eyes staring up at him.
“Colin?”
“Yes, Mr. Gillespie?”
“We seem to have acquired an elf.”
CHAPTERFOUR
“I’m so sorry, Mr. Gillespie, I don’t understand—”
“No, Colin, it’s quite all right.” Grey raised his hand, and the chauffeur stepped back from the open door. They’d pulled up on the side of the road. Colin was flustered, embarrassed at the appalling slip in professionalism which had allowed an elf to curl up in the footwell.
Grey extended his hand. “Let me help you up.”
“S’okay.” The elf uncurled himself, hauled himself upright, and fell sideways onto the back seat.
“I’ll call the police, Mr. Gillespie. This person must have been planning to steal—”
“I’m not a thief! And I wouldn’t be in here if you’d have done your job properly and locked the car when you went for a wee.”
The elf glared at Colin, who went quiet, and Grey dipped his head to hide the grin that twitched at his lips. But it fell away almost immediately.
Grey had recognised the elf immediately. The boy — he’d looked no more than about eighteen or nineteen when Grey had seen him in the function room — was clearly a little older than he’d first appeared but not by much. It was probably why he’d got the job as a Christmas elf, a Christmas elf who was now an unemployed elf, as a result of Murray’s unacceptable, crass, drunken behaviour.
“Why were you crouching in the back of the car?”
“I, erm…” The elf slumped and his shoulders drooped. Chewing on his lower lip, he peered up at Grey, desolation filling his eyes, lovely big eyes that were—
“It’s called heterochromia,” the elf mumbled.
“I know what it’s called.” Eyes of different colours, in this case one grey, the other green. Rare, and in the elf’s case, utterly captivating.
“Mr. Gillespie?”
Grey dragged his gaze from the elf to the chauffeur, who raised his brows in question. Grey cleared his throat, as he looked back at the elf.
“You haven’t answered my question.”
“I—I saw your coat on the back seat.” The elf looked down at the coat, which lay between them. “I also saw the door was unlocked — when it shouldn’t have been.” The elf glared at Colin, before he slid his gaze back to Grey. “I was sacked, because I wouldn’t put up with your employee having his hands all over me.” The elf tilted his chin up and locked his gaze to Grey’s, pride and self respect in the gesture. “But when I went to get changed, my locker had been ransacked and all my stuff was gone. I was going to borrow the coat, that’s all, and bring it back to the hotel. I mean, look at me. Do you really think I can make my way home dressed like this?”
The elf opened his arms wide, and Grey had to concede the point.
