The Boss's Christmas Sweater Read online

  The Boss’s Christmas Sweater

  Deb Goodman

  Contents

  More Books By Deb Goodman

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Epilogue

  Also by Deb Goodman

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  More Books By Deb Goodman

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  To my Grandma Lucille.

  Not only am I lucky enough to share your name, but I got to spend most of the Christmases of my life with you. I’ll never forget your Banana Slush, the sparkle of tinsel on your tree, and your clear, beautiful voice as you sang Christmas songs. I love and miss you.

  Chapter 1

  Aubrey

  Minty, chocolatey hot cocoa goodness lingered on Doctor Aubrey Skinner’s taste buds and warmed her throat. What better way to get her into the Christmas spirit than her first mug of cocoa of the season? Fresh out of her general dentistry residency and in her first real job—at her childhood dentist’s office of all places—she was ready to make her mark on the industry. Christmas time only added to her excitement.

  She took the clipboard from the delivery guy and signed off on the package. A contented sigh escaped her lips. Pushing her sleeves up, she grabbed a large carton of dental tools, new and untouched. Top-of-the-line equipment made her purr, and she wanted nothing more than to dig into the new stuff Williams Dental had recently ordered. As much as she loved opening Christmas gifts, this was much more exciting.

  But she didn’t have the time. She only had a minute before the staff meeting and couldn’t make her new coworkers wait. Down the hall from the dental chairs, she squeaked along the creaky old oak floors and entered the supply closet.

  Oh no. Dr. Williams.

  Dark, with stormy gray eyes and the build of a starting point guard on a basketball team, Dr. Griffin Williams was lean and lithe, with precisely the right amount of muscular definition. With wavy hair and the jawline of her dreams, the thirty-four-year-old looked every bit the type of guy Aubrey would be interested in sharing the tight quarters of a supply closet with.

  But looks could be deceiving.

  He was the son of her former dentist and a younger spitting image of his father. But the warmth she’d known from the elder dentist that had supported her dreams of following in his footsteps was sorely lacking in her current boss.

  “Hello, Dr. Skinner,” Dr. Williams said, his gaze barely darting to hers before scanning the shelves, a clipboard resting in the crook of his arm. Cordial enough, but with every bit of the warmth of a dead fish, his air of formality hadn’t budged a bit since he’d hired her a few weeks before.

  He was a beautiful man. But however appealing the outside was packaged, the inside ruined it every time. Dr. Williams was so formal he was almost robotic.

  “Where would you like the new stuff? Want me to sort it all out?” Aubrey asked, raising the bin in her arms to draw attention to it.

  As if he’d only then noticed the heavy bin, his eyebrows shot up, and he rushed to set his clipboard on a shelf. “I’ll take that. I’ll have one of the assistants go through it tomorrow.” He eased the bin out of her arms, his hand brushing against hers.

  At least his hand felt alive. Warm.

  Dr. Williams set the box on the floor and glanced around the room, taking in everything except her.

  Aubrey shook away her surprise at the hint of delight from his touch. “Thanks.” She tweaked a smile before an itching of nerves grabbed her.

  Why were things awkward with him? Surely, she’d been there long enough for them to have eased into a more comfortable professional relationship. Maybe she was destined to feel uncomfortable with her new boss for the long term. There were worse things in life. She could handle a little awkwardness.

  As his gaze trained on the shelves in front of him, Dr. Williams’s mouth formed a line. “I’ll be at the meeting in a minute. Can’t find where the nitrous masks are. The inventory report isn’t right, and I need to do some last-minute searching.”

  If Aubrey knew anything, it was where nitrous masks were in this closet. Dental-tool organization was one of her hobbies. She sidled in front of him, her hand hovering high above her as she searched for the line of boxes she’d seen earlier in the week.

  Dr. Williams’s presence behind her filled the space all around. Warmth flooded through her, and her emotions fought against themselves. The hot cocoa she’d just downed seemed to have a mind of its own, too, flaring and roaring in her stomach. She could faintly make out the lines of his body not quite touching her own. If she wobbled on her tiptoes at all, though, they’d make actual physical contact.

  She contracted her abs with a force she didn’t commonly use. She hadn’t done an official abdominal workout since dental school, and her body was feeling it. But she couldn’t topple backward and into Griffin right then.

  Oops. Not Griffin. Dr. Williams.

  The heat from his breath on the crown of her head threatened to ease the taut pull of her ab muscles, which were working so hard to not betray her.

  Aubrey cleared her throat. “Here we are. The nitrous masks.” Pinching the stack of thin boxes between her hands, she stretched a leg out to the side, allowing her body to delicately and deftly sink away from him. She spun around to face him without making body contact. Twisting the boxes around, she counted before presenting them to him. “Looks like there are six.”

  The storm in Dr. Williams’s eyes raged again, pulsating as he took the stack, his fingers meeting hers for a split second once more. He glanced down at the boxes and then again into her eyes. “Thanks. I’ll mark it down.”

  “Anytime,” she said, heading for the door to the hallway without looking back. “Consider me your friendly neighborhood dental-tool finder.” Without another word, she left the closet.

  That was strange. Yes, Dr. Williams was all kinds of Greek-god lovely, but not once had that fact caused Aubrey to get blubbery in the mouth before. Something about being so near him made her giggly inside, and she chastised her weak little heart. She was a thirty-year-old professional. She’d fought too long and hard for the life she had now, and she wasn’t going to let him throw her off-balance ever again.

  She rounded the corner and entered the break room, what was once a kitchen in the farmhouse-converted-to-dental-office. The ten or so other employees, mostly hygienists and assistants, lounged in various positions in the room. The scent of peppermint filled the air, and Styrofoam cups littered the countertops. She had to hand it to this office; they knew how to provide tasty treats.

  She’d barely settled into one of the light-blue fifties retro-style chairs around the table when Dr. Williams entered, his dark hair mussed from too many run-throughs with his hands. He caught her eye but then quickly looked away.

  Yes, she’d noticed his glance, as well as the way he tended to muss his hair when he was thinking. She’d also picked up on the probability of him getting premature lines on his forehead from the perma-scowl he frequently sported. If she wasn’t good at noticing details, she’d make a pretty incompetent dentist.

  “Let’s make this quick. No
ne of us like long meetings around here, as you’ll soon see, Dr. Skinner.” The edges of Dr. Williams’s mouth tugged up before he looked down at his laptop. “I don’t have much today, especially since we’re just getting back from Thanksgiving break. But with Connie gone, we’re all feeling a little like a boat that’s lost its rudder.”

  “Yeah,” Nadine said, sliding her fingernail in between her teeth, her eyebrows drawn together. “How long is her jury duty supposed to be?” Nadine was the hygienist who’d filled Aubrey in on most of the day-to-day inner workings of the office the first few days. She’d worked at the office longer than Dr. Williams himself.

  Another hygienist, Mara, nodded and twisted in her chair. “It’s only the first day of the trial. She could be back in a day or two or not for weeks. There’s no way of knowing.”

  “They wouldn’t continue during the holidays, would they? She can’t miss Christmas,” Nadine said.

  A long sigh escaped Dr. Williams. “I, for one, cannot survive December without my office manager, so, yeah. Let’s all pray the trial is short and sweet.”

  Nods and murmurs traveled along the table. Even Aubrey, as new as she was, had felt Connie’s absence keenly all day, with improperly recorded appointment times and inefficient logistics in the patients’ seating schedules.

  After showing his employees the business stats for the previous month, Dr. Williams’s tone grew more serious than before. “One last thing before I let you go.” He swiped a hand along his mouth. “With Connie gone, the job of billing has fallen to me.” His shoulders sagged. “I’m a little rusty on that front, so it’s going to take me a while.”

  Working his jaw, he eyed the team of employees. “Which means someone else needs to pick up the other pressing thing Connie suddenly can’t do.” He took a steadying breath. “Giving Hearts.”

  A collective moan escaped the room as everyone shifted back and away from him in their chairs. Someone behind Aubrey muttered under their breath, “Good luck to that poor person.”

  “What’s Giving Hearts?” Aubrey asked, looking around the group.

  “It’s the Chamber of Commerce Christmas charity event,” Nadine said, her arms crossed over her middle. “Connie’s always been the liaison from the office. She goes to the meetings, sets up the Christmas tree, gets the ornaments ready…all that jazz. The rest of us have to show up on the twenty-second for the event. It’s Gramercy’s biggest opportunity to give to the local charities.”

  Mara nodded, her hands fanning out. “It’s a big deal. A lot of our patients go. And Connie and Dr. Williams have always taken care of everything.”

  The doctor’s lips twisted to one side. “I know it’s probably killing Connie to not be here to take care of this. Whoever takes over needs to do a good job. We can’t slack off and then have Connie hear about it later, you know?” His nervous chuckle added to the smattering of other chitchat.

  Mara raised a finger. “They’ll have to stay after hours to work on it, right? None of us have the time during the day.”

  Dr. Williams sighed, his jaw set in a hard line. “I know what I’m asking is a lot. This will add to your already busy Decembers. And most of you have kids at home you need to get to.” Clearing his throat, his gaze drifted to Aubrey with an imploring glance.

  Was he shaming her for not having kids?

  He looked at a folder on the table, which he slid to the middle. “We know Connie’s organized. Here’s her folder. The info from past years is in there. You’ll have everything you need. There are less than three weeks to plan it as it is the Saturday before Christmas. And I’m willing to help…I just can’t be Connie in this, too.”

  “Well, I can’t,” Nadine said flatly, her fingertips drumming on the tabletop.

  A few others nodded and squirmed in their seats.

  Aubrey’s insides fidgeted, hot and queasy. She’d never been able to avoid volunteering. It was a curse, one her college group-project-lover self couldn’t kick. “I guess I can do it,” she found herself saying.

  A flash of irritation rose inside her as her gaze challenged Dr. Williams to meet hers. “I think I’m the only one without kids, so it makes sense. And what better way to throw me into the deep end of all things Williams Dental than to pretend I’m Connie for a while?”

  Dr. Williams grinned, one of the only times she’d seen him genuinely smile. “Yes. And who knows? Connie might be back in a couple of days and can pick right back up where she left off. Maybe the most you’d have to do would be to make a few phone calls and write some emails.”

  Aubrey shrugged once as her coworkers filed out of the room, through the employee entrance, and into the brisk night air. The tufts of snow, fresh from Thanksgiving weekend, sparkled under the moonlight.

  But even as Dr. Williams said it, that this might not last long and Connie would be back soon to take over, Aubrey felt it in her gut: Connie wouldn’t return anytime soon. And Aubrey’s girl-scout self had volunteered to plan something she didn’t even know the first thing about.

  And the way the doctor had looked at her, all pale-eyed and pleading? Please. She knew he’d wanted her to volunteer. It didn’t take a smarty pants to know what he’d implied: she needed to take over this event because she didn’t have a family waiting at home for her. Not that he was technically even supposed to know or care.

  Sure, she’d take over on this. No worries that she had no clue what she was doing. Never mind that she worked for a spiteful boring man who’d forced her to do this.

  She would win at it—make it the best Giving Hearts Thingamajig ever. She was here, finally working at this office that had felt like something of a home for a long time. Doing whatever it took to succeed was her only option.

  Chapter 2

  Griffin

  Griffin had figured out why Mondays were usually busy in dental offices. Since the whole world hated Mondays, they’d collectively decided they may as well go get fillings and root canals done while they were busy being grumpy about the day. This caused his Mondays to be stressful in return, one of the aspects of running the office that made him want to quit.

  But he’d returned after the weekend with a sense of hopefulness he hadn’t felt in a while. When Aubrey volunteered to manage the Giving Hearts event the week before, he’d been surprised how much that one gesture eased his mind. Giving up some of his responsibilities—and, in return, stress—was becoming easier the longer she worked there.

  Yes, Connie was away on jury duty at the worst time; she’d been gone a full week. December was busy enough as it was, with patients needing services before their insurance started over in the new year. But no matter how competent his team of receptionists, hygienists, and assistants were, no one else could do the billing.

  At least Aubrey was taking care of Giving Hearts. She was his new hire, after all, and it would be good to check in. Besides, their encounter in the supply closet the week before had been interesting, and he hadn’t been able to get his mind off of being so close to her.

  He entered her exam room and studied the x-rays on the computer before turning to look at her. Aubrey was wearing a light-peach blouse and black business trousers. The peach color drew out the gentle glow of her skin along her collarbone. She sat at the head of a child, deftly maneuvering the tools as she filled the cavity.

  She murmured to the girl, her voice soft under her mask, “Look at you, Adelia. You’re doing so well. You’re an expert at letting me patch this little hole up.”

  This wasn’t the first time Griffin had noticed her calming manner with children. And it wasn’t the first time he’d felt something when he was near her. When he’d interviewed her, he’d been struck by her beauty, the shiny long dark hair and large brown eyes. One glance at her resume sealed the deal. She’d scored higher on her DAT and the national boards than he’d ever heard of. And the fact that this was her first job out of residency helped the uncomfortable feeling of having to pay another dentist. As Gramercy had begun growing out of its sleepy town sta
tus, so had his practice.

  But he’d known the moment he’d interviewed her that he’d have to be careful. He couldn’t allow her appeal to compromise his professionalism.

  After seeing she was on track with the filling, he left her room, having patients of his own to work with for the rest of the afternoon. The day soon turned to evening. It was nearly seven o’clock when the last patient left.

  As he walked along the hardwood floors to take care of the finicky old locks of the farmhouse, Aubrey sat in the kitchen breakroom, papers and a laptop on the table in front of her. Strains of Buddy Holly and Big Band Holiday music were playing from her phone. She’d tucked her hair behind an ear, and her mouth was turned down in a frown.

  “Is this the Giving Hearts stuff?” He rapped a knuckle on the table near the papers.

  She looked at him like he had three heads, her eyes widening before becoming narrow slits. “I can’t find anything on this year, though. All of these documents are from years past.”

  He slid a chair out from the table and slouched down next to her, picking up a paper from the top of the pile. “I don’t know if Connie had started much yet, to tell you the truth.”

  At Aubrey’s grimace, he rushed to explain. “But it will be easy enough to figure out, and then you can go from there.” He rotated the computer to face him and then typed at a rapid clip. “There. That’s the email address for our liaison with the Chamber of Commerce. If you contact her, she’ll point you in the right direction.”

  Again with the three-heads look from Aubrey. It was obvious she liked to challenge him, and if he allowed himself to, he could enjoy the back and forth.