Cinderella's Christmas Affair

Cat Girl…that’s what she’d called herself senior year. CJ wished for a time machine. She wouldn’t travel to the future to see the marvels it held, or to the distant past to visit Regency England. She’d travel back to her first year of high school.

She’d find her old locker and destroy the box of HoHos she’d always kept there. Then she’d give her teenaged self a makeover, pointing out gently that baggy clothes didn’t make her look slimmer and finally giving her teenaged self the one piece of advice no one else had given her but someone really should have—never call yourself Cat Girl.

Even if you meant it tongue-in-cheek, some day when you’re almost thirty it will sound humiliating and not funny.

Alas, there was no time machine and she’d just have to muddle through this as best she could. Tad Randolph didn’t own the only large sporting goods chain looking for representation, she could find another one. Of course, by then Paul Mitchum, another ad executive, would have beaten her to the punch and her career with Taylor, Banks and Markim would be down the drain. CJ wished that the floor would open up and swallow her.

“That was a long time ago,” she said at last. “I’m not that person anymore.”

“Why didn’t you say something sooner?” he asked.

“Come on Tad, honestly would you want Cathy Jane from Auburndale to represent your company?”

“You’re not that woman anymore,” he said.

“No, I’m not,” she said. She met his gaze. His gray-green eyes had always fascinated her. There was more reflected there now than intelligence and fierce will. Now she saw a man with life experience. A man who tempted her to forget what she’d learned about men and maybe risk her heart on the gamble that this guy would be the one who’d never leave.

“I’ve got to get back to work.”

“I won’t keep you.”

She gathered her presentation case and walked out of the conference room without looking back.

“CJ?”

She glanced over her shoulder at him.

“Have dinner with me?” he asked.

“Oh, Tad. I can’t.”

“Why not? Come on, Cathy Jane, for old time’s sake.”

“It’s CJ now.”

She was tempted but knew that nothing good came from dwelling on the past. Besides, Tad had been the reason why she’d moved away from Auburndale. After she’d overheard him talking about her to his friends she’d realized that she needed to start over where no one knew her.

And Chicago had seemed the right place for that. Except she’d learned that running away meant nothing unless you changed, too. She’d been the same shy, awkward girl until Marcus had left and forced her to take stock of her life.

She didn’t really know how to handle men one-to-one. She started to shake her head.

“I know you’ve changed but we were once friends and I’d like to take you to dinner.”

She couldn’t stop her smile. They had been friends. He’d been the only kid her age in the neighborhood that summer they’d both been twelve—popularity and weight hadn’t mattered. They’d ridden their bikes all over the city and spent all their time together. She’d forgotten those days.

There was a part of Tad that was very dear to her. Not the teenaged boy who’d been more concerned about his image than her feelings, but the friend she’d had when she’d first moved to the ridiculously small town of Auburndale. “You’re bigger than you used to be.”

She blushed when she realized how ridiculous that sounded.

“Geez, thanks! Come on. Just one meal. What could it hurt?”

She knew she shouldn’t but couldn’t resist the temptation he represented. He’d been her secret teenage crush, and he’d never noticed her as a woman…until now. It was a fantasy and as long as she remembered that she should be fine. “Okay, one dinner but that’s it. We’re probably going to be working together and I don’t want things to get weird.”

“I like your confidence, Cat Girl.”

“Uh, Tad?”

“Yes.”

“Don’t call me that anymore.”

“What’s going to happen if I do? I am stronger than you now.”

“I’m a third degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do.”

“No kidding. I practice that martial art too.”

This was creepy. She shouldn’t have that much in common with him—the boy who’d broken her heart and made her doubt she’d be a mate to any man. “I’d love to spar with you.”

“Call me Cat Girl again and I’ll give you a chance. I don’t want to talk about old times.”

“I don’t either. I want a chance to get to know the new you.”

She tried to smile as she walked away because she knew that there wasn’t much new to her. She still felt like the same awkward person she’d always been.

Two

Tad guessed that CJ had been trying to put him in his place but as he watched her walk away, enjoying the sight of her curvy hips swaying with each step she took, he didn’t mind.

Man had she changed since high school. He remembered the lonely little girl who’d made him feel like a hero when he’d bandaged her scrapes after she’d fallen off her bike. He remembered her as a sweet shy girl who’d been too smart for him in high school. He also remembered the girl who’d refused to talk to him after senior prom. He’d always wondered why she had cut him off.

But this woman in the conference room had been a sexy blend of intelligence, savvy and sass. Just what he liked in his women.

His mom had been bugging him to look up Cathy Jane since he’d moved to Chicago five years ago, but Tad had put her off. Kylie, his college girlfriend, had left him saying she didn’t want to come in second to a sporting goods store just about the time he had moved to the Windy City. Tad had been kind of sour on women then. The last thing he’d wanted to do was catch up with the girl who’d given him the cold shoulder through the last two months of their acquaintance.

Of course, at the time his mom had been pressuring him to marry as well. Which was a common thing with her. But his business had been in that crucial make-it-or-break-it stage and the last thing he’d wanted was the kind of distraction women offered. And he hadn’t been interested in marrying some hometown girl or any other girl for that matter.

Tad had shelved his dreams of wife and family and concentrated on making a success of P.T. Xtreme Sports instead. But his mother’s health had been deteriorating in the five years since he’d moved to Chitown and he knew she’d love to see him settled. In fact, she’d hinted rather baldly on the phone last night that she was the only woman in her circle of friends without grandchildren. And he was honest enough to admit he wanted a family.

He’d created a legacy and he wanted to be able to pass it on to his own kids. But finding the right woman wasn’t easy. He wanted a woman who’d look up to him and need him.

Cathy Jane would have fit that bill, but he wasn’t sure CJ did. She’d changed. He remembered long curly brown hair that he’d always tried to accidentally touch. God, it had been incredibly soft. Her auburn tinted tresses had been tucked up today. Was her hair still that soft, he wondered.

Her eyes had thrown him as well. She’d always had the biggest brown eyes behind her horn-rims. She looked good with blue eyes and if he’d never known her as Cathy Jane he might even prefer the blue. But he had known Cathy Jane. Why had she felt the need to change so much?

A small leather wallet was lying on the end of the table. He’d give it to one of the secretaries on his way out. He picked it up and it opened. Staring up at him from a typical DMV photo was Catherine Jane Terrence.

He skimmed her address. Her condo was only a few blocks from his. All this time they’d practically been neighbors and never run into each other. Tad was honest enough to admit he wouldn’t have recognized her as his old childhood pal without hearing her name.