Ex Scrooge Me (Love for the Holiday Book 1) Read online

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Ex Scrooge Me

  Copyright

  Thank You!

  Dedication

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  About the Author

  Books by Brynn Paulin

  Ex Scrooge Me

  Love for the Holidays

  By Brynn Paulin

  Supernova Indie Publishing Services, LLC

  www.supernovaindie.com

  Powered by Your Imagination

  Ex Scrooge Me

  by

  Brynn Paulin

  Maisie

  Bah-freaking-humbug!

  There! I said it! I love Christmas, but being stuck in a car for days with Scrooge McScroogington is enough to make even the most holiday-prone woman wish for the doldrums of February. Worse, Eli McSpadden gets under my skin by just…breathing! Have I mentioned he’s my ex who broke up with me on Valentine’s eve last year? Yeah, Mr.-Gorgeous-and-I-Know-It is the one who broke my heart. But I’m over him.

  And I hate him.

  Eli

  I’m a stupid jerk.

  There! I said it. When my company relocated me with no noticed last winter, I did the one thing I thought was best. I broke up with the girl I love. I told her we both needed to set down roots in our separate cities. The thought of her “rooting” with anyone else eats at me, but what could I do? Her life is at her university; mine is wherever I get sent.

  It took three seconds for me to realize I made a huge mistake, and now, that I’m back in town and we’re both heading home for the holidays, I’m going to make it right and hopefully not end up in a ditch—physically and emotionally—while I’m trying.

  Copyright

  © 2019, Brynn Paulin

  Ex Scrooge Me

  Cover Art by Supernova Indie Publishing Services, LLC

  Electronic Format ISBN: 978-1-62344-345-0

  Published by: Supernova Indie Publishing Services, LLC

  Warning: All rights reserved. The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and occurrences are a product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, places or occurrences, is purely coincidental.

  Thank You!

  Thank you for your purchase of Ex Scrooge Me.

  I hope you enjoy the story and will consider leaving a review or telling a friend about the book.

  I love hearing from readers! To keep in touch and follow my news, please visit me on my website at www.brynnpaulin.com.

  Dedication

  To My Girl Gang

  Chapter One

  ~ Maisie ~

  “No, Mom!” I protested. “I’ll just hang out in my apartment. I’ll be fine. Lots of people do it. And I’ll be on campus. I’m sure there will be a get-together for those of us stuck here.”

  “Maisie Donovan, are you telling me you’re rather stay there at school that come home for Christmas?”

  “Of course not, but it’s not like I made the blizzard and grounded air traffic—”

  “But you won’t take the perfectly good ride I got you?”

  Eli McSpadden was not a perfectly good ride. He was my asshole ex who broke up with me last Valentine’s Day. Okay, well, technically it wasn’t Valentine’s Day. It was the eve of V-day. And my mom thought it was a great idea for me to drive across country with him from WSU in Washington to our small town in Michigan.

  Yes, I could ride with him, but one of us might not survive. Who remained to be seen, because I didn’t think I could get out of this.

  “You remember that he broke up with me, right?”

  “Yes. Don’t be so dramatic. People break up and stay friends all the time. Maybe you can try it.”

  Maybe. I could. Try it. I closed my eyes and broke the cardinal rule. I prayed for patience.

  “Look, you’re already packed because you didn’t know the freak storm would shut down everything. Just get in the car with him and come home.”

  “Mom, no.”

  “If you didn’t go to school so far away—”

  “Do you know why I came to school here? Eli.”

  “Don’t blame your decision on him.”

  I closed my eyes and fisted my hands, shaking because I was so frustrated and annoyed. I’d started dating Eli when I was a freshman in high school and he was a senior. In our small school, the dating pool was slim, but it didn’t matter. We met and meshed, never to be parted. I dated him all through high school and my first year at community college while he’d gone to the nearby state university for business.

  The he’d gotten the job and that was the beginning of the end, but we hadn’t known it. His employer was transferring him to Washington. We’d been devastated for a few minutes—then I’d offered to come with him. I had good grades. I could transfer to a college there.

  A year and a half later, he’d been transferred again. To Colorado. This time, he’d left me behind, with the arrow to the heart of “we each need to set down roots. I can’t do that if I’m splitting time between Denver and here.” The day before Valentine’s Day.

  Not that the date mattered. February fourteenth, September fourteenth? He still destroyed me.

  And now, ten months later, we were supposed to be friends?

  “Anyway, he should be there any second. Just be nice and take the ride.”

  What the fuck, Mom?

  “You have got to be kidding!” I yelled, just as a rap sounded on my door. “Are you kidding me?” I growled.

  “I’ll see you in a few days, Maisie Daisy.”

  “No, you won’t,” I argued, but she was already gone. Seething I marched to the door and swung it open to face the past. Dark hair, intense dark eyes, artfully groomed stubble that might be a three days growth, max. Sculpted featured and that smirky smile that used to get me excited and now just pissed me off. Because it got my insides excited, damn it. At twenty-six, almost twenty-seven, he’d matured into his muscular body. There was nothing boyish about him anymore. He was all man. But not my man.

  I crossed my arms and glared at him. “I’m not going with you.”

  Hooking my foot on the door then flicking it forward, I propelled it shut and turned away before it slammed.

  The slam never came.

  “I know you’re mad, Mais—”

  “Mad? No. No, I’m not mad. Get out of my apartment.”

  He stared at me a second then his gaze split to the side where my suitcase, weekender and purse were piled, left there when I’d discovered my flight was canceled. “That your stuff? Great.”

  Grabbing it, he headed outside.

  “Hey!” I yelled. “What the hell!”

  Grabbing my coat, I raced after him. My apartment door slammed in my wake. And he had my keys! “You can’t just take my stuff!” I huffed, skidding to a halt next to the car as he slammed the trunk.

  He rubbed his hands together. “It’s fucking cold out here. You should put on your coat instead of carrying it, and maybe we can talk inside the car. It’s warm at least.”

  “I don’t want to talk. I just want my stuff back.”

  “Will you just talk to me for a few minutes?”

  I huffed again, then stomped over to the passenger door. Eli beat me to it, opening it. “You have two minutes. That’s it,” I told him.

  He gave me a chin lift, accompanied by that damn l
ittle smile, then shut the door. Still rubbing his hands together, because his leather gloves were on the console, he circled the car and hopped in.

  Before I knew it, he’d put the car in gear and taken off.

  “What the hell are you doing?” I demanded, shock stealing my breath.

  “Put your seatbelt on. It’s slippery as shit out here, and nobody knows how to drive in it. I don’t want you to get hurt.”

  I narrowed my eyes and glared at him, but I still fastened the belt. “I told you that you have two minutes. Take me back to my apartment and give me back my stuff. And then you can be on your way.”

  “This two minutes…?” he asked. “Where do you think it will be? Montana? Minnesota?”

  “This is kidnapping.”

  “Well…” He rocked his head back and forth as if weighing that matter. “You’re not a kid.”

  I wasn’t playing. “It’s abduction?”

  “But is it? I’m taking you home. You’re packed bag is in the trunk and your family’s expecting you.”

  My eyes burned, and I stared out the passenger window, trying to breathe as quietly as possible so he wouldn’t know how upset I was. “I hate you,” I muttered.

  He was quiet for a long moment. His voice was almost a whisper when he replied, “I know.”

  Chapter Two

  ~Eli~

  A fool’s errand, that’s what this was. And I was the fool. I’d been without her for ten months, and now, she hated me. Both problems were my fault.

  Breaking up with the girl I loved more than anything else in existence was probably the dumbest thing I’d ever done. Okay, no probably. The second dumbest was taking the job with my current employer. They’d hired me in Michigan as a salesman for their office supplies line. Months later, they transferred me to Washington. Then to Colorado. And now, the Washington guy had quit, so I was back there.

  The job paid well, but I couldn’t keep this up. I needed Maisie and I couldn’t have her if I was constantly transferred all over the country. I couldn’t do that to her, but I was dying without her.

  The kicker was, I didn’t even like my job. It wasn’t even in the field I’d studied. I knew that happened all the time, but I’d gotten my degree in geology with a chemistry emphasis. And I was selling staplers and pens.

  I’d started applying around, but I really needed to figure out where I was with Maisie. The next 34 hours in the car—not counting stops and two overnights—should be enough to figure that out. “Broken up” wasn’t an acceptable status.

  “Can I turn on the radio since you’re kidnapping me?” she asked after we’d traveled in silence for quite a while. The snow was piling up around us, making travel more hazardous than I’d anticipated, and the roads were icy, even in my heavy crossover.

  “Go for it.”

  She was familiar with the car. It was the same one I’d had for four years, and she knew the controls and that it had satellite radio.

  I should have known better.

  Last Christmas, I gave you my heart… the radio blared, a little too loudly.

  “Really?” I growled, holding back anything else I wanted to say. Maisie knew I hated holiday music and she’d tuned in to the all yuletide cheer all the time channel. And this damn song… My teeth gritted, but I didn’t touch the tuner or the volume. If this was a test, I’d fucking pass.

  “Mm-hmm,” she said then started humming along.

  Ignoring the music, I focused instead on how damn cute she was. This was her casual, hanging out at home look. Her lush mahogany-colored hair was pile in a messy bun atop her head. She hadn’t put on her coat, which was fine since the car was plenty warm, so I could easily take in her clothes. I wondered if she realized it yet. Of course, she knew she’d put on the oversized, cream-colored, cable-knit sweater that hung to a couple inches above her Christmas patterned leggings. That sweater though… It used to be mine. Until she’d stolen it from me to wear with her leggings around the house, then suddenly, it was hers. Did she remember that?

  “Like the sweater,” I commented, the smirk clear in my voice.

  “Shut up. It’s comfortable.”

  “It is; I know. I used to like it.”

  “You want it back?” She reached for the hem, and I about had a heart attack. Was she bare under there? I’d missed her lithe little body so much, but I didn’t want her sitting there in bra and leggings for the world to see. Plus, the car wasn’t that warm.

  “No,” I snapped quickly. “Looks better on you than it ever did on me. You know I was just teasing you.”

  Her devilish grin gave her away. “Yeah, I know. Besides, I’m not letting you get a look at this pink and black bra. That bird has flown.”

  “The silk and lace one from Victoria’s Secret?” I asked, mouth dry. I knew that set. It was my favorite; I’d bought it for her.

  “That’s the one.”

  “You’re a mean one, Donovan.”

  “Them’s the breaks, McSpadden. Gotta have a boyfriend pass for entry.”

  “And how many boyfriend passes have there been the past year?”

  She stared at me in stony silence, her jaw clenched. “In the past year? One.”

  My heart broke. She had a boyfriend. She’d found someone after me. Taken my advice…

  “In the past ten months and seven days,” she continued, “none. I haven’t been putting down roots as you so euphemistically put it. I don’t want to even though I’m sure you’ve been planting yours left and right.”

  “I haven’t been planting or rooting—Jesus! I can’t believe this conversation.” We’d made it an hour before getting here. Only three days to go…And what would we talk about during those interminable hours. “I haven’t been with anyone. Not for a date and definitely not for ‘planting my root’ in anyone.”

  “Right. Okay.”

  “I don’t want to talk about it. You broke up with me. End of story.”

  “Not end of story,” I growled.

  “Whatever,” she sighed. “I’m hungry and I don’t want to argue with you. I didn’t eat lunch because I thought I’d be rushing out for a plane. And now, it’s almost dinner.”

  I leaned toward her, reaching behind her seat.

  “What are you doing?” she exclaimed, shying toward the window.

  I handed her the bag of Bugles I’d grabbed, then reached back for a snack pack of Oreos and a sparkling water—all favorites of hers. “Car food. There you go.”

  “You brought me snacks?” she murmured.

  “I know you don’t eat before flying, and I know you like to snack on long car trips. Plus this weather is crap. We might have to stop in the middle of nowhere to wait it out, and you’ll need sustenance. Always prepared.”

  “Always the Boy Scout,” she muttered.

  Silence fell between us, accompanied by cheesy music and the occasional crunch of her snacks. That was okay. All my attention was centered on crawling through what I was sure they’d called a blizzard. Snow fell around us, obscuring my view of the road as well as any of our surroundings. Though the sun shouldn’t be setting yet, it seemed dark for late afternoon. To say I was white-knuckling it was an understatement.

  “Oh fuck!” I exclaimed. The snow had just cleared enough to show some guy on the side of the road, trying to wave down help. At a glance, which was all I could afford, I saw his car beached in a snowbank. I tried not to skid as I slowed even further.

  “You’re stopping, right?” Maisie asked.

  “Yeah.” I really didn’t think the guy was up to something nefarious. “Stay here, okay,” I said, putting the car in park but leaving it running, so she’d stay warm.

  “I can help you,” she argued, already reaching for her coat. “And put on your gloves before you freeze off your fingers!”

  “It’s too dangerous. You should stay here. Lock the doors.”

  “Eli—”

  “Please.”

  She sighed. “How are you going to get him out on your own?”
r />   “I have a shovel in the back. I’ll dig him out and we’ll get him back on the road. At least there’s not a ditch.”

  “Are you sure? I can help—”

  “Just stay here.” If something went south, I needed Maisie to be okay. The guy looked pretty desperate, but still.

  “Thank you for stopping,” he called after I grabbed the shovel and jogged back to him. He was panting, his face wind-reddened and his hair wet from being out on the elements. “This crap is insane, and I need to get to the hospital.”

  “Are you okay? Is someone hurt. I can call for help.”

  “My wife’s in labor—of course, during a snowstorm, right? We almost got there; it’s the next exit.”

  I glanced at the car. It didn’t look damaged. “You want me to help dig you out.” I made a rash, split-second decision and prayed I wasn’t wrong. “Or would you prefer for me to drive you there and leave the car.”

  He glanced toward the vehicle, his brow furrowed. “Do you mind?”

  “No. Let’s get to the hospital then.”

  “Thank you,” he breathed. He ran-skidded to his car and pulled open the back door. A moment later, he lifted out a very pregnant woman, barely wearing a jacket due to the girth of her belly. They leaned a little and she grabbed a bag and a blanket, the latter of which they worked around her.

  I hurried over. “Let me at least carry the bag.”

  He relinquished it easily then cuddled the woman closer. “Thank you,” she said quietly. “You were the fifth car to pass us.”

  Okay, it had been good decision.

  “I told you it would be okay,” he told her. He looked back at me. “I’m Chip, by the way. This is Kelly.”

  “Ira,” I replied. As we approached, Maisie leapt from the car. Such a bad listener. Apparently, she’d seen what was happening. Hurriedly, she reached into the backseat and moved things out of the way—mostly our snacks, which she stowed in the front. “This is my girlfriend, Maisie.”

  Maisie lifted a brow at me but didn’t say anything. Oh, we’d be discussing that later, I was sure.