Merry Christmas, Daddy. SUSAN MEIER

“You know, you’ve done nothing but harass me for the past several months. You call me if my stereo gets too loud and call the police almost every time I have a party. It was actually very nice of me to be so considerate of you tonight. The least you could do is appreciate it.”

      “I appreciate it,” Kassandra said, straining for a courteous tone as she stowed her groceries and wished he’d just leave.

      “No, you don’t,” Gabe insisted, and Kassandra’s temper began to sizzle. “You don’t appreciate anything. Sometimes I think you’re nothing but a spoiled brat who has to have everything her way….”

      Her temper leaped from sizzling to boiling to bubbling over in about three seconds. “Well, isn’t that the pot calling the kettle black,” she yelped, spinning to face him. “You, Mr. Born-With-a-Silver-Spoon-in-His-Mouth, have no right to call me spoiled or a brat.”

      “Then how do you justify kicking me out?”

      “I’m tired,” she said honestly. “But more than that I have problems. Big problems I need to think about. My roommates are gone…or going. Janie eloped last night. Sandy’s leaving for Boston next week, which means I’m stuck with six months of a lease I can’t afford. Then my car broke down this morning and had to be towed. Unless I find a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow, I won’t be able to attend this semester of college—can’t afford to,” she said, gathering steam as rehashing her problems fueled her anger. “Which is something you wouldn’t understand because you don’t know the first thing about trouble. You’ve always had everything handed to you!”

      “Oh, really, Miss-High-and-Mighty,” he shot back. “Try this on for size. I had to wrangle my family’s company away from an overpossessive board of directors. I still have a few enemies on the staff. And my grandmother is dying. Dying! My favorite person in the world has terminal cancer and she may not live past Christmas.” He didn’t even pause for breath, but kept on speaking as he took slow, measured steps toward her.

      “And if all of that isn’t bad enough,” he continued, “I now have to go down to Georgia for Christmas vacation and explain to the woman I love most in the world that I don’t have a fiancée.”

      Though his situation was bad—sad—the last of his tirade struck Kassandra as funny, at the very least out of place with everything else he’d said. She didn’t smile, wouldn’t smile over something so tragic, but she couldn’t stop her retort. “What a pity.”

      “It is a pity,” Gabe angrily said, pacing away from her. “I’d made up a story that I was engaged to make my grandmother happy for the past few months, but now it’s backfiring. She called me this afternoon and told me that her only wish before she dies is to meet my fiancee.”

      If his story hadn’t involved a dying grandmother whom he obviously loved, Kassandra knew she might have gloated over the fact that he’d made his own bed and now he had to lie in it. Instead, Kassandra felt more than a stirring of compassion. She cleared her throat and said, “I’m sorry.” She paused. “Really sorry.”

      Gabe was really sorry, too. Not merely sorry for antagonizing her, but also sorry that he’d told her so much. No one, but no one, knew about his made-up fiancée except the people he’d made up the fiancée for—his parents and grandmother. Now Kassandra something-or-another, the grouch from across the hall, knew his deepest, darkest secret.

      “I’m sorry, too,” Gabe said, rubbing his hand across the back of his neck. “I shouldn’t have burdened you with my troubles, but it just hit me like a ton of bricks today and I couldn’t seem to stop myself from taking my anger out on you.” He paused and caught her gaze. “In fact, that’s probably why I yelled at you about not appreciating my help. I’m sorry for that, too.”

      “That’s okay,” Kassandra said quietly.

      A strange, uncomfortable silence settled over them. They’d never had a civil conversation before, and it appeared to Kassandra that neither one of them knew what to do or say next.

      “Is there anything I can do to help?” Kassandra finally asked, filling the awkward pause.

      Gabe shook his head. “Not unless you’d like to go to Georgia with me and pretend to be my fiancée through the Christmas season.”

      The absurdity of the suggestion made Kassandra laugh. They couldn’t get along for the five minutes it took to gather her groceries. There was no way they could spend three weeks together—particularly not as two people in love. She almost laughed again. “No, I don’t think so.”

      “Yeah,” Gabe agreed. Evidently following her line of thinking about the absurdity of the situation, he smiled. In fact, he smiled at her.

      She found she rather liked it.

      He realized it didn’t kill him.

      They’d actually made some progress.

      Ill at ease, he rubbed his hand across the back of his neck again. “So, your roommates are leaving, huh?”

      She nodded, regretting that she’d revealed so much to him. Then she realized it didn’t matter. She didn’t have a fairy godmother. There was no gold at the end of the rainbow. And she wasn’t going to be able to keep this apartment. Period.

      “I’ll probably be turning in a request to get out of my lease.”

      “That’s too bad,” he said, and Kassandra could tell he genuinely meant it. “This is a good building, a safe building.”

      “I know,” she agreed. “That’s why I liked living here. To tell you the truth, I’m not quite sure where I’m going to go….” Kassandra trailed off, watching as a curious expression crossed Gabe’s face.

      He looked her up and down, from her feet to her head, then from her head to her feet.

      He smiled wickedly, handsomely. “You know, if you think about this, we could be the answer to each other’s problems.”

      Kassandra shook her head. “I don’t think so. Unless you’d be willing to let me live here rent free until I get my degree, there’s nothing anyone can do to help me.”

      “But I would be willing to let you live here rent free while you get your degree. I’d even be willing to help you with your other expenses, if you would go to Georgia with me for the holidays.”

      “Thanks, but no thanks,” Kassandra said, thinking distress had driven him just slightly delirious and he didn’t realize what he was offering.

      “Don’t say no so quickly,” he insisted, this time sounding as if he were getting a little desperate. “I’m serious about this. Rent and help with your other expenses. Figure out how much money it would take for you to finish school and give me a number. I don’t care. I really need this favor.”

      “You must,” Kassandra agreed, overwhelmed by his generosity. “But whether you’re serious or not doesn’t matter, because I can’t do it.” First, she knew she couldn’t impose on her parents to take care of Candy for the better part of a month. Second, she didn’t want to miss Candy’s first Christmas. Third, she didn’t think Gabe Cayne would appreciate her bringing her daughter on a holiday visit with his family—particularly since she didn’t know if Gabe knew Candy existed.

      And, fourth, his proposition was just a little too good to be true. She’d been around long enough to know there had to be a catch. There was no way she’d hungrily jump at this chance and make a fool of herself.

      “You have to do it,” Gabe said. “There is no other way out for you.”

      “Of course there is,” Kassandra argued casually. “I might have to adjust my schedule and put back graduation, but I’ll get there.”

      She set some more things in the refrigerator. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Gabe staring at her, clearly thinking she was crazy. “I know what you’re thinking,” she told him as she busied herself with storing