Billionaire Bachelors 10 ; Holiday Treasure(43)

"I'll have to remember that," he said, but he wouldn't - at least if he avoided family at big holidays as often as he did. Would he remember her? After tonight, they wouldn't see each other again.

"I really do have to go. I'm very late." She tried to get around him for the second time.

"Seriously, where?"

If she wasn't going to stay in with him, then he damn well wanted to know where she was in such a rush to go.

She hesitated, then sighed. "I'm serving dinner tonight at a homeless shelter nearby."

Whew. It wasn't a date with someone else, after all. A date on Christmas Eve probably meant the relationship had to be going somewhere - like church.

"Why?" he asked before he was able to stop himself.

"Because I don't have a family to celebrate with anymore, and I figure I can give something back. I know it's what my mom would do if she were still here and all alone."

"I'll come with you." Oh, no. What had he just said? The last thing Tanner wanted to do was hang out in some crappy kitchen and serve food to people who lived on the streets. Why were they homeless, anyway? It didn't make sense to him why anyone would choose that kind of life. They were clearly too lazy to work.

"Um … you don't need to do that," she said, looking at him coolly.

Was his disdain so obvious?

"I want to." He told himself it was just because he wanted to get her alone later. Surely, if he were to come with her to serve food to these homeless people, she would thaw enough that he'd finally get her into Santa's sack again.

"I don't know, Tanner. I don't think it's really your kind of place."

Her lack of faith in him rankled. Granted, he was thinking the same thing, but to have those words come from her mouth didn't make him happy at all.

"Let me just go and make a phone call. Promise not to leave without me," he said, giving her his sternest look.

"I guess," she replied, and she leaned against the wall. She didn't look at all convinced that he'd come back from his apartment.

Tanner rushed inside and pulled out the card for the police station monitoring his ridiculous ankle device. Damn! He hated that he had to ask for permission to go anywhere. One more day, he told himself. He only had one more day. Actually, less than that! 

His call was picked up on the third ring, and though the officer, who just happened to be the one who'd dropped him off on that first day, gave him permission to serve a meal at the homeless shelter, the guy actually had the audacity to laugh and tell Tanner, "Good luck!"

Still, Tanner probably needed all the luck he could get.

His second call was to his assistant. Het told Randy to have the meal set up and ready for when they returned. They might be starting later than Tanner wanted, but he was still going to follow through on his plans of seducing his little Christmas elf. That one night wasn't anywhere near enough.

When he walked back out into the hallway, he was relieved to see her still there. She was looking at her watch with a frown on her face, but she'd waited for him.

"All set," he said, with the best smile he knew how to fake. He took her arm, placing it through his. "How far away is this place?"

"It's only about a mile, but we're running really late, so we'd better get a cab," she told him.

It took only a couple of minutes before a taxi drove by, and Tanner flagged it down with no problem. The cab driver talked nonstop, and Tanner had to fight his irritation when Kyla leaned over the seat and started to converse with the guy. She even sounded excited. Of course, Tanner had nothing to be jealous about, so why did it bother him to share her attention? Ridiculous.

When they got to the shelter, it took everything in him not to wrinkle his nose at the crowd before him. There was a group of men outside, some in threadbare clothing; had those guys bathed in a month? The pungent smell of urine and body odor wafted in his direction. How was he going to get through the night?

"This way," Kyla told him and led him down a small alley and inside through a side door. It took all his willpower not to turn and make sure someone wasn't coming up behind him to pick his pocket or rob them outright.

"Kyla! I'm so glad you made it," a harried woman said. "I was beginning to worry. The twins both got food poisoning and we're a couple of people short." She tossed an apron at Kyla before noticing Tanner. It was almost comical the way the woman's eyes widened.

"Hi, Maggie," Kyla said. "This is Tanner, my neighbor. He wanted to help tonight. Maybe since he's the size of the twins put together, he can make up for their absence." With a laugh, she went over to the sink and began scrubbing up.

"Well, I won't complain about an extra set of hands." Maggie walked to a small desk, grabbed another apron, and tossed it to Tanner.