The Christmas Con Read online

  Synopsis

  Devon’s parents are coming to visit for Christmas. Will she be able to pull off the con and produce a girlfriend she doesn’t have?

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  The Christmas Con

  by

  Becky Harmon

  Copyright © by Becky Harmon

  eBook released 2019

  Bella Books

  P.O. Box 10543

  Tallahassee, FL 32302

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  The Christmas Con

  “We’re coming to visit,” Andrea said with excitement.

  Devon Rickards cringed at her mother’s words as she shifted her cell phone to the opposite shoulder. Surely, she hadn’t heard her correctly. In the ten years she had lived in Florida, her parents had never wanted to visit her. Not even at Thanksgiving or Easter and certainly not at Christmas.

  She wanted to ask why but bit back that response, saying instead, “You—and Dad?”

  “Yes, of course.”

  As far as parents were concerned hers weren’t all that bad. The problem was that she was the youngest of their six children. It didn’t matter that she was thirty-five years old, she was still the baby. Everyone, including her siblings, wanted to tell her how to live her life. She had tolerated it through college but after moving to Lake City she couldn’t seem to force herself to return for family gatherings.

  “We’ve talked it over,” her mother continued, “and it’s time we came to see where you live and to meet this woman you can’t seem to leave during the holidays.”

  This can not be happening!

  Having her parents visit would be hard enough but she’d never be able to explain the nonexistent girlfriend. In the beginning the small lie had been easy. Spending the holiday with her girlfriend wasn’t something her parents would argue about, and they certainly wouldn’t encourage her to bring the unknown girlfriend home for Christmas. They had been moderately accepting when she came out in college, but they still shied away from any serious conversations about her personal life.

  “You’ll have to fly into Orlando or Jacksonville. Anything else would be way too expensive,” she explained, offering a potential roadblock to their visit.

  “Oh no. We’re going to drive. Your father wants flexibility and you know how he gets when he travels.”

  Devon did know. Her father didn’t like to travel and when he did, he made his own schedule.

  She had one last try. “You know I work the day shift on Christmas, right?”

  “I know. We have it all planned out.”

  “Great.” What else could she say? It was her parents after all.

  “We’re going to celebrate Christmas with your brothers tomorrow and leave first thing Sunday morning. I don’t want to drive straight through, so I found us a hotel in Savannah. We should arrive Christmas day at the same time you’re getting off from work.”

  “That sounds great.” Again, what else could she say? “I’ll see you then, Mom.”

  Devon clicked off the phone and tossed it on the coffee table in front of her, dropping her head in her hands. What was she going to do? Could she convince her parents that a partner lived with her but not produce a physical body? She couldn’t even remember all the lies she had told them about this fake woman. She was toast. She wasn’t going to be able to fool them once they stepped foot in her desolate apartment. She knew she had more than Christmas decorating to do. And it needed to be fast.

  * * *

  Devon settled into her cruiser preparing for her eight-hour shift. As she waited her turn to back out and join the flow leaving the police department parking lot, she logged into the laptop mounted on the console beside her. The phone call she had taken from her mother earlier still haunted her thoughts as she played with the many lies she would have to pull off when her parents arrived.

  She hadn’t planned to move fifteen hours away from her family, but when the opportunity arose it seemed like a perfect escape. Close enough to visit if she wanted, but far enough away that no one could drop in on her. Besides, Lake City offered to pay her way through the police academy and she never had to worry about snow.

  She jumped at the knock on her passenger side window and quickly unlocked the door to allow her friend to slide in beside her.

  “I’m out of here,” Janie said breathlessly.

  “Good for you. Have fun,” Devon said a little more brusquely than she intended.

  “Oh, come on. You were invited.”

  Devon shrugged. She wasn’t jealous that Janie was headed to Key West for the holiday. Her issue was more that Janie wasn’t going to have to deal with any family. Ten days of sitting on the beach and doing whatever seemed pertinent in the moment. The contrast to her plans were worse than normal, especially with the new information that her parents were about to descend on her.

  “I know and if I could back up time and accept the invitation I would.”

  “Why? You never want to go with me. Oh no.” Janie’s eyes widened. “What happened?”

  “Mom and Dad are coming for Christmas.”

  “Yikes! Do they want to meet your girlfriend?”

  “Of course they do.” Devon closed her eyes and rested her forehead on the steering wheel. This was worse than anything she could have imagined.

  “What are you going to do?”

  “I’m not sure,” she said, lifting her head and giving Janie a hopeful look. “You could stay and pretend to be my girlfriend.”

  “Oh hell no.” Janie held her hands in front of her with her palms up weighing her options. “Beach front hotel or lied-to, angry parents.”

  “You’re funny. But if you stayed, they wouldn’t be angry because they wouldn’t know they’d been lied to.”

  “Nice try. You’re just going to have to tell them the truth.”

  “No way. I’ll find someone to play the part.”

  “That’s ridiculous. You’ll never pull it off. Besides who will you find?”

  She could feel Janie’s stare and she shrugged. She didn’t know what she was going to do, but she was still hopeful a plan would miraculously fall into her lap.

  “Well, it’s not like you have a ton of friends, or even one for that matter,” Janie said with a smile. “Other than me, of course.”

  Janie’s words were harsh, but true. They had bonded during the academy and somehow managed to maintain that relationship. She had plenty of acquaintances, but she didn’t try to make new friends. Janie was the only person she could truly count on. Her daily life consisted of work and more work. Her coworkers seemed to respect her, but she didn’t hang out with them socially. She really stood no chance of convincing any of them to give up their holiday to help her.

  “Maybe I’ll hire someone.”

  “Like a prostitute? That would be hilarious.” Janie pushed open the car door and stood up. “It almost makes me want to stay and watch the fireworks.”

  Devon gunned the engine to cover Janie’s laughter as she closed the door. She pulled out of the parking lot and turned onto Willingham Street.

  She wouldn’t think about the precarious
position she was in until her shift was over. Taking her mind off it might help her come up with a solution. Although her options seemed in short supply, she could always hope for a Christmas miracle.

  * * *

  Devon pulled the inebriated man from the back seat of her cruiser as the ambulance lights came into view. It was three a.m. and she had to dig deep to find an ounce of remaining patience. She had already wasted over an hour trying to keep this man from going to jail.

  “Is he under arrest or not?” Sergeant Beall asked as he approached from a nearby cruiser. He was the shift supervisor assigned to cover the weeks surrounding Christmas and the New Year’s holiday. He was only there to help if needed, but she still needed to explain her actions.

  She widened her stance to stabilize the swaying man handcuffed beside her. “I wrote him a ticket for indecent exposure based on the complaint from the witness. She said he was urinating in the bushes outside the restaurant. I had him cuffed and in the car before his ten-year-old son started calling. I don’t want to arrest him, but his wife can’t leave work to pick him up and I can’t release him like this.”

  As if to reiterate her point, the inebriated man staggered a few steps forward and she followed him, keeping him on his feet. Sergeant Beall nodded and returned to his cruiser. She didn’t have to explain that an arrest two days before Christmas would most likely mean a holiday celebrated away from his family. She had one more shot before she had to take him in.

  She held onto the man’s arm as the two paramedics climbed out of the ambulance and walked toward her. The tall skinny man she knew as Monty didn’t look happy. She didn’t know the name of the woman with him, but she had always seemed friendly in the past.

  She held up her hand before either of the paramedics could speak. “I know this isn’t your job but can you make this your good deed for the night. His ten-year-old keeps calling with a whole lot of tears about daddy being home for Christmas.”

  “Who cares?” Monty said vehemently. “My kids are waiting for me too, but I’m fulfilling my obligations. If he gave a shit, he’d be home with the kid now instead of getting arrested.”

  “Give me a break, Monty. He hasn’t been combative. He made a mistake and his kid shouldn’t suffer for it. You know I can’t turn him loose in this shape.”

  The female paramedic stepped in front of Monty. “No worries. We got this.”

  Devon gave her an appreciative look as she released the man to her custody. “There’s nothing on him but his wallet and cell phone.”

  She quickly returned to her cruiser before they changed their minds. She had some flexibility with a public intoxication charge, and she felt good about not arresting him. The repeated calls from the man’s son had really gotten to her. The innocence of his pleading made her want to give him his Christmas wish.

  She stared out the window thinking about how many Christmas mornings she had worked to allow her coworkers to be home with their children. Her eyes caught movement outside her headlights, and she realized the female paramedic was walking toward her. She rolled down the window and tried to look cool. Her mouth was dry and growing drying every second as she watched her approach.

  It wasn’t the first time she had admired this woman. Her uniform was the same as all the other paramedics, but she wore it like it was a favorite pair of pajamas. Navy-blue long-sleeved polo shirt with matching cargo pants that hugged her body in all the right places. Devon had never had a chance to interact with her one-on-one, but she had watched her in action from a distance. The woman was always efficient and seemed to really care about others.

  “Hey. Thought you might need these,” the paramedic said as she passed Devon’s handcuffs through the window.

  “Thanks.” She wasn’t sure if she should try to convince her that she wasn’t going to leave a piece of her equipment behind, but the truth was she had already forgotten about them.

  The smiling paramedic lingered at her door and Devon could feel the blush spreading across her face. Was she being flirted with? She hoped the dome light inside her cruiser was providing enough shadows to hide her heated cheeks.

  “Thanks,” she said again, clearing her throat. “I’m Devon, by the way.”

  “Sabrina. I’ve seen you around. It’s nice to finally meet you.”

  Sabrina took a step back and gave a wave.

  Hit with a burst of spontaneous courage, Devon spoke quickly. “Would you like to get coffee sometime?”

  “Yeah, sure.”

  “I get off at seven,” she blurted.

  Sabrina raised her eyebrows. “Okay, yeah, me too.”

  “Hyper House on Sixth Street?”

  “Yeah, sure.”

  Devon put the cruiser in gear and let it drift forward as she gave Sabrina a wave. She had to get out of there before she lost her courage and cancelled. Strangely she hadn’t been thinking about her predicament when she asked Sabrina out. And no matter how things turned out, she wasn’t sure she would be able to ask Sabrina to participate in her con. She had to at least try though. Didn’t she?

  * * *

  Devon ran her fingers through her wet hair as she stared at her face in the mirror. Even though she was in decent shape physically, working the night shift had given her harsh lines on her face and bags under her eyes. For some strange reason though Sabrina had seemed interested in her anyway. It certainly wasn’t her social skills. She couldn’t remember the last time she had been out on a date. This isn’t a date.

  She left the police station and turned onto Shade Street. Early morning traffic was heavy and filled with people in a hurry to finish their last-minute shopping. She merged onto Sixth Street and pulled into the parking lot of Hyper House. It was a small locally owned coffee shop that had managed to stay in business around the surplus of chain stores.

  A bright red awning stretched the length of the building but each wall, inside and out, was covered in bright multicolored dots in varying sizes. It was an overload to her visual sensors, but she didn’t mind. Especially once she got a whiff of the fresh brewed coffee and homemade cinnamon rolls. She couldn’t resist ordering both, and when they were ready she settled at a table in the corner.

  She thought about how it would feel to introduce Sabrina to her parents. If only an introduction was all that was necessary, she would eagerly ask Sabrina to play along. She wasn’t sure she could ask anyone to lie about a fake life with her though. She pushed aside thoughts of her parents impending visit as Sabrina walked in the door of the coffeehouse.

  Sabrina had been on her radar for longer than she cared to admit. It wasn’t surprising based on the mass of curly red hair that fell across her shoulders. No doubt she drew attention wherever she went. Devon guessed they were close to the same age and that they shared a mutual interest in women, but she couldn’t imagine a scenario where she would ask either of those questions.

  Sabrina went straight to the counter and waited while her order was prepared. Like her, Sabrina wore a light jacket to block out the coolness of the morning, but shorts in preparation for the afternoon warmth. She liked the easy way Sabrina leaned against the counter, chatting with the barista.

  With her coffee in hand, Sabrina turned and scanned the room. Her face brightened when she spotted Devon. The smile on her face was contagious and Devon felt the edges of her mouth curl in response. Sabrina didn’t seem to be as tired as she was or maybe she was better at hiding it.

  “Thanks for joining me.”

  “Thanks for asking,” Sabrina said, sliding into the chair across from her. “I heard you and some other officers talking about the Christmas tree lighting last week. I don’t go out much but it sounded like fun. Did you have a good time?”

  “Oh, I didn’t go,” she mumbled. It wouldn’t take Sabrina long to realize she was a poor date. This isn’t a date.

  “Oh.”

  The silence stretched for a few seconds as Devon watched Sabrina stare into her coffee. This wasn’t going well. If she had any hopes of getting t
o know this woman, she had to salvage what was left of their date. This isn’t a date.

  “I really appreciate you helping me out last night.”

  She read relief in Sabrina’s eyes as she looked up.

  “Oh, it was no problem. His son was still calling when we left him at the hospital.”

  “Something about a crying kid two days before Christmas that makes me soft.”

  “Yeah, me too.” Sabrina nodded. “I’m glad we could help.”

  “Well, I certainly owe you one.”

  A mischievous grin appeared on Sabrina’s face as she pointed at the cinnamon roll in front of Devon. “That looks good.”

  She slid the plate toward her and watched as Sabrina tore off a piece of the warm treat. Icing and cinnamon covered her fingers and Devon laughed when she licked each one before wiping her hands on a napkin.

  “Good, right?”

  “Amazing,” Sabrina agreed.

  Devon felt a burst of courage flood her as she realized she could use her parent’s visit and potential con to get to know Sabrina better. And that was something she definitely wanted to do.

  “I have a favor to ask,” she blurted.

  “Is that why you invited me here?”

  Devon shrugged. “Not really.” She felt her face heat as Sabrina studied her. “Okay, maybe partly.”

  “So, ask, and we’ll talk about the other part later,” Sabrina said with a wink.

  “My parents are coming to Lake City for the first time since I moved here.”

  “That’s nice. How long has it been?”

  “I’ve been here ten years and yeah,” she said, rolling her eyes. “I guess it’s nice.”

  “But that’s not the real problem is it?”

  “I’m afraid not. I’ve avoided going home for Christmas since I moved here.” She grimaced at the sad look on Sabrina’s face. “Oh, don’t look so sad. I go home for an entire week every summer. I do like my parents.” She shrugged. “Christmas is different. I don’t enjoy the big family gatherings.”