Her Festive Baby Bombshell

“Listen, I know we need a solution regarding transportation, but all of my rigs are booked from now until Christmas, delivering our toys to stores.” Mr. Wallace tapped his pen on the blank legal pad. “Besides, this wasn’t my part of the arrangement. It’s not my fault Fred wasn’t on top of his business dealings and got in bed with the cartel.”

Mr. Caruso sighed. “I couldn’t possibly reroute all of my snack food shipments. It’d be a logistic disaster. And it would only cover the east coast. What about the children west of the Mississippi?”

All eyes turned to Mr. Santos. The guy shook his head. “I’m in the same boat. My network is on the east coast. And I have no transportation.”

That left one man who hadn’t spoken up, Mr. McMurray. He cleared his throat, visibly uncomfortable being in the hot seat. “And what makes you all think I can pull this off when none of you can?”

Immediately everyone spoke at once, defending why they couldn’t take over the shipping part of the plan. Finn sat back quietly wondering why he ever thought they’d be able to pull off such a big project. It dashed his hopes for future projects of this scale.

At that moment Holly walked into the room. A hush fell over the men and Finn knew why. She looked like a knockout. She wore an aqua, sleeveless sundress. Her golden-brown hair had been piled on top of her head while corkscrew curls framed her face. She wore a little makeup, but definitely on the conservative side. If he hadn’t known that she was feeling under the weather earlier, he wouldn’t have been able to guess it by looking at her.

“Good morning, gentlemen. I’m sorry to be late. But I promise I was hard at work.”

The tension around the table evaporated, replaced with smiles and warm greetings. Finn shook his head in disbelief. Who’d have thought a bunch of workaholics could be so easily swayed by a pretty face and long, toned legs?

“Don’t let me interrupt your discussion.” Holly moved to the chair she’d sat in the day before.

Mr. Wallace grunted. “You didn’t interrupt much. Everyone was just making excuses about why they couldn’t take on the shipping portion of Project Santa. We could use a fresh perspective. Do you have any thoughts on the matter?”

“Actually, I do. First, I want to say I’m very impressed with the endeavor you all are undertaking.” She made a point of making eye contact with each man. “And if you would indulge me, I might have a suggestion about the transportation problem.”

“Holly.” The room grew silent. Finn had to give her a chance to gracefully bow out. “Perhaps I didn’t make clear the enormity of this project. The gifts will need to be delivered from coast to coast in every town or city where our companies have a presence.”

She nodded as her steady gaze met his. “I understood.” She leveled her shoulders. “From what I understand, you have a master list of names and locations for the gifts. You also have all of the items sorted and boxed. All you’re lacking is a delivery system.”

Finn noticed a couple of the men had started to fidget with their cell phones. They didn’t have faith in Holly’s ability to overcome such a large obstacle. He had to admit he didn’t know what she could do that they hadn’t already considered.

“That would be correct.” Finn really wanted to know where she was headed. He didn’t like surprises. “We have a sorting facility in St. Louis. From there the packages need to be distributed to numerous cities.”

“And if I understand correctly, you were planning to do this by way of long-haul trucks.”

“Yes, until Fred’s company was seized by the government. There’s no way he’ll be able to unravel that ugly mess in time to help us. So do you have a lead on some other trucking firm?”

She shook her head. “My idea is a little different. I started to think about all of the modes of transport. And then I started to think about who I knew in the transportation industry. And I realized my neighbor in New York is a pilot.”

Finn cleared his throat. “So you’re suggesting we have your friend fly all of the packages around the country.”