Second Chance Christmas (The Colorado Cades) (5 page)

She’d gone from telling him why the orange crayon at school was better than the blue one to demanding to know why he hadn’t come over to play since she’d moved to Cielo Peak. Feeling like slime, he’d stammered something about being busy and recently becoming an uncle, relieved when she moved on to asking if he’d ever eaten squid and if he knew the difference between squid and octopus.

Then she looked him square in the eye and asked, “Do you think Santa can do anything to bring my mom back?”

His lungs burned with the sudden difficulty of breathing, and his arms squeezed around her in a quick, reflexive hug. “No. I’m sorry, kiddo, but not even the big guy from the North Pole can help you with this one.” He was jolted through time to that first December without
his
mom. That year, he’d been ashamed of every toy he’d ever asked for—none of them mattered. He would’ve given up toys and video games and candy for the rest of his life to have her back.

“I’m sorry about your mother.” He touched his forehead to Kaylee’s. “Mine’s gone, too, and I miss her. But your mom knew that Beth—Elisabeth—is going to take really good care of you. And that Elisabeth loves you. Just remember you’re not alone, okay?”

The damp sparkle in her eyes was like a punch in the stomach.
Don’t cry, kid.
He didn’t think he could take it.

He began babbling, trying to stave off her tears. “It’s not just Elisabeth who loves you but her whole family. Her parents, the employees here at the lodge, your crazy aunt Lina. And I hear your family’s going to get bigger soon, when Elisabeth gets married. I bet you’ll have a really pretty dress to wear to the ceremony.”

Kaylee wrinkled her nose. “She’s marrying
Steven
. He doesn’t like me.”

“What? That can’t be true.” He pulled back to study her expression and gauge her sincerity.

“We stayed at his house, but he didn’t want to play with me. He worked on his computer the whole time. He wouldn’t even stop to watch SpongeBob.”

“Maybe he likes you just fine, but he doesn’t like SpongeBob.” What the heck was taking Elisabeth so long? He wasn’t qualified as a family counselor. “Try other cartoons. Give him some, er, Bugs Bunny DVDs for Christmas.” Did kids still know who Bugs Bunny was?

“Christmas presents go under the tree. We don’t have a tree.” Her tone vibrated with anxiety, and her lower lip trembled. “Does that mean I don’t get any presents?”

“Hey, no worries. You’ll have presents,” he assured her. “There’s
plenty
of time to get a tree. I haven’t picked mine out, either.” No point in telling her that he never bothered with one.

“Picked what out?” Elisabeth asked suspiciously as if he might be plotting with a six-year-old behind her back. He was so relieved by her return that he wasn’t even offended.

“Christmas trees,” Kaylee answered. “Can we get one today? Justin can go with us!”

“Actually, kiddo, I have to get back to work.” He tried to sound chagrined instead of eager to be rid of her. “Trails to groom, conditions to check, people to save.”

A waitress arrived with plates of food, and Kaylee groaned that she was
staaarving
. Did that mean the little girl and Elisabeth’s mother would be joining them? If so, the already strained level of awkwardness for this lunch date was about to rocket to mythic proportions.

Patti, who seemed even less happy to see him than the hostile restaurant manager, held out a hand to her granddaughter. “How about we visit Chef Bates and see what he can whip up for you?”

That brightened Kaylee’s expression. She lowered herself from Justin’s lap but paused to pin Elisabeth with an impatient glare. “When are we gonna get a tree?”

“How about tomorrow? I have to work until at least three, but we could go after that. And since Steven gets here tonight, he can come with us. Won’t that be nice?”

Kaylee grimaced.

“Let’s get you some food,” Patti intervened. “Being hungry makes us cranky.”

Justin watched them go, then turned back to Elisabeth. “She doesn’t seem too enthusiastic about a new stepfather.”

Emotion flared in her clear green eyes. She looked as if she wanted to argue or tell him to mind his own business, but her composure won out. “It will be an adjustment,” she admitted calmly. “We’ll get through it together. That’s what families do.”

Her statement struck a chord with him. How would he and Arden and Colin have coped without each other? And how would Justin manage when both his siblings were gone? An unfamiliar sensation speared him, and it took a moment to identify the pang as loneliness.
Ridiculous
. Between buddies and beautiful women, Justin was never alone.

He poked at his food. “You mentioned last night that you had something to discuss?”

She nodded. “With Steven in town this weekend, we have a small window of opportunity for engagement pictures. And I was wondering...would it be weird for you if I hired Arden? I was thinking she might be a good candidate for the wedding if she’s not already booked that weekend.”

“She’s a great candidate,” he said loyally. “Her work is terrific.”

“So it won’t bother you at all?” she prodded.

“Why should it?”

Her lips compressed into a thin line. “Right. Silly of me to think it might.” She set down her fork. “I know I said you could have thirty minutes, but Mom alerted me to a guest problem that needs to be addressed. Since we’ve concluded our business here...”

“Don’t let me keep you.” He stood, reaching for his wallet. “I should get going, too.” His obligation to Lina was fulfilled. He’d given Elisabeth his unsolicited opinion on raising a child, and now he wanted to get out of here before the tension between them got any worse. Or Kaylee had a chance to ask him any more difficult questions like why he wasn’t her friend anymore.

Elisabeth shook her head when he pulled cash out of his billfold. “You don’t have to pay for this.”

Oh, but he already was. He followed her back to the lobby, trying not to notice the flattering way her jeans hugged her butt. In the past five months, he’d almost forgotten how fascinated he’d been with her composed nature, how he delighted in the challenge of getting her to open up to him. She was so cool and calm that every time she revealed an emotion—whether anger or laughter or something more vulnerable—had been like a victory. It had become addictive, helping her cultivate her responsive side and knowing he was one of the lucky few to glimpse it.

But encouraging her to be free with her feelings had come back to bite him on the ass when she’d fallen for him harder than he’d ever anticipated. Hadn’t he warned her that he had no long-run potential? How could a woman with her intelligence want something lasting with
him
? He was the guy who’d practically broken out in hives whenever Patti Donnelly hugged him or Graham Donnelly had called him “son.”
Well, you certainly solved that dilemma
. Now the Donnellys wanted nothing to do with him.

From around the corner, there came the pounding slap of footsteps, and a defeated-sounding woman issued a listless reminder not to run. Then two tall boys, not quite teenagers, zoomed into view. At their current speed, they were in danger of mowing over Elisabeth. Justin instinctively pulled her out of the collision course and against him.

The instant her body touched his, his mind went blank, heat silencing his intended reprimand to the hooligans. Elisabeth’s sharp intake of breath was audible and, from his view over her shoulder, did mesmerizing things for her cleavage.

She craned her head to look up at him. “Thanks.” The word ended on a near whisper as their gazes locked. She was right there, so close, in his arms the way she’d been hundreds of times before. The urge to kiss her was so natural....

“Justin?” Her voice was a squeak of uncertainty, jarring him from lust-addled memories.

He immediately dropped his hands to his sides, hoping he looked more innocent than he felt. “Just wanted to make sure you didn’t get hurt.”

A hollow chuckle escaped her. “Ironic, coming from you.”

He flinched. “Guess I deserved that.”

What about what
she
deserved? If she’d found a man worthy of her—if Lina’s reservations were misplaced—then Justin had no right jeopardizing her future. He took a step back, trying to repress the desire he’d felt, trying to repress memories of how exquisitely responsive she’d always been to his kisses.

“I should go,” she stammered. “I have a lot to wrap up before Steven gets into town.”

“You kids have fun this weekend.”

“Right.” Her smile was tinged with sadness. “Fun.”

He knew without her saying it that she was looking for something more profound than fun. Just as he knew it was all he’d ever be able to offer a woman.

* * *

W
HEN
L
INA
APPEARED
in the doorway of the lodge’s main office Thursday afternoon, Elisabeth shot to her feet. Her wheeled chair flew backward across the hardwood. “I don’t know what kind of incense you burn during those relaxation therapy sessions, but I’m giving you the benefit of the doubt that you were high on some crazy New Age fumes when you decided to talk to Justin Cade about my engagement.”

Lina froze, glancing over her shoulder as if debating whether it was too late to retreat.

“I’ll chase you down,” Elisabeth threatened. “You can’t possibly outrun me in those heels.”

Sighing, Lina entered the room where Elisabeth and Graham Donnelly worked. With two desks facing each other, the office was cramped yet cozy. Although Patti Donnelly chipped in with reservations and overseeing the housekeeping staff, she didn’t hold a full-time position at the lodge. Lina’s smaller workspace was on the third floor. She focused on new products for facials and making visitors feel welcome—she’d said more than once that if they put her in charge of accounting or inventory, the place would be out of business in a month.

Looking as guilty as a kid in the principal’s office, Lina slid into their dad’s chair. “Okay, I get why you’re peeved.”

“
Peeved?
I’m debating throwing this stapler at your head.”

“No, you aren’t.” Lina laughed. “You’d never do anything like that. Although I must say, this is feistier than I’ve seen you in a long time. Don’t you think that means something, your tapping into this much emotion on the same day you had lunch with Justin? Mom told me about it.”

Elisabeth repositioned her chair and sat. “The emotion I’m demonstrating is toward
you
, my Benedict Arnold of a sister, not some ex.” Some ex who’d almost kissed her in plain view of employees and guests.

A shiver ran down her spine. Had Justin been about to kiss her, or had she imagined it? Worse, had she really considered, for one brief self-destructive moment, letting him?
No, of course not.
But the refusal was unconvincing. Shame boiled through her. All right she had considered it—for a millisecond. Maybe it was as simple as misguided sense memory, her body’s conditioned reaction to being in those strong arms, breathing in his familiar scent.

“You okay, sis? You look...flustered,” Lina said.

“I am! Put yourself in my shoes. Christmas is just around the corner, I have a wedding to plan, Mom and Dad are formally meeting my fiancé tonight, I recently became a mother—and to top it all off, you randomly decided that I needed to deal with an ex-boyfriend?”

Lina ducked her head, her expression appropriately sheepish. “That may have been a bad call on my part. But whenever Mom or I ask if you’re sure you’re doing the right thing, you get dismissive. Strategy called for a different approach. Ergo, Justin.”

Reminding herself that her sister meant well, Elisabeth tried not to grind her teeth. “You’ve confused dismissive with confident. And your track record with giving advice... Remember when we were nineteen, you convinced me my hair would look good highlighted, and it ended up bright orange? Or when I was hesitant about sleeping with a lodge employee, and you convinced me to go for it?
Not
that I blame you for what happened with Justin,” she stressed. “I’m only saying that sometimes an observer thinks her opinion is right but doesn’t have all the inside information. Besides, how come you get to interfere but never have to take my advice?”

Lina rolled her eyes. “If I took your advice, I’d be dating that really boring loan officer who works at the bank.”

“As opposed to the guitarist who broke dates with you whenever he had a last-minute opportunity for a gig.”

“He was a mistake. But I admitted he was a mistake. I didn’t agree to marry him.”

“Steven is not a mistake. You’ll see that tonight, when we all have dinner.” Elisabeth had first met Steven Miller when he’d come to Cielo Peak for a corporate retreat. His group had done some skiing interspersed with team building exercises and downtime. Her parents had probably seen him around the lodge, but when Elisabeth gave him permission to contact her once he returned to Albuquerque, she’d had no idea their relationship would become so serious.

“I guess it wasn’t fair for me to judge him without meeting him, but—”

“No! There is no ‘but.’ There is only my twin sister being supportive. Do not make me kill you and hide the body in the Cupboard of Doom.” She jerked her thumb over her shoulder, and Lina snorted in response at the running family joke.

The wall behind Elisabeth was covered in decorative panels, one of which was actually the door to a heavily cluttered storage area. The Donnellys joked about Hoffa’s missing body being in the cabinet somewhere. During her late teens, Elisabeth had gradually taken on more and more responsibility at the lodge, getting her father organized in the process. But the storage space represented the many years prior to her intervention—a veritable cave of misfiled paperwork, boxes of memorabilia, obsolete personnel records and ugly artwork that had once hung upstairs. Graham Donnelly hadn’t wanted to throw out the artwork since they were part of the lodge’s “rich history.”

Every once in a while, Elisabeth or her mother would remark that someone really should clean out the Cupboard of Doom. But they were all afraid of the avalanche they’d trigger by opening the door. For the most part, they pretended the cabinet didn’t exist, although Lina had once suggested that, for liability reasons, they should cross over the door with pieces of yellow
Caution
tape.