Their Yuletide Promise

by Stacy Connelly

  Unable to meet her aunt’s eyes, she glanced almost wildly around the lobby crowded with holiday guests. She knew every nook and cranny of the walnut-paneled room with its carved columns, coffered ceiling and antique check-in desk, and yet she couldn’t recall ever feeling at such a loss.

  “We’re—” Evie struggled to speak, but then words didn’t matter because he was there, striding across the patterned carpet, casually elegant in a gray shirt and black slacks.

  “Here he is now,” she said to her aunt before calling out his name.

  Her cheeks heated as the sound seemed to echo, not through the lobby, but once more through the tiny dressing room, a reminder of how she’d nearly come apart in his arms. She’d known she couldn’t avoid him forever after that mind-blowing, soul-stealing kiss, but she wasn’t prepared for the jolt of awareness shooting through her as she spotted him.

  And though his sexy lips curved into a slight smile, he didn’t actually laugh in her face as she hurried toward him...exactly the way a woman in love would.

  She stopped short of throwing herself into his arms because he’d already warned her, hadn’t he? When I kiss you, there won’t be an audience...and there will be nothing pretend about it.

  “Hey, babe.”

  Babe? Clearly they needed to talk about pet names and the fact that no one had ever called her babe. And yet she couldn’t deny her insides melted a bit at the proprietary claim. When he leaned in to press a kiss against her cheek and murmur, “Missed you,” Evie’s insides did more than melt. They liquefied like the molten center of one of Aaron’s rich and decadent lava cakes.

  “Griffin...”

  He pulled away before her bones puddled right along with her brains. “Ms. McClaren, good to see you again.”

  “You, too, even if I’m not seeing quite as much of you,” Evelyn said archly.

  And now it was embarrassment that had her ready to sink right into the floor. If I close my eyes, maybe—just maybe—they won’t be able to see me at all...

  But when Griffin’s deep chuckle took her back to the bridal shop dressing room, to his hands at her zipper and lips warm against her neck, Evie snapped her eyes back open. Her aunt was still watching her with the pinpoint awareness that had her reaching out to grab Griffin’s hand and hold on for dear life.

  I need this to look real. I need to believe this is real...just for a little while.

  As if he could hear every word she’d never said, Griffin brushed a tender kiss against her temple and gave her hand a reassuring squeeze. Swallowing hard, she dared to look up at him and saw the unspoken response in his confident smile. We’ve got this, Evie.

  For the first time since the meeting with her aunt a month ago, the tension, the pressure, the weight of responsibility of keeping Hillcrest House in the family started to ease.

  We’ve got this.

  “Evie had a wonderful idea during our meeting this morning.”

  “I’m not surprised. I’ve told Evie more than once that she’s full of brilliant ideas.” Smiling at her aunt, Griffin added, “I’m pretty sure she gets that from you.”

  “And aren’t you the charming one? I suppose we both know where you get that from.”

  Griffin’s eyebrows shot toward his hairline at her aunt’s comment. Evie didn’t have a chance to wonder what her aunt might have meant before the older woman turned toward her. “Aren’t you going to tell Griffin your idea?”

  Idea? As the memory of their kiss still swirled through her thoughts, Evie wasn’t planning on sharing any ideas the sight of him inspired. “Uh, what idea, Aunt E?”

  “About taste testing the dinner for the New Year’s Eve Ball.”

  “Oh, right. Our chef has come up with a new menu for the dance, and I thought it would be a great idea to have a preview before the big event.” As she caught the expectation in her aunt’s expression, she mentally slapped herself upside the head for not figuring it out sooner. Clearly she wasn’t as brilliant as either her aunt or Griffin believed.

  Taking a deep breath, Evie turned toward Griffin. “Just for the two of us.”

  Because naturally her aunt hadn’t been thinking of Aaron and Trisha when Evie made her suggestion. No, Evelyn had been thinking—

  “Who better to judge a romantic dinner than Hillcrest’s newest couple?”

  “Who indeed?” Griffin agreed.

  “I’ll leave the two of you to work out the details. I’ll expect a full report later.” With a sly smile, Evelyn clarified, “On the dinner, that is.”

  Griffin chuckled as her aunt left them with a wink and a wave. “I’m impressed, Evie. Planning such a romantic evening for us.”

  “You know me and my plans,” she muttered. Considered how far she’d already gone, dinner hardly seemed much of a price to pay. But as she glanced around the lobby with its holly-dotted garlands, enormous pine-scented wreaths and glittering lights, Evie felt like she was seeing the place with different eyes. She’d been so sure Hillcrest House was all her aunt ever wanted. It was all Evie ever wanted, wasn’t it?

  “Evie?”

  Realizing that Griffin was watching her, she shook off the momentary doubt. Of course, Hillcrest was what she wanted, and she’d do whatever she could to hold on to it. Including having that romantic dinner with Griffin James.

  “When I brought up the idea, I wasn’t exactly thinking of the two of us.”

  After Evie explained the battle in her office and pointed out the combatants in question before they stalked off to their respective corners, Griffin grinned. “Ah, those two. I don’t suppose the hotel has some kind of no-fraternizing policy, does it?”

  Evie gaped at him. How had Griffin picked up on something in a single glance that she’d been blind to for months? “How did you—never mind.” If he had some kind of superpower when it came to reading auras or sensing pheromones of attraction, well, she definitely did not want to know.

  “And to answer your question, we don’t have a policy against employees dating. Although, it might be a good idea to implement one. Quickly.”

  Griffin laughed as he took her arm and guided her out of the flow of guests and porters wheeling luggage through the busy lobby. “Why? Surely you don’t want to be the one keeping star-crossed lovers apart.”

  She waved a hand in the direction of the kitchen. “Aaron is a brilliant chef. We’re lucky to have someone of his caliber willing to work here in Clearville rather than in Portland or San Francisco. And Trisha’s been here for years.”

  “I’m still not sure I see the problem.”

  “The problem—” Evie tried to tamp down the cynicism building inside her, but she felt more like a two-year-old stomping her foot in a tantrum as she all but snapped, “The problem is, what happens when the relationship doesn’t work out?”

  “And maybe the answer is what happens if it does?”

  She huffed out a breath. “Soon you’ll be telling me all about Hillcrest’s magic and how this place brings two hearts together with its blend of romance and blah, blah, blah.”

  Griffin let out a bark of laughter. “Well, I have heard Rory’s speech.”

  “Right. When you and Alexa were the couple getting married, how’d that work out for you?” Oh, good grief! Had she really said that? And how had the question that sounded like her typical snarky response to love and marriage in her head come out sounding like the words of a jealous girlfriend when spoken out loud?

  “Exactly as it was supposed to. I told you before that Alexa’s a friend. She and Chance are the ones meant to have their happily-ever-after. But what about you?”

  “Me?”

  “Yes, Evie, you. Why don’t you believe you’ll find your one true love?”

  Evie opened her mouth to snap back with another sarcastic reply, shocked down to her shoes when the unvarnished truth poured out instead. “Maybe because you aren’t
the only one whose engagement didn’t end with a walk down the aisle.”

  * * *

  Griffin had expected some kind of heartbreak in Evie’s past. For all her tough-as-nails exterior, she had a heart made for loving. He’d seen it in her interaction with her aunt, in her desire to hold on to Hillcrest House and to keep her family together.

  But he hadn’t expected a fiancé. Just as he hadn’t expected the sudden spike of jealousy, knowing there was a man Evie McClaren had loved enough to want to marry. Even if, in the end, they hadn’t made it to the altar.

  “The man’s an idiot.”

  “What?”

  Griffin didn’t realize he’d said the words out loud until he saw Evie staring at him. Her chin was raised to a proud level, head held high, back straight; she was ready to pretend the broken engagement hadn’t broken her heart.

  “The man’s an idiot,” he repeated, well aware of what he was saying this time. Well aware his own words might soon come back to bite him. “He’d have to be to lose you.”

  “Maybe I’m the one who left him,” she shot back. “Ever think of that?”

  “Then he’s still an idiot for not doing everything he could to get you back.”

  Evie’s chest heaved as she drew in a breath, but it was more than anger rushing through her veins. He could see it in the trapped look in her expression. She’d opened the box to the past with her admission, one that he would guess she’d buried deep as she’d thrown herself into her job.

  Better with numbers than with people, she’d told him that night at the bar.

  But Griffin was willing to bet it wasn’t so much that Evie was better with numbers as it was that she found safety in them. He recognized the signs of someone who buried themselves in work. He’d seen it for years with his father and witnessed it in his own reflection staring back at him lately.

  I’m counting on you, Griff. A whisper of memory echoed through his mind, so faded now he could hear the words but no longer remember the sound of his mother’s voice. I’m counting on you to make your dad smile. The way you’ve always made me smile.

  Griffin had failed to keep his promise. He’d done little to make his father smile over the years since his mother’s death. Not that he hadn’t tried. He’d followed in Frederick’s footsteps. He’d worked his way up through the James Hotels hierarchy, starting at the bottom despite his name, and climbing to the top. But instead of making his father happy, all he’d succeeded in was making himself miserable.

  “Come on,” he said suddenly as he grabbed Evie’s hand. “Let’s get some fresh air.”

  After they’d walked some distance along the gravel path, the crunch of their footsteps and the rustle of salty air in the trees the only sounds, Evie finally said, “My cousins and I used to come here almost every summer. It didn’t matter that we had to share the hotel with hundreds of guests. It was ours.”

  Griffin could easily imagine it. Adventurous, reckless Chance; imaginative, exuberant Rory; and smart, serious Evie—all big eyes, skinny limbs and a shy, sweet smile. The three of them must have explored every inch of the property from the lush, landscaped grounds to the rocky shoreline below.

  “It’s still yours, Evie,” he reminded her even as he vowed to make sure it stayed that way. “You’ve got a plan, remember? You’ll get your chance to run Hillcrest House.”

  “That’s just it. I’ve already had my chance, and I’ve already blown it.”

  “What do you mean?”

  For a long moment, he didn’t think she was going to answer as she contemplated the clouds rolling in off the ocean. Finally, with her thoughts clearly in the past, she started speaking. “A few years ago, I approached my aunt about buying into Hillcrest. I’d worked my way up at the accounting firm, putting in all the overtime, going after every promotion and major client along the way. But despite my success, I finally hit a glass ceiling at the company and by then I was burned out. I wanted something different, something new. Or maybe something old.”

  “Hillcrest House.”

  Evie nodded. “I grew up hearing the stories about how everyone had always known Aunt Evelyn would take over from my grandparents, and I remember thinking how one day that would be me. One day she would pass the keys for the castle on to me.”

  “What happened?”

  Evie’s lips twisted in a mockery of the smile he always wanted to see on her face. “I fell in love with Eric Laughlin.”

  And now the man had a name. Eric Laughlin...which would make it so much easier to track him down and beat the hell out of him, as Griffin felt like doing.

  “Eric was charming, sophisticated, handsome...”

  Words Griffin had often heard over the years from women describing him. He would never claim to be perfect, but the idea of Evie comparing him to the other man, possibly penalizing him for another man’s sins, was yet another reason for the ass kicking in Eric Laughlin’s future.

  “As things got more serious between us, I thought I’d have to choose between Eric and the hotel. I couldn’t imagine him leaving Portland. But then he came to Clearville with me for Christmas, and he said he loved it. Everything about the town and about Hillcrest House. Two months later, he proposed, and suddenly my dream was even better because I was going to have someone by my side.”

  “Eric.” He practically spit the word like a curse, the nastiness of the name on his tongue enough to bring a small smile from Evie.

  But the expression faded quickly as she crossed her arms over her chest, to shield herself more from the memories than from the weather. With her chin ducked down against her chest, she looked small, vulnerable, folding in on herself when all Griffin wanted for Evie was to see her spread her wings and soar.

  “He said he had this vision of me as a June bride, so I threw myself into planning a wedding in four months...even though Rory and Chance thought I was rushing into things. Both of them had always been the popular ones, going out on dates while I was the one sitting at home with my head buried in a book. Eric was my first...serious relationship.”

  Pink touched her cheeks, not from the hint of chill on the salt-scented breeze, but from the words she’d left unsaid. Eric had been her first lover.

  The very idea was enough to make him want to pull Evie into his arms. To wipe every memory of the other man from her mind, her body, her heart until Griffin was all Evie could see, taste and touch. The raw possessiveness was as out of character as the raging jealousy, powerful emotions Griffin had never allowed himself to feel.

  Apparently unaware of the turmoil consuming him, Evie said, “But for all of Rory’s and Chance’s relationships, I was the first one of us to get engaged. So when they questioned if Eric was really the man for me, I told myself they were jealous that I was the one who’d found true love first.

  “I wanted them to be happy for me and instead... Well, it turned out I still did have to choose, and I chose Eric. The wedding plans were moving full speed ahead. I had everything organized down to the tiniest detail—paying a ridiculous amount of attention to the dress, the flowers, the music, the menu—when what I should have been paying more attention to was the man I was marrying.”

  “But you figured it out, Evie. You didn’t marry him.”

  “Oh, I figured it out all right. A whopping two days before I was supposed to walk down the aisle, I overheard Eric on the phone. He was talking with a lawyer about how long we would have to stay married before he’d be entitled to half of my share of Hillcrest House in a divorce.”

  Griffin swore beneath his breath, and then again much louder. “That—that’s why he was rushing the wedding?”

  “That’s the only reason he asked me to marry him in the first place.” Painful shadows from the past darkened her expression. “To get his hands on Hillcrest House.”

  Chapter Nine

  For a split second, Griffin felt sucker punched.
>
  Evie loving a man interested only in the hotel...

  But history wasn’t repeating itself. Despite the attraction between them, he had no reason to think Evie was actually falling for him. And he wasn’t interested in the hotel, dammit! And just because his father was, that didn’t mean Evelyn McClaren would sell to him.

  Based on the murky history of whatever had happened the first time Evelyn hadn’t sold to Frederick, Griffin had no reason to believe things would be different this time around. Especially not when he would do everything in his power to make sure this was one business deal his father failed to close.

  Mentally grabbing hold of the throttle, he eased back on the emotions speeding through him. He still had this under control. Totally under control. “But what made you change your plan? You can’t tell me that your aunt wouldn’t let you buy into the hotel because of what your jerk of an ex almost did.”

  “No, but paying for the ‘wedding that wasn’t’ had wiped out my savings.” And Evie had had too much pride to allow her parents to foot the bill. “Then there were all the charge cards Eric had opened in my name and maxed out, destroying my credit and making it almost impossible for me to secure the business loan I would have needed at that point.

  “So I went back to work where the partners offered me a raise if I were to stay and...I did. The longer I stayed in Portland and stayed away from Hillcrest House and even from my cousins, the harder it became to bridge that distance between us.”

  “But you came back, Evie. You were strong enough and brave enough—”

  “Don’t. Please.” She shook her head, and the sheen of tears in her midnight eyes nearly brought him to his knees. “I’m none of those things. I came back because I was scared. Terrified, really.”

  “Of losing Hillcrest House?”

  Evie shook her head. “Of losing my aunt. Last year she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She went through surgery, chemo, radiation treatments.”

  Griffin never would have guessed Evelyn McClaren was anything other than the picture of health. “She was lucky that the doctors caught it early enough for treatment.”