“Mr. Allman, you’re selling so soon?” she squeaked unintentionally, when she meant to sound confident and bold. “I mean, I was planning on …”
On what? Convincing a different bank to take another wild risk on her and loaning her the money to buy the hotel out of hock from Allard Allman’s bank? What crazy lender would consider doing that? Probably no one. She’d proved herself to be an exceptionally bad risk. Not only was Allard Allman taking her property, he was ruining her credit in the process.
“The buyer was very forthcoming. It was a cash offer.”
Cash! “As in there won’t be a waiting period while the loan is approved?”
“The title can transfer”—he looked at his watch—“within hours, if the new owner simply makes the trip to the bank from where he lives out of town.” A smile slithered across his face. “Such a shame. We could have had a beautiful business relationship, you and I. Your loss.”
“But—the employees! Are they guaranteed jobs? Lenny lives on the property. He’s got nowhere else to go.” And what would Mom do? This wasn’t just Ellery’s legacy—this place had been part of Mom’s world for her entire life.
“All things you might have taken into consideration before making your final decision.” Allard Allman perused the stack of papers, then with a fell swoop, he folded them and stuck them in his pocket. “The keys to the establishment, please.”
Oh. So soon? “I’ll just …” She dug in her pocket, and then in her purse.
A gong sounded somewhere inside Ellery, lower than a death knell and twice as sinister. It was so stupid. This could have been prevented. Maybe she shouldn’t have been so selfish and prideful. Her knees were mere inches from the floor. She could have fallen onto them. Maybe Allard Allman would reconsider if Ellery begged now.
Or not—from the sneer on Allman’s face, as if she were a piece of moist, broken candy cane covered with carpet fuzz.
“I’ll be leaving now. You were never worth the effort.” He slammed the bell-strung door behind him, letting in an icy blast.
Mom, Lenny, and Kit all stared at her. Ellery gripped the newly-topped registration desk to stay vertical.
“It’s over?” Kit’s voice scratched. “Just like that?” She glanced around at the work she’d accomplished. “I thought, somehow, that what we’d done for this place would be enough.”
I thought I would be enough. A hiccupy moan lurched from Ellery’s throat. “I’m really, really sorry, everyone. Mom—I let you down. If you want me to, I’ll go after him. I’ll throw myself on his mercy.”
“Hush your mouth!” Mom gathered Ellery in her arms. “Yes, I want you to have a husband, but not that way. And definitely not that one.” She blew a raspberry in Allard Allman’s general direction. “You’re my darling daughter, and he’s a bottom-dwelling miscreant. You, my dear, are worth ten thousand Sleigh Bells Chalets.”
A hot smear of tears squished down Ellery’s cheeks, probably consisting of black sludge. She sniffled, and not in a cute, feminine way. She pressed her face into Mom’s shoulder, which smelled like pumpkin cookies—which made the whole thing worse, and Ellery erupted in sobs. “I couldn’t give myself to him. Not even for this place. I’m so sorry.”
Ellery loved these people, and she loved this place—but blast it!—she had a love for herself, too. Even if Greg Maxwell hadn’t seen it. Even if Bing Whitmore was blind to it. Ellery possessed value—something intrinsically good inside herself. Something worth cherishing. She couldn’t lavish what was precious and sacred—her very soul and her love and her self—on anyone who wouldn’t prize her.
Especially not on an unappreciative eel like Allard Allman.
Until someone did see her for the precious woman she was, she would have to stand firm, even if she were the only one who saw her inherent value.
“You were right to do that, Ellery.” Lenny placed a meaty hand on her head and swished the tips of her hair.
Okay, so Lenny might see her worth, too. And Kit. And Mom. It was great to have people in her life who were okay with her choosing not to sell out to a jerk in order to protect their livelihoods.
Annnnd, she was crying all over again. “I’m sorry, guys. I kind of ruined everybody’s Christmas, eh?”
“Who says Christmas is ruined?” Mom asked. “I still have cinnamon-orange tea.”
“And I gots lots and lots of money in my change jars.” Lenny grinned. He was missing a tooth halfway back on his right uppers. Seeing that broad of a smile made a little sugarplum fairy dance in Ellery’s heart. “You know how I told Mr. Allman I had ten more jugs like this? I lied.”
Oh, no. So Lenny didn’t have a savings to fall back on? Oh, dear. The nose-running started afresh, and Ellery’s eyes stung. “Oh, Lenny. I’m—”
“Nope. I gots about fifty more. But I wasn’t gonna tell that goat about it. He had ‘mean one Mr. Grinch’ written all over him, and he mighta come out to the handyman’s quarters and said my jugs was on the property and they belongs to him, too. I could see the avarice in the tilt of his eyes.”
Avarice in the tilt of his eyes! Good phrase, Lenny. “I’m glad you didn’t tell him. And great job saving for your future.”
“Oh, that’s just what’s in my jugs. I gots a few savings accounts, too. Here and there. I’m thinking about making an offer on the Sleigh Bells Chalet, if I can trick Mr. Allman and his bank into not knowing it’s an offer coming from me. Somehow’s I gotta find out how much the cash buyer was telling him they’d be paying. Then I’ll double it!” Lenny let out a laugh worthy of Santa Claus.
“Bless you, Lenny!”
The bell tower of the nearby church struck five. “The bank will be closed until morning, so you sleep on that decision,” Ellery said, giving Lenny a hug. “You’re the best friends and family any girl ever had.” She placed a kiss on her fingertips and pressed them to his cheek.
Lenny beamed. “Anything for you, Ellery.”
That? That was love. That was cherishing. Even if Lenny wasn’t her match, he knew how to make her feel like she mattered.
She needed that—at least as much as she needed security in life.
In fact, maybe being loved by someone who made her feel that way, who truly believed she deserved it, was security.
“From what Allman said, I guess we will have to clear out in the morning.” Kit pulled Ellery out the door. “For now, let’s go get a holiday meal. I’ve got leftover turkey and potatoes to warm up. My hoarder mom is a fantastic cook, if you’ll recall.”
Ellery had a few things to wrap up. For instance, the guests had to be told to pay their bills and plan to check out in the morning. Ellery wouldn’t be there. The hotel belonged to someone else.
Allard Allman would have to figure all that out. Maid service, checkout times, guest complaints, the continental breakfast.
Was that what he wanted? Well, he had it. And more power to him.
They locked up on their way out, and Ellery wouldn’t have a key to get back in.
It was over.
Ellery
“Shhh. Shhh.” Ellery rubbed down the side of Donner’s neck, brushing him with the curry comb just the way she’d seen Bing do it. “That’s a good boy. Do you like the oats?”
Reggie had left for his morning coffee. Just as well. Ellery could use some time to talk to the team.
“I guess we’re not going to be doing what you were trained to do, after all, boys.” She lifted a handful of oats for Blitzen to eat from her palm. The black velvet mouth brushed softly against her skin. They were beautiful animals, both of them. She’d already gotten used to them. “I’m sorry about that.”
Maybe she could still put them in harness to finish out the bookings, just not have the team leave from in front of the hotel. But would guests be able to find the stable where Donner and Blitzen were boarded? It could be confusing to have to come the extra two-blocks’ walk to find the carriage starting point.
It made a lot more sense to put the team and the carriag
e up for sale—possibly to the new owner of the Sleigh Bells Chalet.
And just when the new name of the hotel was starting to make sense.
The jingle bells attached to the horses’ tails had been so charming. It hurt to have to see it end.
All of it.
“You boys liked it, too. I could tell.” They really were a great team together. “Didn’t you? Didn’t you? That’s right.” She rubbed the side of Donner’s warm neck, and he huffed a snort of approval.
Good horse. No wonder Bing had been so attached to his horses. Ellery had only been a horse owner for a matter of days, and she already thought of them as part of herself. She was already having full-on, one-sided conversations with them but inventing their responses in her head. How much more must Bing have felt for those colts and fillies he’d seen born, watched grow, ridden, trained, raced, and cared for daily.
And those that he had seen fall.
And die.
Poor Rose Red. Poor Bing. Reggie had told Ellery—Rose Red hadn’t made it.
At least the female jockey would understand and be able to comfort Bing in a way that Ellery couldn’t have understood—before now.
No wonder he turned to her. Shayla whatever her name was. It made sense. Ellery hadn’t ever loved a horse up to now, so she couldn’t have been the rock Bing needed in a time of crisis.
I forgive you, Bing. She didn’t cry again—all her tears were spent, evaporated in a dry, salty patch on her mother’s shirt’s shoulder until it went into the laundry. Because I get it. Finally.
And she got something else, too: why Greg went back to Lisa. It wasn’t because he was an unmitigated jack-wagon—it was because he was a discerning, mitigated jack-wagon … to Ellery. While, at the same time, Greg was a stand-up guy to Lisa, whose child he’d fathered.
Greg Maxwell should go be the father of his child, and the husband of the child’s mother. It was the right thing he’d done.
By them.
If not by Ellery.
And Ellery never had the same stakes in the game that Lisa had had in that moment. Not even close.
Not to mention the fact that eventually, like it or not, the whole Greg-Lisa-Baby dynamic would have bled into the Greg-Ellery relationship and likely wrecked it in Titanic fashion by this point in time, and Ellery wouldn’t have had Greg now anyway.
Hindsight, hindsight, hindsight.
Truly, as Bing said, she’d made a narrow escape.
Whew.
Interesting how being with these horses had unlocked all those realizations, bless them. “All the boys in my life for now are you two, right?” She patted Donner, and then Blitzen.
“Uh, Miss Hart?” Reggie swung around the corner and into view.
How long had he been listening? Great.
“Don’t worry. Everyone pours out their hearts to their horses. I didn’t hear a thing.” He winked. Cute kid. “But, hey. There’s someone here to see you.”
“Please say it’s not the new owner of the Sleigh Bells Chalet.” Not now. Maybe not ever. “Tell whomever it is I’m fine with letting go of the hotel, but the carriage belongs to my great uncle, and the horses belong to me. They’re not transferring ownership, because they’re mine.” Forever.
A strong footfall clomped over the wooden slats of the stables. “Are you sure you won’t share? Not even a little?”
Bing!
Ellery dropped the curry comb, and when she bent to grab it, she came up fast, whacking the back of her head against Donner’s chin. He whinnied and backed up, his large frame stepping as loudly as Bing’s boots on the floor.
“Ouch. Are you all right?”
“It comes full circle, now, doesn’t it? I was asking you that question the first time we met.”
Why show up now? Probably he was here to fetch Reggie. And with that, maybe he was being magnanimous and making sure she’d either found a new hostler to replace Reggie, or else that she could sell Donner and Blitzen. In which case, she’d thank him and deal with her own responsibility.
“Oh, about my ankle. Right.” Bing stepped close, right into her scent bubble. He smelled like leather and aftershave. She blinked those scents away as a defense against their dark arts of weakening her knees. “My ankle is doing much better, thank you. In case you’re wondering.”
“More like wondering what you’re doing here.”
“I thought Reggie told you.”
“The only person he said was coming was the new owner of the hotel. I assume he’s showing up here eventually to take my horses, but he can forget it because I’m here to defend them. I have a curry comb and I’m not afraid to use it.” She brandished the comb at the imaginary foe.
“Cool your jets, girl. I have no intention of taking Donner and Blitzen from you.”
“You. I’m not talking about you.”
“You’re talking about the new owner of the hotel.”
“Yeah. Exactly.”
He raised his eyebrows. Confusion blurred inside her.
“Wait. What’s going on? I’m not giving up the horses. I know I can’t take care of them, but I’m fully invested, and they were never owned as part of the hotel itself.” The carriage rides were her only source of income—for now.
“I can see you’re getting attached to them.”
Yeah, but … “But I still don’t get why you’re here.” Bing had gone off to be with his lady-jockey friend, to mourn the passing of his beloved horse. It made no sense for him to come back here.
“Isn’t it obvious?”
Uh … no. Did he just want to taunt Ellery? Or was this an exercise in prolonging the inevitable? He’d come to break up with her in person.
“If you’ve come back here to tell me you’re leaving again, I’d say you made a long drive. But Bing—really. I’m fine.” Sort of. If a person with a hollowed-out section of her heart could be termed fine. It’d grow back. Eventually. Probably. Or she’d learn to function without it. “The hotel has been sold, so I’m just figuring out what to do with my life next. I was waiting to see who bought it, and if it’s a cool person, I’ll try to work out a deal—try to see whether Donner and Blitzen will be helpful to the Sleigh Bells Chalet.”
And if not, she’d just go back being an adult. Sell the horses to someone who would treat them right, go back to Reedsville, and beg for her old accounting job back. It was the grown-up thing to do. It made sense. And it was her next logical move.
While simultaneously ripping her to shreds.
“I was hoping you’d let me in on part of that decision-making process. And let me see these beautiful horses.” He really did seem to admire them.
“You came all this way to give me life advice? Isn’t that more your cousin Freya’s line of work?”
“I’m back because I bought some property here in Wilder River.”
He had? This shouldn’t have made Ellery’s heart go for a world-record high jump because all signs pointed to her leaving soon. But it did set the record, plus it added a flip at the end of the jump.
“Oh?” she fought to keep her tone even. “Where is it? I mean, that’s really nice. You’ll like it here. Me, I’m heading back to Reedsville. Probably getting my accounting job back. Or some other job crunching the numbers. Working with customers all the time—it’s pretty taxing.”
“Reedsville? Are you sure?”
No, she wasn’t sure. “Where did you say your property was?”
“Up the road a couple of blocks. It’s a really good investment. And it has horse property attached, so it was pretty much a no-brainer.”
“Horse property? In town?” What kind of place was that? The only in-town lot with a fenced area was … “The Sleigh Bells Chalet?” Her voice was tight, a stretched thread. “You?”
“Reggie told me it was coming on the market. I put in a cash offer the bank couldn’t refuse.”
He—he—he … “You did?” she breathed. Everything in the stable tilted on its side. Ellery stepped out of the stall and closed th
e latch.
“Uh-huh.” He wore a warm smile, not the villain’s twisted-end-mustache-sinister grin she’d expected on the new owner of her grandfather’s hotel.
Ellery’s mouth was dry. “I don’t understand. You have Whitmore Stables, a jockey girlfriend, a family business to run.” A life. A far away, a nine-hour-drive-from-here life. “You can’t run the Sleigh Bells Chalet from out of town.”
“No. You’re right.”
Did it mean … “You can’t be relocating to Wilder River.” Not right as Ellery was heading off to Reedsville.
“You don’t want me to?”
It wasn’t that. It was … “If it’s what you want, it’s a good place to be. I’ve learned a lot about myself in this town. It’s a healing place. You’ve been through a lot, so, I mean, I hope you find what you’re looking for here.” She was babbling.
Bing stepped closer, and Ellery’s back went flush against the wall of the stall. He smiled down at her. “I think I already have.”
All the babbling died in her throat. He was so near, almost sharing her air.
“And for the record”—his voice was sultry, like he wanted her as much as she was starved for him and his touch and his attention and his love—“there’s no jockey girlfriend. Never was.”
“But the online article—”
A chortle erupted from a few stalls down. “You need to check the dates on your gossip columns, Miss Ellery.” Reggie emerged, looking sheepish and tipping his hat. “Sorry for eavesdropping. I couldn’t find a gracious way to leave once you two got started talking. I’ll just go now. But please, for the love of Christmastime, kiss that woman, Bing. She’s not going to keep forever. And you’ve done enough delaying as it is.”
Reggie swung himself over the stall gate and hustled out into the snowy morning.
“Check the dates?” she asked. “You’re not together with Shiloh What’s-her-name?” Or was it Shayla?
The Sleigh Bells Chalet: A Small Town Romance (Christmas House Romances Book 2) Page 11