Under The Mistletoe (Holiday Hearts #2)

by Kristin Hardy

  “To old friends and better times,” Gabe said, raising his own bottle to clink it against J.J.’s.

  “To new friends and better times,” J.J. countered. “There are a couple of lonely looking blond ladies over there. Maybe we ought to wander over in the spirit of the season.”

  “That’s for you, my man.”

  “Oh come on, there are only two of them, but I’m feeling magnanimous.”

  “I’d hate to cramp your style.” To Gabe, it just seemed like work. All he’d be doing was sitting there wondering why the hell they weren’t Hadley. At least the Hadley he’d fallen in love with, not the one he’d seen with Robert Stone.

  Then his gaze sharpened and he rose, putting a hand on J.J.’s shoulder. “I’ll leave the ladies to you. There’s someone I want to go see.” And he picked up his beer and walked toward where Pete Mirabelli had just sat down with friends. “Pete, hey, how are you doing?”

  Mirabelli squinted at him. It was coming up on eleven o’clock and the salesman was well into the spirit of the season. “Hey, Happy New Year.” He raised his highball glass to clink against Gabe’s bottle, and drank. After a swallow, though, he seemed to remember that it wasn’t entirely a celebration. “I heard what happened, man. That sucks.”

  News traveled like lightning in the hotel. “I’ll get by,” Gabe said with a shrug. “How about you guys? You getting by?”

  “Ah, you know how it goes. My Porsche is acting up again. My girlfriend’s bitching about driving me to work, telling me to get something more practical for up here. But I figure hell, I like it and it works fine in the summer.”

  “Sure.” Gabe fought the urge to tap his fingers as Mirabelli rattled on, oblivious.

  “Besides, with the profit sharing and all, I might wind up with a chunk of change at the end of the year.”

  And Gabe’s antennae went up. “Profit sharing?” Definitely not a Robert Stone kind of thing.

  “Yeah, profit sharing. The new boss lady’s idea.”

  The new boss lady. “Hadley’s the manager?” Could she have faced down her father? Stood up for the hotel?

  “No, man, everything’s changed around there.” Mirabelli took another belt of his highball. “That’s right, you wouldn’t know, you’ve been gone. The big corporation is out, man. Your girlfriend owns the place now, lock, stock and barrel.”

  Bunting and balloons hung from the walls of the crowded dining room. Confetti spilled over the tables and the floor. On the bandstand, the combo played a jazzy version of “La Vida Loca” for the revelers crowding the dance floor, a crowd that included the twins, who’d apparently decided to make the best of things.

  And the clock ticked its way toward midnight.

  Hadley sat at a table with her parents, resisting the urge to go back into the kitchen and check on preparations for the midnight supper. They’d had all the planning meetings, the staff knew their jobs, and anyway, someone would doubtlessly let her know if there was a problem. There was a balance between being involved and being a pest, one that Gabe had managed effortlessly and she was trying her best to emulate.

  The band swung into a waltz tune. Out on the floor, a couple began to dance, whirling around to the soft, slow strains.

  As she and Gabe had done once.

  And suddenly she couldn’t breathe, overwhelmed by a suffocating wave of loss. For a moment, she thought only of escape. She rose.

  “Where are you going?” her mother asked.

  “I should do a quick walk-through and check that everything’s okay,” Hadley said, fighting to keep her voice steady. “I’ll be back in a minute.”

  Get out, she thought blindly. The hallway, the lobby, anywhere away from the crush of people. If she could just have a few minutes she could get herself together. She could hold on until she was back home and didn’t need to hold on anymore.

  She walked out into the dimmed lobby, where the faerie lights glimmered around the pillars. It was deserted, the guests at the party in the dining room or the one downstairs in the Cave Lounge. Sinking down on the love seat in front of the fireplace, she stared at the flames.

  He was gone. He was gone and she had no idea how to live with that. Only a week ago they’d sat here and talked. Only a week ago she’d danced in his arms. It seemed like aeons. Each of the days that had passed since those nightmare moments with her father had been an excruciating test of endurance. And the only thing that helped her survive was the hotel.

  It was ironic, how the very thing that haunted her with memories of Gabe provided her only escape. Throwing herself into learning the day-to-day business of running the hotel provided some small distraction. Working sixteen-hour days kept her exhausted enough that sleep eventually came, however fitful.

  It would pass, she told herself. Someday, she’d be able to walk through this lobby and sit at this fireplace and not remember the moment he’d held her in his arms and kissed her.

  But she’d never be able to forget that she’d loved him.

  She dropped her head to her hands, trying for a moment to block it out.

  “Happy New Year,” a familiar voice said softly.

  From the moment Mirabelli had told him, Gabe had had one thought and one thought only: to find Hadley. What he was going to say, he wasn’t sure. Whether the situation could be salvaged, he couldn’t say. He only knew he needed to try.

  And when he’d walked in and seen her there, the droop of her shoulders arrowed through him. If she owned the hotel and the ski area, she had every reason to be triumphant.

  Every reason except for the things that he’d said to her, the things that he’d done. And as she turned to him, eyes shadowed with despair, all he could think was that he would find a way to fix it, no matter what it took.

  He cleared his throat. “Mind if I sit down?”

  For a moment, all Hadley could do was stare. He wore a dark jacket over an untucked tuxedo shirt and jeans. He needed a shave. He’d never looked better to her.

  “Um, no. Happy New Year. What brings you here?”

  He sat on the love seat beside her. “I heard you guys were having a party. How’s it going?”

  “So far, so good. The staff…” Her hand fluttered, finishing the sentence for her.

  Gabe smiled. “I know.” He looked away for a moment, then back again. “Speaking of staff, I ran into Mirabelli over at Scooter’s. He told me you bought the hotel.”

  “And the ski area. I’m a regular takeover artist.”

  “Well, that’s great. It’s a great thing you’re doing.” He looked uncomfortable. “I guess I wanted to thank you for it. I don’t know how you managed to pull it off. I can only imagine what it might have cost you, and I’m not talking about money, but…thanks for taking care of the people here.”

  And he was back, now that she’d done what he wanted. “Is this the part where I get a pat on the head and a Jerky Treat?” At his quick blink, she felt ashamed. “Sorry,” she muttered.

  “I suppose I deserved that.”

  The little stab of guilt she felt irritated her. She’d done nothing wrong, she thought, raising her chin. “I made the deal because it was the right thing to do. Because I wanted to. I didn’t do it to win your approval.”

  A spark flared in his eyes and quickly died. “I didn’t claim you did. But I hired a lot of these people. I’ve supervised some of them for five, ten years. You don’t stop thinking about that overnight. I was worried about them.”

  “They’re going to be taken care of.”

  “I know that now.” He sighed in exasperation. “Look, Hadley, I came here really to apologize for Monday. After the scene in your father’s office I was…” his mouth twisted “…not in a mood to listen.”

  “No, you were very effective at telling me what was what.” And it still hurt, the things he’d said. Not to mention the fact that he’d never once reacted when she’d told him how she felt.

  “I’d do it differently if I had a chance to, but I can’t.”

  �
��What does that mean? You’d be more diplomatic?”

  “Maybe I’d do a better job of telling you why I was angry. It wasn’t that I wanted you to obey me. It was the fact that it looked like you were going to let all these people go down the drain. That you were going to let your relationship with your father come between you and the person I knew you really were.” He hesitated. “The person I fell in love with.”

  She wouldn’t let it snatch the breath from her lungs. They were just words, to be taken away the next time she disappointed him. “So you love me now because I bought the hotel and stood up to my father? You can’t really love someone if it’s about conditions, Gabe.”

  “What conditions?” he responded. “I love you, because you’re you and not someone else. And you’ve proved that.”

  “You and my father would make quite a team,” she said contemptuously.

  “Hadley, it’s not that you bought the hotel from your father. I love you because you had the guts to walk into that delivery room with Angie and because you worked like a dog to fill in for her all Winter Carnival weekend—not because it was your job but because you wanted to help. I love you because you gave up something you really liked to bring my mom a gift on Christmas. Because you figured out a way to make the employees here feel involved, because you saved all of them when you bought the hotel.” He stopped and looked at her searchingly. “Don’t you understand? I love you. Not unconditionally—only children love like that. I love you because what you do has shown me who you are.”

  Could it be as simple as that? All she had to do was reach out? But for the first time in her life she was standing alone, wobbly perhaps, but on her own. Could she risk it? What would he do the next time he was disappointed?

  Hadley moistened her lips. “I know it looked like I was caving when we were in your office. I was just so shocked to see my father and I couldn’t handle the idea of walking away from everything. It was like being torn apart. I wasn’t ready.” She smiled faintly. “It took getting furious at you to give me the guts to finally tell him off.”

  “What happened?”

  Hadley shrugged. “The sky didn’t fall. We yelled at each other. I got a lot of things out I’ve been holding onto for a long time. And the next day, we talked. I don’t think I changed his mind about anything, not really, but things are different with us. I feels like it’s going to get better. And I have you to thank for that.”

  From the dining room came the strains of “Moon River” and Gabe stood and looked down at her. “We danced here before,” he said softly. “Dance with me now. It’s almost the New Year.”

  And she couldn’t say no. At first, they moved in the steps of the waltz, the slow turns, the rise and fall. It made her want to cry, being so close and so far. It made her want to weep at what a hash they’d made of things. It shouldn’t have been ending this night. They should have been celebrating a beginning.

  Gradually, their motions slowed until they merely stood together. She pressed her forehead against his chest, feeling the tears gather in her eyes.

  “I love you,” Gabe said softly. “Whatever mistakes I made, I still love you. And whatever mistakes we might make in the future, I am always going to love you.” He raised her chin so that she met his eyes.

  And in the dining room, the party erupted in cheers and the clamor of bells and noisemakers as the midnight hit. A new year, a fresh start, and suddenly it was so easy, so clear to say the words and let him back into her life.

  “Happy New Year,” Gabe said softly.

  “I love you,” she blurted. And as the band swung into “Auld Lang Syne,” their lips met and it was like coming home. Minute stretched into minute as the future opened up, shining and bright.

  Gabe leaned back and looked at her. “I want a life with you. I may not always be easy to live with, but I’ll do my best. And I’ll always believe in you. I’ll always be at your side.”

  “God, Gabe, I love you so much.” And she wrapped her arms around him his neck, throwing everything she felt into what was not just a kiss but a promise.

  At the sound of guests walking by, she stirred and broke away. “I suppose we really shouldn’t be kissing in front of the staff and everybody else. It’s not exactly good for our authority.”

  “Our authority?”

  She blinked. “Well, you’re coming back to work, aren’t you? I can’t run both places on my own, you know.”

  And he lifted her up and spun her around until they were practically inside the conservatory. “God, you’re amazing,” he said when he’d finished kissing her silly.

  “I still don’t think we should be doing this in front of the staff.”

  “We don’t have a choice,” he said with a grin. “It’s the rules.”

  “What do you mean?”

  He pointed to the arch over their heads. “Mistletoe.”

  ‡ Holiday Hearts

  * Under the Covers

  † Sex & the Supper Club

  § Sealed with a Kiss

  ISBN: 978-1-4592-2207-6

  UNDER THE MISTLETOE

  Copyright © 2005 by Chez Hardy LLC

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