by Noelle Adams
Stranded for Christmas
Holiday Acres, Book Four
Noelle Adams
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Copyright © 2018 by Noelle Adams. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce, distribute, or transmit in any form or by any means.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
About Stranded for Christmas
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten
Eleven
Twelve
Epilogue
Excerpt from Packaged Husband
About Noelle Adams
About Stranded for Christmas
A SNOWSTORM. HER MUCH older business partner. One very hot night.
Laura Holiday doesn’t believe in romance. Her life revolves around her work and her six-year-old son. The last thing she wants is a fling with her friend and business partner, Russ Matheson, who is emotionally unavailable and thirteen years older than her. But one night in a snowstorm changes their relationship forever
One
EVERY MORNING, LAURA Holiday woke up early and went downstairs in her pajamas to drink coffee and work for a couple of hours before the doors to Holiday Acres opened and the chaos began.
In the two hours after waking, she dealt with any paperwork and all the email that had come in to the Holiday Acres accounts on the previous day. Russ was always saying she needed to hire an assistant, but Laura was convinced that supervising an assistant would take as much time and effort as dealing with the easy day-to-day tasks herself.
She was a fast worker, getting done in a couple of hours what took some people most of the day to complete. And she liked to know about everything that came in. Russ called her a micromanager, and she never denied it. Holiday Acres ran smoothly and had made increasing profits for the past five years, ever since she’d taken the reins after her father died.
Her brand of micromanaging obviously worked, so she wasn’t planning to change. Anyway, she liked early mornings. She liked the quiet and the sunrise through the window and the taste of coffee and how simple and straightforward it was to clear out an email inbox.
Russ always got into the office they shared at eight, which was her sign that her quiet time was over and she needed to head upstairs to get dressed and ready for the day. But today was different because, as soon as he arrived, Russ launched into what would be a long conversation.
So at eight thirty in the morning a week before Christmas, she was still wearing her red-and-green flannel pajama pants and the belted sweater she’d put on over her tank top after getting out of bed.
Laura’s father, Jed Holiday, had bought a Christmas tree farm thirty years ago and called it Holiday Acres. Over the years, the property had grown until it was now quadrupled in size and included vacation cottages, a coffee shop, and the largest Christmas store in Virginia and the three surrounding states.
When their father died, the four Holiday sisters took on the business, each handling different tasks. Laura managed the administrative and financial aspects. She’d gotten an MBA so she’d be prepared. She still would have been doing everything alone had Russ Matheson not joined the business four years ago.
Laura liked working with Russ. He was smart, competent, realistic, and could always make her laugh with his dry comments and straight face. But he was also stubborn, and he was being particularly stubborn at the moment.
“I know you think it’s a good idea,” she said, rubbing her eyes since they’d been talking now for more than thirty minutes. “But it’s a huge investment, and who knows if a restaurant could even make it in this area.”
“Of course a restaurant would make it. We get more than enough traffic in the store to support a restaurant. The coffee shop can barely keep up with the sandwich orders as it is.”
Russ was in his midforties and was a lean, attractive man with brown hair, a high forehead and cheekbones, and amber-brown eyes. He had a sprinkling of gray in his hair and little lines at the corners of his eyes. When he smiled, they crinkled up even more, but he wasn’t smiling at the moment. He looked slightly impatient.
“But sandwiches are different than a sit-down restaurant. We’ve been doing really well for the past couple of years. I don’t want to blow it by growing too much too quickly.”
Russ’s eyebrows drew together, making three little vertical creases between them. “You’re not going to blow it, Laura. Look how well you’ve done so far.”
She had done well. Holiday Acres was thriving, and everyone knew it. A lot of that success had been thanks to Russ, who’d given up a lucrative job in finance in Richmond to come work with them four years ago.
He’d been talking about adding a restaurant for three years now, and he’d finally put together a complete plan for it.
It was a good plan, but Laura still worried.
“I’ve done well because I’ve been careful.” She gestured toward the printout of the business plan Russ had written. “This doesn’t feel careful.”
“It is careful.” He lifted his eyebrows slightly and turned up one corner of his mouth in a characteristically ironic expression. She always mentally called it his Russ look. “You know me, don’t you?”
She couldn’t help but smile as she leaned back in her desk chair. “Yes, I know you.”
“Have you ever known me to be a risk taker?”
She gave a soft huff of amusement. “No. A risk taker you aren’t.”
“So why would you think I suddenly turned into one with this?”
Her smile widened. “I don’t know. Maybe old geezers can change.” Russ was fourteen years older than her thirty-one years, and she never let him forget it.
His striking amber eyes warmed in a way that momentarily made her lose her breath. “Well, this old geezer isn’t changing anytime soon. I love Holiday Acres too. You know that, right?”
For no good reason she felt a weight in her chest. The conversation had intensified in a way she hadn’t expected and didn’t understand. “Y-yeah. I know that.”
His smile faded. “Why did you hesitate?”
“I didn’t hesitate.”
“Yes, you did. You don’t think I love Holiday Acres?”
She glanced away since his steady gaze was deep and disturbing. “I believe you love it.”
“But?”
“But I don’t know... I don’t know... There’s no reason for you to love it the way I love it. It’s your job. It’s my... family.”
To her surprise, Russ reached over and turned her head so she was looking at him again. His fingers lingered momentarily on her cheek. He didn’t normally touch her, so the feel of his fingertips on her skin was shocking.
Like he was burning her.
Branding her.
“Laura, Holiday Acres isn’t just my job.”
Her breath hitched, and she looked away again, moving her head from his hand.
He dropped his arm immediately.
“It isn’t,” he continued. “I’m tied to it by my family history too. Maybe not as much as you are, but the ties are not insignificant. And working with you—here at Holiday Acres—has been the most fulfilling work experience of my life.”
He’d been on an executive career track before. If he hadn’t come to work with them at Holiday Acres, he could
have kept being promoted and ended up with all the money, success, and power a man could want.
He wouldn’t have given all that up if he didn’t have a strong attachment to Holiday Acres—enough to prove that it was more important to him than his career.
In the early days of Holiday Acres, Laura’s father had partnered up with Russ’s father and then cheated Matheson out of his share of the business after the older man died. When Russ’s brother had found out about it, he’d gotten into a huge fight with Jed Holiday and the two families had fallen into a painful feud that had only ended when both men had died.
Russ had been in Richmond then and hadn’t been part of the feud, even when his brother tried to drag him into it. So when Laura had found out about her father’s actions and the family had tried to make it up to the surviving Mathesons—Russ and his brother’s three sons—only Russ had taken the Holidays up on their offer of a share in the business. The boys had been too bitter, but Russ never held grudges.
He never got angry at all.
Laura realized that Russ was telling her the truth. Their families’ shared, tangled history was all centered on Holiday Acres. Russ must feel deeply about it too. And he was smarter with finances than anyone she’d ever met.
He wasn’t going to suggest anything that was a gamble or a huge risk.
She nodded. “Okay. Let me think about it for a while. Okay?”
“Of course.”
Russ usually maintained a clever, ironic demeanor, and she wasn’t used to seeing him look as serious as he did right now.
It unsettled her. Made her stomach twist.
She glanced at the clock. “Okay. I need to go get dressed. I still have to get Tommy up, give him his breakfast, get him to Mae’s, and then get back before a bride and her mother show up this morning for a final walk-through of the wedding-reception plans.”
“I thought Tommy’s piano lesson was in the afternoon.”
“It usually is, but Mae wanted to move it early since school is out and she’s having a Christmas party for all her piano students in the middle of the day today. Plus she’s worried about the snow that’s supposed to come later.”
“It’s not supposed to be bad, is it?”
“I didn’t think so, but Mae said that the weather is saying now that it’s going to be worse than they thought. She’s worried, so she wants to move up the lesson to this morning so I can pick him up right after the party.”
“I can take Tommy into Mae’s this morning if you want. I need to go into town anyway.”
Laura had stood up, but she paused at his offer, her hand around her empty coffee mug. “Do you have time? I should be done with Carla and her mom by lunchtime, so I can go pick him up from the party if you don’t mind taking him this morning.”
“I have time.” Russ had stood up too and taken a step closer to her, and for some reason Laura was acutely aware of his presence.
She didn’t know why, but he felt bigger, firmer, realer than normal. He wore gray trousers and a light blue button-down shirt. He’d already rolled up the sleeves even though it was cold and gray outside this morning. She liked the expensive fabric of his shirt. She liked the sight of the dark hair on his forearms. The way she could see the white T-shirt he wore under his shirt because the top few buttons were open. The way he smelled clean. Faintly masculine.
She managed to say, “That would be great, if you don’t mind.” She dropped her eyes, telling herself she shouldn’t be eyeing him like that, noticing all the parts of him that she wanted to touch.
“I don’t mind. Why would I?”
“I don’t know.” She took a deep breath and made herself meet his eyes again. He was watching her with slightly raised eyebrows, like he was trying to figure out what she was thinking.
She didn’t want him to know what she was thinking.
She wasn’t sure she knew what she was thinking herself.
“Laura?” Russ asked, a bit more texture than normal in his voice. “What’s going on?”
She took a deep breath and squared her shoulders. “Nothing. What do you mean?”
“You know what I mean. What are you thinking right now?”
There was no way in hell she was going to tell him she was thinking that she wanted to touch him all over. Lean closer so she could smell him even more. Bury her face in his shirt. “I’m not thinking anything. Just about everything I need to do this morning and how I’m still in my pajamas.”
Russ’s eyes lowered to take in her outfit, and something about the shift in his expression made her look down at herself too. Her sweater had fallen open, and she wasn’t wearing a bra beneath her tank top. Her nipples were tight and poking out through the fabric, and a strip of her belly was visible between the bottom of her tank and the waistband of her flannel pants.
She closed her sweater quickly and walked quickly to the door of the office. “I’m going to get dressed. Thanks for taking Tommy.”
“No problem.”
She didn’t turn back to check his expression.
She got out of there fast.
She didn’t need to be having these feelings for Russ, who was a friend and business partner. Nothing more. A relationship was out of the question, so any stray feelings of attraction would just get in the way of their work.
It had been a long time since Laura had been interested in anything romantic with a man, and that wasn’t going to change now.
Laura had loved a boyfriend for two years in high school and always assumed she’d marry him, until he’d dumped her right after graduation.
He’d just been having a good time with her and hadn’t wanted to be “tied down” as he headed to college.
During her sophomore year at the University of Virginia, she’d been crazy about a guy she’d dated for three months until she’d discovered that he was also having sex with someone else.
He’d just been having a good time with her. He’d never been serious.
Two years later, she’d fallen for a guy in her business major. They’d hung out for months as friends, but she’d been sure it was changing into something more, something deeper.
Then he’d met a gorgeous blond freshman. He’d gotten engaged to her in less than three months.
Laura had gone through similar romantic disappointments all through her early twenties until one night almost seven years ago.
She’d been getting close to twenty-five. She and her sisters had gone out to celebrate Olivia’s recent college graduation. They’d hit a few bars in Charlottesville (since there wasn’t much of a bar scene in the small town where they lived), and Laura had gotten genuinely drunk for one of the few times in her life.
She’d ended up in bed with a handsome stranger—too intoxicated to even use proper protection.
It was one of the only times in her life when she’d been careless, thoughtless, stupid. She’d gotten pregnant.
Maybe in a silly romantic story, her handsome one-night stand would end up being a good guy. They’d fall for each other and start a family. But her life had never been a romantic story. Tommy’s father might have been good-looking, but he’d also been a world-class asshole who’d taken advantage of an intoxicated woman and who wanted nothing to do with his son.
He’d just been having a “good time.”
Those were his exact words.
So Laura had ended up as a single mother who knew better than most that hoping for a man to love and share her life with led to nothing but heartache and humiliation.
When her dad died when Tommy was just one year old, he’d been the only other man in her life she loved. He hadn’t been a great father—he’d worked all the time and hadn’t spent much time with his four daughters—but she’d loved him and trusted him anyway.
The following year, she’d been sorting through the last of his paperwork and had learned that he’d been a lying, cheating asshole after all. All the ways she’d defended him in their feud with the Mathesons—all the arguments she’d had and the fr
iends she’d lost—had been wrong, had been wasted.
He’d betrayed the Mathesons, but he’d also betrayed her. Her trust in him.
That had been the final straw.
Men weren’t to be trusted. If a good time could be had, they would take it. But dreaming of romantic love was just fooling yourself.
Laura loved her work, and she loved her family, and she had plenty of friends.
She didn’t need a man.
She didn’t even want one anymore.
These stray feelings for Russ were an aberration and weren’t likely to last very long.
TWENTY MINUTES LATER, she was dressed in brown trousers and a green sweater and was pulling her hair back into a low ponytail as she walked down the hall from her bedroom to Tommy’s.
She lived in the big farmhouse on Holiday Acres property, just like her three sisters. The lower floor was taken up with the offices and the coffee shop, but the upstairs was made up of their private residence.
Tommy’s bedroom was more of a cubbyhole, but they’d fixed it up cute and he liked it. He was only six, and he had plenty of space to play in the big house and the sprawling grounds of Holiday Acres.
When she reached his door, however, she discovered that the room was empty.
Tommy was already up.
As she hurried back down the hall, she heard voices from the kitchen and realized one was Tommy’s. It only took a moment to recognize the second voice was Russ’s.
“I want sausage and pancakes,” Tommy was saying.
Laura stopped in the hall, not far from the entrance of the kitchen but not in view. Russ must have woken up Tommy and was getting breakfast for him because he knew she was so busy this morning.
“You only get sausage and pancakes on the weekend,” Russ said in the bland, matter-of-fact tone he always used with Tommy.
“It’s almost the weekend.”
“Tomorrow is the weekend. Today is still the week. Your Aunt Rebecca made these granola squares. They’re good. You can have one of them with some yogurt.”
Tommy made a huffing sound, and Laura could well imagine the boy’s expression. “Can I have a granola thing with sausage?”