Holiday Affair

by Lisa Plumley

  Karina gazed at the snowy horizon. In the distance, the town of Kismet stretched toward the frozen lake, then circled around it. Houses and businesses lined the adjacent riverbank.

  “Maybe they would have,” she mused, hugging herself. “Maybe your impression of the anonymous evaluator is too harsh.”

  Reid laughed. “All right, Pollyanna. You’re hired.”

  “Hired? For what?”

  Her expression of naïveté made him feel a million times more cynical than usual. Had he really gotten that jaded over the years?

  “I could use someone to keep up everyone’s spirits while we deal with the evaluation. It’s stressing out the staff.” Only half joking, he nudged her again. “Want the job?”

  If she did—if it had been a real job—he’d have even more reasons to see her, Reid realized. The more he considered the idea, the more he liked it.

  “Everyone is stressed out?” Karina bit her lip. She shook her head. “That’s awful! Do you think that’s why the former head chef left to work for that other B&B across the lake?”

  “The evaluation stress might have had something to do with it. Or it could be that Lagniappe at the Lakeshore simply made him a better offer. Period. Not everyone believes in loyalty.”

  Finally, Karina looked at him. “But you do?”

  “It’s my second guiding principle.”

  A smile quirked her lips. “Aha. Right after…?”

  “Right after number one: Don’t let a lady freeze to death in the snow.” Reid stood, then extended his hand to help her get up, feeling strangely at peace. It had been a long time since he’d truly confided in anyone. Talking with Karina had been nice—even if it hadn’t ended in the sexy snowbound liaison of his dreams. “Come on. Let’s get you back to a warm fire before your lips turn blue.”

  Karina took his hand. For a moment, her gaze met his head-on—and he’d have sworn he glimpsed pure desire in her eyes. But then she blinked, squeezed his hand, and got to her feet.

  “A fire sounds nice,” Karina said. “But I’m so wet right now. First I’m going to have to take off all these clothes.”

  Reflexively, Reid tightened his grasp. Karina gave him an impish, not quite innocent smile, then sashayed downhill.

  Oh man. Christmas had better come soon, Reid thought. Because while he was waiting for the big day to finally arrive—and free him from his obligations to The Christmas House—his amateur attempts at platonic friendship just might kill him.

  That’s if unrequited lust didn’t finish him off first.

  Watching Karina turn and motion for him to join her, a big smile on her face and a sexy wiggle in her hips, Reid realized it was shaping up to be a race: his good intentions versus his animal nature. Before Christmas Eve, he was bound to crack.

  It was inevitable. But would he give in to friendship and gooey emotion first? he wondered. Or would the need to join with Karina until they were as close, as sweaty, and as carnally satisfied as possible emerge victorious in the end?

  From where Reid stood, it looked like a dead heat.

  And from where Karina stood?

  Well, Reid hoped like hell she couldn’t tell how much she was getting to him just then. Because if she ever realized exactly how he felt about her, he wouldn’t stand a chance. His globe-trotting ways would be headed straight for the permanently endangered list, and his heart would be as malleable as holiday fudge in her hands. And no right-thinking man wanted that.

  Did he…?

  Chapter Thirteen

  Date: December 20th

  Edgware Project Name: The Christmas House

  Guest Service Rating: A+

  Guest Accommodations Rating: A+

  Guest Satisfaction Rating: F– (SCORE COULD EASILY BE IMPROVED, GIVEN ADDITIONAL ONE-ON-ONE ATTENTION FROM ACTING B&B MANAGER)

  Okay. So Karina would be the first to admit that deliberately taunting Reid with the idea of getting naked in front of a nice, cozy fireplace wasn’t exactly fair. But was it fair that he’d tortured her yesterday with all that touching and gazing into her eyes? Was it fair that he’d intrigued her with his retelling of how he’d returned stateside to help out his elderly grandparents? Was it fair that he’d stood there, all handsome and brawny and wonderful, and called her Pollyanna?

  Of all the heroines of literature, song, myth, and Disney musical features (animated and otherwise), the very last one a grown woman wanted to be likened to was Pollyanna. Seriously. Nobody trotted out a sexy Pollyanna costume at Halloween, looking to shed her ordinary persona and try out something a little more stupidly optimistic.

  Even more than all that, though, it wasn’t fair that Reid had confided in her! Until he’d done that, Karina had been doing all right. Not perfectly, but all right. She’d managed to hold her ground and resist jumping into his arms—at least any more than she already had before their snow fight. Then, listening to Reid describe the ongoing Edgware evaluation and his efforts to cope with it—all while trying to bring together the stressed-out staff of The Christmas House—she’d positively melted.

  What kind of man put aside his work and traveled halfway around the world (literally) to help out his family? What kind of man good-naturedly shouldered the worries of a dozen B&B staff members and dedicated himself to helping them? What kind of man truly believed in things like loyalty and trust?

  The kind of man she was deliberately deceiving, that’s who.

  Brought up short by that reminder of her unwelcome role at The Christmas House, Karina stopped in the midst of tromping downstairs at the B&B. With her arms full of wrapped gifts, she gazed at the tableau below her. As usual, the foyer looked cheery, all decked out in traditional Christmas regalia. The front room sparkled with holiday lights, two Christmas trees, and a full contingent of her fellow guests. In their midst, Karina glimpsed Reid, looking more charming and handsome than ever, with his tough-guy build and burgeoning beard stubble.

  Was it her imagination, or had his beard grown even darker?

  As she watched him, trying to decide, Reid laughed with Rocky and Neil. Suzanne wandered over too, then launched into another one of her anecdotes. She was, Karina had learned, a born storyteller. Reid could be quite the raconteur too, she’d noticed, with a variety of stories based on his travels.

  With a sigh, Karina gazed longingly at Reid. He didn’t have to know she was here, pining over him. While he was occupied with the other guests, she could look her fill. She could imagine the two of them together having a Christmas all to themselves. She could fantasize that Reid did want to come to California, that they’d blend their two families into one happy bunch, that they’d find some commonality in their approaches to life and be better people because of being together, that they—

  Right on cue, Reid glanced up at her. He smiled.

  Karina smiled back. She just couldn’t help it. A grin nudged at the corners of her mouth, spread to the rest of her face, then seemed to fill her heart with lightness. She liked Reid so much. Being forced apart from him was so unfair!

  As though punctuating that fact, Karina’s cell phone rang, kicking into a mocking ringtone rendition of “Santa Baby.”

  She wrenched her gaze away from Reid, who went back to his conversation. She adjusted her armload of wrapped gifts, took out her phone, then glanced at the display. Stephanie. Uh-oh.

  “Hey, Steph! How’s it going?” Deliberately making her tone cheerful, Karina swiveled on the staircase. She headed back upstairs, where it would be quieter. “How’s Blake?”

  “He’s feeling better,” her sister said. “His fever’s down.”

  “That’s great!” Relieved to hear her nephew was recovering, Karina ducked into an alcove. Like every other nook and corner of The Christmas House, it was heavily decorated, boasting an array of garland, lights, and potpourri. She sank on a chair, letting her gifts fall to her lap. At the window beside her, snow drifted past the panes. “What does the doctor say?”

  “Mostly to keep an eye on him and let him
rest.”

  “That’s easier said than done with a four-year-old, right?”

  “No kidding!” Stephanie laughed, sounding more like her usual self. “I’m pretty relieved, though. It was touch and go for a while there.” She inhaled. “So…how’s the evaluation going?”

  “Um, all right. It’s a little tricky to focus”—with the man of my dreams in constant proximity—“but I think I’m compiling a good assortment of notes about The Christmas House.”

  “I checked the Edgware database. You haven’t uploaded anything yet. Are you having trouble figuring out the system?”

  “No. It looks pretty straightforward—a lot like the system we use at the college to keep track of our students.” Speaking of which…None of my students have contacted me lately. That’s strange. Don’t they need me anymore? “I’ve been really busy, that’s all. They have a lot of holiday activities here.”

  “I know! I’ll bet Olivia, Michael, and Josh are loving it.”

  “They are.” Especially the parts that involve Reid, Alexis, and Nicole. “They’ve already made some new friends here, too.”

  Stephanie sounded glad. “I knew they would. How about you?”

  “I’ve…met some people too. Everyone is very nice.”

  “Karina! You’re not spending all your time working on your Edgware evaluation, are you? You’re supposed to be having fun too! I know all those checklists and spreadsheets can seem daunting—”

  There are spreadsheets? She’d been diligently filling out the appropriate Edgware checklists every day, but she hadn’t noticed any spreadsheets. Uncomfortably, Karina recalled reviewing the files her sister had entrusted her with. Frankly, she had found them daunting. She’d better get busy. Busier!

  “—but they’re not that time-consuming. The trick is to chip away at them, day by day, instead of saving them up for the end of your stay.” Steph laughed. “You don’t want to wake up the day after Christmas and have a bunch of Edgware homework to do.”

  Nope. I want to wake up the day after Christmas in Reid’s arms…with a brand-new life stretching ahead of us.

  No. Wait. She couldn’t want that! She wasn’t in the market for a new life. Was she?

  “I know, Steph,” Karina said. “I promise I’ll get it done.”

  “I know you will. Thanks again. Talk to you soon!”

  After a little more chitchat, they said their good-byes. Karina disconnected her call with Steph, then noticed she had a few new text messages from Chelsea. She debated opening them.

  Then she shook her head. Chelsea’s messages would have to wait. Karina simply couldn’t deal with her ex-husband’s girlfriend right now. All of a sudden, it felt as though she had a million things to do and not enough time to do them in.

  Frazzled and guilt stricken, she headed downstairs. First she’d add these gifts to the growing pile beneath the communal Christmas House tree in the foyer. Then she’d hunt down Michael, Olivia, and Josh and make sure they were having a good time. Then she’d review all the Edgware paperwork, check in with her incommunicado college students, try uploading her evaluation notes, participate in a few more holiday activities with her children, buy the few remaining gifts on her list…

  Argh! All at once, her Christmas vacation was running dangerously low on holiday spirit, Karina realized. And despite her usual can-do attitude, she had no idea how to fix it.

  “…and that’s how you make an igloo,” Reid said. “One block at a time, all around the circle, until you have a good shelter from the cold.” He hunkered down, exaggeratedly rubbing his arms and blowing on his hands. Then he stepped inside the igloo circle and relaxed with apparent warm bliss. “See?”

  For this demonstration, Reid had employed a makeshift four-sided wooden form to make snow blocks. In the wilderness, he’d have compacted the snow by stomping it with his feet, then cut out blocks with a snow saw to form an emergency shelter. That meant this igloo wasn’t 100 percent authentic. But the two Barrett boys, who’d ventured onto the B&B’s snowy grounds with him today, didn’t seem to care.

  “Cool!” they cried in unison. Identically bundled against the cold, Josh and Michael gazed at the snow blocks Reid had compacted. “How did you learn how to do that?”

  “I spent some time on an expedition in Greenland.”

  “Greenland?” Michael wrinkled his nose. “Where’s that?”

  Debating how best to explain geography to a six-year-old, Reid looked around. In the end, he located a fallen tree branch, then used it to draw a crude map in the snow. He started out with a depiction of Greenland, then expanded his sketchy drawing to encompass Australia, Africa, Japan, and Spain.

  “Wow,” Josh said. “You’ve been to all those places?”

  “All those and more.” Reid smiled. “I like traveling.”

  Michael frowned. “Do Alexis and Nicole like traveling too?”

  For the first time, Reid debated how to answer that question. Ordinarily, he would have been certain. Yes. My daughters love traveling! But right now, with Karina’s words from yesterday still ringing in his ears, he wasn’t so sure.

  Even if I could travel the world, I wouldn’t. Not at my kids’ expense. I mean, there’s school, and friends, and…

  “I think they do,” he said honestly. “I hope they do.”

  “I’d miss my room,” Michael told him. “And all my stuff.”

  “I’d miss my friends,” Josh added. “And my PS3.”

  “But you’re traveling right now, and you like it.” Reid started on another snow block. He guided the boys as they copied the steps he demonstrated. “You’ve got a nice room here at the B&B, right? And you’re making new friends while you’re here.”

  “I guess so.” Josh shrugged, then dug his knees deeper in the snow. “It’s not the same, though. Those are vacation friends. Everyone knows vacation friends aren’t real friends.”

  “Yeah.” With boyish exuberance, Michael compacted another snow block in his mittened hands. Josh stacked it on the igloo’s foundation. “You don’t care that much if your vacation friends are nice to you or not, because if you don’t like them, you can just go do the next activity in the Fun Zone all by yourself.”

  “Yeah.” Sagely, Josh nodded. “And even if you really, really like them, it doesn’t matter anyway. Because you’re going to be leaving in a week or two. And so are they. So why bother going crazy making friends? You might as well stay by yourself.”

  “Or with your brother,” Michael added. He smiled at Josh.

  “I’ll take real friends over vacation friends any day. Vacation friends are okay, but they’re temporary.” Josh made a face. “Just like my dad. He’s temporary now too. We only see him on the weekends. And his girlfriend, Chelsea, is always there.”

  Temporary didn’t sound good—at least not when it came to fathers. Reid glanced at Michael, wondering at his reaction to that. But the youngest Barrett boy only heaved a sigh.

  “I wish Alexis and Nicole were my real friends,” he said.

  Aww. Reid couldn’t help smiling at that. “You do?”

  “Yeah.” Michael nodded, still packing the snow. “They’re nice. And Nicole shared her cookies with me one time too.”

  “Don’t be stupid.” Josh poked him, wearing a look of brotherly disdain. “You can have cookies whether you have friends or not. There are tons of cookies all over this place!”

  While Michael and Josh debated the relative availability of cookies, Reid gazed contemplatively across the snowy grounds. Not far from the B&B’s main building, he spied Alexis and Nicole. They sat hunched together in The Christmas House’s decorated gazebo, knee-to-knee and face-to-face. Their pose appeared serious. Their demeanor practically screamed isolated.

  Did his daughters share the Barrett boys’ views on vacation friends not being “real”? For Nicole and Alexis, travel was their life. Did that mean Reid had deprived them of authentic friends?

  Struck by the notion, he examined them more closely.

 
; As though sensing his scrutiny, Alexis and Nicole glanced up. They saw him watching. They froze. Then Alexis elbowed her sister, Nicole clamped shut her gaping mouth, and they both jerked themselves into blatantly innocent postures. All but whistling with unconvincing cartoony nonchalance, they got up and headed back inside. His daughters, Reid was reminded, would make terrible poker players…and probably had, in the Outback.

  Aside from being an expert guide and unrepentant whiskey lover, his friend Shane was also pretty fond of five-card stud.

  “Hey, Reid.” Josh looked up. “Did you ever eat whale?”

  “Or shark?” Michael’s eyes gleamed. “How about walrus?”

  “No, yes, and yes.” Pulled from his pensive state of mind by their questions, Reid redirected his attention to the diminutive igloo they were building. “How about you guys?”

  “Ugh! No way!” Michael collapsed into giggles. “Yuck!”

  “I’d do it.” Josh squared his shoulders. “No problem.”

  “Hmmm. I see.” With a thoughtful nod, Reid smiled at the boy. “Now you, Josh, would make a good poker player.”

  “Really?” Josh appeared delighted. “You think so?”

  “You can already bluff. That’s half the battle,” Reid declared. The boy reminded him of himself just then. The realization made him feel…almost nostalgic. It might have been nice to raise boys, he thought. He’d have liked to have had a larger family. But he’d put those plans on hold when things had gone south with Gabby. “If you want, I’ll teach you how to play sometime,” he offered the Barrett boys. “We can use pinecones for chips. There are lots of those lying around here.”

  “Nah. We should bet real money!” Michael’s eyes lit up again. “I’m pretty good at games. Even aggravating ones, like Chutes and Ladders. I think I could win. And I don’t want any boring old pinecones either. Who wants to win pinecones?”