by Carrie Elks
And his grandfather’s face became more and more red.
“You’re a CEO, boy. Not a damn clown. Stop laughing.”
“I’m not having a breakdown,” Josh finally managed, his chest still shaking.
“Could have fooled me. You’re almost hysterical.” The old man snorted. “You should book in with one of those therapists. Use our Employee Assistance Plan. Or take some of those pills people are always talking about.”
“I’m absolutely fine, Grandpa. In fact, I’m more than fine. I’m in love.” Damn, it felt good to say it.
“What?”
“I’ve met the woman I plan to marry.” Sure, she didn’t know that yet. But he’d thought of little else on the drive from Winterville. He was addicted to that woman, and he’d do whatever it took to keep her with him.
“I think I need to sit down.” His grandfather reached for a chair, slumping heavily on it. “Are you being bribed? Is she pregnant? So this is why you spent so long out of the office.”
“I’m not being bribed. I’m happy. Maybe for the first time in my life. I’ve found somebody I care about, and I think she cares about me, too.”
“You think?” His grandfather lifted a brow. “You don’t even know if she feels the same way? You’re putting this business in peril for a woman who might not even care about you?”
“She cares.”
“Hmmph. Who is this woman anyway? She must be some kind of beauty to turn you into a sap.”
“Her name is Holly Winter. She’s Candy Winter’s granddaughter.”
His grandfather almost choked. “One of the idiots blocking the sale?”
Josh’s lips twitched. “That’s her.”
“Well no wonder. It’s a tale as old as time. Remember Salome and the dance of the veils? Samson and Delilah? She’s seducing you to get what she wants, and you’re falling for it. Thinking with your pants instead of your brain. I thought better of you, I really did.”
Josh exhaled. His grandfather knew how to kill the good feelings. “I want to take a step back from the business.”
His grandfather did a double take at Josh’s change in conversation. “What do you mean? Who’s going to run this business if you step back?”
“I will. But I’ll take on more help. Recruit somebody who can take over the day to day running while I provide advice.”
“This is a family business, Joshua. It’s always been run by family. We can’t let strangers take over. They won’t have the loyalty we do. The drive to succeed. You’re making a mistake. And if you were the only one who would suffer, that would be fine, but you’re not. I’ll suffer. Your grandma will, too. And your future children. Think of them. You’re caretaking this business for them, don’t throw it away.”
“I’ve made my mind up.” Josh met his grandfather’s gaze. “I can’t be dissuaded.”
“Then I’m disappointed. Very disappointed.”
They stared at each other for a moment. His grandfather’s eyes were rheumy, his knuckles bleached where he still held onto his cane, even though he was sitting down.
“Maybe you should see a therapist,” Josh murmured. “You could use our Employee Assistance Plan.”
“Don’t mess with me, Joshua.”
“Knock knock.”
A wave of relief washed over Josh as his grandma’s smiling face appeared in the doorway. “Darling,” she said, beaming when she saw him. “Willa just told me you were here. Are you joining us for brunch? We’re going to Carter’s Hotel.”
Josh looked from her to his grandfather. “I don’t have time. Are you two talking again?”
She laughed. “Kind of.”
His grandfather stood slowly, his face grimacing as his bones set into place. “I’ll wait for you in the lobby,” he mumbled to his wife. “Think about what I said.” He looked pointedly at Josh. “It’s not too late.”
When he was gone, his grandma embraced him warmly, kissing his cheek and patting his jaw. “Look at you. I swear the break has done you good.”
“I haven’t been on vacation, Grandma. I’ve been working.”
“Then you should take a vacation. It suits you.”
“What are you doing going out for brunch with Grandpa?” he asked her.
“Oh sweetheart, don’t look so worried.” She grinned at him. “I’m letting him woo me. It’s quite sweet, really. He’s been sending flowers and little gifts to my hotel room. Yesterday, I got this.” She showed him a sparkling ring on her right hand. “I swear moths must have flown out of his wallet when he paid for it.” She leaned on Josh’s desk. “Anyway, I’m quite enjoying it. Plus, I’m an independent woman now. I have my own bank account and control of my own money. So any decisions I make now are from a place of power.”
“You opened the bank account?”
“I promised your lovely friend that I would.” Her eyes sparkled. “How is she?”
“She’s…” An image of her laying naked beneath his Christmas tree flashed through his mind. “She’s beautiful.”
“Oh!” Her eyes widened. “Does that mean…”
“I’m in love with her.” It was like a dam had broken. Now he wanted to say it all the time. Most of all, he wanted to say it to Holly, and hope to God she said it back.
“Josh.” She hugged him hard, her eyes shining. “That’s so wonderful. When can I meet her?”
“After Christmas. I said I’d spend it with her in Winterville. I’ll ask if she’ll come visit you after that.”
His grandma beamed. “And she’s okay with this thing about her home town?”
Another thing he’d been thinking about during his drive to Cincinnati. “She will be. I’m making a few changes to our plan. I’ll be meeting with Kevin and Elizabeth later to discuss them.”
“Do me a favor. Don’t tell your grandfather about them until they’re complete. He’s got a bee in his bonnet and it’s not good for his blood pressure.”
“I promise not to tell him.” Not until it was over. This decision was all his.
“Perfect. Now I’d better go before he terrorizes everybody in reception. Give me a kiss, sweetheart. And make sure you call me. Maybe you both can.” Her eyes twinkled. “I’d like to talk with Holly again.”
“We’ll do that.” Maybe on Christmas Day. And then, once this whole damn mess was sorted, he’d bring her here and introduce her to his family. If anybody could stand up to his grandfather, it was Holly Winter.
Not that he needed her to. He could stand up to the old man himself. He just had.
And boy did it feel good.
“So tell me about your day,” Holly asked, her voice low and warm. There was a sleepy quality to it that made him want to be curled up next to her, kissing her neck the way she loved so much.
“It was busy. I saw my grandfather this morning. My grandma is talking to him again. Oh, and she opened up that bank account you suggested.”
“She did?” Holly sounded pleased. “Good for her.”
“She says she’s letting him woo her. Whatever the hell that means.”
“It sounds like she’s in control. I like her already,” she teased.
It had felt like a long day without her. After the unplanned meeting with his grandfather, and a catch up with his directors, he’d met with Kevin and Elizabeth – plus one of their lawyers.
And what he had to say almost floored them. But the lawyer drafted the papers as he’d instructed, and he’d explained the best way he could to Kevin and Elizabeth that he hadn’t gone completely crazy.
He just wanted to change the direction of their acquisition.
And then he’d met with Oren Stiles, one of Gerber Enterprises’ biggest investors, and Crystal Lang, their head of investment. As he’d suspected, Oren was only pissed at the lack of direct contact. He was high maintenance, but worth it.
That relationship was the first thing he’d delegate to the person he recruited to assist him in running the business. He wouldn’t have time to do that. Not when he was bu
sy wooing Holly Winter.
The sound of the old fashioned word made him grin.
“Ask me a question,” he suggested. He didn’t want to talk about work anymore.
“What’s the best present you’ve ever gotten?”
“The LEGO Star Wars Millennium Falcon. It took me two days to build it.”
“Did you get it for Christmas?” she asked him.
“No. For my eleventh birthday. I was a huge Star Wars nerd then. It was when episode one had just come out. Everybody wanted the Millennium Falcon. I hate to think how much it cost.”
“Do you still have it?”
His breath caught. “No. I got rid of it a few days later.”
“Why?” There was a frown in her voice. “I thought you said you loved it”
“The day after I built it, I took it to show my grandfather. He took it from my hands and told me that the Falcon was good, but if you took it apart you could build anything you wanted. And that I needed more imagination. Then he smashed it.” He’d been distraught. In a fit of anger, he’d thrown it in the trash. His grandma had been furious.
“Josh…”
“It’s okay. I think he was trying to teach me a life lesson.”
“How could he do that to a kid?”
“I’m a big boy now, Holly. It was a long time ago.”
“I’m going to buy you a LEGO set. And you can build them anyway you damn please.”
He laughed. “That sounds good. So what have you been up to?”
“I went skiing with Gabe.”
“I didn’t know you skied.”
“I don’t very often. I ended up on my ass most of the time. I haven’t seen him laugh so much in years. And then this evening I’ve been calming Everley down. She’s panicking that there’s going to be a snowstorm tomorrow. And even if there isn’t, she’s scared something will go wrong with the show.”
“It’s going to be great.”
“You and I both know that. But she’s in a whirlwind of panic. I don’t think she’ll sleep tonight.”
“How about you?” he asked, his voice soft. “Are you going to sleep?”
“I hope so. My muscles feel like I’ve been in a boxing ring for ten rounds. I’m never going to ski again.”
“I can talk you to sleep again if you want.” He remembered how much he’d liked doing it last time. Talking until he could hear her soft breaths. It made him feel protective of her.
There was a smile in her voice when she replied. “That sounds good. Do you have the pebble with you?”
“It’s in my hand.”
There was a shuffle, as though she was turning in bed. “Are you in your pajamas?”
“I’m wearing shorts. It’s warm in here.” He cleared his throat. “I told my grandparents about you.”
“You did?”
“Yeah. Is that okay?”
“Of course. My family knows about us, after all. What did they say?”
“My grandma is over the moon. She wants you to come see her in Cincinnati. I think she already likes you more than me.”
Holly laughed. “And your grandfather?”
“He’ll get used to the idea.”
“I guess there’s going to be a lot of that going on.”
He wanted to ask her how she felt about him. Wanted to tell her he loved her. That no matter what happened, he wanted his future to be with her. But it felt wrong to say over the phone. When he told her, he planned on seeing her expression. To make sure she felt the same way.
“I miss you,” he told her. “This bed is way too empty.”
“I miss you, too.”
His heart warmed. “When I get home tomorrow, there’s something I want to tell you.”
“Did you just say home?”
He blinked. “I don’t know. Did I?”
“I think so. But I’m tired and my ears are ringing from Everley’s screams.”
Josh laughed. “When I get to Winterville tomorrow, there’s something I want to tell you.”
“If it’s that Santa doesn’t exist, I won’t believe you. People have tried to tell me that before. I know he’s real.” Her voice sounded thick and low. He wondered if her eyes were closed, her lips parted slightly the way they were when she slept.
Damn, he wanted to kiss those lips.
“Are you sleepy now?” he asked her.
“Getting there. Keep talking.”
“How about I tell you about my drive yesterday? That should bore you to sleep.”
“Sounds perfect. Thank you.”
“I took a left out of my driveway, then headed through Winterville, and took a right onto the main road out of town.” He carried on, telling her about the right he took onto the highway, then the descent from the mountains onto the Interstate, a smile pulling at his lips when he heard her breathing become regular and soft.
“And by the way,” he said. “I’m completely and totally in love with you.”
Her breathing didn’t stutter. It was okay, it was just a practice run. He’d tell her for real very soon.
24
And by the way, I’m completely and totally in love with you.
She woke to the memory of those words. He’d said them as she was falling asleep, and for a moment she’d wondered if she was dreaming. But then he’d carried on with his description of his drive, and she’d somehow managed to keep breathing.
But she hadn’t said it back.
She’d wanted to. Because she’d fallen for him, too. But her chest had felt tight and the words were frozen on her tongue. She was afraid and she had no idea why.
Maybe they needed to get this thing with Winterville over and done with, for once and for all.
Yes, it was business. And yes, he’d agreed that whatever they did meant nothing to them as a couple. But she was still finding it difficult keeping a secret from him.
She wanted everything out in the open. Wanted there to be nothing between them except the feelings they had for each other.
Surely she’d be able to tell him she loved him then.
She walked out of the Inn, breathing in the cool outside air. The sky above was a dull gray. It looked like they’d get a little snow today, but not the storm that Everley had been panicking about. It didn’t stop her from worrying about Josh driving back from Cincinnati in bad weather though.
The sooner he got here, the better.
“Good morning,” Dolores called out as Holly walked through the café door. “Usual?”
“Yes, please.”
“No Josh today?”
“He’s in Cincinnati. He’s coming back later.”
“Is he coming to the show?” Dolores asked. She looked pleased as punch at the idea.
“Yes he is. And to the Inn for Christmas.”
Dolores caught her eye. “He’s a good boy. Your grandma would have liked him.”
It was the best kind of compliment, because there was a truth to it. Her grandmother definitely would have liked Josh, she did when she met him all those years ago, after all. Not just because he was good looking – although, Candy did have a well documented weakness for handsome men – but because he was funny, kind, and made Holly happy.
And that would have made Candy happy, too.
“It’s going to be a hard Christmas without her,” Dolores said. Holly nodded, her throat tight. “But at least we have tonight’s show to look forward to. It’s almost like there’s a piece of her here still, isn’t it? She would have loved all this fuss.”
She would have adored it. She would’ve been fighting for her town the way Holly and her cousins were. There was nothing Candy Winter loved more than a challenge.
Dolores reached across the counter and squeezed Holly’s hand. “It’s going to be okay,” she said, as though she could sense Holly’s anxiety. “The show is going to be perfect, and tomorrow we save Winterville. You achieved everything you came here for.”
“Thank you.” Holly gave her a half smile.
“Now go warm
up by the fire and I’ll bring your coffee over. It’s on the house.”
“Oh no, I’ll pay.”
Dolores waved her off. “I get so confused over who’s paying what, I figured I’d make my life easier today by paying for it my damn self.”
Holly made a mental note to put a huge tip in the jar on her way out. She had ten minutes to drink her coffee before she needed to get over to the theater to calm Everley down. Alaska had already called her this morning to ask for her help. They needed their cousin to stop panicking and conserve her voice for that evening.
The fire was crackling and spitting as she sat down on the easy chair, wishing Josh was opposite her as usual. Dolores had put on an old Christmas playlist with some of Candy’s most famous songs, her soft, throaty voice sounding melodic as it flowed from the speakers. Holly took a deep breath. It was going to be fine. Candy was so missed, but she’d want them to be happy.
She looked down at the message Josh had sent her first thing this morning.
I need to head into the office to pick something up, then I’m driving straight to Winterville. Can’t wait to see you. – J
She couldn’t wait to see him either. She’d been really good and hadn’t called him this morning, wanting him to concentrate on the road ahead. He’d probably laugh when she told him, but that’s because he was a hare and she was a snail.
And Holly was perfectly okay with that.
Her phone lit up again.
Holly? Are you almost here? Everley just checked weather.com and is in a full-blown panic. Come fast. We need you. Alaska xx
Holly stood and smiled at Dolores. “Can you make that coffee to go?” she asked.
Dolores nodded, grabbing a Styrofoam cup covered with pictures of reindeer across a red background. “Problems?” she asked.
“Nothing a little cousinly hug won’t solve. Everley’s panicking about the weather forecast.”
Dolores nodded. “It’s a little gray out there, but we won’t be having much more than a dusting of snow today. And I know Charlie already has the plow ready in case he needs to clear the roads.” She grabbed a bag and slid a few pastries inside. “Give this to Everley and tell her she needs to keep her energy up. And give her a big hug from me.”