Mistletoe Between Friends / The Snowflake Inn

by Samantha Chase

  The phone rang in the distance, and Grace figured that Corrine would get it. By the fourth ring, she found herself running across the kitchen to pick it up.

  “Thank you for calling the Snowflake Inn. This is Grace. How can I help you?”

  “Grace?” a male voice said on the other end of the line. “You’re the cook at the inn, right?”

  It was an odd greeting for sure. “I’m sorry, who’s calling?”

  “This is Matt Handler. My wife and I spent a couple of days there a few weeks back with some friends. Do you remember me?”

  Grace rolled her eyes, thankful that he couldn’t see her. He was part of that demanding group who had eaten her out of house and home. “Yes, Mr. Handler. I do. What can I do for you?”

  “Well, I was hoping that I could speak to the owner. Corrine Walsh, wasn’t it?”

  “Yes, that’s right. Let me see if I can find her for you. Hold on a moment.” Placing the call on hold, Grace called out to Corrine, who came fluttering into the room looking a little unkempt. A quick glance in the direction she had come from and Grace saw Ben coming too. A sly smile crossed her face when she faced her friend. “You have a call,” Grace said, grinning now from ear to ear.

  “Who is it?” Grace explained who was on the phone and chuckled as Corrine had the same reaction. “I hope he’s not calling to make another reservation. I don’t know if I could handle that group for a second time.” Doing her best to compose herself, Corrine took the call.

  Meanwhile, Ben came into the kitchen and helped himself to a cup of coffee and some of the home-baked cookies Grace had cooling on the counter. “Who’s on the phone?” he asked. Grace got him up to speed. “What do you think he wants? If he wanted to make a reservation, he could have just talked to you.”

  Grace was just about to comment on that when she heard Corrine say, “Let me put you on hold for a moment while I take this call in my office.” Without looking at either Grace or Ben, Corrine hung up the phone and left the room.

  “That was odd,” Ben said. “In all the years I’ve been hanging around here, she’s never taken a call in her office. She’s pretty much an open book.”

  “What could that guy want that would require her to need a little privacy?” Grace wondered out loud. Riley walked into the kitchen, saw the looks of confusion on both Grace’s and Ben’s faces, and asked what was going on. Ben explained it all to him, and Riley sat beside him and joined in the contemplation.

  “If it was just a reservation,” Riley said, “she could have done that right here. What in the world could he want?”

  Together they huddled around the butcher-block island while Grace continued to roll gingerbread cookies and made small talk to pass the time until Corrine came back into the room. It took a lot longer than any of them were expecting. Twenty minutes later when she returned, three pairs of eyes were watching her.

  Corrine took in the anxious expressions and almost laughed. “Well, that was out of the blue,” she began.

  “What did he want?” Ben asked, standing from his stool and indicating for Corrine to take it. She waved him off and walked over to pour herself a cup of coffee.

  “As you know, Matt Handler was part of the demanding party from a couple of weeks ago. It seems,” she said, stopping to take a sip of her coffee, “that he and his friends would like to buy the inn.”

  She said it so matter-of-factly that it didn’t register with Grace at first, but once it did, she stopped what she was doing. “Wait. What? They want to buy the Snowflake Inn?”

  Corrine nodded. “He started out by telling me how much he and his friends had enjoyed their stay, and that owning something like this was what they had often talked about. After staying here, they knew this was the place for them.”

  “But…” Grace began hesitantly, “it’s not even on the market. Why would he call and make an offer on a property that’s not for sale? There are tons of B and B’s on the market. Just twenty miles from here, there are two of them comparable to the Snowflake Inn. The properties aren’t as large, but—”

  “How do you know that?” Riley interrupted.

  “Oh…well… You know, I…” she stammered.

  “It doesn’t matter,” Corrine said. “He said that he was taking a chance by calling and making an offer and wanted to see if it was something that I would consider.”

  “And?” Ben asked. “Are you?”

  Corrine shrugged. “I don’t know. He made a very compelling presentation. I was kind of impressed with how he put it all out there. I’m glad it was all over the phone, because I think if he had come here and done it in person, he would have been very persuasive.”

  Riley was still looking at Grace as he listened to his mother. He knew that Grace wanted to own a place of her own, but he hadn’t thought she was actively pursuing that right now. How could she? Did their time together mean nothing to her? Was she planning on leaving here and him as soon as she found someplace better?

  The thought of Grace leaving him hurt more than Riley would have thought possible. Didn’t she know how much she meant to him? He’d thought they had been getting closer. Didn’t she feel it too?

  “So what did you tell him?” Grace asked Corrine even while she was feeling the intensity of Riley’s stare.

  “I told him it wasn’t something I was considering right now, but I’d like a couple of days to think about it and talk to my family.” Corrine looked at the three people before her.

  Grace placed the last tray of gingerbread in the oven and set the timer. Quickly, she cleaned up her work space while Corrine talked about some of the specifics that Matt Handler had presented to her. Grace did her best to not involve herself in the conversation. This was between Corrine, her future husband, and her son.

  Her family.

  Grace wasn’t part of that.

  When everything was in its place, she cleaned up imaginary spots on the countertops and waited for the timer to go off on the oven. Once the cookies were out, she placed them on the rack, and only then did she turn her attention back to the others. “Excuse me,” she said softly to Corrine, “I’m sorry to interrupt, but if you wouldn’t mind putting those away with the rest of them once they’re cooled, I would really appreciate it.”

  “Are you okay?” Corrine asked, concern lacing her voice.

  Grace nodded. “I have a bit of a headache, so I’m going to lie down for a little while. Everything is prepped for dinner, so if it’s all right with you, I’m going to head downstairs.”

  “Of course, of course,” Corrine said. As Grace went to walk by her, she reached out and placed a hand on her arm. “Are you sure you’re okay? Do you need anything? Some aspirin? Tea?”

  “I’ll be fine. A nap should do the trick.” Exiting the room as quickly as she could, Grace didn’t let out a breath until she was safely in her apartment. Part of her was shocked that Riley hadn’t said anything to her or tried to stop her. She thought of how he’d sounded when he questioned her about knowing of other B and B’s that were for sale. He had not sounded pleased.

  Unable to help herself, she stopped at her desk and booted up her laptop, then went immediately to her search for properties for sale. It looked like she was going to have to step up her search and find a place of her own sooner than she’d thought. Scanning the now-familiar pages on the site, she begrudgingly added three potential inns to her list of favorites.

  None of them were in North Carolina.

  Sighing, she stood and walked across the room. Kicking off her shoes, Grace crawled into the bed. The headache wasn’t a total lie, but her need to escape the kitchen and the discussions about possibly selling the Snowflake Inn were what really prompted her to walk away.

  With a sigh, she curled up on her side. The possibility of Corrine selling the inn had always been there, ever since Riley had come home. But knowing there was a genuine offer f
or the place—even though Riley had dropped his campaign to push Corrine to sell—left Grace conflicted.

  A tear rolled down her cheek. In a perfect world, she would have been partners with Corrine by now and be safe in the knowledge that this inn was her home. Grace couldn’t imagine finding another place like the Snowflake Inn. From the first moment she had seen it in person, she had felt a connection. While Riley and Corrine and Ben had added to the appeal of the inn, the structure itself had screamed home to her.

  And now it was all going to go away.

  With the promise of a new life ahead of her, Corrine would probably give this offer serious consideration. She’d be a fool not to. If Grace were in her shoes, she certainly would.

  Even though Grace knew that she was planning to leave, it still hurt to think of someone else taking over this particular inn. She couldn’t imagine anyone but Corrine running it.

  That wasn’t completely true.

  She could imagine herself running it.

  With Riley.

  Sigh.

  Closing her eyes and wiping away another tear, Grace did her best to relax. All of the deep breathing exercises in the world couldn’t stop her from wondering what they were talking about upstairs. She snuggled deeper into her pillows and forced herself to take a deep, cleansing breath and to relax.

  Maybe it would work.

  Maybe she could count backward from one hundred.

  Maybe someone could shoot her with a tranquilizer dart and put her out of her misery.

  Maybe… Oh, the heck with it. She tried counting back from one hundred, and amazingly enough, it was having the desired effect. The last thing Grace remembered was the number thirty-eight when she felt Riley curling up behind her. She purred sleepily and moved a little so their bodies were perfectly aligned.

  “Hey, sleepy girl,” he whispered. “How are you feeling?”

  At that moment, she was feeling pretty darn fine. “Mmm…good,” she sighed.

  Wrapping her in his arms, Riley held her close. When he’d first come down the stairs, he could see that Grace was sound asleep. He didn’t want to disturb her, but on the way across the room, he’d caught sight of her open laptop, which hadn’t gone into sleep mode. He stopped in his tracks when he saw the real estate page open and the list of potential inns that Grace was looking at.

  She was really planning on leaving.

  Unwilling to go there after the day he was having, Riley simply closed the computer and walked over to the bed and crawled in beside her. Maybe if he held her close, he could will her to not leave.

  “Mom is handling dinner tonight so that you can have a break,” he said, gently placing a kiss on her temple.

  “She didn’t have to do that,” Grace protested quietly. “I just needed a little rest.”

  “Well, now you can have a little more of a rest.”

  “That sounds good.” She snuggled even deeper against Riley, and suddenly rest wasn’t what was on her mind. It didn’t take long for her to realize that Riley wasn’t exactly taking the hint. Carefully, she rolled over in his arms and began planting tiny kisses along his throat and up to his jaw, and still he didn’t react. “Riley?”

  Shifting slightly, he looked at her, his expression intense. “I just want to hold you,” he said simply.

  There had been many times over the last weeks that they had lain in this very bed wrapped in each other’s arms, but this was the first time that Riley seemingly did not want anything more than that. Grace smiled against his chest and thought that it was a very nice way to spend the evening.

  * * *

  Three days later, Grace was running around the inn in preparation for the soon-to-be-arriving guests who would be with them through Christmas. All of her baking was done, the inn was decorated inside and out, and now it was just a matter of getting the rooms ready.

  Corrine had asked if Grace could help put the final touches on each of the rooms, and she was more than happy to do that. Gift baskets were put in each room, along with information packets telling guests about the area, should they want to go sightseeing. When she had completed that task, Grace had put fresh flowers in each room, and with a sense of accomplishment, she headed back to the kitchen to prepare the stew that she was going to serve for dinner that evening.

  The sound of Riley’s and Corrine’s voices stopped her.

  “Are you sure about this?” Corrine was asking.

  “Absolutely.”

  “How long are you going to be gone for?”

  “Only a couple of days. I’ll be back for Christmas Eve. You can count on it.”

  “It’s been a long time since we’ve been together for Christmas,” Corrine said, and Grace could almost hear the smile in her voice. “You have no idea how much it means to me that you’re here.”

  “Me too, Mom. Me too.”

  “I still don’t understand why you’re going to talk to Matt Handler in person. I thought things like this were done through lawyers and by fax and all that. Isn’t that supposed to be one of the wonders of technology?”

  Grace felt sick. The decision to sell the Snowflake Inn had been made, and no one had bothered to tell her. She wrapped her arms around her middle and tried to fight off the wave of nausea that overcame her. How could they do this? Right now? At Christmas? It was true she hadn’t made it a secret that she was planning to move on, but to not even tell her was hurtful. Grace thought she and Corrine were better friends than that. And Riley? Well, she would have thought he’d share this information with her too, especially after all of the conversations they’d had about the inn since they first met.

  All of this just reaffirmed Grace’s decision to leave. She couldn’t count on anyone but herself. Not her friend. And not her lover.

  “Technology is well and good,” Riley was saying, “but I just want to handle this personally.”

  “And all of the other stuff? You took care of it?”

  What other stuff? Grace wondered. What else have I been excluded from?

  “It’s all under control.”

  “So you’re leaving in the morning?” Riley nodded. “Does Grace know?”

  “I was planning on telling her tonight after dinner. The two of you have been working so hard to get everything ready for Christmas that I just…I didn’t know what to say,” he admitted.

  “I’m sure you’ll figure it out.”

  Grace had heard enough. She wouldn’t let either of them know she had heard their conversation, but for now she still had a job to do, and no matter how much her heart was breaking, she was going to do it.

  “All the rooms are ready!” she announced brightly as she walked into the kitchen. “I wouldn’t say no to a couple more poinsettia plants for the stairs, but other than that, everything looks wonderful.” Smiling at them both, Grace walked over to the refrigerator and began taking out the ingredients she had prepped for dinner. “Beef stew tonight in homemade bread bowls. I think they’re going to be a big hit.”

  “That sounds fabulous,” Corrine said with a smile. “What can I help you with?”

  Riley watched the two women he loved as they worked together, and he was filled with pride. He was happy. He hadn’t thought that would be possible after his discharge, but somehow these two amazing women had healed him and made him realize there was more to him and his life than his career in the military.

  And as soon as he took care of business, he was going to make sure that one of those women in particular knew exactly what she meant to him.

  Chapter 13

  Christmas Eve day dawned gray and snowy. Grace was sluggish when getting up because she hadn’t slept well, again, without Riley. He had flat-out lied to her about where he was going, and if she hadn’t heard his conversation with Corrine, she would have been none the wiser about it. She didn’t correct him or argue with him when he said that he was g
oing back to Virginia for a few days to visit the friend he had seen when he first came home.

  “He’s getting married soon. He and his fiancée just bought their first house, and I’m going to help them move,” Riley had said that night when they were alone. Grace had wanted to yell and scream and demand to know why he was lying to her, but instead she had smiled and said, “That’s very nice of you. I’m sure they appreciate the extra help so they can be in their new home for Christmas.”

  She made herself sick.

  Now with fresh snow falling, Grace worried Riley wouldn’t be back in time for dinner or might not make it today at all. Had he only been in Virginia, she would have worried less, but knowing that Matt Handler lived in Delaware and this winter storm was covering the entire Northeast, Grace had her doubts. She guessed Riley had flown since his truck wasn’t here, but she didn’t bother asking.

  In the kitchen, Grace was making homemade cinnamon rolls and Belgian waffles for their guests’ breakfast. Corrine came and went from the kitchen while everyone was being served. “I cannot believe it’s Christmas Eve already!” she gushed as she put more orange juice into a ceramic pitcher. “This is the first Christmas I’ve had with Riley in more than ten years!”

  Grace was happy for her friend, she truly was, but right now she just didn’t have it in her to be enthusiastic about anything. It was going to be a long day, between keeping things festive for the guests and finishing all of the cooking she had to do. Added to that was her worrying about Riley making it home safely. It was on the tip of her tongue to ask Corrine if she had heard from him, but Grace didn’t want to open that dialogue.

  Riley had called her every night while he was away, but the conversations seemed to be forced—at least Grace felt she was forcing her end of it because she knew he was lying to her.

  Corrine left the room and came back five minutes later. “I actually had calls this morning from people looking for reservations for tonight! Can you believe it?”

  “Some people are procrastinators,” Grace commented dryly.

  “Mmm…I suppose. This is the first year I’ve been booked to capacity for Christmas in I don’t even know how long. I forgot how much I love it.”