Winter Love (Love Collection)

by Natalie Ann

  Copyright 2018 Natalie Ann

  All Rights Reserved

  No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without a written consent.

  Author’s Note

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  The Road Series-See where it all started!!

  Lucas and Brooke’s Story- Road to Recovery

  Jack and Cori’s Story – Road to Redemption

  Mac and Beth’s Story- Road to Reality

  Ryan and Kaitlin’s Story- Road to Reason

  The All Series

  William and Isabel’s Story — All for Love

  Ben and Presley’s Story – All or Nothing

  Phil and Sophia’s Story – All of Me

  Alec and Brynn’s Story – All the Way

  Sean and Carly’s Story — All I Want

  Drew and Jordyn’s Story— All My Love

  Finn and Olivia’s Story—All About You

  The Lake Placid Series

  Nick Buchanan and Mallory Denning – Second Chance

  Max Hamilton and Quinn Baker – Give Me A Chance

  Caleb Ryder and Celeste McGuire – Our Chance

  Cole McGuire and Rene Buchanan – Take A Chance

  Zach Monroe and Amber Deacon- Deserve A Chance

  Trevor Miles and Riley Hamilton – Last Chance

  The Fierce Five Series

  Brody Fierce and Aimee Reed - Brody

  Aiden Fierce and Nic Moretti- Aiden

  Mason Fierce and Jessica Corning- Mason

  Cade Fierce and Alex Marshall - Cade

  Love Collection

  Vin Steele and Piper Fielding – Secret Love

  Jared Hawk and Shelby McDonald – True Love

  Erik McMann and Sheldon Case – Finding Love

  Connor Landers and Melissa Mahoney- Beach Love

  Ian Price and Cam Mason- Intense Love

  Liam Sullivan and Ali Rogers- Autumn Love

  Owen Taylor and Jill Duncan – Holiday Love

  Chase Martin and Noelle Bennett- Christmas Love

  Zeke Collins and Kendall Hendricks- Winter Love

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  Kendall Hendricks spent the first decade of her life as a modern-day gypsy, until her parents finally planted themselves in Las Vegas. She loved it there. She made a name for herself. She was happy… or so she always thought. Then tragedy struck and her parents were gone, leaving her a note asking her to scratch those itchy feet she’d inherited before she settled down.

  Zeke Collins has never known anything other than working at the family lodge his whole life. Now he and his sister own and operate it and he’d have it no other way. Lake Placid is where he wants to be. It’s where his heart is and nothing could make him move. Not even the bewitching stranger with sorrowful eyes and adventure driving her course. The question is...can he change her mind?

  Table of Contents

  Prologue

  One For The Books

  Break My Neck

  Sudden and Fierce

  Fun and Excitement

  Where You Stood

  Adventure List

  Itchy Feet

  Perfect Place

  Spread the Love

  Old Fashioned Way

  All the Reasons

  Someone Like Zeke

  Talk About Sexy

  Feel Odd

  Holding Her Tight

  It Just Is

  My Hero

  A Surprise for You

  Not Doing It

  Their Story

  Help Your Case

  Home Again

  Loud and Clear

  Epilogue

  Prologue

  Kendall took a deep breath and tried to steady her shaky legs and racing pulse.

  In the past two weeks, her world had been tilted on its axis like a mugger with a stolen purse shaking all of the contents loose trying to salvage anything of value.

  Squaring her shoulders, she put on the bravest face she could muster and wondered why she was even trying. She was in mourning right now, as she should be. Her parents would be livid if they knew she couldn’t let herself grieve.

  But grieving meant giving in to the ache she didn’t want to feel. It meant acknowledging they were never going to return.

  The struggle to accept that was greater than the depths of the ocean.

  That she’d never see their smiling faces again.

  Never feel her father’s slim arms around her body hugging her tight when he’d gotten lucky in the casino or her mother’s beefy arms as she sampled a new dish at the restaurant where Kendall worked.

  Being an only child was fun for her as a kid. Her parents were gypsies for years until they settled in Vegas. Now it was a lonely feeling knowing she was all by herself in the world.

  “Kendall Hendricks to see Harold Fitzgerald,” she told the toothy receptionist behind the tall desk.

  “He’ll be with you in a minute. He’s on a call right now. Just have a seat.”

  “Thanks,” Kendall said, turning toward the chairs. It looked more like a posh parlor than a legal firm. How the heck had her parents been able to afford someone like this and why was she asked to appear here one week after their burials?

  She took a seat, and rather than pick up a magazine that she had no interest in, she pulled out her phone and started to scroll through food blogs that she followed. How much fun would it be to just travel the world tasting and creating different cuisines and writing about it?

  “Kendall?”

  She turned and saw an older man standing in the doorway that probably led down the hall to offices. She remembered him now from the funeral. Or remembered his face, but hadn’t known his name.

  Her father had a lot of friends he’d met in the casinos and from school where he’d been a math teacher. Her mother had worked as a bookkeeper for an insurance firm. They were well known and well liked, but every face was a blur to Kendall two weeks ago.

  “Yes,” she said, standing up. “You’re Harold? I saw you at my parents’ funeral. I didn’t realize you were friends.”

  He held his hand out to her and smiled sweetly. “Your father and I share a few good stories that might not be appropriate to retell.” A gambling buddy, she was realizing now. “I’m so sorry for your loss. What a sudden and tragic thing to deal with by yourself. So young too.”

  “Thanks,” she said. She’d heard the same sentence in various forms for weeks and the best she could do was say thanks. She had no family locally and never had.

  “Come on back to my office and we’ll get the reading of the will taken care of.”

  “I didn’t know they’d even had an official will.”

  Her parents were just middle class. Nothing major. She knew there were life insurance policies and she’d managed to find them in a safe and made the calls that were needed.

  Talk about something she never wanted to ever do again. In that safe, she’d found all the deeds to the house and cars, anything she’d need. Her mother was meticulous that way.

  “Your father set it up a few years ago when he had a big win.”

  She followed Harold into his office,
stunned to hear the words “big win.” As far as she knew her father lost more than he won, which was why her mother put him on a budget. He was allocated a certain amount of money he could gamble each month and if he won anything, it was his to do with what he wanted. If he lost, he was out of luck until the next month. Her father often joked about it being his allowance.

  Since her father had no other vices and didn’t spend money on much of anything else, she assumed it worked for her parents. Otherwise, her mother controlled the household funds, which she suspected was so her father didn’t gamble them away.

  “I’m a little confused,” she said taking a seat. “I’ve got the paperwork ready for their life insurance policies, but I’m not aware of any other money.”

  Harold smiled at her kindly. If she were fanciful she’d say there was a twinkle in his eyes, but right now she was having a hard time finding anything cute, funny, or light in her life.

  “Your father was a very smart man. He’d only had the one big win, but had some smaller ones in the past several years. He was wise with his money.”

  She snorted. “I find that hard to believe.”

  “I know all about his allowance. But you see, he wanted to make sure you and your mother were cared for if something ever happened to him.”

  “I bet he didn’t expect it to happen to them both or this soon.”

  “No one can control the future, Kendall. Accidents happen and this was one of them. It’s sad and you hope it’s never to anyone you know.”

  “Tell me about it,” she said, not wanting to think about the phone ringing in the middle of the night telling her her parents had been involved in a pile-up on the freeway.

  “I won’t keep you too long,” Harold said. “Here is a copy of the will for you to read at length on your own, but I wanted to explain some things to you.”

  She looked down at the two pages in front of her but set them on her lap. “Okay.”

  “Your father opened this savings account with your mother as a primary and you as a secondary beneficiary. Right now there is just over seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars in it.”

  “You’re joking,” she said, knowing her face just paled and whatever food was in her stomach was threatening to make a reappearance.

  “No. Johnny’s first big win was a little over three hundred thousand dollars. He invested it and then pulled it out to save it once it doubled. After that, he had some smaller wins.”

  “My mother had no idea?” she asked.

  “I don’t think so. He and I often joked that she’d be so proud of him when they retired and he could tell her they could go travel the world again in an RV.”

  Kendall smiled for the first time. “I remember those days.”

  “Your father told me how you guys ended up here.”

  “‘The life of gypsies’ he’d often said when I was younger. We only stayed in a place long enough for a school year.”

  “Then when you were ten,” Harold said, “you ended up in Vegas and your father fell in love here.”

  “Once a gambler, always a gambler,” Kendall replied softly.

  “Your father was a good man,” Harold said.

  “He was. He was the best.”

  “He wanted the best for you and your mother. He talked so lovingly about the two of you. But the money is yours with this letter.”

  She reached for the sealed envelope. “What does it say?”

  “I have no idea. He’d written one letter addressed to both of you. If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to call me. I’m going to miss Johnny.”

  “Me too,” she said, tears rolling down her cheeks. “I miss them both so much.”

  One For The Books

  Seven Months Later

  Kendall shut her door and got out, then looked around the parking lot. There was more snow here than in Albany when she’d left this morning.

  The wind was brisk and cutting right through to her neck, so she zipped her parka up higher and fought back the shiver.

  Going to the back of her SUV, she pulled out one large piece of luggage and set it on the ground, thankful the pavement was clear and it would wheel easily enough to the front door of the lodge. The rest of her luggage could stay put for now.

  She opened the front door and was just amazed by her surroundings. She’d been traveling for six months and she was wondering why she went to the tropical warm places in the summer and now, in the middle of the winter, she was in one of the coldest places on earth.

  She knew why, but didn’t want to acknowledge it. Not even internally.

  Probably not the coldest place on earth either, but Lake Placid sure felt that way. There had to be at least three feet of snow piled in places. She’d spent her six months out of the country like she’d told herself she was going to, and the next six were going to be a road trip.

  One for the books.

  One in honor of her parents.

  This wasn’t really a lodge. Not like she’d thought, even though their website should have prepared her. The front lobby was massive with easily fifteen-foot ceilings. There was a roaring fire going in a fireplace surrounded by multiple pieces of leather furniture that were currently occupied by several people. Some drinking beverages in mugs, others in beer glasses. Both would be welcome right now.

  “Can I help you?” the young woman behind the counter Kendall had stopped at asked. She’d just briefly glanced at the entrance of a shop and a restaurant on the other side of the building. She’d check them out soon enough. At least the restaurant since she was starving.

  “Kendall Hendricks. I’m checking in.”

  “Ah. So glad you made it,” the young clerk said. Shelly, her nametag said.

  Check-in was at three, but since she was a day late, she figured they’d have no problem checking her in at noon. She’d left New York City while it was flurrying at nine yesterday morning. By the time she reached Albany, it was coming down harder and her lack of driving ability in anything other than rain made her stop for the day and grab a hotel.

  “It seems you got a lot more snow here than in Albany,” she said.

  Shelly waved her hand. “We got about ten inches yesterday but that’s nothing. It’s the wind that is the killer at times.”

  “I’m glad I stayed back then.”

  Ten inches was normal? What the heck was she doing coming here in the middle of the winter and staying for weeks on end? It was bad enough she had to buy an entire wardrobe to come East and start her trip at this end of the US.

  “Shelly, I’m running—oh sorry, I’ll wait until you’re done.”

  “Not a problem, Zeke. I’ll just be a minute.”

  Kendall looked at the guy that had walked out a door behind the counter talking without looking. He was standing there fully dressed in winter bib overalls with an open parka and a helmet in his hand.

  Shelly turned back to her. “You’re in Room 210. The elevator is to the left just past the stairs.”

  There were only two floors with rooms. Fifteen rooms on each floor. But the property held several single-room cabins with efficiencies and a few multi-room cottages. She would have loved to reserve a cabin, but by the time she decided to come here, there were no vacancies for anything other than a room at the main lodge for her length of stay. She had no desire to move around once she checked in.

  All her searches told her this was the place to be for the winter. Not only did they boast a highly rated restaurant and banquet hall, but the grounds were huge, spreading out, filled with cross country ski and snowshoe trails, along with snowmobile trails during the winter. There were horses on the property if someone was brave enough to battle the cold for horseback riding in the winter, but that seemed to be more sought after in the warmer months when the hiking trails opened up too.

  She was going to be brave and do it all. She was going to channel her parents’ inner adventure skills.

  “If you have any questions or concerns with your room, there
is a directory by the phone to call the front desk, room service, housekeeping, or maintenance.”

  “Thanks,” she said, looking at the man called Zeke some more. He was tall, but with his bulky winter garb she had no clue of the type of body he had underneath. His light hair was longer, shoulder length, but pushed off his forehead. He didn’t look to be the type to secure it back with anything other than a bandana or a hat.

  Hopefully. Man buns never did anything for her. She didn’t care for a guy who styled his hair the same way she could. Call it sexist, but there it was. Long hair was fine on a man, as long as he still looked like a man.

  She turned to grab the handle on her suitcase, glancing back at Zeke. He’d been watching her, then he grinned and sent her a wink. She smiled and nodded, then moved past him toward the elevators, hearing him say to Shelly, “I’m heading out on the trails to look for any damage from the wind. I’ll be back in a few hours. You know how to reach me if you need anything.”

  “Will do, Zeke.”

  Kendall got in the elevator and gave one more sidelong glance at Zeke. His name even fit him. He looked like a ski bum, one that might be a lot of fun to get to know while she was here, if he was single. This was actually the longest she’d planned on staying in one place: three weeks.

  She was friendly and had no problem chatting up the locals, employees and businessmen alike. It helped her with her work for the moment.

  Or what she was calling work for the past several months. Not like she was getting paid for it, but it was occupying her time and that was the point.

  When the elevator dinged, she got out and turned down the hall to her room, slid the keycard through and pushed the door open when the light flashed green.

  It was a pretty spacious room. The downstairs looked like a lodge with large light-colored logs making up the walls and ceiling, but the upstairs looked more like a hotel.