Winter Love (Love Collection)

by Natalie Ann

  “Did you make room for her in your garage?”

  He thought the question was odd but still answered. “Of course.”

  “So you moved your toys into the shed and barn in the back?” she asked.

  “Yes. Why?”

  She burst out laughing. “You’ve got it so bad. You don’t even do that for Mom and Dad when they stay with you over the summer.”

  He felt his face flush. “That’s because it’s the summer and they don’t need to be in the garage. I thought I was being considerate so that Kendall didn’t have to warm her car up when she left.”

  If he was trying to do anything to make her like it here, he wasn’t saying. She wasn’t used to this weather and he didn’t want her to find any excuse to say she’d had enough.

  “Considerate, huh?” she asked, smiling. “Be honest with me—you have no intention of asking her to move out.”

  “No.”

  “Does she want to stay?”

  “I have no clue. I guess one of us needs to talk about it.”

  “Yep. Her ‘few weeks’ is turning into a month pretty soon. I’ve got to imagine she will go back to Vegas at some point, let alone make plans to finish traveling.”

  “I don’t want her to,” he said quietly.

  “You’re in love with her, aren’t you?”

  “It seems it,” he said.

  “Then I suggest the two of you have some serious conversations about your future, but something tells me you’re in two different places and I don’t want to have to pick up the pieces of you again.”

  “What does that mean?” he asked.

  “Zeke. You always fell for someone when they didn’t return it. You stopped years ago because you were sick of getting hurt. I get it more than most. But I’ve been watching you fall for Kendall for weeks.”

  “She is nothing like any of those girls in school or after. You know that,” he argued.

  “No. She’s sweet. She’s not really using you at all that I can see. She’s been upfront and honest with you too. Which means, she plans on returning home.”

  “I know. I have to figure out how to stop that from happening.”

  “Has she given any indication at all she would stay here? Is she even thinking about it?” Erika asked.

  He honestly hadn’t seen any indication and didn’t know what she was thinking. And he wasn’t about to admit that to his sister. She’d just say “I told you so.”

  Their Story

  Kendall squared her shoulders and walked into the restaurant prepared to meet with the owner before they opened for lunch. He was going to cook a few different specialty dishes for her and she planned on recording bits and pieces and then editing it later.

  “Mr. Carson?” she asked with her hand out when she saw the older man walking around the restaurant looking to make sure everything was where it should be. She’d seen restaurant managers do that her whole life. This was a small town, but this guy was on top of things.

  “That would be me. You’re Kendall Hendricks. I have to say I’m honored you want to meet with me. I’ve been checking out your social media pages since you contacted me.”

  “It’s my pleasure. I had a list of places and things I wanted to do during my visit to Lake Placid. You were at the top of my list.”

  “Yet it’s taken you so long to contact me,” he said, smiling at her.

  She tried not to blush. “Well, there is a reason for that. Could we get to the interview first and then when we’re done, if you have a minute, maybe we could chat?”

  “That sounds like a good plan. And call me Joe.”

  “Show me what you’ve got, Joe,” she said, following him into the kitchen.

  An hour later Kendall knew she had gold here. Joe was probably in his late sixties, but he was cooking faster and more efficiently than eager twenty-somethings fresh out of culinary school.

  He was self-taught and his home-style cooking made her think of holidays at a grandparents’ house. Even his dinner service was done family style. If you came here to eat, you better have a big appetite. It wasn’t often you found a restaurant like this anymore, where meals were passed around by the guests. She found she liked the homey feel of it.

  “Now that the fun stuff is out of the way, I’m sure you want to talk to me about your parents.”

  Her jaw opened and closed. She didn’t know how he could have figured that out. “How did you know?”

  “First off. You look so much like your mother it’s not even funny. Second of all, I remember everyone that used to work for me. I remember Chelsea Conover and Johnny Hendricks. The two of them were hard to forget.”

  “Why? My understanding is they only worked for you for a little over six months.”

  “That’s true. But it was their personality and their story. I know they met here. Both of them on vacation with friends staying somewhere.”

  “Collins Lodge,” she said.

  “That’s right. Anyway, I guess it was one of those love at first sight deals. I never believed in that myself, but those two sure did look to be happy with each other.”

  “You’re not alone in that thought. I never believed it either, but they were happy people.” Still to this day she could say her parents had a happy marriage. A strong one.

  “They were. A little bit out there though. Kind of free spirits. Had all these dreams and plans to travel the world. It’s funny how you’re doing the same thing.”

  “Yeah, funny,” she said. The thing was, she didn’t want to be doing it. She was doing it for them. Trying to remember them. Doing it for the wrong reasons, she was thinking now.

  “So they finally settled down in Vegas? Or is that just where you ended up?”

  “They traveled for a good twelve years. Two years they moved around a lot, that was before I was born. Then we moved about once a year. My father fell in love with Vegas when I was ten and we settled there.”

  “He had the gambling itch, didn’t he?”

  She smiled. “He did.”

  “He was always making bets with the staff here. He’d bet on anything. I swear he was the luckiest man I know. Though he insisted that it was Chelsea that was his lucky charm. They were a cute couple. I remember thinking he was nuts to travel around after finishing college, but he’d told me time and again that he was pressured to conform to a normal life. Get a degree and a nine to five job. It wasn’t for him.”

  “No, it wasn’t. But he did end up getting a teaching job after all. My mother was a bookkeeper.”

  “Was?” Joe asked.

  “They were killed in a car accident last summer.”

  Joe reached his hand out and laid it on hers. “I’m so sorry. I only knew them a short time, but I remember them well. You came here to find some peace, maybe?”

  “I don’t know what I was hoping to find if you want to be honest.”

  “But you found something, I’m thinking, because you’re still here when from your blog you move around every week or so.”

  “Yeah. I did find something. The question is what do I do with it.”

  ***

  Zeke was home by four and Kendall was nowhere to be found. It looked like she hadn’t been home in hours. He was starting to get worried.

  When he heard the garage door open at four thirty, he went to stand in the mudroom to make sure she was coming in the door. He was getting sick of the anxiety he was feeling lately that she was just waiting to leave.

  What he didn’t expect was her to come in looking like she’d spent some time crying.

  “What happened?” he asked, rushing forward and pulling her into his arms. He was searching her everywhere for signs of injury.

  “Nothing.”

  “But you’ve been crying.”

  “I have. Let’s go sit down. It’s just been an emotional day.”

  He didn’t like the sounds of that. They moved into the living room once she’d taken her coat and boots off. “Talk to me, Kendall.”

  She took a dee
p breath. “I never told you the real reason that I made this trip.”

  “You said you were trying to connect with your parents,” he reminded her. He remembered that conversation.

  “That’s true. But the truth is, I really only planned on coming to Lake Placid in January. That’s it. I had a hard time working up the nerve to do it, so I came up with the idea to travel before that. To take my mind off of what I wanted to really do here.”

  “What was it you wanted to do here?”

  “It probably sounds stupid and silly, but I knew my parents met at your lodge and fell in love during the month of January. Their death was so sudden and I got this brainy idea that I could find some closure if I came here in January. If I went to where I knew they used to work and talked to someone who might remember them. They had this crazy love story that I just wanted to know more about. They stayed here about six months and started traveling. I never believed the story fully, but I thought maybe if I found out more about them, I could see how their story started, since I know how it ended,” she said, a hiccup escaping.

  He wasn’t sure what to say right now. She was sobbing pretty hard and he pulled her into his arms.

  Part of him was pissed off she’d kept the real reason from him about her trip, but the other part knew deep down she didn’t owe him the explanation. The thing is, he felt like he was deceived. She had to have known he was falling for her. Erika even saw it. In his mind, he thought he had a chance to convince her to stay, but now it seemed he’d made the same mistake with Kendall that he’d done with other women in his past. No one took him seriously enough to stay.

  “Is that what you did today?”

  “Yes. They met here at your lodge and it was love at first sight for them. Of course I’ve never believed in that myself, but they were so happy together. They’d been together almost twenty-nine years before they died. How is that possible with someone you met and had a fling with? They found an apartment here and worked for six months and saved up money before they hit the road.”

  He knew how it was possible because it was how he felt, but she was in no shape to hear that right now, not when that was all he’d been able to think about lately and it seemed he was alone in those thoughts.

  “Life is funny that way. You need to learn to just go with it and not fight it,” he said, hoping she’d agree with that. That she’d see what he was really trying to tell her.

  “I know. But I’m more practical. My mother was practical and yet she just followed my father on his crazy hair-brained ideas. I heard all about their stories my whole life. I kind of thought they made it all up and just needed it verified.”

  “Why would you need it verified if they were happy?” He was confused right now.

  “Because it just doesn’t seem possible. I thought they were exaggerating it all. I don’t know what I was thinking or thought all those years.”

  “So what did you find out then?”

  “I found out it was all true. Joe Carson remembered them. He told me some funny stories about them. He knew the reason I was going to see him too. He said I looked just like my mother and he recognized my last name.”

  “I don’t understand why you’re crying then.” If his heart was racing in his chest, he hoped he wasn’t showing his nerves to her.

  “Because now that I did what I came to do, it’s time for me to go home.”

  This was what he was dreading. “Why? You gave yourself a year. Why not stay a little longer?”

  “It’s not fair to you.”

  “What’s not?”

  “I feel like I’m leading you on by staying here even longer. I need to go back home. I’ve got a job there. I’ve got a career and friends there. This was just a stopping point in my life.”

  He didn’t think it could hurt as much as it did even though he knew this day might come. “You could have a career anywhere. You could have one here,” he said.

  “You don’t get it, Zeke. I came here for a reason and I’ve done it now. That is how I got through this all along. My parents would be so mad at me if they knew I was struggling with their loss. They lived life to the fullest. Nothing stood in their way. I’m not like them at all. I had a purpose and a goal and I pushed through it and when I checked things off my list it was time to go. It was the only way I could handle this.”

  “So Lake Placid was a checkmark on your list? That’s it? Is that what we have too?” His heart was racing, his face was probably red and he wasn’t sure if it was more that he was pissed, upset or knew he was being a fool again.

  The tears were running down her face now like a leaky faucet. “No. That’s the problem. I let myself get involved with you knowing I wasn’t going to stay. That was wrong of me. I just wanted to feel something. I’ve been so numb for months and then I met you and there was some happiness that I was missing.”

  “So stay and keep feeling it,” he said almost begging her.

  “I can’t. I can’t promise you anything. I told you that. I said a few more weeks and it’s that now.”

  “Just like that? You’re going to leave?” This was the worst heartbreak he’d ever felt in his life. Now he remembered why he stopped getting attached to people. Why he continued to just want to have fun and then go on his own way.

  “I won’t do that to you. I won’t leave you hanging for the restaurant. I found a hotel in town for two weeks and I’ll stay there and give you two weeks to fill the position at the restaurant. But I think it’s best that I don’t stay here, best to give us a little bit of space to adjust to me leaving. It’ll only hurt even more when I leave in two weeks if we are together nonstop.”

  She got up and walked away from him. “Where are you going?”

  “To pack my stuff. I might as well leave tonight rather than drag it out.”

  He wanted to stop her, but he wasn’t going to beg. She obviously didn’t feel the same way he did.

  Help Your Case

  More than a week had gone by and Kendall hated the hotel, but she wouldn’t leave Zeke and Erika hanging in a lurch during a busy season.

  It’d been difficult working there, knowing Zeke was around, but he was avoiding her and it was probably for the best for everyone.

  When she wasn’t working at the restaurant, she was working on her blog and trying to line up more activities to do while she was here to take her mind off of everything else. She was trying to plan her next destination.

  The problem was, she couldn’t figure out where to go next. Or what she wanted to do.

  She’d been looking online the entire week and nothing was standing out to her. Maybe it was time to go back home.

  She heard her phone ring and picked it up to see her boss in Vegas calling her. That was odd. “Hi, Aaron. What’s up?”

  “I’ll tell you what’s up. What the hell do you think you’re doing working right now?”

  “I don’t understand. What are you talking about?”

  “I gave you a year off. I said I’d hold your job. You wanted to travel and I understood that. You never once said you were going to work somewhere else and yet I’m hearing you’ve been in Lake Placid working at the Collins Lodge for over a month. I didn’t believe it until I checked out your blog myself.”

  She’d been pretty private about the fact she was working there. She might have done a few more pieces about the lodge, but she never once mentioned anything other than helping them out with the wedding.

  “Where did you hear that?”

  “I figured it out. You haven’t stayed anywhere as long as you have in Lake Placid. I saw that you helped out with the wedding and did all those pieces and though it annoyed me, I could understand it. I know you’re that type of person.”

  “What type is that? Someone that helps another out when they’re in a pinch?” She didn’t normally get mad, but right now she was ticked off she was having this call. It was her year off to do what she wanted and she said as much. “What I do until I return in a few months is no business of your
s.”

  “That’s right. It’s not. Because I’ve filled your position. You’re in such high demand, you should be fine. But I’m not going to hold it any longer. I was being nice letting you do this. But I was given the impression it was for growth in your career along with trying to find peace over the sudden death of your parents.”

  “It was. It is,” she argued.

  She couldn’t believe she was being fired. Or that she was upset over it. She knew there might be a chance he wouldn’t hold her job when she’d asked him in the beginning. He’d assured her it wasn’t a problem. Now it seemed it was.

  “You were getting a nice following and it was good publicity for us since everyone knew you worked here. At first I liked it, but now I don’t. People are coming in here and asking when you’re returning, taking the attention away from the other chefs. Morale is bad. And if that wasn’t bad enough we’re being asked when we’ll start having weddings here. You know how I feel about that. It’s just turning into more than I bargained for. I’m sorry, Kendall. I wish you the best, but it’s just not going to work out.”

  She disconnected the phone and stared at it. How had this happened? How was it possible that she did everything she could to make sure that she only posted positive pieces? That no one would or could get hurt by her actions and yet that was all that seemed to happen.

  First Robert up and quit on Zeke because of her. Now she was being fired because of her pieces when she thought it would help her job back home. Aaron said he’d never hold weddings at the restaurant, but she never thought this would happen.

  She knew she hurt Zeke by leaving over a week ago. She shouldn’t have gotten involved with him, but she couldn’t help herself. Then when they started to spend more time together, she thought she could keep her heart out of it, but found she couldn’t.

  It was better that she moved out and into the hotel. It would make it easier for when she left.

  Now she wondered what she had to go home to. It didn’t seem like much at all.