by Carol Rose
“This will be fine.” Levi Harper signed the form the car rental attendant held out for him, ignoring the icy wind that sliced through his jacket as if he were wearing nothing.
“You looked the car over for damage, right?” The young guy in the parka received the clip board and scanned it.
“Yes.” Levi glanced at his Tag Heuer wristwatch, mentally calculating how long it would take him to reach his dad’s new quarters in the damned back of beyond. As far as he was concerned, all of Minnesota came under the heading of the back of beyond.
“And you want to decline the insurance?” The question was doubtful, as if the kid couldn’t imagine anyone choosing this option. He probably got paid something for every individual who signed without checking that box. “The roads can get pretty slippery around here, particularly if you’re not used to driving in icy conditions.”
“I have auto insurance,” Levi said calmly, not glancing again at the snow-covered parking lot dividers or the icicles on the fence that surrounded it. “It covers any damage to rentals.”
The kid swallowed, clearly hearing the sardonic tone in Levi’s voice. “Sure, okay.”
Levi had been called a shark and a blood-sucking ghoul who lived off the efforts of others. He knew how to spend money, but he hated getting screwed. It was what made him good at his job.
Appreciation for a fair deal.
Of course, fair was relative, he knew. He shoved his bags into the back seat of the bland four-door and pulled out his phone to GPS wherever the hell New Hope was from the airport. His father had been born in Minnesota, but Levi still couldn’t fathom why a man in the late middle years of his life wanted to uproot a comfortable life in Washington state to come back here. Particularly when the weather was crappy six months out of the year.
Damned snow. He liked palm trees and wearing shorts in January.
“The keys, sir.” The attendant held out the keys like Levi presented a risk to him.
Throwing the attendant an automatic, reassuring smile, he climbed behind the wheel and promptly forgot the kid. After his mother had abandoned the two of them when Levi was just a baby, Michael had settled down in Seattle to take care of his son and make a steady income. He’d done pretty well at both, from Levi’s perspective, well enough to retire at fifty-five, which was saying a lot these days.
Although his father had girlfriends along the way—and one really disastrous marriage—Levi hadn’t even known his dad wanted a new wife. Until he’d called several months ago to invite his son to his surprise wedding.
To a woman he hadn’t seen in forty years.
Levi felt his mouth firm into a straight line as he stared through the windshield at the gray horizon. His dad needed a wife like a hole in the head and his track record proved that he lacked skill in picking mates. Why tie himself up legally to one more mistake?
Putting the car in drive, Levi headed for the rental lot exit and turned left to go to the main road, hearing the tires crunch on the spent ice in the middle of the road. A quick glance at his phone’s GPS confirmed that the highway could be reached---
Suddenly, another vehicle swooped out of another nearby rental lot and pulled right in front of him.
Bam!!
Feeling the rental shudder around him, Levi kept his foot on the brake and put the car into park to get out and see what the hell had happened.
In front of him, only an inch or two in front of the car he’d driven, was a blue sedan as equally bland as his. Standing next to the cars, he saw a driver scramble out of the other car, a spill of red curls spiking his memory as the woman struggled into a coat against the biting wind, a jumble of words on her lips.
“I had the right of way,” the woman said in low, hurried voice. “Didn’t you see me pull out?”
Levi recognized the hair immediately.
“You again.” He knew his voice sounded annoyed, but the woman had just caused him to run into her!
She looked up from struggling to tie her coat around her waist, the hair swinging against her pale cheek.
“You!”
“Yes, me.” He stood in the cold wind.
“You just hit my car! Well, my rental car.”
“Only after you pulled in front of me and braked.” He couldn’t help the icy tone to his statement. He’d thought the redhead was cute and sexy when he’d first seen her in the plane, but her uptight attitude and her having caused this mess didn’t win her any points with him.
Her cheeks growing red in the cold wind, she shot back at him. “You were going too fast. I clearly was in front of you.”
“Me going too fast? You were only in front of me because you cut me off.”
She only came to a little above his shoulder and he’d have liked to take her to dinner if she weren’t such a pain in the ass.
“I think the situation speaks for itself,” he gestured to the entrance from the rental company lot. “I was right there, making a turn, and you pulled in front of me.”
“Why you—you jerk!” she started to say—
“Now, now.” Levi used the voice he reserved for his highest-strung clients. “This won’t get us anywhere--”
“Are you following me?” she demanded. “You sat in my seat on the airplane and then you took my suitcase off the carousel—“
He was trying to be civil, but this woman was a piece of work. “First off, I was in front of you when we were getting on the plane, so I couldn’t have followed you—“
“You could have arranged to get in line in front of me,” she muttered.
“—Second, there were a hundred bags like yours on the baggage carousel—“
“Not with a red heart on them!”
“Are you kidding me, lady?” Levi’s temper escaped. “That red thing has to be less than an inch wide. No one could see that, unless they knew it was there! And thirdly, you just pulled in front of me. The damned road is icy. I don’t think anyone could have avoided hitting you with the way you were driving!”
“Fine!” she stomped away toward her car door. “Let’s just exchange insurance information and let them work it out.”
“Fine,” he shot back.
She handed him her rental papers. “Here! The insurance agency is right there. Where’s yours?”
Levi took out his wallet and abstracted his insurance car. “There. Everything you need.”
The woman took out her phone and snapped photo of the front and back of his car. “My insurance company will be in contact with yours—and we don’t have to ever see each other again!”
She swung around, stalking back to her rental.
“Great,” he said, “you’re too damned much trouble anyway.”
* * * * * * * * *
CHAPTER TWO
Cold and hungry, Levi finally found the street and drove around the circle to 2009, cursing under his breath. He looked at the house in disgust, annoyed by the charming picture.
The clapboard two-story home had a gabled third floor and a generous wrap-around porch. With the wreath on the front door and twinkling lights on every line in the fading afternoon light, it looked like his dad was living in a Norman Rockwell painting on steroids. The windows shone with warm light.
Apparently a Christmas elf had visited the place recently and left a Christmas record playing inside. All four corners were rimmed in lights and a wooden Santa figure waved from the front yard.
He’d told his dad he might be able to squeeze out six or seven days to spend here, but that was before he saw how much snow they had in this damned state.
Levi parked the sedan at the curb and crunched his way through icy remnants of snow up to the front door. He settled his suitcase on the front porch and took a resigned breath as he rang the doorbell. Thank goodness it was lit or he’d have had a hard time finding the button for all the plastic decorations.
He tried not to let this time of year get to him, but he hated all the Christmas crap. With holly on the lamp post and the swagged twinkly lights around the front windows, th
is place looked like something out of a cartoon. It was pretty, he supposed, if you were into that sort of thing, but this mission had a specific goal: get in, get dad and get the hell out. The sooner he could get the two of them back to civilization, the more quickly he’d be able to deprogram his father.
Just about to jab again at the doorbell, Levi stepped back as the door swung wide.
“Son! You made it.” Michael Harper stood six two in his stocking feet and looked like the former ball player he was. “Come in. Come in out of the cold.”
Hoisting his bag again, Levi let his dad draw him into the house’s small foyer and dropped his luggage as he returned his father’s hug.
“Gosh, it’s great to see you, son. It’s been too long!”
Hugging his dad with a sudden rush of emotion, Levi felt choked up for a moment. He missed the old man, now that they were living so far apart.
“It’s great to see you, too,” Levi responded as soon as his father loosened his grip.
“And here’s the new family,” his dad said, swinging an arm toward an older woman who stood nearby, her smile looking as strained as Levi’s suddenly felt.
Particularly when his glance swung to the younger, shapely woman who stood beside her and he recognized….
His redheaded nightmare from the airport.
For a confused moment, Levi just looked at her.
The woman stood next to his father’s new wife with the same shocked recognition on her face as he was sure his expression showed. He knew he wasn’t dreaming, but….
“What the hell,” he muttered at the same time he heard her breathe, “OMG!”
His father—bustling to awkwardly pull the older woman forward—didn’t seem to have heard either exclamation.
“Levi, this is Audrey. You remember your step-mother, of course.” His big, gregarious dad looked even larger next to the slight woman he put his arm around, the expression in his eyes a little anxious.
“Nice to see you again, Levi,” the older woman offered calmly, adding, “we’re glad you could make it. I know your work keeps you very busy. We’re glad you could get away.”
Michael laughed a hearty chuckle that sounded fake. “And Hollywood is quite a distance from here.”
Audrey reached out for the younger woman. “I don’t believe you’ve met my daughter, Holly, yet—“
“Unless you know each other from working in the entertainment business,” his father stuck in, laughing again. “Holly Fitzgerald. Remember? I mentioned that Holly makes documentaries. She was in—where was it?” The older man looked over at his step-daughter. “Ghana? When her mother and I got married.”
“Zambia.” Her gaze was still locked on Levi’s face with a startled expression in the blue depths.
His dad waved a hand, as if chastising himself for forgetting. “That’s right. Zambia. I get those countries mixed up. Holly was filming in Zambia when Audrey and I up and decided to get married after we found each other again.”
“It was a little sudden.” Levi continued to stare at Holly. The name seemed to fit her, but he couldn’t get over the fact that the sexy redheaded, irritated woman in the airport was actually his new step-mother’s daughter.
“Yes, it was. Sudden, I mean.” Holly stepped forward to shake his hand, her expression speculative.
“Actually,” Levi said with deliberation, their hands still locked, “Holly and I flew in on the same plane from California this morning.”
“Yes, we did.” She took her hand back from his grasp.
“You did?” His father looked delighted as he waved them into the living area.
“Yes.” Holly slipped into a chair by the fireplace, across the room from a Christmas tree that was so heavily decorated, it was hard to see the green boughs. “He tried to steal my seat and then he took my bag from the carousel.”
Levi glanced around. Christmas decorations seem to sit on every surface.
“That was before she jammed on her rental car brakes and made me rear end her.” He smiled thinly at her.
“I did not make you rear end me,” Holly retorted. “You did that all on your own.”
“Well, since you’d cut me off and there wasn’t any room to stop—“
“Now children,” his father interrupted with another hearty-anxious laugh.
“You had an accident? I’m glad neither of you were hurt,” Audrey said, glancing at her daughter. “Was there much damage to the cars?”
“Hardly any.” As Holly reached a reassuring hand out to her mother, she threw Levi an annoyed glance. “And I did not cut you off.”
“I’m sure my insurance will cover everything, regardless,” he assured her, returning look for look.
“Well,” his father started again as they all sat down in the chairs grouped around the Christmas tree, “I’m certainly glad you could both be here.”
He smiled fondly at his wife, whom he’d sat by. “Audrey just loves the holidays, don’t you, honey?”
His wife, who had struck Levi from the first as being on the quiet side, just said, “Yes.”
“That’s why she named her baby girl Holly,” his dad joked.
“Thanks, mom,” Holly stuck in, making a face.”
“Don’t you like the name?” Levi asked. He knew he’d seen her somewhere before, but he didn’t remember where. The face didn’t ring any bells, but her name was elusively familiar.
Holly’s smile was strained. “It’s fine. I’m just not a fan of all the Christmas crap.”
“Holly.” Her mother chastised her with the word.
Levi didn’t feel this was the time to agree with his soon-to-be ex-stepmother’s daughter. “Really?”
“Mom, you know it’s just another month for me. Besides people are annoying at this time of year—spending money they don’t have and acting all fake-happy with people they don’t even like.”
Levi had to agree with this assessment, but he couldn’t resist saying, “Not to mention how irritating they are to travel with.”
She looked at him. “Don’t start with me. You’re the one who took—“
“I know.” He shook his head sadly. “I sat in your seat by accident and grabbed your bag by accident—“
“Making me have to run after you just to get it back!”
“I probably deserved you cutting me off in the rental car and causing me to run into you.” He smiled disagreeably at her again,.
“You certainly have a lot of accidents,” Holly stuck in, her voice snide.
“Now, now. Let’s don’t start all that again.” His father’s chuckle was forced. “We need to get along if we’re going to enjoy the holidays.”
Levi decided not to respond to this.
“Let’s go in to lunch,” Michael said with the forced cheerfulness that was starting to get on his son’s nerves. “Audrey’s been cooking all morning.”
***
Silence filled the awkward space between Holly and Levi, Michael having shooed her and his son into the living area while the older couple cleaned off the table, saying they should talk about all the acquaintances they had in common.
Holly tried not to snort at this. She’d put together the pieces, and she knew better than anyone that she and Levi didn’t generally occupy the same territory. Michael’s son just happened to be Levi Harper, big time agent to many of the up-and-coming stars and starlets in the film industry. Not to mention several really big established names.
And he just happened to be the agent for Mac Toledo, who Holly had a signed contract that he’d with to work with her in this Zambian documentary. Although Levi was Mac’s agent, he and Holly hadn’t had any dealings. Bless his soul, Mac had a conscience about the less-fortunate in this world and he’d already signed a contract to work for scale.
Levi now seated himself on her mother’s vintage plaid sofa, crossing one elegantly-shod foot over the other, looking polite, but bored. “So, you make documentaries?”
“I would guess you don’t give a crap about
what I do.” Holly tried to keep the derision out of her voice as she smiled at him. They had different agendas, different working styles and different investments in the business side of film-making. There wasn’t any point in getting nasty about this, but she didn’t think they needed to pretend like they had much to say to one another. She didn’t think he came into her dealings with Mac Toledo. At least she hoped not.
“I wouldn’t say I don’t give a crap,” Levi murmured, his dark brows lifted.
“Let’s don’t act like we have anything in common because we know differently.” She sat back in the matching plaid chair, switching the topic without hesitation to the larger concern at hand. “What do you think about our parents getting married? They haven’t even seen each other since they were in their teens!”
His gaze narrowed. “You mother seems like a nice woman.”
“She is.”
“My dad’s been single a long time, though. It can be difficult to get used to considering someone else. His last divorce was final nearly twenty-two years ago.”
Holly got his meaning. Subtext was her specialty. “You think he can’t adjust to being committed?”
He looked down, frowning. “My father is a decent, loyal guy. If anything, he gets too committed, too quickly.”
Jumping on the inference, she said, “You think they got married too fast.”
Levi looked up, his expression unreadable. “I’m sure it probably didn’t seem too fast to your mother.”
“What do you mean?” Curious and irritated all at once, Holly couldn’t help bristling at the note in his voice. She wasn’t in favor of this impulsive marriage, either, but she had a gut feeling that there was something demeaning in his statement.
He shifted a little on the plaid couch, saying in a level voice, “I can imagine a guy with my dad’s…situation, probably seemed like a great catch. He has all his teeth, doesn’t gamble to excess and is financially set.”
Holly gasped. “You can’t be serious. My mom is doing fine financially—“
Looking down at the aged couch, he said with a sleek smile that made her want to hit him. “Of course, she is.”