Stranded: A Winter Romance Duet

by Samantha Chase

  “Did you want to work for yourself? Wouldn’t it have been more lucrative for you to go to work for somebody else? There’d be a little more stability in that, I would imagine.”

  “It’s possible. And actually I did start out working for someone else but the kind of work they were giving me was almost insulting. I was the only woman in the office and after a while I noticed that I was getting the really small jobs or the ones that any first-year graphic design student could do. When I approached my boss about it, he essentially told me I could take it or leave it. I chose to leave it.”

  “That had to be scary – just walking out and starting your own business.”

  Hope shrugged. “I didn’t need a whole lot for start-up costs. I already had a couple of computers and I hit up some friends first and then started combing the community for potential clients. Some were one-time gigs and others turned into long term projects.”

  “How many clients do you have now?”

  Taking a minute to do the calculation, she said, “I have about a dozen steady clients. Most of them have me doing monthly updates on their websites; others have me doing the artwork for their promotional materials.”

  “Artwork? So you’re an artist too?” he asked with just a hint of surprise.

  She nodded. “That’s really how it all started. Back in high school I loved to draw comics. Superheroes and cartoon characters, that sort of thing. I always loved video games and I guess I really got hooked when I tried to find a way to merge the two.”

  Beckett chuckled and shook his head. “I know it’s not funny but I’m having a hard time sitting here picturing you playing video games. I mean, I guess I could see you doing those puzzle type of games but certainly nothing like the popular shooter games or anything like that.”

  Hope arched a brow at him. “Oh really? Do you play? The shooter games?”

  “As a matter of fact I do. Occasionally.”

  “Well, we just might have to see who’s better some time.”

  A look of surprise crossed his face. “Like a challenge?”

  She nodded. “Oh yeah. What system do you have?”

  “Xbox One and a PlayStation Four.”

  “Very nice,” she said approvingly.

  “And you?”

  “Same.”

  “Interesting.”

  Their meals were served and they ate in silence for a few minutes. “So how about you?” Hope asked. “What do you do with James Enterprises?”

  Beckett waved her off. “Nothing as exciting as graphic design and drawing comic books.”

  “Now I think you’re making fun of me,” she said with a smirk.

  “Me? No,” he said playfully. “Tell me, do you go to Comic-Con?”

  Hope blushed and couldn’t force herself to make direct eye contact. “Maybe.”

  He chuckled. “That’s a yes and it probably means that you dress up for it too.”

  “Weren’t we talking about you?” she asked, desperate to change the subject.

  “I’m sorry. Just the image of you dressed up as Wonder Woman is stuck in my mind.”

  “Please…Wonder Woman is way too obvious. And overdone.” She took another sip of her drink. "And you still haven’t told me about your job.”

  “In a minute,” he said, placing his elbows on the table as he leaned in close to her. “You can’t just leave it at that. The curiosity is killing me!”

  Hope let out a loud and dramatic sigh. “Okay. Fine. But if I tell you, you have to quit stalling and answer my question.”

  “Whatever you want,” he said with a big grin and a twinkle in his eyes.

  Sitting up a little straighter in her seat, Hope braced herself to reveal her nerdy hobby. “I’ve only gone to three conventions…”

  “Quit stalling.”

  She frowned at him. “The first year I went as Poison Ivy, the next I went as Mystique and last year I went as…” God this was embarrassing. “Princess Leia.”

  “Please tell me it was the gold bikini,” he begged as he leaned even closer to her. Hope nodded and he groaned.

  “Okay, now that I’ve thoroughly embarrassed myself, it’s your turn.”

  “There’s no way I can top that.”

  “Quit stalling,” she said, mimicking his earlier taunt.

  “Actually, I do a lot of research and development. I find locations for new sites as well as find the resorts that are struggling and figure out the profitability in going in and buying them out and making them part of the James company.”

  “Wow!” she said, her eyes going wide. “That sounds very impressive.”

  He shrugged. “It certainly keeps me busy.”

  “I would imagine. How many people are in your department?”

  Beckett took a sip of his soda before answering. “I don’t even know. It seems to change all the time. I don’t even focus on that. I’m usually too busy in my own office to pay attention to the revolving door of employees.”

  That sounded a little bit harsh to Hope but she chose to keep her mouth shut. “Okay then…so, what are your plans for Christmas? Anything exciting? Traveling?”

  He shook his head. “Work. I don’t really do anything for Christmas.”

  Hope wasn’t sure what to make of that. Did that mean he didn’t celebrate Christmas for religious beliefs or personal ones? Was there a tactful way to ask that? “Oh. Do you…um…do you have family close by?”

  Beckett shook his head again. “No.”

  Way to be vague, she thought to herself. “No, you don’t have any relatives or no, they don’t live close by?” He looked over at her with what Hope could only describe as annoyance and she immediately regretted asking for clarification. “You know what…never mind. It doesn’t matter,” she said quickly and focused on finishing her burger.

  The silence was palpable and it wasn’t until the waitress came and cleared their dishes away before Beckett finally spoke. “I have a brother and a sister. We don’t really speak.” He finished his soda. “Our parents died about eight years ago – actually, our mother died when we were young and our father died eight years ago. There were a lot of…disagreements, shall we say, over the estate. We haven’t spoken since.”

  “That’s kind of sad. Don’t you miss them?” Immediately she wanted to kick herself for asking such a personal question.

  “No. I believe that it’s best for all of us if we don’t talk,” he said simply. “What about you and your brother? Ted, right? Are you close?”

  “Oh yeah. And not because we just lost our parents. We’ve always been close. We’re only a year apart in age and we were both always kind of geeky so we bonded over our mutual interests.”

  “Interesting. And does he have an artistic side like you?”

  Hope laughed out loud. “Absolutely not! And believe me when I say that I absolutely loathe math.”

  “Isn’t math at least partially involved in graphic design?”

  “A little. But I could never work with numbers to the degree that Ted does. My brain would go numb.”

  That had him laughing. “I can relate. It certainly takes a special kind of person to be able to keep all of those numbers straight.” He looked like he was about to say more when his cell phone rang. “Excuse me for a moment,” he said before standing and walking away to take the call.

  For the most part, Hope couldn’t really gauge how the evening was going. Beckett seemed to get annoyed easily when asked anything too personal and he also seemed to a have a little bit of a weird outlook on his job and his co-workers. Hope wasn’t big on working in an office either, but at least when she did she had basic common decency toward the people she worked with.

  Maybe she was wrong about him.

  He was definitely attractive and had a lot of marks in the “pros” column she had mentally created, but the “cons” column was quickly catching up. Still, she wouldn’t regret taking the risk and going out with him tonight. It was a pleasant distraction, if nothing else, and made her realize
how lucky she was that she still had Ted in her life. How sad it must be to have family that you dislike so much that you’d rather not even speak to them.

  “Hope…I’m really sorry,” Beckett said as he came back to the table and waved the waitress over. “But I have to go. There’s a problem with a real estate deal we’re working on and I have to head back to the office.”

  She looked at her watch. “At this hour?”

  He chuckled. “I know. You wouldn’t think that real estate deals were something that would go on at all hours of the day and night, but they do. I thought that someone else was handling the negotiations but they’ve hit a snag and now it’s time for me to step in.”

  “I understand. Don’t worry about it.” They had driven to the diner together in Beckett’s SUV, so she knew they were going to have to get going quickly. She watched him pay the check and then waited for her to stand and join him. Like a gentleman, he helped Hope with her jacket and then held the door for her as they exited the diner.

  “I’m sorry that I had to cut our time short. You didn’t even get to order dessert.” He sounded genuinely remorseful and as he helped Hope into the car, he leaned in close, his gaze intense. “I promise to make it up to you next time.”

  A little shiver of delight danced down her spine. Beckett may not be the perfect man, but she certainly wouldn’t mind a second date.

  ***

  By Saturday, Hope was beginning to feel like she had seriously misjudged things. After Beckett had dropped her off back at her car on Wednesday night, she gave him her phone number and he promised to call.

  But he didn’t.

  She tried not to let it get to her but as she was driving back over to James Enterprises to have dinner with Ted and Merry, she couldn’t help but feel a little apprehensive. What would happen if she saw him? Could she possibly pull off looking and feeling casual when inside she was screaming “Why haven’t you called?”

  Not likely.

  The only thing saving her was that Merry had volunteered to bring dinner and dessert so there was absolutely no chance of Hope offering anything to Beckett should she run into him and try to lure him into conversation.

  Where had she gone wrong? She thought for the millionth time in days. They seemed to have a good time and Beckett had definitely seemed interested in her. Okay, maybe she had simply misread his intentions. Or feelings. Or whatever. He certainly hadn’t tried to kiss her when they had arrived back at the parking garage and he dropped her at her car. Actually, he had been seriously distracted so Hope had made a hasty retreat after thanking him for dinner. It wasn’t until she was unlocking her car door that Beckett had rolled down his window and asked for her phone number.

  None of this was new information. She had been reviewing the mental tape running in her head ever since and she was still no closer to figuring out why he hadn’t called. And then she cursed herself – again – for being one of those women who obsessed over why a guy didn’t call and she vowed right then and there to just…stop.

  “No more,” she muttered as she pulled into a parking spot. Taking a deep breath, Hope pulled out her phone and texted her brother. He immediately wrote back asking her to wait for Merry so they could just walk in together. It made sense but Merry had a tendency never to be on time and Hope didn’t want to sit out in her car all by herself while she waited. “Fine.”

  Luckily she didn’t have to wait too long. Merry’s little white Smart car pulled in beside her and Hope had to sigh. It wasn’t that she didn’t like Merry, it was just that…Merry tended to be a tad…boring. She was super practical, like she always seemed to be doing whatever was the safest, the most predictable…the most vanilla. For the life of her, Hope didn’t understand what her brother saw in Merry but whatever it was, he obviously loved it.

  “Hey!” she said cheerily, climbing out of the car and facing her soon-to-be sister-in-law. “Can I help you with anything?”

  “Oh, no. But thank you. I have everything contained in this insulated bag. I was going to bring dessert but it wouldn’t fit.” Merry Williams pushed her black rimmed glasses up on her nose and turned to lock her car. She was dressed in her scrubs and her hair was pulled back in a sensible ponytail – and she wore no makeup.

  Another sigh escaped before Hope could stop it.

  “Is something wrong, Hope? Are you feeling okay?” Merry asked with concern.

  “What? No, no, I’m fine,” she said quickly. What else could she say? Hey, how about putting a little effort into your appearance for my brother, huh? Um…not likely. Although, maybe Merry had the right idea. The last time Hope put in an effort in hopes of impressing a man it resulted in…Stop it! No more thoughts about Beckett and his no calling ways.

  Or his sexy black hair and dark eyes.

  Dammit.

  “I made macaroni and cheese. It’s one of Ted’s favorites,” Merry said as they walked to the front entrance.

  Hope texted Ted to let him know they were ready to come in and hoped that someone was available to open the doors. Merry continued to ramble on about some of Ted’s favorite meals and Hope didn’t have the heart to tell her that most of them were incorrect. Either Ted was out and out lying to his fiancée or poor Merry just wasn’t very attentive. Either way, Hope resigned herself to a perfectly boring meal.

  And no dessert.

  A uniformed security guard let them in and checked their IDs before letting them go up in the elevator. Once the door was closed, Hope looked over at Merry. “Have you ever been here before?”

  “No.”

  Okay. Let’s try that again. “I was hoping that there would be more people working late with Ted, but both times I’ve come here like this, it’s just been him. I kind of feel bad for him.”

  “Hmm.”

  Hope rolled her eyes and decided to finish the ride in silence. The doors opened on the eleventh floor and Hope led the way to the kitchen. Once there, she decided to let Merry do her thing while she texted her brother that they were waiting for him. With nothing to do, Hope wandered out into the hallway and did her best not to snoop around in hopes of seeing Beckett. While they had talked about his job, he never quite said where in the building he actually worked.

  Before her curiosity got the better of her, she spotted a frazzled-looking Ted heading her way. “Hey, is everything all right?” she asked when he was beside her.

  His hair was sticking out all over the place and he definitely looked tense. “I…it’s fine. It’s fine. Does Merry have everything ready? I’m afraid that I don’t have a lot of time tonight.”

  “Again?” Hope asked and then felt like she kicked a puppy when Ted turned to her. “I’m sorry. That was uncalled for. What does Mr. James have you doing now?”

  “It doesn’t matter.” They walked into the kitchen and Ted immediately sat down without even greeting Merry.

  Hope stood back in fascination as she watched the two of them interact with one another – Merry placed Ted’s plate of food down in front of him and handed him a napkin. Then she went about setting out the other two plates before silently sitting down beside Ted. He poured their drinks and they both started eating before she even sat down.

  Yawn.

  “So,” she said brightly, pulling up a chair and sitting down, “macaroni and cheese! Yum!”

  Both Ted and Merry nodded but didn’t look up from their plates.

  “I can’t remember the last time I made it from scratch myself,” she said, pushing her portion around on her plate because it did not look appetizing at all. “I’m more of the box mix with the powder kind of girl. Three for a dollar!”

  They both nodded again without looking up.

  Worst. Dinner. Ever.

  Deciding to wave the white flag, Hope managed to choke down a couple of bites before her stomach threatened to rebel. If this was one of Ted’s favorites, she hated to think of the meals that he flat out rejected. This was beyond horrible. It was dry and the pasta was undercooked, but the silence was far wor
se than the food. Hope spent a large part of her days with no one to talk to because she worked alone so there was no way she was going to sit with two other people in silence.

  “So, Merry, Ted tells me that you’re working the Christmas shift in the ER. Will you get to be at home at all for Christmas?”

  Merry shook her head and gently placed her fork down before reaching for a napkin and dabbing the corners of her mouth. “I took a double,” she said finally. “I’ll sleep in the on-call room. Since Ted is going to be out of town and my family lives so far away, it seemed pointless to be at home.”

  Hope wasn’t sure why. With the long hours that Ted normally worked, what would be the difference? “And Ted,” she said, facing her brother, “when do you leave to go and work with your boss?”

  “We’ll be heading out of town Wednesday,” he said quietly.

  “Wednesday?” Hope cried. “But…but that’s six days before Christmas! Why do you have to leave so early? I mean, isn’t it bad enough that you’re missing the actual holiday? He can’t even let you have maybe a small pre-Christmas dinner with your fiancée? Your sister?”

  “Hope,” he warned.

  “No, I’m serious,” she said and stood up abruptly. “It’s not right, Ted! Are you being compensated for all of this extra time and inconvenience? Are you getting overtime pay? Holiday pay?”

  “It’s not like that,” he began.

  “Then what would you call it? Do you think you’re going to work a normal shift while you’re at this guy’s house? And why do you even have to go to his house? Does he have family that he’s planning on spending Christmas with while you’re there slaving away for him? Is that it?”

  “As far as I know, Mr. James doesn’t have any family. It will just be the two of us working. We’ve got several new resorts planned for next year as well as three expansions. There’s a lot to get done and if we can buckle down over the holidays and get it all done, we’ll be ahead of schedule after New Year’s.”