“Okay.” The woman nodded, but there was obvious worry on her face. “I don’t want to go too fast.”
Olivia’s expression softened. Hayley watched it happen. “Are you nervous, Mrs. Dale?” Her voice was kind. Understanding.
The woman—Mrs. Dale—couldn’t have been older than sixty, and she brought a hand to her chest, rubbed it. Her pale face colored a bit, her cheeks turning a light pink, visible even to Hayley. “A little. Yes.”
Olivia reached up, laid her hand on Mrs. Dale’s upper arm, and rubbed gently. “I remember after my uncle had a heart attack. He was terrified to do anything more than go for a walk, even though the doctors told him it was absolutely okay, that his heart had recovered and was strong. They told him it would be good for him to exercise, but he was still so scared.”
“What did he do?”
Olivia shrugged with a chuckle and said, “He walked.” When Mrs. Dale joined her with a smile, she went on. “It just took time for him to decide he was ready to take it up a notch, and then he started jogging again. It’s the same for you. Only you know when you’re ready, so listen to your body, and don’t let anybody push you. Okay?”
Mrs. Dale nodded. “Thank you, Olivia. I needed to hear that.” She took in a deep breath and hit a button on the machine, then began moving gently, keeping her pace slow and even. Her reflection showed relief on her face, even a slight smile and determination in her eyes.
Olivia stood nearby for a moment, as if watching to make sure Mrs. Dale was okay, before turning away. Her gaze landed on Hayley and she stopped, stared and—did she just swallow? Hayley was amused by the apparent case of nerves, although she had them, too. She waved Olivia toward her.
“Hey,” Olivia said, when she got closer. Her purple earbuds were draped around her neck like a stethoscope, connected to her phone, which was strapped to her upper arm. A white gym towel dangled from her hand. Her dark eyes were wary. “Everything okay?”
“Yeah.” Hayley looked around. “Can we talk for a sec?”
For a tiny instant, Olivia looked like she was going to say no, and Hayley had no backup plan for that. Instead, though, she looked around the gym, sighed quietly, and indicated they step out through the doors.
In the hallway, Hayley leaned a shoulder against the wall. She smiled; she couldn’t help it. Being this close to Olivia—regardless of why—made her happy.
“Listen, first of all, I want to tell you that it’s totally okay if you’d rather I didn’t come to your mom’s on Christmas. I don’t want to make you uncomfortable, and you seemed a little less than thrilled when she asked me, but…I couldn’t say no. Have you met your mom?”
That brought a gentle laugh out of Olivia. “Yeah, I have. She’s pretty persuasive.”
“Seriously, though. I don’t want it to be awkward.”
“Me, neither.” Olivia let her body lean toward the wall until she mirrored Hayley’s stance. She looked around and lowered her voice. “I guess the best way to prevent that is to talk about…” She let the sentence dangle, which pulled a small chuckle from Hayley.
“How we made out in the woods, likely traumatizing all of the woodland creatures for the rest of their little woodland lives?”
This time, Olivia’s laugh was bold, louder, and Hayley loved the sound of it. “Yes. That.”
“I agree. Let’s talk.”
And they stood there. Quietly. Looking around, then looking at each other until they both burst out laughing.
“Okay, well, that was productive,” Hayley said.
“Good talk,” Olivia agreed.
When the laughter died down, Hayley smiled at Olivia. “Look. I like you. I realize our situation isn’t ideal, but…” She shrugged. “I like you.”
Olivia nodded. “I like you, too.”
“And we kiss really well. So, there’s that.”
Olivia’s eyes went wide in agreement as she nodded. “No argument here.”
Before either could say anything more, Olivia’s phone lit up on her arm, and she stretched around to see the incoming text. “Stephanie’s got an issue.”
“I’ll take care of it,” Hayley told her. “You take your run.”
“You’re sure?” Olivia was obviously hesitant, and Hayley did her best not to be insulted by that.
“I’m sure. I’ve got it. Go.” With a small wave, she turned and headed around the corner to the elevators.
With a smile at the handful of folks already in the car, she rode down to the lobby level, her mind full. They hadn’t really talked, had they? Although…Olivia did admit to liking her. Which wasn’t really a surprise, since she’d had her tongue in Hayley’s mouth a few days ago. But Hayley was going to put it in the win column.
“We really love this place.”
It took Hayley a beat to realize the statement, which came from a woman to her left, was directed at her. She blinked rapidly and turned to her, an attractive brunette in her forties. “I’m sorry?”
The woman pointed at Hayley’s name tag. “I see you’re the manager. I just wanted to tell you how much we love this place.” She tightened her hold on the tall gentleman standing next to her.
“I’m so glad to hear that,” Hayley said truthfully. “Is this your first visit with us?”
“Oh, no. It’s our—” She looked up at the man. “How many holidays have we spent here now?”
“Four, I think.” The man’s voice was a deep baritone. “Maybe five.”
“Wow,” Hayley said. “That’s amazing. Thank you so much.” And then, as if hearing her father’s concerns in her head, she ventured a question. “Is there anything we could do to make your stay better?” God, she sounded like a brochure. Or a robot.
“Some updates would be great,” the man said, without hesitation. “Things are starting to feel a bit…dated. You know?”
Hayley nodded, listening as he listed various places he’d considered revamping, from the spa rooms to the pool area. She mentally listed them in her head.
“There are a lot of other places around here that are newer. Or…feel newer, if that makes sense.”
“It does.” Hayley nodded again as the elevator came to a stop and dinged to let them know. “Thank you so much for your input, Mr.…”
“Kowalsky,” the man said, and held out his hand.
Hayley shook it, then the woman’s, and thanked them again as they stepped off the elevator and went on their way. Pulling out her phone, she jotted the things the Kowalskys had suggested into a notes app, along with their name, then headed toward the front desk to see what Stephanie needed.
As she walked, “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” emanated softly from the hidden speakers in the lobby, and just like that, she was dragged back to the conversation she’d had with Olivia’s mom. Then the one she’d had with Olivia. Christmas was almost here.
Olivia had a little less than a week to change her mind about Hayley joining her family for Christmas.
The problem, as Hayley saw it, was that she was already looking forward to it. If Olivia did change her mind, which she had every right to do, Hayley would be more let down than she cared to admit.
Yeah. That was a problem.
Chapter Fourteen
Monday evening brought steadily dropping temperatures, and finding a Christmas tree had been a colder event than Olivia had anticipated. Luckily, her sister, Ann Marie, had agreed to tag along, and that made things go quickly. Once they’d dragged it into the house and set it in the tree stand, then argued for ten minutes over whether or not it was straight, Olivia clicked on the gas fireplace to take the chill out of her living room. Now the lights were strung, and they were left with ornaments to hang.
“I can’t believe you waited so long to do this,” Ann Marie, said as Olivia handed her a Diet Coke. Ann Marie popped it open and took a slug, then pulled a glittering silver ornament from the large storage box of decorations. “You’re way late.”
Olivia sighed as she looked for just the right spot for the
clothespin reindeer she’d made in kindergarten. “I know. Things have been so busy at work, I feel like Christmas snuck up on me. It was just Thanksgiving and suddenly—bam—Christmas is next week.”
Ann Marie nodded, and they worked silently for a bit, the gentle sounds of instrumental carols coming from the small Bluetooth speaker on Olivia’s mantel. Stockings embroidered with her name as well as Walter’s dangled from red hooks, and the fireplace’s cheerful glow gave the room a soft, lovely ambience. “It’s a good tree,” she said quietly, as if she thought her voice might disturb the peace.
“It is, right?” Olivia stood back a step. Ann Marie had wanted to go with her to pick one out. They didn’t chop their own, as Olivia often did, but rather chose one from the lot at a favorite farm market. It wasn’t terribly tall—maybe five and a half feet—but it was full and lush, and Olivia’s living room smelled like the outdoors.
“Mom says Hayley’s coming for Christmas?” Ann Marie didn’t look at her when she said it. Just kept hanging ornaments and attempting, and failing, to be nonchalant about it.
“How long have you been waiting to bring that up?” Olivia asked, with a shake of her head.
Ann Marie glanced at her nonexistent watch and said, “About an hour.”
Olivia laughed.
“Mom’s pretty smooth.”
“God, right? I didn’t even see it coming until it had happened.”
Her sister let a beat go by before saying, “I like her.”
“Who? Mom? I should hope so.”
“Ha ha. No, Hayley. I like her.”
“You hardly know her.” Olivia wasn’t quite sure why this conversation—this subject—made her shift uncomfortably, but it did.
“No, but I know you.”
“What does that mean?” Olivia kept hanging ornaments.
“It means that you like her, too.”
A scoff escaped Olivia’s lips before she could catch it. “Oh, really? You had one dinner with her and me at the same table, and you were on your phone most of the time. Plus, Mom said I was rude. Please tell me how you’ve come to the conclusion that I like her.”
Ann Marie went on as if she hadn’t heard, picking an ornament from the box, hanging it on a branch, repeating. “I know what Mom said, but you work in the hospitality industry, and you have since you were a kid. You know how to be smiling and kind even when you can’t stand somebody. So, the fact that you were kind of openly rude to Hayley speaks volumes.” At Olivia’s puzzled expression, Ann Marie rolled her eyes. “Please. If Hayley’d had a ponytail, you’d have been tugging it.”
Olivia opened her mouth to defend herself. Closed it. Opened again and took a breath this time. Then closed it. Finally, she said the only thing she could think of that fit. “Shut up.”
Ann Marie’s laugh burst out of her like gunfire.
Later, after the tree was finished and Ann Marie had gone home next door, Olivia followed her yearly tradition. She turned off all the lights in the house except those on the Christmas tree, poured herself a small amount of warm brandy, and spent the evening with Walter looking at the tree. Christmas music still played and the snow had gone from blowing wildly to gently falling flakes. The way Olivia’s tree was framed by the front window of the house, it looked like a beautiful holiday calendar shot.
Walter hopped up on the couch next to her and laid his head in her lap.
“It’s a good tree, huh, Walnut?” she asked, remembering Ann Marie’s words.
Olivia felt oddly unsettled. She loved Christmastime. She loved everything about it, the buildup, all the traditions, the anticipation. But she hadn’t been lying to Ann Marie when she talked about it sneaking up on her this year, and now she felt a little bit like she’d missed much of it. Christmas was Sunday. Less than a week away. And she was not ready.
It wasn’t like she didn’t have her shopping done. She did. It wasn’t that kind of not ready. It was more…an unbalancing. She sipped her brandy. Yeah, that was the right word. She felt unbalanced.
Oh, she could sit there, sip her brandy, and claim to not know why. But that would be a lie. She knew exactly why.
Hayley had unbalanced her somehow, tipped her world on its axis a little bit, and Olivia was having a hard time figuring out how to keep from sliding. She sipped again and sank down farther into the couch cushions as she watched the snow fall and thought about the changes in her life over the past month.
She shouldn’t like Hayley at all. She really shouldn’t, there was no question. The woman had come out of left field and taken the job that should’ve been Olivia’s, thanks to the bigwigs at Corporate, and Olivia couldn’t understand it. Mostly because, while Hayley wasn’t completely unfamiliar with the business, it somehow seemed like she had never managed a Motel 6, let alone an upscale resort like the Evergreen, and the fact that Olivia could run circles around her in Hayley’s own job was beyond insulting.
The physical attraction was a given. There was no way Olivia could argue. From the moment Hayley had turned to her that morning in the snow, from the very beginning of that one walk in the woods, the attraction was clear and intense. Olivia could deal with that. Being attracted to somebody didn’t have to mean anything more than that, and Olivia had been perfectly okay with stuffing that down and doing her best to ignore it.
But Hayley could also be charming. And kind. And sweet. Seeing her helping Maddie Dunne navigate the art museum online had touched Olivia unexpectedly—something she still couldn’t quite explain.
“Don’t even get me started on the Fairy Trail,” she said quietly, causing Walter to lift his head and look quizzically at her. Hayley had been beyond adorable on that trail. Her childlike, wide-eyed excitement had blended with the artistic adult in her, and the mix was something Olivia had had a hard time resisting. No, an impossible time resisting, since she actually hadn’t resisted at all.
And then came the part she’d been stuck on. The part that had been playing over and over in her head on a loop for the past three days.
That kiss.
That goddamn, wonderful, ill-advised, amazing, misstep of a kiss that Olivia couldn’t get past.
Before she could dwell on it more, her phone pinged with a text from Tessa.
In your driveway. You home?
Instead of typing a response, she got up and opened the front door. Sure enough, Tessa’s car was sitting there, and she turned it off and headed in.
“Your lights were off,” she said as she stomped the snow off her boots and then toed them off. “I wasn’t sure if you were here.”
“Me and Sir Walter are just enjoying some brandy and the tree. Care to join us?”
“That sounds amazing.” Tessa finished peeling off all her outerwear, then blew out a breath from the effort. “It’s a good thing I love winter, because all this extra clothing is a pain in the ass.”
A few minutes later, the two were seated on the couch, brandy snifters in hand, Christmas tree lights on, fire casting a warm glow over the room.
Tessa was one of those friends Olivia could sit in silence with. They didn’t need to talk. They were never uncomfortable if they were just quiet. It was one of the things that told Olivia how amazingly compatible they were. Silence between them never needed to be filled.
Apparently, Tessa did not feel the same way tonight.
“Talk to me,” she said simply. She didn’t look at Olivia, just sipped her brandy and waited, obviously sure Olivia would respond. Which she did.
“About what?”
This time, Tessa did look, all arched eyebrow and I-don’t-have-time-for-your-bullshit face. When Olivia didn’t answer right away, she asked, “What is going on with you?”
Olivia hadn’t told Tessa about the kiss on the Fairy Trail, but she needed to. She braced herself because not only was Tessa going to flip out over the kiss itself, but she was going to be angry Olivia had waited so long to tell her.
“Okay, now you’re worrying me.” Tessa sat up when Olivia had evidently
waited too long to answer. “Are you okay?”
Olivia inhaled deeply, held it for a count of five, then let it out before launching into the story of Friday. She told Tessa everything, from Hayley’s dejected demeanor in her office, to how happy she was on the trail, how she took a million photos and how she and Olivia had talked openly about so much. Then she told her about the kiss. Every detail. She ended with the invitation from her mother for Hayley to join them for Christmas.
Tessa had stayed quiet throughout the entire telling. The only sign that it affected her in any way was the empty brandy glass in her hand. Olivia looked pointedly at it and raised her eyebrows.
“Hey, you are not allowed to judge me for downing all my alcohol while I’m judging you for not telling me any of this sooner. What the hell?” While Tessa did her best to hide the tint of hurt in her voice, Olivia heard it and felt bad, just as predicted.
“I’m sorry,” she said, and meant it. “I just needed some time to sit with it. I hadn’t even meant to tell my mother, but”—Olivia rolled her eyes—“you’ve met her.”
Tessa snorted. “That woman could get an FBI agent to spill all the government secrets just by giving him a look.” She handed her empty glass to Olivia. “I’m going to need more for this.” When Olivia returned with the bottle of brandy and refilled both their glasses, Tessa asked, “So…how do you feel about all of this?”
Olivia gave herself time to honestly contemplate the question, to be completely open with herself. She sat back against the soft cushions of her couch. Walter decided that was an invitation and jumped up to lie down next to her. She dug her fingers into his fur and found peace in his presence, which she always did. “I don’t know,” she finally said. “So many things.”
“Like?”
“God, I don’t know. Confusion? Attraction? Potential? Fear? Resistance? Desire?”
“Okay, yeah, that’s a lot.” Tessa’s light chuckle took away any sting. “How do you feel about Christmas?”
One Walk in Winter Page 15