Deck the Halls

by Leah Sanders

  “I spoke with the president of the airline last night. He was able to speed up the return of our things to this morning. It will arrive at nine o’clock. I want you to be there to meet it, so there is no room for error this time.”

  There it was. The reason Mrs. Hall could not allow the airline to deliver the luggage to them at the resort. Of course. Kate should have known.

  The personal touch.

  Mrs. Hall sat down on her couch and picked up her phone. “Since you’ll be going into the city, I’d like you to handle a few other errands while you’re there. I’ll text you the list.”

  “Should I rent a car while I’m there? It might make the trip back a little easier.”

  “I wouldn’t think so, Kate. Just take the train. I don’t want to chance anything happening on the winter roads with our luggage. You don’t drive much in New York, and I have heard that the road between here and the city is particularly treacherous this time of year, especially for an unseasoned driver.”

  Unseasoned? Kate had grown up in Idaho. She’d driven on snowy, treacherous roads many times. She was anything but unseasoned. Kate fought the urge to roll her eyes. Instead, she cleared her throat and asked, “So take the shuttle between the train and the airport?”

  Mrs. Hall glared at her as if trying to decide if the question was worth answering.

  “No, Kate. I want you to walk the three miles dragging our luggage through the ice and snow.”

  It took a moment for Kate to determine if Mrs. Hall was being serious. It did sound exactly like something Mrs. Hall would ask her to do… minus the dragging of the luggage. That she would want Kate to carry on her head like an African woman balancing a water jug.

  Clearly, it was too early in the morning for sarcasm.

  “Of course, take the shuttle, Kate.” Mrs. Hall shook her head in disgust. Then waved her hand dismissively. “Ask at the front desk for someone to go along with you to help with the luggage. Let them know you’ll make it worth their while. I’m sure they have staff for such things. Did you get the list?”

  Kate’s phone buzzed. She pulled it out of her pocket and saw the notification.

  “Yes. I have it.”

  “Fabulous.” Mrs. Hall set her phone on the end table. “Kate—” she squinted as if trying to see some detail on Kate’s face. “What is that on your forehead? Is that… Is that blood?”

  Kate’s hand shot up to her hairline where it still stung. It was wet, and when she pulled away to look, blood stained her fingertips.

  “Honestly, Kate. I hope no one saw you skulking through the halls dressed like a vagabond and looking fresh out of a midnight mugging.” She stood and offered Kate a tissue. “Now, go get dressed properly and get on the train. I want my luggage.”

  Kate pressed the tissue to her wound and turned to leave, but Mrs. Hall stopped her.

  “Be sure to be back in plenty of time for dinner. I have made arrangements to eat with a few people, and I will need time to get my clothes pressed and ready. Plus, I need you here in case there are any other issues that arise.”

  Kate moved toward the door.

  “I’ll call the front desk to get you an escort and some help with the luggage. That way you’ll have time to clean up,” Mrs. Hall offered.

  “Thank you.”

  By the time Kate got back to her own room, she had the bleeding under control. She pulled out her first aid kit and cleaned up the scratch, then put on a bandage. Staring into the mirror, she took a deep breath and blew it out slowly.

  It was a couple hours by train into the city, then another ten minutes on the shuttle to get to the airport. The trains ran every half hour, so she would have to be on the 6:30 train, and it was still fifteen minutes into town from the resort. And yet here she stood, just staring at herself in the mirror…

  There really wasn’t time to waste, so she quickly went to the closet and pulled out her black Citizen skinny jeans and vintage black turtleneck. Those, with a scarf and the new Cynthia Skye-Adams long pea coat and her black Prada booties, would do just fine. She ran a brush through her hair and pulled a black wool beanie onto her head. A splash of Dior spray foundation and her Charlotte Tillsbury red lipstick, and she was ready to go.

  She grabbed the door handle to leave but suddenly remembered.

  She couldn’t go into public without her Chanel stud earrings. Mrs. Hall would have a conniption if she knew Kate was stepping out the door without that signature look.

  WHEN THE PHONE RANG at the front desk, Luca was standing right next to it going over the day’s schedule. The screen identified Cynthia Hall in the Mountain View Suite. Renate was busy with the morning list of arrivals, so he answered it.

  “Bonjour, Madame Hall. This is Luca. How may I be of service?”

  “Bonjour, Luca. I hope you’ll be able to help me.” Her voice had the hint of pout he had heard many times from the female guests. And he could picture that wounded puppy dog look she probably had worn successfully a million times before to get what she wanted. “As you know, the airline lost our luggage yesterday. My assistant Kate will be down there in a moment. She is making a trip into the airport this morning to pick it up. She will need an escort. Someone who can help her with the luggage. Do you have someone available this morning?”

  Luca glanced around the office. Normally, he would send Peter on the airport runs, but Peter’s wife had gone into labor at two o’clock that morning.

  However, Luca did need to go into the city today to purchase necessary supplies for the Christmas ball. So if he sent someone else to escort her, when he had to leave later, it would leave the resort short-handed. It only made sense that Luca should escort her himself. Besides, spending time with Kate Curtis was not a burden by any means.

  “We will be happy to escort Ms. Curtis to the airport to retrieve your luggage, madame.”

  “Excellent! The luggage will arrive promptly at nine o’clock. I have instructed Kate to be there in time to meet it. She will be down directly. Please have your man ready to leave right away.”

  Luca glanced at the clock on the wall. They would have to leave in the next couple of minutes in order to make the 6:30 train.

  “Consider it done, Madame Hall.”

  “Thank you, Luca.” The phone clicked in his ear.

  He returned it to its cradle and strode into the office to grab his keys. The image of Kate Curtis in her baggy sweats and dark, messy hair leapt to his mind, and he could feel the hint of a grin playing on his lips.

  No. Kate Curtis was not a burden.

  Not at all.

  “THANKS FOR DOING THIS. You sure you can spare the time?” Kate asked as she buckled into Luca’s Subaru for the second time within a space of twenty-four hours. Not that she was complaining. The amount of attention Luca was paying to her particular needs was amazing. And she had enjoyed the afternoon she had spent with him in the village the day before.

  But Luca was a manager at a busy resort.

  A totally hot, sexy, Swiss guy with a French accent, manager of a resort that pandered to very important people.

  It didn’t seem quite right that he would have this much time to devote to just one guest. A guest that was only there because of her very-important employer.

  Maybe something else was going on here.

  She’d seen it before.

  With concierges in other hotels she’d visited with Mrs. Hall.

  Exotic guy. Vacationing women. It was the perfect set up for a long string of one-night stands.

  The perfect job for a guy like Jake Adams, actually.

  It was a wonder she hadn’t realized it before.

  Suddenly, Kate felt very uncomfortable on her heated leather seat.

  “It’s no trouble at all,” Luca answered. “I have to pick up a few things for the Christmas ball anyway, so I would be making this trip today regardless. I’m just happy to have company.”

  I bet you are, Kate thought, inching closer to her door. Why had she sat in the front seat?
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  What a stupid question. Was she going to sit in the back of a Subaru for a fifteen-minute drive into the village and then ignore him for two hours on the train? No. That’s ridiculous. She wasn’t a desperate socialite hoping to escape her tedious upper crust life and throw caution and her inhibitions to the wind. She was working.

  Kate was always working.

  That meant no time for exotic men and the romantic interludes that went with them.

  She stole a furtive glance at the man in the driver’s seat.

  Hmm, pity. But no. She wouldn’t be one of his conquests. Not this week. Not this lifetime.

  Of course, that didn’t mean she couldn’t enjoy Luca’s company. He was easy on the eyes and on the ears. And she had to be there anyway.

  Once on the train, Luca and Kate settled in. Luca placed his messenger bag in the overhead bin and asked Kate if she wanted her purse up there. She didn’t.

  It was still dark outside, and there were very few people on the train that early. A handful of commuters, and a family of locals with a couple of teenagers who looked like they would rather be anywhere else.

  “It will likely be full on the way back,” Luca whispered as he sat down across from her. “There are always more coming in than going out. Especially at this time of day.”

  “Do you have to take the train very often?”

  “Probably once a week. Sometimes I drive if the roads are decent.”

  “And how often do you have to escort guests into the city?”

  “Me personally? Or the resort in general?”

  “Wouldn’t they be the same?”

  “Peter usually does the escorting. Today just happened to be my lucky day.”

  “I see. You drew the short straw, did you?”

  “Hardly.” He grinned at her and his blue eyes twinkled. “If you want the whole story, Peter is off today. His wife went into labor around 2:00 this morning, so he is with her and his brand-new baby girl at the hospital right now.” Luca held up his phone for Kate to see the picture of a man—probably Peter—with a broad, proud smile, holding a tiny bundle of pink. “And since I have to make the trip anyway, I volunteered to take one for the team.”

  “She’s beautiful,” Kate said, although she couldn’t really see much of the baby herself. It seemed like the thing to say. “Is this their first?”

  “She has two older brothers—twins. They are three years old, I think. Frederick and Victor. They are full of energy. I spent Thanksgiving with them.”

  “Sounds like they have their hands full already.” Kate glanced out the window into the pitch-black morning.

  “Do you have any siblings?” he asked.

  “No. Well, that’s not entirely true. I do have a half-brother and sister, but I was raised an only child. They are my father’s kids. I lived with my mom.” Wow. That was a lot of information to give a complete stranger.

  “You don’t ever see them?”

  “Not really. My father just kind of fell off the face of the planet after he left us, so we have never had any opportunity. I know they exist. That’s about it.”

  Luca studied her. “That’s sad. I’m sorry.”

  Kate shrugged. “It’s okay. How about you? Do you have family back in Switzerland?”

  He nodded. “My parents, an older brother, and two younger sisters.”

  “What’s that like?”

  “Well, living with my two younger sisters was like being in a war zone. They were always fighting about something. I, of course, never did anything to antagonize them and stayed completely out of all their arguments.” His smirk was almost conspiratorial.

  Kate squinted and studied his face. “I get the feeling that is not the whole truth.”

  “What? I was completely neutral at all times.”

  “How very… Swiss of you,” Kate said, offering him an ironic smirk.

  He raised an eyebrow, then broke into a smile. “Alright, I confess. I may have been party to some secret plots to stir the pot. But only when forced by my older brother. Otherwise, I was entirely innocent.”

  “I see. Everything was your brother’s fault.” She chuckled and pulled her coat more tightly around her. There was a bit of a chill in the air still.

  Something in his eyes changed at the mention of his brother, and he turned to gaze out the window into the darkness. He didn’t respond right away, until just above a breath she heard, “Not everything.”

  She let the silence stretch out between them.

  There was something there. Something about Luca’s brother and their history that affected him in a way he didn’t seem to be expecting. Maybe it was something so long ago that Luca thought it should be forgotten by now, but somehow this moment had made the memory raw again.

  Kate’s heart went out to him just a little. Even though she didn’t have a relationship with her siblings, she could see that Luca loved his, and that made her want to tell him something to make him feel better. What could she say that would do that?

  She had no experience with that kind of thing.

  So, she changed the subject.

  “Did you say there’s going to be a Christmas ball?”

  LUCA WASN’T SURE WHERE that had come from. One minute they were making small talk, getting to know each other, and the next he was deep in the mire of days long gone as he drove down the mountain to the village train depot.

  He and Liam had been the best of friends growing up, partners in crime. There were two years between them, but Luca remembered being so inseparable that when his older brother had gone to school, he cried the whole day until his brother’s return in the afternoon. His mother had called him inconsolable.

  It had been that way ever since he could remember. If one was there, the other was soon to follow. But when Amelie came into Luca’s life, things changed.

  Not that she had ever really been in his life.

  She had been Liam’s girl from Day One, but she had a way of making Luca feel as though she saw only him.

  The day Luca realized that wasn’t the reality of it was the day he and Liam broke.

  And that was entirely Luca’s fault.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  See the Blazing Yule Before Us

  THE REST OF THE TRIP PASSED pleasantly. Kate could tell the Luca was making an honest effort to push whatever it was that had disturbed him out of his mind and focus on her and what she was saying.

  They talked about the village, and he told her the history of Huckleberry Falls. Once again, it was like he was her personal tour guide. Luca really knew a lot about the village and the area surrounding the resort.

  Through the window glazed with a halo of frost, they watched the sunrise paint the morning sky with streaks of pink, lavender, and gold.

  When the train rattled into the city station, they discussed the plan to get to the airport, claim the luggage, make their other stops, and get back to the train station with all the baggage in tow. Since they both had other errands to run, and the luggage had to be picked up first, the idea of toting all of Mrs. Hall’s and Jake’s suitcases through the city with them posed a challenge. In spite of Mrs. Hall’s previous objections, they would need a car. Just for a couple of hours.

  They disembarked and hurried through the freezing morning air for the shelter of the warm station.

  “Would you prefer to wait here where it’s warm for a few minutes? I can get a car and bring it around to the front,” Luca said.

  “Sure. You want to just text me when you’re out there?”

  His eyes darted to hers in surprise. Then he shook his head as if shaking off the shock. “Yes, that will work.” Luca pulled his phone out of his pocket and offered it to her. “I guess I’ll need your number.”

  Kate took his phone and tapped in her number.

  Her fears earlier that morning had been entirely unfounded, and she felt a little stupid for even entertaining the thought. Luca was not that guy. Not at all. He was exactly what he seemed to be. An honest, sweet, dedicat
ed… super-hot Swiss resort manager guy who was very, very, good at his job.

  And even though nothing could come of it, she enjoyed spending time with him. Even for just the few days that she would be in Huckleberry Falls.

  THE CAR MADE THE rest of the morning run like clockwork. All the missing luggage was accounted for. All the errands on Mrs. Hall’s list were checked off. Kate even helped Luca select some of the decorations for the Christmas ball, which Kate had learned, wasn’t actually scheduled for Christmas Day. It was to take place the night of the 23rd.

  There was a whole festival leading up to it. A pageant, which had kicked off the celebration the day before—Kate was sorry to have missed that part—a parade; a winter carnival with ice skating, games, a Ferris wheel, an ice sculpture display; all culminating in the Christmas ball at the community center where the royal court of the celebration would be announced. It sounded exactly like something Mrs. Hall would enjoy. A place where she could flaunt one of her latest creations and see the gowns of other designers which would, no doubt, be worn by the myriad of well-to-do guests at the resort. Kate wondered if Mrs. Hall knew about the ball.

  Luca returned the car while Kate organized all the luggage and packages on one of the carts. They had about ten minutes to wait for the train’s arrival. When Luca joined her in the station, there was a dusting of snow on his hair and shoulders.

  “Is it snowing?” Kate asked.

  “Just started,” he said, brushing at the flakes on his jacket. “I don’t think it will last long though.”

  He sat down next to her on the wooden bench.

  “So, do you have a lot to do this afternoon when we get back?” she asked. Mentally, she ran through the past seven texts she had gotten from Mrs. Hall while she was gone.

  “Quite a few things yet. This time of year at the resort there is always plenty to do. I will have to check in on several VIP guests and make sure the banquet room is set up for a large party, among a few other odds and ends.” He pulled his gloves off one finger at a time and shoved them deep into his coat pocket. “How about you?”