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Christmas in Harmony Harbor

Page 34

by Debbie Mason


  “Okay, I could be wrong, but I do think something’s going on, and that’s why Nell and Calder came up with this story about Rick to get me home this weekend. I tried to push them off to next weekend, but they were insistent.”

  He’d filled her in about Rick when they were driving around Christmas looking for Autumn and his brother. “Not five minutes ago you said you believed them when they said they didn’t know where Autumn and Logan are.”

  “I don’t think they do. But I do think they know what they’re doing wherever they are.”

  “Even I know they are having sex, Adam.”

  “That’s not what I’m talking about. Trust me, the two of them having sex is the least of our worries.”

  Because they were sitting on the end of her unmade bed and talking about sex, it took a moment for Sophia to stop thinking about Adam naked in her bed. Once she did, her eyes widened. “You think he’s proposing to her?”

  * * *

  Adam stood on the back deck of his grandfather’s log house nursing a beer as the sun slowly sank behind the Aspen trees. He’d been right. Logan had taken Autumn up to the top of Blue Mountain at sunrise and proposed to her. She had said yes. Around the time Sophia had been getting rear-ended on Main Street, the newly engaged couple were at the Rocky Mountain Diner with his niece and nephew. About ten minutes after Adam had shared his theory about the couple with Sophia, Autumn arrived home to break the news.

  Only she hadn’t shared where the couple intended to spend their life as man and wife. Logan asked Adam to keep the couple’s plans for their future to himself for at least a week. They wanted a chance to slowly ease Sophia and the family into the idea of them moving halfway around the world.

  He lifted the beer bottle to his mouth and took another deep pull. Before the night was over, he’d need something a lot stronger than a bottle of beer. So would Sophia. He couldn’t keep Logan and Autumn’s plans from her. He’d tell her tonight.

  As he’d suspected, Nell and his grandfather had wanted him home for a reason. They knew damn well Logan planned to propose this weekend, no matter how hard they tried to deny it. His evidence: the impromptu engagement party they were hosting tonight at seven. Nell assured them only close friends and immediate family would be there, but it sounded like half the town had been invited.

  A rustle in the undergrowth and the snap of a branch brought Adam’s head up. His grandfather’s house was on an isolated part of the old mountain road, and it wasn’t uncommon for a big cat, bear, deer, or elk to end up near the place. He glanced back at Zeus, who lay practically comatose at the back door. Neither his tail nor his ears perked at the sounds coming from the bush.

  Adam had made the mistake of thinking Sophia had somehow gotten through to him and the Zeus he remembered was back. Sophia had worked her particular brand of magic on both of them. Adam had felt better today than he had in weeks, but now the feelings of guilt returned, weighing him down. He’d failed Manuel the day of the shooting, and now he was doing it again.

  His mood darkened, which might have been why he growled, “You’ve got two minutes to show yourself or I shoot.”

  A wild animal wouldn’t be as noisy as whoever was in there. A dark-haired man wearing camouflage stumbled out of the woods with his hands up. “Don’t shoot.”

  “What are you doing, Rick?” Adam asked his cousin at the same time he checked on Zeus. The dog didn’t lift his head, but his eyes followed Rick from the woods to the deck.

  Rick held up a camera. “I heard the news about Autumn and Logan and wanted to offer my congratulations.”

  “Try again.”

  There was something about the defensive lift to Rick’s chin that reminded Adam of his baby brother. There was no denying the strong family resemblance. “Does no one remember I’m family? I didn’t get an invitation. That hurts, you know. I’m a changed man, and I’m trying to get back on my feet. It’s not easy around here. All anyone does is throw my past in my face.”

  “Maybe that’s the problem, Rick. You should have gone somewhere where no one knows you. Start over with a clean slate.”

  “How? I have nothing. The Danes are real good at helping everyone else, but I haven’t seen any of you offering me a hand up.”

  “Is that why you stole the snowmobile, ski equipment, and petty cash?”

  His face flushed, but his chin once again went up. “You know as well as I do that the lodge is as much mine as it is yours and Logan’s.”

  “I know that’s what you believe, but that’s not what the judge ruled. You have to move past this, Rick.” Adam reached in his back pocket for his wallet and pulled out a couple hundred-dollar bills. “This isn’t the time for it now. I’ll talk to Gramps and Logan in the morning. I can’t make you any promises, but if you give me your word that you’ll clean up your act, there might be a job for you at the lodge.”

  “Doing what? Lift operator? I’m a Dane. I—”

  “And that’s your problem, Rick.” Zeus came to his feet and began whining at the back door. Adam frowned. No one was expected for at least a couple hours. It had to be Sophia. “Look, I can’t deal with this or you right now. Drop by tomorrow. I’m sure there will be leftovers—”

  “I don’t want your handouts. I want what is due to me.” He stormed off the deck and into the woods.

  And not a moment too soon. The back door opened, and Sophia stepped out. She wore her pink trench coat and shiny black boots that disappeared under the hem of her coat. Her hair was disheveled, her glasses askew, and he couldn’t help but wonder what she had on under her coat. When images of her in her Playboy Bunny pj’s filled his mind, he had to fight the urge to walk across the deck and check for himself.

  “Hello, Zeus,” she said to the dog dancing at her feet. Her voice sounded like she’d been crying for a week. She surprised him by kneeling beside Zeus and throwing her arms around the dog. “I’m so sorry I wasn’t kinder to you. I forgot what it was like to lose your best friend, and now I remember.”

  If she was this bad off because Autumn was marrying his brother, he didn’t want to think what she’d be like when she learned the truth.

  “Come on, you’re going to get your coat dirty.” He went to help her up. Zeus looked like he wanted to tear him limb from limb. Totally get where you’re coming from, pal, he thought. But he couldn’t let the dog’s reaction go. He repeated the Spanish phrase Manuel used when he wanted to remind Zeus who was the alpha in the partnership. And there was the problem—Adam and Zeus weren’t partners. As though aware of the battle for dominance playing out around her, Sophia waved Adam off and gave the dog one more hug.

  Just when Adam was thinking he wouldn’t mind taking Zeus’s place, Sophia rose to her feet and walked to him. Wrapping her arms around his waist, she sobbed her heart out. He guided her to a wooden rocker and sat down, pulling her onto his lap. Zeus sidled over and put his head on her knee.

  “You’re worrying me, Dimples. Zeus too.”

  “They’re leaving Christmas, Adam. Logan has a job opportunity in Switzerland, and they’re leaving in six weeks.”

  “How did you find out? Logan said they weren’t going to say anything for at least a week.”

  “Oh, but he tells you. He doesn’t think his fiancée’s best friend, her business partner, the woman she owns a home with deserves to know that he’s about to upend her life completely?”

  “I wouldn’t let you be blindsided, Soph. I planned to tell you tonight. Is there any chance you can buy Autumn out of the house and business?”

  “No. And Autumn will need her equity from the house and the business if she plans to open an online candy store.”

  “What did she say when you talked to her about this?”

  “She doesn’t know I know.”

  “How did you find out?”

  “I knew she wasn’t telling me everything, so I followed the crumbs they left on social media.” She looked at him through fogged-up glasses, her face splotchy and tear-stained. “Wha
t am I going to do?”

  “We’re in this together, Soph. I don’t want them to move any more than you do. If they do, I have to take over the lodge or Rick will inherit, and that would kill my grandfather.”

  Chapter Ten

  Why do you get to be best man and I get to be matron of honor? I should be best woman. Matron of honor makes me sound old and boring,” Sophia grumbled from the passenger seat of Adam’s truck.

  They were on their way to the lodge for Spring Fling, the final weekend of events before the ski runs were closed for the season. It was also the weekend they put Operation Happy Ever After in Christmas into action. Sophia’s idea, not his. She said they needed a code name for their plan. At that point, he’d been ready to agree to just about anything to get her to stop crying.

  “You are the best woman, a gorgeous best woman, but right now we have more important things to think about. Like how we’re going to convince Autumn she loves you and her friends and Christmas too much to leave. And—”

  “You think I’m gorgeous?” she asked with a teasing smile, because the woman was nothing if not confident in her looks. All she had to do was look in the mirror or go to her Facebook page for confirmation. Today she was stunning in a body-hugging, cream-colored ski suit with a pink vest and pink fur boots.

  “Yeah, and I think you know I do. You always did,” he said, his eyes on the narrow mountain road. Traffic was heavy as everyone made their way to the lodge for the cardboard box race. Tonight they’d be dining under the stars with live music.

  He glanced at Sophia when she didn’t say anything. She was staring at him. He frowned. “What?”

  “I didn’t know you thought I was gorgeous back then. I didn’t know you looked at me that way.”

  “Come on, you had to know. And how was I supposed to look at you? I was a guy. You were a girl.”

  “I didn’t know, Adam. If—” She broke off and looked out the window.

  “You had to know I was attracted to you, Soph. All the guys were.”

  “I didn’t care about all the guys. I only cared what you thought about me.”

  “I thought you were beautiful and incredibly sexy and funny and sweet, but I was enjoying being single and free, and you were too young for me.”

  “And now?”

  He wasn’t sure how to respond. He was as attracted to her as he’d always been, maybe more so. But there was a part of him that still thought of her as his brother’s wife. And even though Bryce had been gone, and gone a long time, Adam found it difficult to get past that. “I still think you’re the most beautiful woman in all of Colorado.”

  “You know that’s not what I meant.”

  “Yeah, I do.” He reached for her hand, brought it to his mouth, and brushed his lips over her knuckles. The same hand that had worn his brother’s ring. He lifted his gaze to hers, and the thought must have shown in his eyes because she nodded and drew her hand away. “Soph, look at me.”

  “It’s okay. I understand. I don’t know if I can get past it either.”

  “We’ll talk, okay? But right now we have a job to do.”

  “Yes, convince Autumn and Logan that they belong in Christmas, not Switzerland.”

  He’d returned to San Francisco the day after Logan and Autumn’s engagement party to get cleared for work, so he and Sophia had done their strategizing by phone. They were planning to show the couple that not only would Autumn miss Sophia and her friends, but that his brother and Sophia had things in common and could get along. Then they’d pull out the big guns Easter Sunday. They’d show his brother what his kids would be missing if he took them away from their extended family.

  “If they’re anything like Zeus, that shouldn’t be hard. He missed you this week.” If he was honest, so had he. Even though he’d talked to her every day, sometimes twice a day.

  “I missed you too.”

  He thought she was talking about him and was just about to admit he’d missed her too when he glanced over and realized she was talking to Zeus. “Hey, stop feeding him,” he said when she gave the dog an iced cookie. “You can’t give him human food, Soph. It’s not good for him.”

  “He’s skinny, and I’m not stupid.” She dug a Sugar Plum Bakery bag out of a purse the size of a suitcase. “Grace is making doggie cookies now.”

  “Okay, but don’t overdo it with the treats.” Adam pulled into the parking lot. It was filled beyond capacity, so he drove around to the back of the lodge to take advantage of family parking.

  “I’m sorry for thinking you didn’t know what you were doing, Sophia.” She mimicked a man’s voice. “I should have known that just because you have big hair and big boobs doesn’t mean you’re a bimbo with no brains.”

  “I don’t sound like that, and trust me, I know better than anyone that behind that big hair and body lies a devious little mind.”

  She cocked her head.

  “A mind as big as your other assets.” That earned him a look from both her and the dog. “Okay, I’m sorry. I know you’d never do anything to endanger Zeus.”

  But an hour later, the same could not be said for Operation Happy Ever After in Christmas. From Logan’s expression, his brother definitely did not feel like he had anything in common with Sophia…or Ty.

  “Adam, I’m not sure putting Logan on Team Diva was a good idea,” Autumn said, glancing to where Sophia and Ty were hard at work blinging out the pink car they’d fashioned out of cardboard while his brother stood watching them with his arms crossed. Twenty-five vehicles—cars, boats, tanks, planes, and trucks—fashioned out of cardboard had been entered in this year’s race. Prizes would go to the best-looking and the fastest time down the bunny hill.

  “Yeah, Soph kinda forgot to mention their entry’s theme,” he told Autumn.

  “It’s Sophia and Ty. What did you think they’d be entering in the race?”

  He laughed, and then he saw Zeus. “What’s he doing over there? He’s supposed to be on our team.” Autumn, Jill, Nell’s nephew Gage and his wife, Madison, were on his team. Since three of them were law enforcement, they’d made a police cruiser three times the size of Sophia and Ty’s car. Zeus was their mascot. Just five minutes before, he’d been wearing a vest with a badge and sheriff’s hat, which had been replaced with a pink tutu and crown.

  “Soph, you stole my dog. And in case you forgot, his name is Zeus. He’s—”

  “Stop while you’re ahead,” Gage warned Adam as he affixed a cardboard headlight to the front of their cruiser.

  “Did the dog tell you its name was Zeus, Adam? No, I didn’t think so. Just like I don’t think it told you its gender identity,” Ty said.

  “The—” Adam was about to point out what did identify Zeus as male when Gage said, “Geezus, don’t go there.”

  And maybe because Sophia also could tell where he’d been going, she decided a distraction was in order. “I did not steal your dog, Adam. I cannot steal that which is already mine.” She gave him a smug smile and Zeus a cookie.

  She’d added a pink fur hat to her outfit and looked so adorable that all he could do was smile back at her like an idiot. Well, he was smiling until Ty decided his brother didn’t fit the Diva theme and sprinkled him with pink glitter.

  Autumn yelped and ran over to save the day, but not Adam and Sophia’s plan. At least not the part in which his brother and Sophia became lifelong friends. Autumn suggested she and her fiancé change teams.

  Logan managed to crack a smile when Team Diva came barreling down the hill, Zeus in the front of the pink cardboard car with what could only be described as a doggie grin, while Autumn, Ty, and Sophia were hugging one another and laughing hysterically behind him. They didn’t win for best-looking car or fastest down the bunny hill, but that didn’t stop them from celebrating as if they had.

  Logan wasn’t smiling several hours later as they stood by the outdoor bar, watching Sophia, Autumn, and about ten of their girlfriends, including Ty, dance to live music under the stars.

  A
dam had finally had enough. “I don’t get it. What is it about Sophia that you don’t like?”

  “Everything,” his brother muttered, and Adam wanted to punch him.

  Instead, he tightened his grip on his glass of soda. He was the designated driver tonight.

  Logan must have sensed Adam was ticked because he rolled his eyes. “Start thinking with your other head and put yourself in my shoes for a change. I’ve loved Autumn since we were in grade school. There was no one else for me but her, and she’d always felt the same. Until she went off to college and met Sophia. Every weekend she came home, Sophia tagged along with her. So instead of hanging out together like we used to, the two of them were the life of every party.”

  They were the life of the party again, Adam thought. He glanced at Zeus, who paced the perimeter of the outdoor dance floor, keeping a watchful eye on Sophia.

  “But you married her, so obviously you guys worked through it.”

  “I thought we had. And then about a week after Bryce died, I got the offer for my dream job. Travel, great money, everything we had talked about, but she wouldn’t go. She wouldn’t leave Sophia.”

  “So you left her.”

  “I was tired of coming in second.” He glanced at Sophia and Ty, who were now performing in the circle of their clapping and laughing friends. “Soon I won’t have to.” His brow furrowed, and then he pointed at the man videoing the women on the dance floor. “What’s Rick doing here?”

  He’d had a feeling today might be a bust and had a backup plan. “You’re leaving, and like I’ve been trying to tell you, I’m not taking your place. Which means, if Gramps won’t step in, Rick will.”

  He wouldn’t let it go that far, and he certainly hadn’t broached the idea with Rick. His cousin had come to him the morning after the engagement party with a business proposition. Rick had once owned the town’s local newspaper and had an interest in photography and videography. He’d proposed offering it as a service to the lodge’s guests. Adam had been impressed that Rick had gotten his ego in check and wasn’t asking for a handout. He also believed in second chances and that family should help out family when they could. So he’d decided to give him a trial run, albeit with security keeping an eye on him.

 

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