by Susan Hatler
I pulled the conference room door open, took a step, and then stopped short at the sight before my eyes. Riley had Noelle pressed against the wall and was kissing her. Before I could do or say anything, Gabriel’s chair squeaked and then he came up beside me.
He nudged my arm. “Can’t you appreciate how in love they are?” he whispered. “Maybe a second chance is all they need for their marriage to work out.”
Claws of irritation scratched the back of my neck, but I refused to let him know he’d gotten to me. So I pasted a smile up on my face, propped a hand on my hip, and leaned toward him. “I’ll bet we’re back in this same conference room a month from now, negotiating from scratch all over again. And next time, I won’t be so gentle.”
The corner of his mouth lifted. “Now that sounds like an interesting proposition.”
Without giving him the satisfaction of a reply, I stepped toward the conference room table, retrieved my briefcase, and shoved the file folder inside. I needed to talk to Noelle to see if there was any reason left in her head at this point. She was a sweet girl, and she deserved better than Riley could give her—no matter how nice Gabriel Hart seemed to think his client was.
I walked into the hallway and cleared my throat. The couple jumped apart, but continued goggling at one another.
“Noelle, may I speak with you a moment?” I asked.
“I guess.” She looked at me like I’d kicked her puppy. Still, she moved away from Riley and followed me to the elevator, which we rode down in silence. When we reached the bottom floor, we stepped outside into the sunshine.
I turned to her. “Need I remind you about Downright Righteous Dive?” I asked.
“He’s being really sweet,” Noelle said, biting her lip.
“Do you want to live the rest of your life dealing with Riley’s rash decisions? Do you want to continue letting him stake your fortune on whims?” I asked, trying not sound as frustrated as I felt.
“That’s how you live an adventurous life,” she replied.
“No, that’s how you end up declaring bankruptcy,” I said.
Her mouth drew into a thin line. “You’ve obviously never been in love before.”
Suddenly, the air left my chest. I felt like she’d punched me in the gut. Oh, I’d been in love before and it had cost me plenty. Never would I make that mistake again.
My eyes burned, but I quickly composed myself. “You have my number. Call me if you need my help again,” I said, stiffly.
I turned and walked toward my luxury sedan without looking back. I shouldn’t have lost control of this meeting today. I’d had my client under control until opposing counsel had taken over. Now my client was vulnerable again and I knew one thing for certain. I hoped never to have to see Gabriel Hart again.
Chapter Two
When I bought my townhouse, the whole place had needed a renovation. So, I had the space redone in a modern-style with clean lines that suited my taste perfectly. But even as I arrived to my beautifully decorated home later that night, I couldn’t seem to untie the knot of tension that had formed in my stomach after I had left Noelle behind earlier today.
Setting my Chinese take-out on the kitchen counter, I shut the glass cabinet door with a soft thump and set a dinner plate down on the white quartz countertop. I carefully arranged each Chinese dish on my plate in the most visually appealing way possible. Just because I rarely had time to cook didn’t mean that I couldn’t make my meals as aesthetically pleasing as possible. I set my full plate on the bar side of the counter, and settled onto a sleek backed steel-gray bar stool.
I lifted a forkful of food to my mouth, hoping the delicious orange chicken from Uncle Shuang’s—my go-to Chinese restaurant—would take the bitter aftertaste of my settlement failure out of my mouth. Sadly, that didn’t seem to help. I pushed my plate away, got up, and then poured myself a glass of red wine—red, like the color of my irritation at the moment.
Noelle’s words rattled through my head like a bad record: You’ve obviously never been in love before. . . I shook my head to clear her voice, reminding myself that she’d just been speaking out of her own frustration and hadn’t meant to hurt me. After all, she didn’t know me personally. I’d never tell her the truth—that I’d been completely in love back in college and it had bombed big time.
Curtis and I had met while both attending law school at U.C. Davis, and he was two years ahead of me. He’d seemed like the perfect guy from the start. He was ambitious and driven, with just enough playfulness to make him interesting.
I bit my perfectly-manicured thumbnail as I thought of the first time I met Curtis. He had decided to run a pop-up business for the weekend, giving students virtual surfing lessons in a wooden booth on campus. He basically showed people how to balance on a surfboard as it teetered on the ramp he’d constructed. A massive amount of students lined up to ride that fake surf. My roommate convinced me to try it, so I had, and Curtis had flirted shamelessly with me. I stayed long after he closed up shop, and soon we were a couple.
We seemed to be on the same page while attending the same college, but as he finished up his degree things began to change. Sadly, I’d been too love-struck to realize it.
I stared into my glass of wine, remembering the night Curtis had dumped me at the end of my first year in law school. We’d gone out to dinner to celebrate his graduation. He said he had big news to tell me. I thought the news would be something amazing for us. Wrong.
“I’m going to work for Judge Meyer in D.C.,” he announced as the waiter had set down our pasta dishes.
I squealed so loudly the waiter had jumped. “I’m so excited for you. I’ll miss seeing you all of the time, but I can’t wait to visit you in D.C. We’ll think of this as an adventure until I finish law school and then we can live in the same town again.”
He frowned. “Harper, I’ve had a lot of fun this past year. You know that I think you’re really special. But, honestly? You’re too needy for this relationship to last. I’m heading to D.C. to start a new life, and I just don’t want to take any baggage with me.”
My heart fell to my stomach. I was completely devastated. Tears flowed freely as I begged him to reconsider the break-up—to do long-distance until I could move to the East Coast. He wouldn’t budge, though. It was over. I’d been shocked and heartbroken.
As I stalked out of the restaurant that night, I vowed to never need a man again, to never beg a man for anything, and to never give my heart away . . . because true love simply didn’t exist.
I sipped my wine, staring numbly at my barely-touched Chinese food. My stomach clenched and I tried to push Curtis from my mind. I hadn’t thought about him in a long time. But Noelle’s words brought all of those awful feelings back.
The thing that annoyed me the most about today’s client meeting was that I had wanted to save Noelle from the same pain I’d experienced thanks to my putting faith in Curtis. I was sure she would’ve been able to see that, too, if Gabriel Hart hadn’t gotten in the way. Just thinking about Gabriel made my stomach roil.
My cell phone buzzed on the counter, jerking me from my thoughts. I snatched it up, noting the familiar name across the screen.
“Hi, Aunt Lucy,” I said, glad to hear a friendly voice. Not only was she my aunt, but she was the only family I had. My parents had ditched out on me when I was ten and Aunt Lucy had taken me in. She’d been wonderful to me and we were super close. I couldn’t have imagined my life without her and I wanted to be with her in Seattle for Christmas now more than ever.
“Hello, Harper,” she said, her tone all business. Aunt Lucy was extremely organized, which I admired. I could picture her making a check mark next to a list that included return Harper’s phone call. “I’m calling you back about Christmas. But first, tell me, how was your day?”
“Actually, I’m in the middle of a tough negotiation,” I replied, draining the rest of my wine and setting the empty glass on the countertop. “My client was ready to sign divorce papers and start
a new life, but now she might get back together with her should-be-ex-husband.”
Lucy made a disapproving noise over the phone, which made me smile. I could always count on my aunt to support my devotion to saving clients from their thankless marriages. “You’ll come out on top, dear. You always do,” she said.
Then she launched into a diatribe about her disappointment with the organic produce at her local market in Seattle. All of her talk about food made my stomach growl, so I decided to reheat my dinner, and make some hot tea. The glass of wine had only made my stomach feel worse, so I needed something warm and soothing.
“Now, let’s talk about Christmas,” Aunt Lucy said, bringing the conversation back to the reason she’d called. “You left me a message saying you wanted to come up to Seattle after all.”
“It turns out that I was able to get those days off work.” I slid my plate into the microwave, set it to heat for one minute, and then pressed the start button. “Should I book an airline ticket?”
She let out a sigh. “Unfortunately, no. Since you told me you weren’t coming, I promised Emily I’d go to High Tea with her at Millicent’s Tea Room on Christmas.”
A loud zapping sound came from the microwave and I saw a spark flash. I yelped, dropping the phone onto the tiled floor with a clack-clack-clack that made me cringe. Quickly, I yanked the microwave door open. A thin curl of smoke rose from where my fork lay on the plate. I pinched the bridge of my nose. How could I have left my fork on my plate? My brows came together. I was distracted, thanks to opposing counsel’s interference with my client today.
I picked up my cell from the floor and checked the screen, which by some miracle wasn’t cracked. I heaved a sigh of relief as I brought the phone back to my ear. “Sorry, I dropped my phone. So, it’s really a no for Christmas? Couldn’t you go to tea with Emily some other time?”
“She’s going through a divorce, and doesn’t want to be alone on Christmas.” Lucy’s tone was matter-of-fact. “Her husband treated her poorly for decades and she’s finally cutting the cord. So, I want to be supportive to her during this positive transition in her life. You’ll remember that getting divorced was the best decision of my life.”
“That’s the main reason I became a divorce attorney,” I reminded her, feeling sad that she and I wouldn’t be together for Christmas. I took the fork out of the microwave with an oven mitt, reset the timer, and shut the microwave door again to reheat my food properly. Then I put the teakettle on the stove and pursed my lips as I turned on the flame. “We’ve never spent a Christmas apart,” I said, hearing the disappointment in my own voice.
“Harper, you’re a grown woman with a full life and friends of your own. Plus, you have a lot going on with your job. You don’t need to hang out with me this Tuesday. Christmas is just another day on the calendar,” Lucy said.
I could hear the gentle chiding in her tone, and my shoulders slumped. I knew that I had been bordering on pleading, but I hated the thought of us being apart for the holiday. Christmas had never been just another day to me. “But I love our traditions. We always go to that tree lot near the park and pick out a tree. And we always get Chinese take-out.”
“And we can do that next year,” Lucy said.
“I suppose . . .” I grabbed the whistling teakettle and poured some hot water into the cup I’d set on the counter. I picked up the mug to take a sip and then realized I hadn’t put a tea bag in yet. I was seriously losing my mind tonight! Huffing out a breath, I opened a canister that I kept near the stove, and selected a tea bag to steep. Coming up with an idea, I twisted my mouth to the side. “Maybe I could fly up and go to the tea with you and Emily?”
“Do you really think Emily is going to want to spend her holiday with a divorce lawyer when she’s going through a divorce?” Aunt Lucy asked. “Really, Harper. It’s just another holiday.”
“Then why would Emily mind if I’m around?” I asked, hanging onto my last string of hope. “Maybe being around a divorce lawyer will reinforce her decision. I could tell her some tales.”
There was a long silence on the other end of the phone. “If I’d known you were coming then I wouldn’t have made other plans. Why don’t we plan to get together sometime in January? I think that’s a more realistic scenario, don’t you? We’ll get Chinese food then.”
I sighed, knowing there was no changing her mind. “Okay, that would be nice.”
We wrapped up our phone call and I hung up. The knot in my stomach had returned. Nothing about this day had gone the way I thought it would. If there was one thing I prided myself on, it was the fact that I was in control more often than not. But, today? Not even close.
I pulled my reheated food out of the microwave, and stared at it. The chicken had a glossy, congealed look that was so not appetizing. I set the plate beside the sink. I picked up my mug, sipped my tea, but my stomach tightened as I did so. Lovely.
Just as I was dumping the tea down the drain, my phone pinged again, and my heart jumped. Maybe Aunt Lucy had changed her mind. Instead of a text from Aunt Lucy, though, I saw that I’d received an email from Kara Conway, a friend from my U.C. Davis law school days. I tapped on the message:
Hey, Harper,
* * *
Just wanted to let you know that my cabin in Tahoe is unexpectedly available through Christmas, so we’re offering it at half-rate. If your aunt’s in town with you this year then maybe you two would like to get away over the holidays. I know how much you secretly love Christmas and they actually have a Chinese restaurant in town now that’s pretty decent.
If you want to jump on the deal, email me, and I’ll make it happen for you. If not, hope you have a Merry Christmas!
* * *
Kara
I stared at the screen, feeling an odd calm settling over me. Kara was one of the few law school classmates I’d kept in touch with over the years. She and I hadn’t seen each other in awhile, so I was touched that she’d remembered that detail about Aunt Lucy and me always having Chinese food at Christmas.
Tahoe was about a five-hour drive, so totally doable. Holing up in a cabin for my long weekend would give me a chance to regroup from today’s failure. There was definitely something to be said for licking your wounds. As soon as the thought entered my head, Gabriel’s slow-burning smile flashed through my brain. I shivered. Then I let out a strangled sound, wishing my body wouldn’t obtain so much pleasure from picturing such an irritating man.
Shaking my head hard to dislodge the thoughts, I decided to email Kara immediately and accept the offer to rent her cabin. Clearly, I needed to get away. The salty air here must be messing with my brain because there was no other reason I should be thinking about Gabriel Hart after all that had transpired today, and especially not in a pleasing way.
As I typed my reply, I applauded my decision that fresh mountain air was exactly what I needed. A change of scenery would do me a world of good, and getting Gabriel Hart out of my head would be the very best Christmas present I could give to myself.
The road ahead of me looked misty from the cold elements outside, but inside my luxury sedan my backside was nice and warm from my heated seats. With only a few miles left to the cabin, I was grateful that it hadn’t snowed on the drive up. I had snow chains in my trunk, but putting them on was not exactly my favorite thing to do. I always ended up with grease or dirt on my clothes, and my leather gloves would not have appreciated that look.
Pretty white snow hung heavily on the trees that covered either side of the road and the surrounding mountains. With every passing mile, I was driving deeper into a winter wonderland, which was definitely not like the weather in Blue Moon Bay. This was the perfect setting for me to forget my client, the annoying opposing counsel, and all memories of my ex.
“Turn left in one hundred feet,” the GPS system barked at me in an Australian accent. I almost expected it to add “mate” at the end. When I bought the sedan, the guy at the dealership had showed me how to change the voice preferences o
n the system, and the Australian one had stuck. I kind of liked the adventure of the accent.
I turned down the advised road, and I cringed as my tires crunched on gravel. I’d definitely need to get a car wash when I got back to town, but I wasn’t going to worry about that now. All annoyances fled my mind as I turned down the driveway and caught my first glimpse of Kara’s cabin.
The cabin was a two-story abode made of logs with a wraparound deck. Thick stands of trees surrounded the charming house. I parked the sedan off to the side of the driveway, killed the engine, and stepped out of the car. My breath was visible in the cold air. I turned around slowly in a circle, admiring the white woods around me.
This place was absolutely perfect, just what I needed to get myself reset and back on track. I walked around to the trunk, and lifted out my designer luggage set. I climbed the three steps to the wooden porch, set my bags down, and punched in the code to the lockbox. Once it opened, I frowned at the empty space where the key should have been. Kara had been so clear about what I should do when I arrived, and I hadn’t made a mistake.
Just as I was mulling over what to do next, a noise from inside the house caught my attention. What the . . .? I jumped down the steps and looked around the porch. Then I noticed a black SUV peeking out from behind the cabin. Huh. Since this was a last-minute rental, maybe the housekeeper wasn’t done cleaning. I felt a smile crossing my face as I knocked on the door.
The door swung open, revealing a tall, broad-shouldered figure. My smile dropped as my brain raced to understand what was happening. Standing in front of me was Gabriel Hart. He looked amazing in a plaid flannel shirt, jeans that hugged his hips in just the right way, and tousled hair like he’d just gotten out of bed.
