Their Yuletide Promise

by Stacy Connelly

  She had no idea when Griffin had slipped out of bed to hang their wet things up to dry, but there they were. In all their satin-and-lace glory, the sexiest Griffin had ever hoped to see.

  Evie grabbed her underwear along with her slacks and blouse, both wrinkled beyond recognition, and quickly pulled them on. She tried not to spare more than a glance at her reflection in the mirror above the sink. She hardly looked all buttoned-up and professional now.

  “Evie.”

  She jumped at the sudden knock and barely had a second to prepare before Griffin swung the door open. His normally teasing grin was nowhere in sight as his gaze tracked from her rumpled hair down to her bare feet. The slacks he’d pulled on were in bad shape, too, but he hadn’t bothered with a shirt. She tried to keep from ogling all that glorious tanned skin, but nothing could stop the dizzying memories of clutching those broad shoulders as his body moved in time with hers...

  “The call wasn’t for me,” he said as he held out his cell, his expression one Evie couldn’t quite read. “It’s for you. Your cousin.”

  She fumbled with the phone as if unfamiliar with holding one rather than treating it like the extension of her hand it had practically become. “Hello?”

  She stepped back into the bedroom, aware of the sound of the door latch catching behind her. Turning, she realized she was alone. Griffin had given her the privacy she’d been looking for earlier, and she should have been grateful. But she couldn’t help feeling a door of a different kind had closed between them.

  “Evie? Where on earth have you been?” Rory demanded.

  “I’m...” Evie’s voice stalled with the realization that she didn’t know exactly where they were. How had a plan that seemed so simple and straightforward gotten so far off course that she literally had no idea where she was?

  Fortunately, Rory didn’t wait for an answer Evie couldn’t give. “I’ve been texting you for the past two hours.”

  Texting her? Evie reached a hand into her pocket, but her phone wasn’t there. Even worse, she didn’t know where it was. Had it fallen out when she ran along the beach? When Griffin had teasingly threatened to toss her into the waves? When he’d stripped off her clothes and made love to her among the pillows still scattered like presents in front of the Christmas tree? “I—I...misplaced my phone.”

  Silence echoed across the line for so long Evie thought—hoped?—they’d been disconnected. But then her cousin’s incredulous voice echoed, “Misplaced it?”

  For the past two years, that phone and everything it represented—her commitment to her job, her 24/7 connection to her career—had meant everything to her. And for her to let it slip from her hand without a single thought...

  “It was only one day,” she whispered. One day to let go. To have fun. To laugh...to love...

  But what was supposed to have been a harmless escape now seemed reckless, irresponsible, dangerous. One day. All it had taken was one day for her to forget...everything.

  “Look, Evie...” Her cousin’s voice was different now, calm and cool, the voice she used when she talked down hysterical would-be brides on the verge of emotional explosions. “It’s going to be okay.”

  The soothing tone had a different effect on Evie. Because despite her pseudo almost engagement, she wasn’t a Hillcrest House bride. She wasn’t hysterical. And dammit, she was not emotional!

  Gritting her back teeth, she demanded, “What’s wrong?”

  “I shouldn’t have called.”

  “But you did,” Evie pointed out, glad to hear that her voice was calm, too, and if not cool, then...cold. “And you wouldn’t have unless something was wrong. So what is it? A problem with one of the guests? A problem with the wedding?”

  “Not the guests.” Rory sighed, and Evie sensed her cousin’s regret. She also sensed that Rory knew Evie wouldn’t let her off the hook without telling everything. “It’s Aaron and Trisha.”

  Evie blinked. She hadn’t expected that. After seeing them together the night of the festival, after the wonderful meal they’d helped Griffin arrange and all the romantic touches decorating the cabin, she’d thought...

  What? That the hotel’s magic was real and they would live happily-ever-after?

  “I should have known something like this would happen,” she muttered.

  “From what Aunt E’s been telling me, you did. You spotted it when the rest of us thought they couldn’t stand each other.”

  The couple’s constant bickering, their supposed disdain for each other, was all an act. Evie had seen through it all because she’d gotten rather good at playing a role herself.

  Pretending to be falling for Griffin...

  Or was it pretending she wasn’t falling for Griffin?

  Rubbing the ache building behind her forehead, she asked, “How bad was the fallout from the breakup?”

  “Breakup? Evie, Trisha and Aaron didn’t break up.” Evie heard the deep breath her cousin took, and her hand tightened on the phone. Whatever had happened was somehow worse, much worse, than she’d imagined. “They eloped.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  “I’m so sorry!” The wobble of tears filled Trisha’s voice, coming from the speakerphone in Evie’s office. Evie, Rory and their aunt, along with Chance and Alexa, had all gathered there for a conference call once Rory had finally gotten hold of Trisha. Not at the Reno Chapel of Love, but at the regional hospital.

  “We left yesterday morning and were supposed to be back home in plenty of time for the rehearsal dinner tonight. We had it all planned,” the distraught woman cried.

  Evie sucked in a deep breath. Ah, yes, she knew all about plans. And all about the but-thens that could throw such sudden curves that you were left spinning out of control.

  Like the way she’d lost such total control in Griffin’s arms.

  Her cheeks burned, and she felt sure her entire family could see what she and Griffin had been doing in the hours while she was away from Hillcrest House. If not on her face, then certainly in her wrinkled, morning-after clothes. She should have stopped at the cottage first, but with her focus on damage control, she’d asked Griffin to take her directly to the hotel. Which he’d done. With barely a word spoken between them.

  There’d been no scenic route taken during the flight back. No cruising the ruggedly beautiful coastline, no trying to spot wildlife on the edge of the towering redwoods, no searching for whales in the Pacific.

  Griffin had her feet back on solid ground in no time, and that was where she belonged. As much as she wanted to be the carefree woman on the beach, the one willing to toss aside her shoes along with her common sense, that wasn’t really who she was. At least, not at Hillcrest House.

  Here people counted on her for her cool head, for her logic, for her ability to handle a crisis. Here people counted on her for their livelihoods and to keep the history of the Victorian hotel alive and well. Here she had more important things to do than to try to make a man laugh.

  Evie knew it. Judging by Griffin’s silence as she’d walked away, he did, too. So why did the very thought make her want to cry?

  “...food poisoning,” Trisha was saying. “Aaron didn’t want to go to the hospital, but I was afraid he was getting dehydrated. The emergency room is packed. We’ve been waiting for hours, and they’ve just taken Aaron back to see the doctor. They’re going to give him some IV fluids, but I’m not sure how long they’ll want to keep him. By the time we make the drive back—”

  “Trisha, stop,” Aunt E cut in. “You’ve both been up for twenty-four hours. Neither of you is going to be in any shape for a long drive.”

  “But the wedding...” Trisha’s voice broke on the word, and Chance and Alexa exchanged a glance before reaching over to take each other’s hands.

  “We’ll figure it out,” her aunt insisted. “You take care of that husband of yours. We’ve got everything here unde
r control.”

  Under control? Evie dug her fingernails into her palms as she clenched her fists. She’d never felt so completely out of control.

  Once Trisha said her goodbyes and disconnected the call, a stunned silence followed. “I still can’t believe they eloped,” Rory stated. “I mean, I really thought they couldn’t stand each other.”

  “Love is a funny thing,” their aunt mused. “Isn’t it, Evie?”

  Funny? Her own voice whispered through her ears along with the distant sound of waves crashing against the shoreline. You make me laugh, Griffin. You make me happy.

  Evie swallowed. That didn’t make it love.

  “You don’t seem all that surprised by this,” Chance added. “Did you know something the rest of us didn’t?”

  Guilt weighed on Evie’s chest, making it hard to breathe. She had known. And instead of putting a stop to it, she’d actually encouraged the relationship.

  “Oh, Chance.” Alexa blinked back tears, and Evie braced herself. The woman was engaged and pregnant and as deserving of a breakdown as a bride could be. “This is all just so...romantic!”

  Evie’s jaw dropped as Chance responded with a goofy grin and leaned over to kiss his fiancée. “Almost as romantic as the night we met and I held you in my arms on the dance floor for the very first time. Don’t you think?”

  Evie thought they’d both lost their minds. “Romantic?” she echoed. “Have you forgotten that you’re getting married tomorrow and that Aaron is the hotel’s chef? Without him—”

  “We’re still getting married,” Chance interrupted, his gaze still locked with Alexa’s. “You can serve hot dogs for all I care.”

  “Hot dogs. Right. That’s the answer. We’ll serve the hotel’s most important and influential guests processed mystery meat on a bun.” The pulse pounded so loudly in her ears, Evie was almost surprised the hotel’s stained-glass windows weren’t shaking from the reverberations.

  There was only one thing she could do. The same thing she had done when she discovered Eric’s true motives. She had to stand up and take responsibility for her actions...for her mistakes. Looking each of them in the eye, Evie said, “I’m sorry. This is all my fault. I should have been more on top of things. If I had been—”

  “If you had been, then what?” Chance challenged. “Come on, Evie, I know you like to think you’re in charge of everything around here, but do you really think you have the power to stop people from falling in love?”

  * * *

  Pacing the length of the patterned carpet outside Evie’s office, Griffin tried to stay calm. After such a glorious night, he’d woken up to one hell of a morning. The distant look in Evie’s expression, the phone call, the tense flight back. God, he’d hated letting her walk away to face her family on her own.

  Letting her...

  The scoffing laugh got caught somewhere in his chest, right around the ragged edges of his heart. She’d all but dismissed him without a backward glance.

  During the ride from the airstrip, Evie had used the small mirror in the passenger visor to fix her hair and apply a touch of makeup, piling on as much professionalism as she could pack from the slim black purse she carried. By the time he pulled up to the front of the hotel, he was half-surprised she hadn’t thanked him with a tip.

  The sound of the door opening ricocheted through his body like a bullet, and Griffin turned to watch Alexa and the rest of the McClarens file out of Evie’s office. Instead of following her family toward the lobby, Evie glanced his way. Only Griffin didn’t get the sense she was looking at him, but more that she was looking past him. The emptiness on her face sent a feeling of panic plunging through him as he walked toward her. “Evie.”

  Shaking her head, she held out a hand as if to keep him at a distance. So different from the way she’d pulled him closer in the isolated cabin the day before. “I can’t talk right now, Griffin.”

  As much as it hurt, her withdrawal wasn’t a total surprise. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out what he hoped might be an icebreaker. “I found your phone tucked between the car seats.”

  “I—thank you.” She swiped her thumb across the screen and winced, no doubt at all the texts from her cousin that she’d missed.

  “What did you find out about Trisha and Aaron?”

  After giving the brief explanation, she added, “Evidently our romance inspired them.” Her lips twisted into a mocking smile that sent a strike straight to his heart. “They headed for Nevada after setting up the picnic on the beach.”

  Griffin ran a frustrated hand through his hair. “You don’t really believe we had anything to do with that. How many wedding dinners has Aaron cooked? How many ceremonies has Trisha helped plan? If none of that ‘inspired’ them, I don’t see how we could have.” Not that he would have cared if seeing Evie and him together had somehow made the other couple realize they’d fallen in love.

  Hell, he wished it worked both ways and Evie might figure out she loved him. As much as he... Griffin cut off the thought before it formed. He already felt as though he were flying blind through uncharted territory. He didn’t dare take his hands off the controls now.

  “If I’d been here—” Cutting herself off, she bit down on her lower lip. Her lipstick was a bright fuchsia, reminding him of the flowers he’d sent her, of the bougainvillea with its delicate blooms and dangerous thorns that could so easily draw blood.

  “If you’d been here instead of with me. That’s what you’re saying, right? That this is my fault.”

  “No, of course not! It’s just—you don’t understand how important this is to me!”

  After all they’d shared, that accusation hurt more than Griffin thought possible. How many times had his father laid that same complaint at his feet? Griffin didn’t take his career, his legacy, his responsibility to the James hotels seriously enough.

  Griffin knew what was important. His mother had taught him that, and it wasn’t a glass-and-steel high-rise in Dubai and it wasn’t a gorgeous Victorian in small-town Clearville. “Is that really what you think?”

  “I think—I maybe think my aunt was right,” she whispered. “Maybe I can’t have Hillcrest and a life.”

  Turning down the hall, she all but ran from him. Swearing beneath his breath, Griffin rushed after her. He caught up with her on the front porch, as easily as he had the day before, but this time Evie wasn’t laughing. Her chest rose and fell as she sucked in the cool morning air, and Griffin wasn’t surprised she was out of breath.

  She’d been running since early that morning.

  It wasn’t as obvious now as it had been when she’d practically jumped naked from the bed, but he still sensed her withdrawal in her rigid, professional stance. That he wanted to hold on when he was always the first in a relationship to let go told Griffin how far gone he really was.

  Has there ever been something you wanted so badly you can picture it perfectly, and yet it’s always out of reach?

  When Evie asked that question that first night at the bar, he’d thought he’d known then. He damn well did now. After all these years, Griffin finally understood why his mother had tasked him with the goal of making the people around him laugh. She’d wanted him to be able to hold on to the carefree joy of his childhood and not to be burdened by the sorrow of her passing. But somewhere along the way, Griffin had stopped being carefree and become careless. He’d refused to allow anyone close enough to take hold of his heart.

  Until he met Evie.

  There was nothing he wouldn’t do for her. And while he might not know what it was like to want to run his family’s hotels, he had plenty of experience doing so.

  “I know you only gave me one day, but is there any chance you brought a little bit of that trust in me back from the beach with you?”

  Her dark eyebrows drew together in a frown. “Did I—what?”

  Stepping closer, he r
an a finger along her jawline, tilting her face up. “Do you trust me, Evie?”

  His voice was low, as though weighed down by the magnitude behind the words and by his very future hanging in the balance.

  Her eyes were wide, the midnight depths filled with emotion as she swallowed. He knew it wasn’t an easy ask, not after what her ex had put her through. But he needed to know he’d earned her trust even as his conscience reminded him that he didn’t completely deserve it.

  “There might be a few grains still stuck in my shoes.”

  Griffin didn’t know when such a slightly teasing comment had made him want to throw back his head and laugh more. He longed to pick Evie up and sweep her into his arms like he had when she’d shocked the hell out of him by running into the surf. He contented himself by pouring all the emotions inside him—all the words he couldn’t say—into one perfect kiss. “You won’t regret it,” he pledged against her lips. “I promise.”

  “What are you going to do?”

  Griffin gave a wry smile as he straightened. “I know this is your line, but I have a plan.”

  * * *

  Later that morning, after taking a desperately needed shower and changing into a no-frills, all-business outfit that made her at least look put together, Evie met with the kitchen staff. Most were as stunned as her family had been about Aaron and Trisha’s sudden elopement and all of them looked to Evie for answers she didn’t have.

  “How bad is it?” Rory asked as she sank into the chair across from Evie’s desk.

  “We should be fine for the rehearsal dinner tonight. Aaron brought in the makings for a stone fruit and goat cheese salad, with salmon and broccolini for the entrée. But the wedding...” The queasy feeling in the pit of her stomach made her wish for a case of food poisoning of her own. “No one seems to know exactly what he had planned for the reception. Chance and Alexa, in the throes of their romantic bliss, evidently decided that Aaron could surprise them. So...surprise!”

  “I’m sure the staff will come up with something,” her cousin said.