“Never was.”
“Oh.” What else should Ellery say? “And you came back—and bought the Sleigh Bells Chalet—because …?”
“Because I fell in love here.”
“With the hotel?”
“With a beautiful girl who loves her family enough to give up her career to perpetuate a grandfather’s dream.” He placed a kiss above her right eye. “Who made me smile again.” He placed a second kiss above her left eye. “Who has recently discovered that horses are some of the best listeners.” He kissed the tip of her nose. “Reggie did mention …”
“Oh, great. Reggie! He is so fired.” Or hired—as a matchmaker. “As punishment I’m going to put that guy on carriage-driver duty on New Year’s Eve when everyone is making out with their dates in the carriage, just to keep him awkward all evening long.”
“Poetic justice will be served.” Bing unbuttoned his jacket and pulled out a folded piece of paper from a pocket inside. “I heard all about how it happened, and about that banker’s vendetta. Yeah, from Reggie—again.” He held the paper out to her.
“Oh?” Maybe Reggie wouldn’t have to drive on New Year’s Eve. At least not the late shift. “What’s this?” She took the paper he was offering. “The deed to the hotel?” From within it fell a key.
“I put your name back on it when I recorded it this morning downtown at the courthouse. I hope that’s okay.”
Okay! It was the most generous, incredible thing anyone had ever done for her. How could he afford something like this? “How did you—but, your life?”
“My extended family came together, conspired against me. They, uh, fired me, actually, on Doctor Freya Whitmore’s orders. They said I needed a change of scenery. For now, my duties will be transferred to a local veterinarian named Harrison who is retiring and just wants to concentrate on horses and his collectibles.”
“Someone can do your job?”
“Probably better than I ever did it.”
Hard to believe. “But what about you? Are you selling your shares in the business?”
“I’m keeping my interests in the stables, but they gave me a nice severance package for my work there, and I decided to invest it.”
“In the hotel,” Ellery said as understanding dawned. She knew exactly how much the hotel was worth. “Seriously?” For her? She was pinging all over, like ten thousand tiny airplanes were dive-bombing her skin. Like she was worth all the dollars he’d spent on the hotel. “Why, Bing? And the key, too?”
“The key—it’s security.”
“Like a security deposit?” She didn’t get it.
“No, that’s what you asked for, in a partner. Someone you could totally rely on. Someone whose word and life and everything would make you feel secure.”
He’d heard that? And he’d remembered it?
“Oh, Bing.” A partner? “Do you mean … business partner?”
“Or more.”
“But why?” she asked again. “Why do this for me?”
He inched toward her, a magnetism drawing her in. “I think you already have an inkling.”
An inkling, maybe. “Can you brighten it from an inkling for me?” She stepped closer. “Shine a real light on it.”
And he did, by taking her in his arms and placing a kiss on her lips. The kiss that sank the Titanic. The kiss that ignited the Hindenburg. The kiss that fired the starting pistol for every race her heart ever entered.
“To answer your question from earlier”—she rubbed the back of her head where she’d bonked it on Donner’s neck—“yes, I’m all right.”
And it seemed, perhaps, she always would be—safe and secure in the Sleigh Bells Chalet with Bing.
EPILOGUE
MATTIE JANE DAINES
In her hotel room at the Sleigh Bells Chalet, Mattie Jane held the phone as far from her ear as possible. Rex’s words were singeing it, but he was her brother. She couldn’t hang up on him.
“Don’t you think it’s time to come back, Mattie?” Rex had made this argument before.
“I’m done with Vancouver.” And with her siblings. And with having to see Jesse Parrish every time she showed up at family events. “No, I’m not hiding out in Wilder River. It’s not like that. I’m ice climbing. I’m freelancing as an outdoor guide.”
Why couldn’t Rex understand that? Or anything Mattie tried to do with her life.
“Procrastination, sister.” Rex was eating something on the other end of the line, so his words were muffled, as usual. “Postponing adulthood.”
Yes. But so what? Not like she had a precise plan for her life that she was avoiding putting into motion. “I have a few irons in the fire. And I have gainful employment.”
“Without a salary or benefits. Am I right?” Rex and his so-called maturity scoffed at her across the miles. “Come back to Vancouver.”
“Say I did. You know I’ll just be using the time to finish up my flight hours for my pilot’s license.” That’d get him.
“No!” Rex roared. “I’m serious about flattening the tires on that plane.”
“Uncle York left it to me. I didn’t ask him to.”
“Stay out of the air, Mattie.”
Just because Dad had died didn’t make Rex the custodial parent. “Why do you want me to come back? Be honest.”
“I just want you to get on with your life. You’ve been so lost since … you know.”
Since Mom and Dad died. Yeah, she knew. “I’m in a healthy place.”
“I don’t mean your weight. Good job on that, by the way. Some guy’s head is going to turn the second you set foot back in Vancouver. You’ll see.”
Uh, Mattie wasn’t interested in turning the head of some guy.
Carrying an inextinguishable torch for her sister’s boyfriend was sick and wrong, and she wasn’t going back there. To Vancouver, to Jesse Parrish, to Naomi, or Rex, or anyone.
“The season is going really well here in Wilder River. I’ve met some cool people at the place I’m staying.” Even though seeing that cute hotel owner fall for the horse guy had prodded awake the bear of Mattie’s loneliness.
“I mean, hear me out. You might not have had gainful employment, but wasn’t there something at least sort of worthwhile you were doing with your time?”
Nice. Rex would term her work with youth at the community garden as such. Or any of her other jobs. Which was another reason she wasn’t coming back. It was the same old story. Never good enough.
“Maybe next year, Rex.” When she had more of her life figured out, and when there would be fewer judgmental frowns from him and from Naomi. “How about we compromise on that?”
By then, Jesse and Naomi would probably be married. Under those circumstances, Mattie could school herself to love him—as a brother.
“I’m just concerned, Mattie. You know that.”
He shouldn’t be. “I’ll be fine.” Somehow.
A year was a good timeline. By next Christmas, she’d have her life figured out. Sensible, respectable job. Squelched crush on someone else’s man. Life-plans in place.
Maybe even her pilot’s license.
Yeah. Pilot. Now that was a career even Naomi and Rex couldn’t sniff at. And it was one of those SMART goals—not that Mattie could recall all the words of the acronym. Something about measurable and achievable for M and A. Considering she did outright own a small plane, pilot was something she could do.
Whatever the R meant in everyone else’s SMART goals acronym, it meant one thing for Mattie: respectable.
A year from now, she’d be someone her siblings, and her late parents, could be proud of.
And by then Jesse Parrish would no longer be part of all her equations.
To read the rest of Mattie’s story, check out Holiday Hunting Lodge, Book 3 in the Christmas House Romance Series.
The Christmas House Romance Series
The Christmas Cookie House
The Sleigh Bells Chalet
The Holiday Hunting Lodge
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The Sleigh Bells Chalet
© 2019 by Jennifer Griffith
All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without the written permission of the author.
ASIN: B07ZQR4KSB
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and events are creations of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locations is purely coincidental.
Cover art by Blue Water Books, 2019. Photo credit: Mika @ Adobe Stock.
The Sleigh Bells Chalet: A Small Town Romance (Christmas House Romances Book 2) Page 12
