by Liz Isaacson
“And we’re going to leave Gray here to deal with Hansel and Gretel? And the Wicked Witch?”
Colton burst out laughing. “I still don’t get why you call Jill and Kent Hansel and Gretel, but I guess. Gray can do what Gray wants to do.”
“Because,” Wes said. “They literally killed that old woman, and I think Kent and Jill would do the same if they had to.”
“Oh, boy,” Colton said, not wanting to get into the finer points of the fairy tale where “that old woman” had kept the kids locked up for days.
But he got Wes’s point. Jill and Kent would do whatever they had to do if they felt backed into a corner. If they felt trapped, the way Hansel and Gretel had been, they’d literally set fire to anything to get free.
Everyone in the family had seen them do it for years.
“What is Gray saying?” Colton asked.
“You know Gray,” Wes said. “He doesn’t say anything.” And Wes didn’t sound happy about it. Colton understood. Gray was as political as the President of the United States, and he never said anything to truly give away how he felt about something. He never took sides. He thought like a computer, and his brain was so analytical, that Cy had once teased him and asked, “Do you have any emotions at all, Gray?”
To which Gray had socked Cy in the mouth, so he could definitely get mad.
Colton smiled just thinking about the altercation between his brothers. Growing up with four of them had been an adventure, that was for sure.
“When’s the meeting?”
“December thirtieth,” Wes said. “We’re out for Thursday, Friday, and Monday, since the first is on a Saturday.”
“I should be able to make it by the thirtieth,” Colton said, thinking of what he’d say to Annie. They hadn’t talked about anything long-term, that was for sure.
After he’d gotten back from Bree’s and Elise’s last night, he’d found her sitting on the couch in the living room just down the hall from their bedrooms. She’d claimed her daughters were watching a TV show and keeping her awake, but she’d been on her phone, not trying to sleep.
Colton knew she was waiting up for him, and he’d sat beside her and held her hand. He’d already admitted to her at the dinner table that Bree had called her his girlfriend, and he hadn’t denied it.
He wouldn’t have given her that label quite so soon, but he was kissing her, so he thought it probably fit just fine. And Annie certainly didn’t seem to mind the label.
He’d kissed her last night on the couch too. A lot. Probably more than he should’ve.
“Are you there?” Wes asked.
“Yes,” Colton said, pulling himself out of his personal life. He’d just talk to Annie about being gone for a few days. Maybe a week.
But transferring titles was one thing. Having a new branch of the family take over the whole company was quite another, and that didn’t happen in a few days or a week.
“I was thinking we should have a little New Year’s celebration at Ivory Peaks,” he said. “I can call Cy and Ames and see if they can make it.”
“Sure,” Colton said. If he was going to be there anyway, he might as well go to a family party.
“Great,” Wes said. “I’ll see you on the thirtieth.”
“Wes,” Colton said, before his brother could hang up. “Keep me updated, okay? About anything.”
“Will do.” The line went dead, and Colton stared down at the dark gray carpet. His thoughts twisted and twined, and he couldn’t separate them enough to think any single one.
All he knew was that his life suddenly had the potential to change drastically in only eight days.
Colton stayed in his room and looked up his cousin’s college degrees. He answered Kacey’s questions and emails. He took the lunch Annie brought him and asked her to come sit with him for a while. But she’d said, “The girls and I have a practice slot in the kitchen right now. Maybe after?”
He’d nodded, but she hadn’t come back yet. He’d been too distracted to ask her what she and her daughters were practicing for, but when her light knock sounded on his door again, he opened it to find her holding a steaming cup of hot chocolate.
“You’re missing the tasting,” she said, extending the cup toward him. “And you love chocolate.”
Everything that had gone cold since Wes’s phone call warmed again. He took the mug and inhaled the chocolatey and slightly orange scent of the steam. “That I do.” He took a sip, and sure enough, this tasted like a cup that someone had melted a chocolate orange into and then whisked in some cream.
“There are eight more flavors upstairs,” she said, trying to look past him and into the room. “Are you okay? You don’t look okay.” She took a step toward him, and Colton backed up into the room, hoping she’d enter and let the door close behind her.
When she did, he instantly felt like the space was too small for the two of them. Or like they were doing something they shouldn’t be.
“It’s just a family thing,” he said.
“Maybe I can help.”
Colton took another sip of the liquid chocolate orange and set the mug on the desk beside his laptop. “My cousins want to take over the company my brother currently runs.”
“Oh, wow.” Annie pressed one palm to her chest. “Can they do that?”
“Yeah, I mean, in theory, yes, they can.” Colton simply looked at her. She was so calm, and so beautiful, and he had the very strong feeling that he didn’t want to leave her here in Coral Canyon while he went back to Denver and Ivory Peaks.
He wasn’t sure what that meant. Was he not going to go back, ever? That had never been the plan. He’d simply needed some time away from his job after the failed wedding. Then he’d needed some time away from his aging parents, his family, everything that had to do with Denver, Ivory Peaks, or Colorado.
He sure hadn’t made it very far, but he reasoned that God had stranded him here in Wyoming, at this lodge. He’d have kept going north and west had it been safe to do so.
Now what? he asked the Lord, something he hadn’t done in a long time.
“Is there going to be a big legal thing?” Annie asked.
“Honestly?” Colton shook his head. “No. We get together as family and we work it out. The lawyer—who’s my brother in this case—draws up new contracts and new salaries and all of that, and we all sign it.”
“And since you got that two billion....”
“I don’t really need the job,” he said, the ghost of a smile touching his lips. He stepped toward her and gathered her into his arms. She held him as tightly as he held her, and while Colton didn’t need his job, he was comfortable there.
Change wasn’t comfortable. Change made him stretch in ways he hadn’t before, and he rarely liked that. Change brought the aspect of the unknown with it, and Colton would rather know what was going to happen over being surprised by something, good or bad.
“I don’t deal well with change,” he whispered in her ear.
“That’s what hot chocolate is for,” she whispered back, and Colton chuckled with her.
She stepped out of his arms, and twisted as if she’d open the door to leave. He increased the pressure on her hand, and she turned back to him.
He didn’t ask, and he didn’t hesitate. He simply leaned forward and kissed her, glad when she received him with seeming enthusiasm.
He sure did like her, and that was strange for where Colton was in his life right now. He’d told himself last night that the amount of time he’d spent cooped up with Annie in the lodge was equal to at least ten dates, and that he wasn’t really moving that fast. It just felt like it, because the time they spent together was really close together.
Besides, they were both consenting adults, and he knew people who’d fallen in love at first sight, managed to make it to the altar together, and had been married for decades.
He could kiss Annie as much as he wanted—as much as she’d let him.
So he did, only stopping when she whispered, “If
we don’t go upstairs soon, someone’s going to come looking for me.”
He pulled away then, his heart beating like hummingbird wings in his chest. “And I need to taste all that hot chocolate. What if there’s another tie?”
She smiled at him and reached up to push her fingers through his hair. He liked the boldness in her touch, though her hands were gentle too.
Their eyes met, and Colton lost all track of time in that moment.
“Mom?” A knock sounded on the door, and Annie leapt out of his arms. Colton backed up a couple of steps, his legs knocking into the desk chair where he’d been sitting. Down he went, bashing his knee into the leg on the desk.
“Ow,” he said with a groan, and Annie opened the door.
“There you are,” one of her daughters said. “Is he coming or what?”
“He’s coming, yes,” Annie said, practically running from the room. Colton rubbed his leg and looked up at Emily, Annie’s oldest daughter.
“Sorry,” he said. “We got distracted with something.”
Emily narrowed her eyes at him, as if she were the mother and she’d just caught her daughter making out with her boyfriend. Which, honestly, wasn’t that far off.
“Mm hmm,” she said. “I bet.” She turned and followed her mom, and Colton flinched as his bedroom door swung closed with a slam!
He rubbed the pain out of his knee, collected his cowboy hat, and followed the ladies upstairs. After all, he didn’t want to miss out on the hot chocolate.
Chapter Nineteen
Annie’s humiliation accompanied her up the stairs and into the kitchen. Emily came behind her after a few seconds, and Annie stepped over to the sixth canister to help Averie, who couldn’t get the spigot to work properly.
“Let me help you,” she said, ignoring her daughter. Annie had forgotten that Emily had taken a phone call from Kelly and left before Annie had nudged Eden away from her and Colton.
He entered the kitchen a moment later, and Ronnie ran over to him. “Come taste, Colton,” he said. “I helped my mom make one of them.”
“Don’t tell him which one,” Laney said, and Annie backed out of the way so she could watch Colton from a safe distance. He held Ronnie’s hand and let the little boy hand him sampling cup after sampling cup.
Colton had gotten better at keeping what he liked a secret, and he glanced at Ronnie as he filled out his ballot and dropped it in the box that Charlie had made.
“Did you make that?” he asked Ronnie.
“No, Charlie did,” Ronnie said, pointing to the almost-five-year-old. “We don’t always have a box, but he wanted to make one this year.”
“Nice,” Colton said, smiling at the little boys. “Is that it? How long is the voting open?”
Ronnie looked at his mother, and Laney smiled at him. “Until whenever,” she said. “There aren’t rules for that.”
“Seems like you guys would have rules for everything,” he said.
Laney laughed and nodded. “You’re right. You should see us when we do the cupcakes. There are a lot of rules for that.”
“Annie’s told me a bit about that,” he said, casting her a look. Annie could only think of his hands in her hair and his lips stroking hers.
She finally managed to smile, and she went to the third canister and filled another cup with the hot chocolate she and her daughters had made. It was a vanilla and chocolate concoction, with melted vanilla ice cream in it, with a bittersweet chocolate mixed with milk chocolate.
She loved the mouth feel of it, because it was thick like the store-bought chocolate milk, but it wasn’t so rich that she couldn’t have more than one or two mouthfuls.
“What’s this one?” Colton asked, and Annie handed him her cup.
“I’ll get another one.” She picked up one of the cups still stacked on the counter and filled it.
“Let’s go sit by the fire,” he said, and Annie went with him, the weight of several pairs of eyes on her. She decided she didn’t care. She didn’t have to answer to anyone at the lodge, least of all her daughters. Well, maybe her daughters. She probably owed them an explanation.
But she didn’t have to give it right now. Emily had gone out with Kelly half a dozen times before she’d even mentioned him to Annie, so she was probably getting close to that with Colton.
“Ah,” Colton said as he sat on the stone hearth. He grinned at her as she sat beside him and lifted her cup to her lips.
“Which one did you vote for?” she asked.
“Which one was yours?”
“Nice try,” she said with a smile.
“I voted for number four,” he said, taking a sip of hers. “But this one is delicious too. It’s really smooth.”
“Hmm,” Annie said, determined not to tell him which drink she’d made until it was time for the reveal.
“Which one did you vote for?” he asked.
“This one,” Annie said, taking another sip. “It is really smooth. There’s nothing worse than having a bunch of chocolate left at the bottom of your cup when you finish.”
“Totally agree,” Colton said. “Although, I literally have never made homemade hot chocolate. I didn’t even know you could do that.” He grinned and reached for her hand. “I just use the powder at home.”
“For shame,” Annie said, nudging him with her shoulder. “And I don’t peg you for a hot chocolate drinker at all, actually.”
“You’re right. I don’t drink hot chocolate in my real life.”
Annie’s heart throbbed in her chest. She knew they needed to have a hard conversation, but she just wanted to enjoy the afternoon.
“We should talk about your real life,” she said.
“We should?”
“Don’t you think?” she asked. “I mean, you don’t live here. I do live here.” She squeezed his hand. “And then there’s this.”
“Yes,” he said, lifting her hand to his lips. “There’s this.”
“And you’re....”
Colton took a long breath, held it for a moment, and then let it out. “I have to go to Denver for a meeting on the thirtieth,” he said.
“For the cousin coup,” she said.
“The cousin coup.” Colton laughed, and Annie was glad she’d been the one to make him do that. “That’s great. And yes. For that.”
“And then?” Annie pressed. She didn’t want to put too much pressure on him, but she felt herself walking on slippery ground, and she could fall at any moment. Fall hard—in love with Colton Hammond.
And if he wasn’t going to be in town past the New Year, Annie better bind her heart up and keep it from getting punctured by his dashing good looks.
“And then I think I’ll be unemployed,” he said. “And able to go wherever I want, and do whatever I want.”
“Ah, I see.” Annie gazed up at the tree, trying to tame her smile. If he could go anywhere and do anything, maybe he’d come back here and keep her company while she did her books and scheduled clients.
She didn’t want to think too far ahead, but Annie had done exactly that her whole life. She didn’t know how to live a day without a plan, a checklist, or a schedule.
She reminded herself she didn’t need one for a relationship, and she stood up when she heard someone call from the kitchen, “The results are in.”
“Let’s go see who won,” she said, reaching for his hand. They went back into the kitchen together, and Annie scooted on over to where Emily stood next to Eden. They smiled at one another, and Annie looked at Laney, who was in charge of this contest.
“Ronnie has the results,” she said, smiling at her son. He handed her an index card, and Laney looked at it and then out at the crowd. Annie’s hand tightened in Colton’s, and he inched a bit closer to her.
“The Pruitt girls,” Laney said, applauding as she grinned at Annie and her daughters.
“Oh, my goodness,” Annie said, covering her mouth with both of her hands. She turned toward her girls and hugged them, going forward to accept the
giant paper cone Ronnie extended toward her.
The excitement died down, but Annie couldn’t stop smiling.
“Congratulations, Annie,” Colton said, pressing his lips to her cheek in a quick kiss that left her feeling overheated and like everyone was staring at her.
They weren’t—only Eden and Emily were. She tried to convey to them that she’d talk to them later, and she turned back to the kitchen to help get cleaned up so Celia could lay out dinner.
The next morning, she woke late, because she had been up late talking to her girls about Colton. She’d dated other men in the past, so they weren’t shocked about that.
“It’s just, you’ve known him for three days,” Emily had said.
“I know,” Annie said. And that was all. She didn’t have to defend herself, and she wasn’t worried about falling too fast. In fact, she wanted the sweep-her-off-her-feet love story, and if she fell in love with Colton by Christmas, she’d be happy.
She’d kept all of that to herself, though.
By the time she got to the kitchen, the scent of sausage hung in the air, but there was no evidence of the food.
There was coffee though, and Celia leafing through a cookbook that was dedicated to bowls. Literally every recipe was served in a bowl, and Annie hoped she’d get to taste something from it.
“I heard a rumor,” Celia said when Annie sat at the table.
“Me and Colton,” Annie said in a deadpan.
“So you’re not denying it.” Celia flipped the page without looking at it.
“Why would I?” Annie asked.
Celia smiled at her. “Good for you, Annie. You shouldn’t deny it. That man is gorgeous.”
“Talking about me?” Zach asked as he came into the kitchen with one of the triplets. “Jackson wants a cookie.”
“Mm hmm,” Celia said. “I think Zach wants a cookie.”
Zach just smiled and took the two-year-old into the kitchen and opened a high cupboard. He took down a box of cookies and handed one to Jackson before taking several for himself.
“I think he went upstairs to start a puzzle,” Celia said, and Annie wondered how she knew that Annie was wondering where Colton was that morning.
