Elkin Brothers Christmas: The Complete Series

by Leslie North

  A gasp came from behind him, and Gabe recognized it instantly as belonging to his grandmother.

  No. The meaning of Freddie’s words hit him next like a clap of thunder. Just dumped you a month ago. They’d told everyone a far different story.

  “How can that be?” Jonas joined in the conversation.

  Gabe glanced over his shoulder to discover his entire family standing there, shocked expressions on their faces.

  “I thought you two had been engaged for a few months,” Chase asked while maintaining a look of casual indifference, hands in his pockets and leaning against the doorjamb.

  Anna didn’t lower her head, but Gabe could tell she wanted to. Heck, he felt the same way. The whole house of cards was tumbling down around them, and Anna’s cheeks went pink, then red. Tears gathered in the corners of her eyes.

  He took her arm, gently moved her back behind him, and then took his place at the reception desk. “We won’t be able to process your reservation for today.”

  Freddie’s girlfriend—whoever she was—glared at him. “What are you saying? We booked here weeks ago, and your staff told us your system would be up and running in a few minutes.”

  “It’s up and running now, but not for you.” Anger threatened to choke him, but he swallowed it back. Losing control of his emotions now wouldn’t help anyone—only action could do that. “I won’t tolerate you treating my fiancée this way. I wouldn’t tolerate you treating one of the staff this way. We’ll note your names for future reference. All of you are now officially banned from the resort.”

  “Where are we supposed to go?” an older woman howled—he figured it was Freddie’s mother, but didn’t care since she’d stood by and watched her son mistreat Anna. “There’s a storm.”

  “You can sit in the lobby until it passes. You won’t be welcome anywhere else on the resort.” He turned to the woman on shift at the reception desk—Lizzie, by her name tag. “Lizzie, run down to the restaurant and let the hostess know that this party is not to be seated under any circumstances. You might want to call security and let them know, too.”

  “Yes, sir.” Lizzie’s eyes were bright, and Gabe had a flash of pride. Maybe he didn’t work at the Elk Lodge, but that hadn’t removed him from the family. He had every right to protect Anna here and anywhere else she went. Something shifted inside him—wait, let me think about this—but there was no time to think because he could feel his family staring at the back of his neck.

  “You can’t do this,” blustered Freddie. “We’ve paid good money to be here, and—”

  Gabe held up a hand. “I absolutely can do this.” If Jonas wanted to disagree, now was his chance. “You’re not welcome here anymore. If you do anything other than sit in the lobby, I’ll alert the authorities that you’re trespassing. Cancel the reservation,” he said to the other staff member, who hurried to do it with a few hasty clicks.

  “It’s canceled, sir, and the money has been refunded.”

  Freddie stood there with his mouth hanging open, stunned, and then his eyes narrowed.

  “Not another word,” warned Gabe. “Not one single word.”

  The other man turned and stalked off, mumbling furiously to his girlfriend. Good. Let him. A man like that deserved to be put in his place occasionally. Arrogant jerk.

  Gabe turned to Anna and reached for her, but she ducked away at the last moment, wiping at her eyes.

  “Gabe,” she choked out. Gabe felt a sick dread wash over him, unlike anything he’d ever felt before. “Your family.”

  “Are you all right?” he asked.

  “No, I’m obviously not all right.” She took a shuddering breath in and let it out again, then turned around to face them.

  No one had moved. Jonas glared at them; his eyes narrowed in suspicion. “Let’s step into the back room, okay?” Her voice shook, but she put on a determined smile anyway. “We can talk about—about what happened.”

  They filed into the back room, his grandmother easing into a chair, and putting a hand to her eyes. Seconds later, she sat up and stared straight at him, the confused look on her face making Gabe falter. He’d hurt her with his lies.

  He’d misled them all—and it had been his idea, not Anna’s. He took her hand in his, and this time she didn’t look away. His heart beat fast, pumping adrenaline through his veins that left him with a sick feeling in his gut. “First...” Gabe tried to imagine himself at the head of a table at one of his company meetings, aiming for a note of confidence. Something that didn’t exist. He squared his shoulders and began again. “First, please don’t blame Anna for the scene that just happened in the lobby. It wasn’t her fault.”

  “Were you two having an affair?” The words came high and thin, his grandmother’s eyes glistening with tears. “Did that man have any reason to be angry?”

  “No, of course not,” Anna said firmly. “We—” She put a hand to her throat. “We weren’t truthful about our engagement.”

  “It happened suddenly, didn’t it?” Tana asked, a hopeful expression on her face. “If it happened suddenly and that’s why you didn’t want to tell us—”

  “It didn’t happen at all.” The words were forced from between his lips. This was it—this was Gabe’s worst nightmare. “We’re not really engaged.”

  Jonas’s eyes darkened, and Chase looked up toward the ceiling.

  “What?” his grandmother exclaimed. Her eyes traced a path to Anna’s hand, where she still wore her engagement ring. Her eyes came back to Gabe’s. “Not engaged?”

  “The relationship was a setup. I got the call from Jonas about the holidays, and I couldn’t—I couldn’t come home alone. I wanted you to know that I would be okay no matter what happened with your illness. I’m so sorry, Grandmother.” He couldn’t stop the words from spilling out, and now that it was happening, he didn’t want to stop them. As painful as it was, it was also a relief. “I asked Anna if she would agree to pose as my fiancée for the holidays, and she said yes. It was a spur-of-the-moment decision that happened just before we left town.”

  “What were you thinking?” Jonas shouted. “That’s the sickest thing I’ve ever heard. You honestly thought it would be better to lie to us all this time? Then what, Gabe? What were you going to do later? Fake a breakup, too?”

  “Yes,” Gabe shouted back. “That was what I was going to do. Because at least for a little while, Grandmother would be happy. That’s what was most important to me.”

  “Well, that’s not going to happen,” Jonas thundered. He turned away, putting his hand to his forehead.

  Chase still hadn’t said anything. He looked at Tana and shook his head ever so slightly.

  Gabe squeezed Anna’s hand, and it seemed to shake her out of her shock—at least a little. Her eyes met his, dark and powerfully sad, and she brushed a hand against his wrist. Then she let go and stepped away.

  He could see her gathering herself for what had to be the biggest effort of her life. As a conference liaison, she’d dealt with stressful situations many times—even in front of him. She took a deep breath, straightened and lifted her chin.

  “I’m so sorry.” Anna’s voice shook, but she clapped her hands together in front of her and kept going. “It was wrong to deceive you. Of course it was. And there’s no excuse for it. I just wanted to—I wanted to thank all of you for being so welcoming, despite everything that happened.” A tear slipped from her eye and glistened on her cheek. “I’ve never had a chance to experience a holiday like this before. It was wonderful,” she said, her voice breaking on the last word.

  Except they hadn’t had a holiday together—Christmas hadn’t come yet. “I’ll be going now.” Anna dipped her head, and then she ran for the door, but not before he caught what sounded like a sob.

  Wait, he wanted to shout. Don’t do this. We can figure this out. But he couldn’t force the words from his mouth, and she was gone. He looked around the room at his family. Elin’s eyes were red, her mouth pinched, and Jonas wasn’t looking at him
at all.

  “Gabe,” Chase said quietly. “We can talk about this, if—”

  “No,” he snapped. Part of him did want to stay and work this out. To confess all the fear he’d had about his place in the family for as long as he could remember. But Anna had to come first. He knew she was hurt and would think they were all hating her. But she’d be wrong. Gabe didn’t hate her, and neither should his family. It was his doing, after all. “This wasn’t her fault.” He pointed a finger at the door Anna had disappeared through. “Don’t you dare blame her for this. If you blame anyone, blame me.”

  “No problem,” Jonas said, his acid tone sending a clear message.

  “Jonas,” his grandmother warned.

  Gabe had to fix things. With his family, yes. But first with Anna, who hadn’t done anything but try to help him. To make him happy. Gabe turned on his heel and went after her, his heart squeezing painfully in his chest. He couldn’t lose her.

  17

  Oh, she wanted to sink into the earth. It was only a matter of time before someone picked up on Freddie’s comment about the family business. Someone like Gabe, who’d want to know more. She had to get out. What should she bring with her?

  They’d bought so many clothes at that boutique before they boarded the plane and none of them seemed like hers anymore. She couldn’t very well fill her suitcases with winter things she would never use again, especially given they technically belonged to Gabe. Props for the play they performed. Miserably.

  Anna threw open the closet in their suite and looked blindly at the clothes hung in neat rows. She then ran to the window and wrenched back the curtain with a lump in her throat. Snow was coming down in a light flurry—that had to be a sign the storm was ending. But it didn’t really matter. Anna couldn’t remain at the Elk Lodge anymore. She’d been caught out in a terrible lie, and she didn’t deserve to stay in the family suite any longer. She wasn’t family and never would be, and they all knew it now.

  Anna went back to the closet, pulled out one of the smaller suitcases at the bottom, and placed it on the bed. She grabbed a comfortable pair of pants that would be good for travel—the forest-green top an excellent choice. And, of course, the coat she’d worn off the plane. At the dresser, she opened the top drawer and swept her underthings into a ball, tossing them into the suitcase in a haphazard mess. It wasn’t like it mattered. Once she got home, Anna vowed to return the clothes she was wearing and the outfit she’d taken. The suitcase, too. Yes. That would only be right.

  The front door of the suite slammed just as she was tipping her toiletries from the bathroom into a plastic bag.

  “Anna?” God, his voice sounded so desperate. “Where are you?” Why would he be desperate to find her?

  “In here.” Somehow, she managed to make her voice sound even and relaxed, not at all how she felt. Her emotions rolled through her like waves on the ocean, and Anna had nothing but a rowboat to navigate them. A dinghy-size vessel, and all the ways she’d learned to keep her calm through her job. Good thing she’d practiced for so long.

  Gabe appeared in the doorway to the bedroom as she unzipped the outer pocket on the suitcase and put the toiletry bag inside. “You don’t have to go.”

  “I absolutely do.” It was the hardest thing in the world, standing to face him, but she did it anyway. “There’s no way I can stay here after what just happened.”

  Gabe raised both hands in the air. “Now that they know, we don’t have to pretend. We can take some time and figure things out.”

  “What is there to figure out?” Heat rushed to her cheeks and she tried to will it away. It clung stubbornly to her skin. She must be red as a strawberry. “I didn’t belong here in the first place, and now it’s obvious.”

  “That’s not—you don’t have to worry about that. They’re not going to care if your parents got divorced or didn’t have much money. They’re not going to care if you had an ex-boyfriend who turned out to be a jerk. Those things happen all the time.”

  It was too much and the veneer of calm shattered. “Really, Gabe? None of that stuff is a big deal in a place like this?” He looked wounded, but it was too late to stop, much too late. “Your family prides itself on perfection. On high standards. My ex just showed up in the lobby of your luxury resort and made a huge scene. Do you think they want scenes around here? I can promise you they don’t.”

  “Anna—”

  “And aside from that, you don’t know the half of it. My family wasn’t just poor. The family business Freddie so casually mentioned? Sooner or later someone will get around to asking, so you might as well know everything. My father’s been in and out of jail for as long as I can remember. I just found out that my brother is back in jail. They are convicted felons who seem to pride themselves on being repeat offenders. And my mother has been married four times. I’m not from a respectable family. Freddie was ashamed of me and broke things off because of it. Their family didn’t want a person like me bringing their good name down, either.”

  “He was wrong,” Gabe insisted. “You’re not like that.”

  “Look—they haven’t even found out about my past yet. All your family knows is that I’m the kind of person who makes bad decisions. Your family all assume I’m a cheater and a liar. Don’t tell me they didn’t—I saw their faces when Freddie made his announcement.”

  “I’ll smooth things over.” Gabe stepped toward her. “I’ll talk to them. I’ll figure all of this out.” But he didn’t sound nearly as confident as he had before, the knowledge was enough to send her over the edge.

  “Why?” Tears burned at the corners of her eyes, but she refused to let them fall. “You brought me here for one reason and one reason only—to impress your family. Because you were tired of them making you feel like you weren’t good enough. Do you really think that’s going to happen now?” Her throat tightened painfully. “If they were disappointed by you, a billionaire tech mogul who dates Oscar-winning actresses, just how thrilled do you think they’re going to be that you’ve brought home a potential gold-digging daughter of an ex-convict?”

  Gabe took a half-step back, and she could see his thoughts flying through his eyes, making them more a dark gray than green. He had to be desperate to win their approval. With the Elkin family, there would be no greater prize than earning a spot in their ranks. Gabe would want their good opinion of him far more than he’d want to spend his life trying to convince them that she was also worthy. Lines of tension deepened across his forehead. He’d come to the same conclusion and knew she was right.

  “Why would you go to bat for me in the face of all that?” she asked when he remained silent. Anna braced for the final blow now that the question hung in the air between them. She knew it was coming. On some level, she’d known all along this was how it would end. Eventually, there came a point when people could no longer ignore all that her family represented. It was the end of the line for her.

  But it didn’t stop Gabe’s hesitation from hurting. Painfully so. Like a knife in her heart. She put a hand to her chest before she could stop herself. “I’m leaving, Gabe. Please step out of the way.” He stepped back, but the movement was stiff. Her skin ached for him to touch her, or to reach out and stop her—but he didn’t. She twisted off her ring and handed it to him. “We won’t be seeing each other again.”

  The walk down to the lobby was the longest walk of her life. Her heart thudded wildly, as she waited for him to run after her, to shout after her, but nothing of the sort happened and the holiday cheer of the reception area continued all around her. The huge tree in the middle of the lobby twinkled and shone with all its decorations. Soft Christmas carols played over the in-house sound system, moving into all the empty spaces like water. She barely noticed Freddie and his family on a set of low couches at the opposite end of the room, mumbling to each other and exchanging dark looks.

  Anna had pushed open the door by the time she realized she hadn’t put on her coat. She shrugged it on, snowflakes landing on her eyelas
hes, and cast around. Okay—so she hadn’t thought this part through. It would have been smarter to call for a car first thing before she started packing. It was cold outside, but she wouldn’t let that stop her. The last thing she wanted was to feel the Elk Lodge’s warmth wiping away the chill that was already settling on her cheeks and into her feet. And asking the front desk for help getting a ride to the airport was entirely out of the question.

  Luckily, one lone taxicab idled at the far end of the building under the last of the covered entrance. Anna hoisted her purse higher on her shoulder, curled a hand around the handle of the suitcase, and marched toward it.

  This was it—this was the last chance. If Gabe came running out after her now, she might not be able to tell him no. Out in the snow and cold, the bitter flakes freezing her skin, she desperately wanted to be back in that suite with him, preferably tucked under the covers. One step at a time, each one taking her closer to the cab. The driver rolled down the window before she could knock. “Are you waiting for someone?”

  “Just waiting for the snow to taper off. Some guy called, but my car wasn’t big enough for his group.” The driver peered out the window. “It looks light enough to drive now, I think.”

  “Could you take me to the airport?”

  “Sure thing.”

  He got out and helped her get her things into the trunk, and then Anna collapsed into the backseat. The heat was on at full blast and it felt like falling into a warm cocoon. Tears threatened again, but she fought them back. She could break down when she got back to Las Vegas, in the privacy of her own apartment.

  The driver hopped in and put the car into gear, and they rumbled past the resort. Anna wanted to be stoic and keep her gaze straight ahead, but she couldn’t help looking one last time at the massive building with all the warm light spilling from its windows, beckoning guests inside.

  Just not her.

  She’d proven herself more than unworthy of visiting the Elk Lodge.