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Christmas Duet: A Big City, Small Town Christmas Romance Bundle

Page 27

by Gina Robinson


  "Leave the boy alone," his dad said as he popped out of his easy chair and set aside the iPad that he'd been playing games on. "Let him at least take his coat off before you begin grilling him."

  "Hey, Dad." Ryan slid his coat off and hung it in the closet. "So you heard about my trip to Old European, I take it."

  "Don't use that casual tone on me, Ryan Allen Sanders. Of course I heard. And even if I hadn't, I have eyes. You're covered in glitter."

  Ryan looked down at himself. Damn. He'd showered to get rid of the evidence, too.

  His mother shook her head. "Sally saw you and texted me all the events as they happened. So don't think you can keep anything from me. I know all."

  "If you know all, then there's nothing more to tell you."

  Laura arched a brow and gave him the penetrating Mom stare. "Except your side of the story."

  His mother, the inquisitor. She was kind of cute in an irritating sort of way. But at least she cared.

  "I was just helping Tara buy some ornaments for the lodge Christmas tree as a way to help out Margie and Harry. That's all. Nothing sinister in that. You know how much I care for those two." He kissed his mother on the cheek.

  "Uh-huh, but here's the thing. I thought you and Tara were at odds?"

  "You know the old saying, 'Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.'" He sniffed the air deeply. "Pot roast! My fave."

  "And by close, you mean looking as if you want to kiss them?" his mother said.

  "Who said I wanted to kiss Tara?"

  Laura rolled her eyes. "You've wanted to kiss that girl since the first time you laid eyes on her when you were in elementary school. You never haven't wanted to kiss her, Ryan. And despite how she stomped on your heart and treated you like dirt, I don't see that that's changed. At least that's what I'm hearing and fearing."

  "Ma, I appreciate your concern, but I'm a grown man. I can handle myself." He hoped. Because his mother was exactly spot on.

  Laura stared at him. "So you tell me. I just don't want to see you get hurt again. You know I always liked Tara. But after Chad died, she changed."

  "Maybe she's changed back."

  She shook her head and looked at his dad for confirmation. "How in the world did I manage to raise such an optimist? I thought I raised you to be realistic.

  "Once upon a time Tara changed as quickly as the weather on the mountain and froze your heart. Don't think that can't happen again.

  "Maybe she's using the same 'keep your enemies close' philosophy and playing you?"

  "When did you become such a cynic, Ma?"

  Laura rested a hand on Ryan's arm. "I know well enough to leave my boys alone in love. Women set the tone for the household. Say anything that gets me crosswise of the girls in my sons' lives who might eventually become wives and I lose my boy forever.

  "I'm not going to make that mistake with you, Ryan. I know you well enough to know you'll do what you'll do. So consider this a friendly mother's warning, and then I'm backing off. Proceed carefully. Enough said. Just remember, I'm always on your side."

  Harry handed Tara a glass of his famous holiday cocktail, the 1950s favorite, a Tom and Jerry—whipped egg whites, cinnamon, hot water, brandy, and rum, topped with nutmeg. Carter had built a great blaze in the fireplace. Christmas music played over the sound system. The guests and staff were having a wonderful time decorating the tree and partying, as far as Tara could tell.

  They'd gone through dozens of hotdogs, bags of marshmallows, and used all the roasting sticks Carter had meticulously whittled for the occasion.

  Margie was handing around a tray of veggies and chips and dip. "Try a carrot stick or chip and be sure to dip it! The dip is our own secret recipe using Copper Creek Salad Dressing. If it passes muster, the recipe will be in a new cookbook in the spring. What do you think?"

  Stormy had just hung the last ornament on the tree. She dusted her hands together to get the glitter off. "I think that's it."

  Tara stepped back to appraise their handiwork and smiled. The tree looked as if it belonged in the Old European showroom, and that was a good thing. Barely a bit of branch showed through the happy concoction of holiday glitter and charm.

  The tree was perfect—reminiscent of days gone by. But not Tara's specific days. No, this was a fresh look and a fresh start. Very classy and totally lodge-style at the same time.

  She had only hung a few ornaments before stepping back to direct the decorating. The guests and staff had crowded her out anyway, and she was happy to watch them all having so much fun.

  If only Ryan had been able to see and enjoy the fruits of their shopping excursion.

  "It looks fantastic, everyone. You've all done a wonderful job." Tara admired the forest animals, snowflakes, and pinecones covering the tree's branches. "It has every forest animal Old European had available, except for that elusive white wolf. Ryan and I tried hard to find one. But they're rare prizes and we just struck out."

  Margie set the tray down on a coffee table and came over to give Tara a hug. "It's gorgeous! Even without a white wolf. The best tree yet. We made some good memories today." She smiled at Tara in the sly way of hers that led Tara to believe she was speaking as much of Tara and Ryan making good memories together as the group before them. "Thank you for this early Christmas present. I haven't enjoyed a gift so much in years."

  Kathleen came up beside them. "I'll say it's pretty—pretty Christmassy and perfect."

  Stormy cried out. "Oh, no!"

  They all turned to see Stormy looking perplexed. She pointed toward the far corner. "We missed two boxes."

  Tara looked at the tree and frowned. "There's no room at the inn for them, that's for sure. Or on the branches, either. We've pretty much obscured our tree."

  Stormy walked over and collected the boxes. "All sales final," she reminded Tara. "You'll just have to take them home with you." She paused as she picked up the boxes. "Oh, this one has a note with your name on it, Tara."

  Gram and Kathleen glanced at each other before giving Tara a significant look.

  "Wonder who that's from?" Gram grinned. "Looks like Ryan's handwriting to me."

  Tara took the boxes from Stormy. It was indeed Ryan's handwriting. No way was she going to open that note in front of all the prying eyes in the room. "I'll just run these up to my room to get them out of the way for now. Be back in a sec."

  Before anyone could stop her, Tara took the steps in record pace and dashed into her room. Once the door was safely closed behind her, she took a deep breath to steal her wildly pounding heart and calm her happy nerves.

  What could Ryan possibly have to say in a note? That was so old school. Tara had always liked to string out her Christmas presents, slowly opening them to extend the pleasure. She set the boxes on her bed and pulled the lid off the first one, the one without the note. Inside was a collection of animals and fish.

  She could take these home, but though they were pretty, they weren't her style. Too masculine and definitely not urban enough. Ryan! They'd look perfect on his tree. She'd give them to him in a kind of ornament exchange. It beat a cookie exchange anyway, and was a lot less fattening.

  She pulled Ryan's note off the second box and read it. To my beautiful, glittering companion in ornament shopping. Here's to new memories. Ryan.

  She removed the lid from the box and gasped. "A white wolf! Where..."

  Then she remembered the shop clerk whispering in Ryan's ear and the way his face lit up in devilish delight. And the way he'd been suspiciously hovering around one of the trees.

  Tara smiled. The white wolf wasn't the only ornament in the box. He must have been watching me.

  The gingerbread boy and girl were nestled snuggly in tissue paper in the middle of the box, so close it looked almost as if they were holding hands.

  Tara grabbed the white wolf to take down to the tree. She knew the perfect spot for it. At the door, she hesitated. She pulled her cell phone from her pocket and texted Ryan.

  I've a
lways loved gingerbread boys. And wolves ;-)

  12

  "Hey, Blondie, girl." Ryan couldn't hold down his smile as he patted Blondie and gave her her breakfast. "You be a good girl while I'm gone today."

  The dog whined as if she recognized she'd be alone again. Blondie had a pretty good sense of when Ryan should be home for the weekend. She was smart enough to recognize she'd gotten the short stick regarding his attention for the past week or so.

  For his part, Ryan couldn't wait to see Tara. If he dabbed a little cinnamon behind his ears would she gobble him up? He certainly hoped so. He could play a wolf as well as the next guy.

  He washed his hands, grabbed his coat, and was off. Another five or six inches of snow covered the yard and roads. Ryan eyed his roof dubiously. The snow was stacking up. Fortunately it was light and dry. But if it piled up much deeper he was going to have to shovel the roof. It was pitched steeply enough that it shouldn't collapse, but he wasn't taking any chances.

  The snow crunched beneath his feet as he got into his SUV. It was a perfect powder, which made him itch to get up on the slopes before the crowds turned it into crud. His only real hesitation was Tara—how would she react to the mountain? Unlike Ryan, she hadn't been back to the scene of Chad's death since the accident. She hadn't even been back on the mountain.

  Grief was a funny, capricious thing, as he knew only too well. It could strike out of nowhere without any provocation. He and Tara had had such a good time yesterday. Ryan was hopeful. He just hoped the mountain didn't bring back up emotions and feelings that would ruin things between him and Tara. He had a careful plan to keep her in the new areas as far away as possible from anything that still remotely resembled the way it had been ten years ago. But there was still no telling how Tara would react. He texted her that he was on his way.

  She was waiting for him on the front porch and looking like the most delicious of snow bunnies in her white beanie, coat, and scarf. She stuck out her thumb when she saw him pull up.

  He laughed and leaned across the seat to open the door for her.

  "Going to the Basin?" she said innocently.

  "Hop in. I'll give you a ride. As long as Harry doesn't catch us."

  She laughed and he was relieved to see she seemed at ease and not at all nervous.

  "You big, secret-keeping guy! How long were we at Old European before you found that white wolf? All of five minutes, I bet," she said with a flirt and a bit of tease in her voice. "I bet that clerk told you where it was, didn't she?

  "And yet you let me look and look and get totally frustrated, all the while keeping a straight face. Remind me not to play poker with you."

  "You never play poker with me. You suck at it." He put the SUV in drive and headed toward town. "Hey, I wanted that wolf to be a surprise."

  "And it was. A pleasant one. Now the proud wolf is hanging in the place of honor, the prime locale for all to see. Thank you. Now, what do you have in the way of Christmas music?"

  In town, Digger had Tara's board waiting for them. Soon enough they were on the road to the Basin and Tara became quiet as they wound up the well-plowed mountain road in a stream of traffic. The morning was clear and beautiful, with no fog or breeze. As they climbed the winding road, Ryan could see for miles out across the lake and the forest. The trees along the road glistened and were weighted down with snow. It would have been perfect if he hadn't been worried about Tara. "You okay?"

  She stared out the window. "I'd forgotten how gorgeous the view is from up here."

  "Uh-huh," he said. "That doesn't answer my question."

  "They've made the road wider."

  "Yes," he said. "A few years ago."

  "Progress. Life goes on and all that." She nodded. "It looks and feels different."

  "Different enough?" he asked, knowing what she was referring to.

  "For now." She seemed to relax a bit. "The snow looks perfect." She turned and smiled at him. "The kind that makes you tingle with anticipation. I'd forgotten that feeling, too. Do you feel it? Are you tingling?"

  Oh, yeah, he was tingling. But it was mostly because Tara was sitting next to him and things were going better than he expected. He focused his attention on the road, which was so well sanded and plowed it wasn't slippery at all. Unlike his heart, which was on an extremely slippery slope.

  "Yeah," he simply said.

  "Who knew the look of snow is as powerful a memory jogger as smell is?" She turned to look out the window again.

  He hoped it didn't jog all the memories. Just the good ones.

  "I'm nervous," she said when they were nearly to the ski resort village parking lot. "Is boarding like riding a bike, do you think?"

  "Do you mean do you ever forget how?" He thought about her question. "I have no personal experience. But from what I've seen, it comes back quickly. We get a lot of people on the slopes that haven't been up in years. Usually, in no time they're back in the game."

  The resort village came into view. Ryan found himself holding his breath as he waited for Tara's reaction to it. He had to force himself to keep his eyes on the road and not stare at her. If she was going to break down, this was the dangerous moment. Make that the first dangerous moment.

  "Wow! Look at that." Tara shook her head as they entered the village. "The A-frame rental cottages are all gone. Replaced with a fancy alpine hotel. And is that a shopping mall?"

  "A small one," he said, relieved. She sounded like she was hanging in.

  "This used to be just open land. It's really built up." She paused. "I saw all this on the Basin website, but experiencing it in person is something else."

  As a perk of being a senior ski patrol member, Ryan had a permit to park in the reserved upper lot without paying a fee. The upper lot was closest to the runs, close enough there was no need to take a shuttle. He turned into the lot behind half a dozen other cars. "Getting the feel of being on the board should come right back to you. Just be prepared to be sore tomorrow."

  She laughed. "Yeah, even though I go to the gym at home, boarding does tend to use muscles you didn't know you had."

  Dangerous moment number two approached as The Basin Lodge came into view. Next to him, Tara stiffened, simply staring at it. Ryan gave her space and time to process, crossing his fingers she didn't crash and burn.

  "It looks just like it does on their website and promo materials around town—different. Remodeled. Refurbished. Everything's different." The words faded away. Then she shook her head and laughed softly. "Who was the architect? He should be shot. He took away all the old character of the place."

  Ryan breathed a sigh of relief. Things are going to be okay.

  As soon as he parked, Tara hopped out of the SUV and stood in the fresh snow, looking around with an unreadable look on her face. He followed her out of the SUV and watched her.

  "This lot is new, too."

  He nodded again. That was part of the reason he'd decided to park here. Besides not having to pay. He'd carefully orchestrated everything to give her new, and hopefully pleasant experiences at the Basin.

  She bent, scooped up a handful of snow, and sniffed it and then the air. "Yes, it still smells like fresh crispness up here. It's a smell you don't forget. That, at least, hasn't changed. Leave it to Mother Nature to remain constant in the face of progress."

  She stared at the snow in her hand and blew on it, sending the fresh powder blowing away. This was an old Tara method for testing the snow conditions. "Perfect." Her smile was a little wistful.

  Yes, the snow was perfect and so was the sight of her. He forced himself to look away and unload their gear.

  "I have a ski-patrol-issued locker in the new addition to the lodge. We can store our valuables there."

  "Ah, the perks of being on patrol." She grinned at him.

  She seemed to be holding up well. He hoped that continued.

  Tara trudged alongside Ryan, carrying her board and bag at her own insistence. Everything was different—more commercial and upscale. It d
idn't feel like home anymore, certainly not like the stuff of her childhood memories when the Basin catered to the local middle-class family crowd. Now it was a destination vacation spot. And she wasn't sure she liked it. On the other hand, to her relief, it didn't spark any old, anxious memories. It was as if the Basin was offering her a clean slate and a fresh start.

  Ryan held the door to the lodge open for her. Inside the lodge was as different from the old lodge as it could be. Even the floor plan was different. A gigantic, obviously professionally decorated Christmas tree filled the center of the room. A large gas fireplace blazed as a group of Victorian-dressed carolers sang in front of it. Very pleasant, but very staged.

  The large, cafeteria-style restaurant had been replaced with a modern café. Tara stared at the menu board and nearly gaped at the prices they charged for what she bet was basically a fancily renamed hamburger and fries. Pomme frites, indeed.

  Part of it was impressive. After all, this is what she pictured for Echo Bay Resort, only on a much smaller scale. But surprisingly, there was still something unsettling and impersonal about it. Like a piece of Americana had disappeared. Like Christmas going commercial and being run by a large eastern syndicate.

  Where were all the friendly people who used to greet her by name? No one even paid any attention to Ryan, and he was a regular and valued member of ski patrol.

  She followed him as he wound through the lodge to a private bay of lockers. He stopped in front of one with his name on it. "Hand me your purse and whatever else you'd like to store."

  They changed into their board boots, stashed their board bags, and attached their passes to their zipper pulls.

  Ryan slammed the locker shut. "Shall we start with the bunny hill?"

  "The bunny hill? Are you crazy? I haven't been on the bunny hill since I was four years old. Take me to a nice, gentle advanced beginner run and we'll go from there."

  At the base of the lift, Tara strapped her boot into the forward snowboard binding.

 

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