Under The Mistletoe (Holiday Hearts #2)

by Kristin Hardy

  “Why? You got some hot babe you’re working on?” They started walking toward the luggage carousel.

  “Why do you ask?”

  “Because you never looked twice at her, and I’d have picked her for just your type.”

  “Maybe my type has changed,” Gabe said, thinking of Hadley.

  J.J. squinted at him. “You been up to something while I’ve been gone?”

  “Not nearly as much as it sounds like you’ve been up to.”

  “Hey, I’ve just been spreading goodwill among nations.”

  “Yeah, France, Sweden, Switzerland, Czech Republic, and, where was the snowboarder from again?”

  J.J. got a beatific smile on his face. “Finland.”

  “You and your Eurochicks.” A buzzer sounded and the belt began going around on the luggage carrousel.

  “You and your redheads.”

  “There’s something to be said for blondes, too,” Gabe said, remembering Hadley, warm and fragrant in his arms.

  “Who is she?”

  Gabe blinked. “What?”

  “The look on your face. Oh man, you’ve been nailed. Who is she? Someone from around here?”

  “Isn’t that your bag?”

  J.J. reached over to hook the duffel bag as it went past. “Nice try, Trask,” he said, throwing it over his shoulder and turned to the oversized luggage window to get his skis. “Spill it.”

  “Nothing to spill.” Gabe turned toward the glass doors.

  “You’ve really got it bad if you won’t even talk about her. Is this serious?”

  It was the question Gabe couldn’t bring himself to ask because the follow-on question was what came next.

  And he didn’t have an answer to that.

  “So what happened in the Toblerone Grand Prix?” Gabe said abruptly.

  J.J. stared at him for a long moment. Finally, he shook his head and started walking. “Let me tell you about the Toblerone.” The discussion of the error that relegated J.J. to second took most of the trek to the car. The description of the beautiful blonde from Helsinki who’d warmed his bed for a week took the rest. It wasn’t until Gabe was on the road out of the airport that J.J. stretched back in his seat and turned to him.

  “So,” he said lazily. “When do I meet the future Mrs. Trask?”

  “He’s so tiny.” Hadley sat on the couch in Angie’s cramped living room and looked at Trot, newly home from the hospital.

  “He’s nearly eight pounds,” Angie said proudly, rocking the little bundle in his blue blanket. “They said he was strong enough to go home yesterday.”

  There was a sound of a door opening in the kitchen. “Ang,” a man’s voice called. “I’m back.”

  “In here, hon,” she called. “Come meet my friend Hadley.”

  A tall, skinny man appeared, wiping his hands on his jeans.

  “Hank, I’d like you to meet Hadley Stone. She’s the one who took me to the hospital. Hadley, this is my husband, Hank.”

  Hank crossed the room to Hadley. “Pleased to meet you.” He released her hand and balled his own in his pockets, watching his wife and son. “I can’t thank you enough for taking care of Angie while I was gone. She told me about you and Mr. Trask and all.”

  “We were happy to do it,” Hadley said.

  “Hank didn’t get home until last night,” Angie added. “Drove like a madman.”

  Hank shifted in embarrassment. “Not too much. I maybe had a little bit of a lead foot. I wanted to get home to meet my boy.”

  “He’s beautiful,” Hadley said sincerely, staring at the little flowerlike face.

  “Do you want to hold him?” Angie asked.

  Terror spurted through her. “Oh no, I couldn’t—”

  “Sure you can. Sweetheart, would you pass Trot over to Hadley?”

  Now it was Hank’s turn to look terrified, even as Angie smiled at him like a satisfied Madonna. “I don’t want to drop him.”

  “You won’t,” she soothed, passing the baby into Hank’s huge hands. “Just be sure to support his head like I showed you.”

  As though he were carrying a soap bubble that might burst at any moment, Hank brought the baby to Hadley, transferring him with an audible sigh of relief.

  Trot was whisper light, sleeping peacefully, his lashes forming little fans on his perfect, pale cheeks. She remembered seeing him burst out into the world, and a wave of tenderness washed over her. Had she held her sisters when they were this age? Unlikely. Her mother and the nanny had been so protective of them that Hadley wasn’t allowed near the crib in case she carried some infection. By the time the twins were two, Hadley was off to prep school.

  Trot stirred and yawned, stretching up one tiny fist, then he looked at her. “Oh my God,” she said, startled. “Angie, he’s got your eyes.”

  “Do you think so?”

  A perfect little being with his whole life ahead of him. Hadley blinked back the sudden sting of tears and carried him back over to Angie. “He’s so gorgeous.”

  “Isn’t he?” Angie stroked Trot’s cheek. Hank reached over to put his hand on her shoulder.

  They were a unit, Hadley realized. Maybe they were fighting to make ends meet and maybe they lived in a rickety little cracker box of a house, but they were bound together, by life and by love. A family unit. Part of each other. The way it was supposed to be.

  And memories came flooding back of that night by the fire with Gabe, when she’d felt open to him, connected to him in a way she couldn’t block. And she could try to pretend it hadn’t happened but she couldn’t forget it—it was there every time she saw him. She studied the glow on Angie’s face, on Hank’s. Was it really possible to trust and not just feel terrified and vulnerable? Did people really love each other or did it inevitably turn into a list of expectations?

  “Listen, I should be getting back,” she said abruptly. “I just wanted to stop by and see how you were.”

  “I don’t know how to thank you for all that you’ve done,” Angie said. “And the presents you bought for Trot.”

  Some diapers and a wind-up musical toy, Hadley thought. Little enough. “Oh Angie, thanks for letting me be a part of it. I’m so happy for you.” She leaned over and kissed her on the cheek. “If you need anything at all, you let me know, all right?” She turned to Hank. “You make sure she does.”

  He grinned, looking suddenly boyish. “Yes, ma’am.”

  It was done, Hadley thought later. She stared at her computer screen, at the proposal that represented the efforts of weeks compacted of necessity into days. Everyone had weighed in, the numbers agreed. It was time to give it a kiss and send it on its way. Gstaad or no, her father would almost certainly be checking e-mail—one thing Robert Stone insisted on above all was connectivity.

  At the sound of raised voices in the hall, she rose to investigate. A knot of people filled the hallway, among them Susan, Gabe’s assistant.

  “Now, we had an appointment with this Alicia Toupin,” a man in a business suit was saying. A very irritated looking man.

  “I’m sorry,” Susan said smoothly. “Pete is at an offsite meeting and Alicia is running a seminar right now. Our master calendar shows you arriving tomorrow.”

  “We came all the way from Burlington.” He pushed his chin out pugnaciously. “Forget about tomorrow. We’re talking about bringing a hundred and fifty people in here for a week. Isn’t there anyone in this damn-fool place who can talk to us?”

  “I can,” Hadley said smoothly, walking up.

  “The place looks good,” J.J. said to Gabe as they stepped into the Hotel Mount Jefferson lobby. “You’ve been fixing it up.” He winked at Tina, who blushed and turned away.

  “I’m so glad you approve,” Gabe said dryly, moving toward the executive wing.

  “What’s the rush?” J.J. slowed. “I’m taking in the scenery.”

  “Who is she?” Gabe asked in resignation.

  “The girl of my dreams.” J.J.’s voice was reverent.

  Gabe
glanced across the lobby to see Hadley in a narrow white suit, talking with a small knot of businessmen. He watched with interest as she walked them into one of the meeting rooms, emerging like a tour guide with the procession trailing behind, saying something that had them all laughing.

  Then she looked up and saw him and the spontaneous smile bloomed, lovely enough to dizzy him. “Why Gabe, I’m so happy to see you.” She turned to the group. “Gentlemen, it looks like our timing is perfect. I’d like you to meet our general manager, Gabe Trask. Gabe, meet Jim Pritchard, Hideo Tanaka and Dean Ballinger from Ness Packaging in Burlington. I’ve lured them into having their summer sales meeting here. Isn’t that right, Jim?”

  Pritchard gave an affable smile. “Quite a facility you’ve got. I’ve heard good things about the course.”

  “Eighteen holes designed by Donald Ross.”

  “And don’t forget, we’re putting in wireless Internet next month,” Hadley added.

  Gabe kept his jaw from dropping, just. “Exactly. Thanks for reminding me.”

  “So I’ll get an estimate together based on the numbers you gave me,” Hadley continued. “We should have something in your hands tomorrow or the next day. Any questions?”

  “Nothing we can think of right now,” Pritchard said. “We’ll let you know if we think of any.”

  “You do that.” She beamed at him. “Safe travel. We’ll be in touch.”

  Gabe watched them leave, and turned to Hadley with a raised eyebrow. “Wireless Internet?”

  “It won’t cost much. It’s worth doing for the corporate business.”

  “Weren’t you the woman who came here to cut costs?”

  “I came here to increase profits,” she corrected. “What matters is achieving the goal, not how you do it.”

  “Here, here. So speaking of achieving the goal, can I intro duce you to my buddy J. J. Cooper? J.J., this is Hadley Stone of Stone Enterprises, our new parent company.”

  Hadley shook his hand. “Nice to meet you.”

  Dark blue eyes widened suddenly as if a riddle had suddenly been solved. “Oh,” he said, breaking into a dazzling smile that held more than its share of mischief. “Oh yeah, it’s nice to meet you.”

  Gabe glanced at his watch. “It’s getting on five o’clock. Why don’t we just call it a day and meet over dinner.”

  “Scooter’s?” J.J. raised his eyebrows.

  Gabe looked pained. “Wouldn’t you rather go somewhere quiet where we can get something better than grease stains?”

  “I’m not asking for much,” J.J. reminded him. “I’ve been stuck in Europe for the last three months. You’re here. You can go anytime you want. You forget that.”

  Gabe sighed. “All right, Scooter’s it is.”

  Scooter’s wasn’t exactly the type of restaurant she associated with business meetings. Strains of honky-tonk from the jukebox bounced off the exposed beams and rough pine paneling of the walls. Butcher paper topped the tables. A juice can full of crayons sat in the middle. The menu ran to burgers and pizza, grinders and ribs.

  J.J. sat with an expression of bliss.

  Hadley turned to them after the waitress had left. “So I take it this was your hangout once upon a time?”

  “In the summers when we both worked in Crawford Notch,” Gabe said. “It was pretty much our hangout for about six years.”

  “So you have have been friends for…”

  “Let me see,” Gabe said. “His parents started paying me in, what, kindergarten?”

  “Third grade,” J.J. supplied.

  Gabe nodded. “Mrs. Ruble’s class.”

  “How could I forget? Times tables.”

  “Not J.J.’s forte,” Gabe explained.

  “We worked out an arrangement,” J.J. added.

  “You mean you cheated?”

  “Cheated?” Gabe looked at J.J.

  “No.” His friend shook his head.

  “Nope.” Gabe shook his head even more vigorously.

  “Definitely not.”

  “Tutoring.” Gabe gave her a guileless smile.

  “Exactly,” J.J. affirmed.

  “I was going to blow him off after high school,” Gabe added, “but he got dependent so I hung out summers.”

  What would it be like, Hadley wondered, to know someone for that many years? To have a friend who remembered you as a gap-toothed kid, an uncertain adolescent, a young adult giddy with freedom? Someone whose sentences you could finish. She couldn’t imagine it.

  She envied it.

  It wasn’t like seeing a different Gabe so much as a three-dimensional one. Seeing him with J.J. made her like him even more. Not good, she thought uneasily. The last thing she needed was to like Gabe Trask any more than she already did.

  When she saw the waitress approach with their meals, she almost sighed with relief.

  “Best greasy burgers around.” J.J. pushed his empty plate away.

  To her infinite surprise, Hadley found herself agreeing.

  Gabe gave a lazy smile. “We’ve got our claims to fame. This is one of them. I’d like the Crawford Notch ski area to be another. You give any consideration to what I suggested?”

  “I’ve though about it once or twice since we talked.” J.J. folded his arms on the table.

  “And?”

  “How serious are you about doing this?”

  “Very,” Hadley said flatly. “If everything goes well, we should close by year end.”

  “And how soon would you start working on the slopes?”

  “We’ll start working on plans for upgrades to the lodge and an expansion of the Crawford Arms right away,” Gabe said. “How soon we start on the slopes depends on you. We’d want to have a plan in place by late April, which would be when we’d add the new lift. We’d begin construction in early May, aim to open around the end of November.”

  “Six months.” J.J. took a drink of his beer. “That’s not much time for what you’re talking about.”

  “We’re not going to get everything done the first year. We’ll have to stage it, but I want at least two snowboarding slopes in place and half of the ski slopes upgraded for next winter. We can finish the rest after.”

  “And we’ll want you around for the opening,” Hadley added.

  “If you can work around my race schedule.”

  “Are you going to be comfortable with your name being used like that?” she asked. Better to have it out now than dance around it.

  “If the product is good.” He looked from Gabe to Hadley. “It needs to be done right. I don’t want Gabe and me out on a limb and have somebody cut it off.”

  “You’ve got my word on it,” Gabe said. “And the contract will protect you.”

  J.J. didn’t take his eyes off Hadley. “You, I trust. There’s a big company behind this, though, with lawyers who can probably get them out of anything. How do I know the agreement will hold?”

  “You’ve got my word.” Hadley’s voice was calm. “We want you involved. You’ve skied all around the world, you know what works and what doesn’t. We can help you articulate your ideas. We’ll make it work.”

  J.J. looked at her for a moment longer and then nodded. “All right. You guys close on the deal to buy the resort and we can start putting something together.”

  A cell phone burbled. Gabe pulled his out, scowling at the display. “It’s the hotel. Excuse me a minute while I get this.” He rose and headed back by the bathrooms.

  J.J. and Hadley glanced at one another. With business to talk about, with Gabe around, conversation had been easy. Now, the silence weighed on them. “So.” She stirred her martini with the swizzle stick. “It must have been quite a change to go from living up here to traveling Europe on the World Cup circuit.”

  “No more than leaving Manhattan to come to Crawford Notch.”

  “I suppose. I’m not uprooting my entire life, though.”

  He looked at her more closely. “Just a short timer, huh?”

  “My job is usually tri
age and resuscitation. Once an acquisition gets running smoothly, it gets passed on.”

  “Does Gabe know that?”

  What exactly was he asking? she wondered. “He knows the business model. It’s not like I’ll be completely setting the hotel adrift, I just won’t be around for the day to day.”

  J.J. nodded to the beat of the jukebox. “Kind of slow up here for you, I guess.”

  “Not at all. I like it better than I thought I would.” And Robert would never let her stay, she reminded herself. The pang of regret surprised her in its sharpness. “But we move around in my company. That’s the way it’s done.”

  “Maybe you should think about getting a different company. I mean, are you telling me that if you decide you really like it here you can’t stick around and see the results? The whole reason I want to try this director of ski thing is that I want to be here in five years when the runs are all cherry and know that I helped make it happen. I love this area.”

  “I can understand why.”

  “But not enough to stick around?” His eyes were steady on hers.

  “I’m afraid I don’t have a choice.”

  “Let me tell you something, Hadley,” he said, leaning forward to whisper conspiratorially. “There’s always a choice. You just have to have the courage to make it.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Christmas Eve dawned sunny and clear. Compared to the noise and hubbub of the Winter Carnival the weekend before, the hotel felt positively empty as Hadley made what had become her habitual midday walk-through. They had guests, perhaps fifty of them being entertained at various events, but mostly the Mount Jefferson was coasting into the holiday.

  “Hey.”

  She turned to see Gabe behind her, and smiled without thinking. “Hi. How was skiing yesterday? You and J.J. have fun?”

  “Fun?” He frowned at her. “That wasn’t about fun. That was work. We had to review the whole mountain.”

  “On skis.”

  “You bet.”

  “Multiple times, I assume.”

  “Of course multiple times. We had to make sure our data was accurate. It took some doing, I’ll tell you. And we went back this morning to get more. On a Saturday, no less.”