by Karen Rock
Too bad he wasn’t about to let her.
CHAPTER THREE
“THERE YOU ARE, Ms. Chase. Take your time getting up from the table... I’ll wait outside for you.”
“Thank you,” Alexis mumbled, lying facedown on the massage table at the resort’s spa. The hour-long treatment hadn’t helped her relax nearly as much as she’d hoped. As she lay there, her mind had yo-yoed between thoughts of Liam and the stack of work sitting in her room. She knew she would eventually have to deal with both, but she couldn’t decide which was causing her more stress. Probably Liam.
She sat up slowly. Tossing the thin sheet aside, she stood and put on an oversize terry-cloth bathrobe and spa slippers. She’d planned the half-day spa retreat when she’d booked her stay, thinking there would be a wedding she needed to get pampered and pretty for. Unfortunately, the spa’s forty-eight-hour cancellation policy meant she would end up paying for the services, whether she decided to have them or not.
So here she was, trying to relax.
Her therapist, Alison, waited outside the door, holding a glass of water with lemon and lime slices in it. “Here you are. It’s a good idea to stay hydrated.”
She took a sip.
“Your manicurist is just running a little behind...would you like to wait for her in the hot tub and steam room area? She shouldn’t be more than a few minutes,” Alison said, leading the way down the dimly lit hallway filled with soothing waterfall sounds—a stark contrast to the holiday music playing throughout the rest of the lodge. She had to admit, this peaceful oasis was a welcome respite from the hustle and bustle of activity everywhere else. She was grateful for that at least.
“No problem,” she said.
“Follow me,” Alison said, heading down another hallway. “We do apologize for the wait...we are short staffed today. We were expecting a bridal party for manicures and pedicures on Christmas Eve, so a lot of the girls took today off instead. Then the wedding got canceled.” She shrugged.
Alexis nodded sympathetically. She still found it strange that Julie hadn’t called her to tell her about the wedding. Alexis had decided not to seek out her friend the day before—she wanted to give Julie time to deal with the canceled wedding. Maybe she had been too busy and distracted to get in touch or maybe she thought Alexis could use the vacation. She wouldn’t have been wrong about that, though Alexis knew she would pay for the time away once she returned to piles of work in the new year.
She repressed a sigh. She loved her job and she’d worked hard to get where she was. She enjoyed the hard, unyielding climb to the top of a corporate ladder while all of her former friends settled down, got married and had families.
She did.
Opening the door to the hot tub and mineral-springs pool area, Alison moved aside to let her enter. Several guests relaxed in the hot water, but Alexis was relieved to see it was nearly empty. She suspected most people were taking advantage of the perfect ski weather and fresh powder that had fallen the night before.
“Nikki shouldn’t be too much longer. Do you need anything else at the moment?” Alison asked.
“No, thank you.” Please just hurry, she added silently.
She couldn’t get in the water because she wasn’t wearing anything under her robe other than a pair of disposable spa panties. She sat on the edge of the tub, dipping her feet and legs into the warmth in front of the jets.
Maybe getting stuck at the resort without the stress of the wedding was actually a blessing in disguise, she thought. She certainly hadn’t been looking forward to watching Julie—the last of her single girlfriends from college—get married. Weddings only made her question her life choices and single status, especially once the stressful ceremony was over and the bride started offering sympathetic “don’t worry, you’ll be next” looks to the remaining singles. She was grateful to have been spared the humiliation.
“How’s the water?” said a far-too-familiar voice behind her.
Now, if only she could be spared these encounters with Liam, she might actually make it through the holiday.
Pulling her robe closer to her chest, she turned to see him climb into the hot tub next to her, wearing just the swim trunks he’d had on the day before. Would she ever see him with a shirt on? “I thought you would be out on the slopes,” she said.
“I’m glad you were thinking about me,” he replied with a smile.
Wow. Too bad it was true. In the past twenty-four hours he had never been too far from her mind. “I was simply making the comment that I thought the slopes would be your thing.”
He nodded. “They are. They were great. I like to get out there early before the fresh snow is packed down and the runs get busy.”
Fantastic. So the only time she would be safe to leave her room would be between 6:00 and 8:00 a.m.?
“How’s the spa so far?” he asked, extending his arms along the edge of the hot tub. The tips of his fingers were just inches from her leg.
She moved away slightly, farther out of reach. “Exactly what I needed after my rude wake-up call this morning.” No sense admitting that she was far too wound up to relax, even here.
“Yeah, I’m sorry again about that. I’ll be sure to turn it off before getting into the shower from now on,” he said, but his voice held no trace of remorse. He dipped his hands into the water, then ran them through his hair, slicking it back away from his handsome face before adding, “Still not a morning person, huh?”
How dare he presume to know her. Four months together was hardly enough time for him to assume anything.
It was also not enough time together to have proposed, a nagging voice insisted.
She cleared her throat. “My job requires long days, starting early each morning, so let’s just say, mornings and I have an agreement. From Monday to Friday, I get out of bed when the alarm goes off. Saturdays, Sundays and vacations, I sleep in.”
“Well, I promise not to set the alarm at all tonight. I usually don’t need it anyway—my internal clock wakes me up at dawn. Don’t want to miss out on life, you know...”
He could speak for himself. Her life wasn’t so freaking fantastic that she wanted to squeeze every moment out of it. Most days it consisted of a twelve-hour workday, dinner if she had the energy to make something and then more work in bed until she fell asleep, often with the lamp still on and a file in her hand. “I’d appreciate that, thank you,” she said simply.
“So...do you plan on getting outside at all while you’re here? There are some fantastic day trips if skiing isn’t your thing. Snowmobiling, snowshoeing, that kind of thing.”
“Probably not.” She shrugged. “But maybe I’ll go shopping in the village or take in a movie—” She stopped. He was watching her and listening as if taking note of her plans. “Please tell me I won’t be seeing you at every turn.”
“Would spending time with me be so terrible?” he asked. She heard the slightest note of hurt in his voice.
She shook off her sympathy. Toughen up. This was the man who’d ruined the only Christmas she’d actually been enjoying. The man who’d walked out on her, humiliating her when she’d put her heart on the line. She couldn’t forget that. And while Julie insisted that Liam had matured over the years, Alexis refused to believe people could change that much. Not at their core anyway, and not enough to warrant another chance at a future together.
He was staring at her, still waiting for an answer to the question she’d assumed was hypothetical.
“Look, if it weren’t for this wedding, we wouldn’t even have seen one another for who knows how many more years. Forever maybe. Being here together now is just an unfortunate turn of events.”
His eyes clouded as he ran a hand over his face, wet from the steam escaping the hot tub. When he moved closer to stand directly in front of her in the water, her heart raced.
> It would be so easy to look away if he hadn’t gotten better looking over the years. But his dark eyes, framed by deep laugh lines and the slight graying of his dark hair at his temples, just made him even more irresistible.
And dangerous.
“Is that what you think?” he asked, his eyes burrowing into hers. “That this was just an unfortunate turn of events?”
She swallowed hard, then struggled to keep her voice steady as she said, “Just two guests invited to the same wedding.” That was all it was.
He placed his hands on either side of her legs and lowered his voice as he said, “I only came to the wedding to see you.”
Her mouth went dry. He was too close, he was staring too hard and his words left her speechless. He was here to see her? Why? Why now after years of no contact at all? What could he possibly be hoping could come of a few days together reminiscing about the past? She opened her mouth just as her manicurist, Nikki, reappeared in the doorway and called her name.
Oh, thank God.
Saved from having to respond, she quickly lifted her legs from the water, scooped up her spa slippers and walked away. If what he said was true, he was going to be very disappointed. She had no interest in spending time with him, or getting to know him all over again, or...or what?
She sighed and forced her shoulders to relax as she reached the smiling young woman.
“Ms. Chase?”
“That’s me.”
“Ready for your manicure?”
Ready to get away from Liam. “Yes.”
Nikki smiled. “Wonderful. It’s guaranteed to help you relax.”
Just remove one particular guest from the resort. That should work wonders. “Great. I could use any help I can get,” she said as she followed the girl away from the room, feeling Liam’s gaze on her the entire time.
* * *
ALEXIS PEERED AROUND the corner of the lobby, scanning it quickly for any sign of Liam. She didn’t see him. Releasing a breath, she rushed to the front desk where Noelle chatted happily on the phone with another guest.
A little boy stood next to her, waiting impatiently for her to hang up. He reached for a cookie from the plate on the desk, but she moved it out of his reach, without even looking away from the computer’s reservations system.
The little boy’s already cookie crumb–covered lips formed into a pout.
Alexis winked at him as she reached for a cookie and casually slid it behind her back. “Psst,” she said.
He came around the side of the desk and she covertly slipped him the cookie.
He beamed at her. “Thanks,” he whispered, hiding it from Noelle, who was obviously his mother.
“I saw that,” the young woman said, hanging up the phone. She pointed at him. “No more cookies before dinner, Josh.”
Moms really did see everything.
“Sorry, he was just so cute,” Alexis said sheepishly.
Noelle laughed. “That he is,” she said, glancing at her little boy. “What can I do for you Ms. Chase?”
“That shuttle bus outside—it’s heading to the village, right? The display signs are covered in snow and I think the driver must have gone on a break somewhere, so I wasn’t sure.” After leaving the spa, she’d spent an hour replying to emails and now she needed to find a post office so she could courier some custody-settlement documents to the office. The mother in the divorce case had finally conceded to letting the kids spend New Year’s with their father, but the papers needed to be filed before the twenty-sixth. She’d noticed a post office in the village when she’d passed through the day before. She’d also spoken to Julie after her massage. She’d asked her friend to join her for dinner later, but Julie had other things planned, and while she hadn’t said so, Alex suspected those other plans included Austin.
Noelle glanced past her. “Yes, the first one is the bus to the village,” she said with a glowing smile.
Wow, the woman really owned her name. She looked as lit up as the Christmas tree in the lobby. “Thank you,” Alexis said, hurrying outside and boarding the shuttle.
She scanned it for a seat and found one in the far back, next to two kids who sat behind their parents. “Mind if I sit?” she asked the little boy. He was playing a handheld video game and didn’t even look up.
“Sure,” he said, moving in closer to his sister, who scribbled furiously on a piece of holiday-themed paper with a blue crayon. “What is she writing?” Alexis asked the little boy.
“Her letter to Santa.”
“Isn’t it a little late?” It was already the twenty-second. Magic elves or not, that letter wasn’t getting to Santa on time.
But the look of fear on the little girl’s face and the daggers from her mother in front of her made Alex smile awkwardly and say, “I was just kidding.” What would she know about it anyway? She’d never written a letter to Santa. Ever. Her parents hadn’t believed in teaching her about fairy tales or the make-believe things that most kids believed in. Christmas for her family had centered around the annual Christmas Eve party that they held for her father’s lawyer friends. The preparations for the party started in November each year and took the place of any family holiday traditions.
And never having experienced them, Alexis hadn’t known what she’d been missing...until Liam had shown her.
When the bus headed in the opposite direction of the village, she started to panic. “Where is this bus going?” she asked the little boy.
“To the North Pole,” he said, finally setting the game aside and bouncing excitedly in the seat.
Yeah, okay, and she was Mrs. Claus. “No, seriously—where’s this shuttle headed? I thought it was going to the village.”
The kid’s mother turned in the seat. “The Village would have been the other shuttle. This one is going to the North Pole.” She handed her a brochure over the seat.
Alexis took it and read. “North Pole, New York. Visit Lake Placid’s Santa Village for family fun and excitement during the holiday season.” Her face fell. Great. Handing the brochure back, she looked around her. Families and children everywhere.
She was on the wrong shuttle.
Standing, she held on to the seats as she made her way to the front. They hadn’t gone that far yet, she could get off and walk back. “Hi. Excuse me,” she said to the driver. “I got on the wrong shuttle. Do you think you could let me off here?”
The man wearing an elf’s hat shook his head. “No can do. The bus is only allowed to stop at designated stops.”
She sighed. “Okay. Well, when does the shuttle head back to the resort?” It had to be a constant run, right?
“The shuttles run every hour.”
“So you won’t be heading back right away?”
He glanced at her and nodded her closer. “Listen, I’m not wearing this costume for fun, okay? I also work as an elf at Santa’s Village and I need to get back to the big guy. Another driver will be taking the shuttle back to the resort in an hour.”
Darn. “Okay,” she mumbled, going back to her seat. Looked as if she was making an unexpected detour to see Santa.
There really was a first time for everything, she mused.
* * *
LIAM READJUSTED HIS Santa beard and checked his reflection in the mirror. Not bad. He needed a little more padding in the costume than his father had, but overall he looked the part.
When Julie’s wedding invitation had said Lake Placid, the idea of volunteering for a shift as the North Pole Theme Park’s Santa for the afternoon had seemed like a great way to pay his respects to his father’s memory.
For years, his father had worked at a local shopping mall in Buffalo as the store Santa for the entire month of December. As a kid, his father had told him that it was because he was one of Santa’s special helpers and he needed to make sure
all of the kids’ letters got to the big guy before Christmas Eve. Of course, now he knew his mechanic father had taken the job for extra money during the holidays to give him a better Christmas. It had always been just the two of them—Liam’s mother had passed away when he was three years old—and while they didn’t have much, Christmas had always been a special time.
He missed his father this season.
“Ready?” Mary, one of the other village employees greeted him as he exited the change room.
“One more thing—how’s this?” He cleared his throat and took a deep breath. “Ho Ho Ho!” he said, making sure his belly bounced with each exhale.
She beamed. “It’s perfect.” As they walked through the back entrance toward the covered path to Santa’s hut, she said, “The usual Santa really appreciated you volunteering this afternoon. His mother is in the hospital, so he was grateful for a few hours with her.”
“Yeah, it was no problem,” he said, feeling even better about his offer. He knew what it was like to have a parent in the hospital and how precious time together was, especially when you weren’t sure how much time you had left.
“Well, here you go. There’s a lineup of kids already waiting. Just ask them what they want for Christmas, ask them if they’ve been good. You’ll be fine,” she said, squeezing his arm before leaving him to take his seat.
A half hour later, he was having so much fun, he almost didn’t notice Alex standing to the side of the hut, admiring a row of gingerbread houses. He had to do a double take to make sure he hadn’t imagined her there.
As the next kid climbed onto his lap, Liam watched her. What was she doing there? He knew she hadn’t celebrated the holidays as a kid, at least not in the traditional sense. A memory of another Christmas flashed in his mind...
Maybe she was here now to enjoy all of the things she’d missed out on as a child. Turning his attention back to the kid with the never-ending wish list, he said, “I’ll be sure to pass along that info to the big guy...but ah...can you do something for me?”
