The Most Wonderful Time

by Fern Michaels

  “Yup.” About the NordicTrack, not Royal Slope. “He thought it was a good idea. I do the treadmill with him.”

  That appeared to reassure her.

  “You seem to be holding up pretty well.” She studied his bearing as he glided faster and faster.

  “It doesn’t hurt as much. In the beginning the pain was excruciating.” The admission caught him off guard. For months, he’d tried to hide the constant throbbing from his family—or anyone who asked. “In a few months I meet with my doctors to determine whether I need another surgery.”

  She started to say something but stopped herself.

  “What?”

  “Don’t you think you should see them before doing something crazy like skiing Royal Slope?”

  It was a fair question in light of the fact that he’d tumbled down her stairs. Still, he’d never advance without drive. Ranger School had tested his capabilities until he thought he would break. Perseverance—and admittedly a little bit of crazy—helped him power through. Same would hold true with Royal Slope. It was a mind-set, he told himself.

  “Not really,” Josh responded.

  “Was the wedding nice?” she asked.

  He laughed to himself. Yeah, he’d called that one right. “It was nice enough, pretty much your run-of-the-mill wedding, except for being alcohol-free.”

  “What did they serve instead?”

  “Cider, grape juice, soft drinks.” He slid her a sideways glance as he took the tension up a notch on the machine. “You really want to talk about Chip’s wedding?”

  She grinned. “Come on, it’s only natural for me to be curious. How did Val look?”

  “Fine, I guess. She didn’t hold a candle to you.” Maybe he shouldn’t have said that but it was the God’s honest truth. “I can say that because we’re friends, right?”

  “Absolutely.” She smiled but it didn’t quite reach her eyes.

  “Colt said your folks are on a cruise for Christmas.”

  “They didn’t want to go but I insisted. I didn’t want to do the big family thing without Sabine. Not this year.”

  He nodded. Hannah’s parents were nice people. They wouldn’t have left her alone unless she’d wanted them to. “You could come to our house for Christmas breakfast.”

  “I’ve got plans with Deb and Foster. But I’ll come to watch you ski.”

  “Okay.” Although he wasn’t too sure how he felt about it. It would be embarrassing if he wrecked. But given how invested she’d become in his progress how could he say no?

  He glanced at the clock, realizing he’d done twenty minutes without breaking a sweat. A good sign.

  He did another twenty and got off the machine. “Are we gonna do dinner again tonight?”

  She deliberated as if to say no, but he pressed, even though it was probably sending mixed messages. But she shouldn’t be alone on the night of her ex’s wedding. At least that’s what he told himself. “Come on. We can go up to one of the resorts.” They were spread out enough that they could easily avoid Chip’s reception.

  She seemed surprised. “Those restaurants are expensive and we’d need reservations.”

  “Nah,” he said. “All I have to do is drop Garner Adventure’s name and we’re golden.”

  “I’ll pay for my own.”

  “The hell you will.” He might not be able to carry her up a flight of stairs in Sabine’s Victorian but he damned well could pay for her meal. “You’ve fed me twice at your house, my treat.”

  “I should go home and change.”

  “What are you talking about? You look great.” She had on tight jeans tucked into a pair of knee-high boots and a low-cut clingy sweater.

  Hannah stood up and stared in the wall-to-wall gym mirrors. “Too casual, don’t you think?”

  Josh laughed. The resort restaurants were nicer than anything in Glory Junction proper but at the end of the day they still served a bunch of skiers in fleece and après-ski moon boots. Not exactly high fashion, though he suspected a lot of it was designer and cost a pretty penny.

  “You’ll fit right in,” he said, though she’d also stand out for being the most beautiful woman in the room. “Let me shower and ice, and we’ll head out.”

  And that’s how it went in the following days. Hannah would meet him in the gym at Garner Adventure, sit with him while he worked his leg, and afterward they’d have dinner. There were no discussions about relationships and no sleeping together. But they talked about the future: Hannah’s shop plans and how Josh wanted to take a bigger role in his family’s business, including leading expeditions and adventure tours.

  She never suggested that his plans were pie in the sky or it was too soon to be thinking on such a grand level with his leg only marginally functional. Maybe she was just humoring him but he appreciated her tacit approval just the same. His family was more cautious.

  “Don’t rush things, son. All in good time. Your body and soul need time to heal . . . and you need to find your center again.” His father had always been one of those hippie-dippy metaphysical types.

  His brothers, especially TJ, were more practical. There would be no assignments until he could prove himself. He was planning on doing just that Christmas Day on Royal Slope. A few times he’d gone up on the mountain just to take it in, listen to the birds, smell the winter air, and feel the earth under his feet. Rangers prepared for combat by knowing their environment. At one time he knew the trail like he knew the back of his hand but it was time to reassess . . . to be mentally ready. He could do this if he truly focused. Nothing fancy, just slow and easy. All he needed to do was make it down the trail.

  * * *

  “Hey.” Deb walked into the store wearing the dress Hannah had given her. “You ready to go?”

  “I’m having second thoughts.”

  “You’re kidding me . . . because of Josh?” Hannah had given Deb a blow-by-blow of Josh’s decision to just stay friends.

  She didn’t answer, just bit her bottom lip.

  “Oh for God’s sake. Screw him and all the Garner men. They don’t deserve women like us. Besides, you’ve been his workout buddy all week, why would you miss out on the best holiday party in Glory Junction? It’s Christmas Eve and you’ve got nothing else to do.”

  “Thanks for pointing out my pathetic life. I’ll go for an hour.” She didn’t want to waste her new outfit. After much hemming and hawing, she’d finally broken down and purchased the Delaney Scott red A-line party dress with the plunging princess V-neck that she’d been salivating over for months. Even at wholesale the dress cost a fortune and this was the only event she really had to wear it to.

  “Okay then.” Deb twirled around the store. “Let’s get this place locked up . . . and party!”

  The usual closing routine got cut short, leaving Hannah time to fix her makeup in the bathroom and slip on the dress in the changing room. When she came out, Deb blew a catcall whistle.

  “And I thought I looked smokin’,” she said, making Hannah turn for a full view. “You bought it, you little vixen.”

  “Yep. A bit of an investment but it’s worth it, right?”

  “Uh, hell yeah. One look at you in that dress and Josh’ll swallow his tongue . . . the bastard. You ready?”

  “I have to put on my shoes.” A pair of sling backs with ice-pick heels Hannah bought after her divorce and had never gotten the chance to wear. She put them on and adjusted the straps. “What do you think?”

  “That if you don’t get some tonight, both of us are moving.”

  “Foster is meeting us there, right?”

  “Yep.” Deb grabbed her clutch and followed Hannah outside.

  They walked next door where a DJ was playing and a few couples were already on the dance floor. They found Foster at the buffet, stuffing his face.

  “The food’s good, nothing like those Costco meatballs the Canadells serve.” The Canadells owned the local insurance company and also held a holiday open house every year. It wasn’t nearly as popular
as the Garners’. “Don’t look now but Josh is at six o’clock, checking you out.”

  Hannah couldn’t help it and turned around. There he was, his shoulder propped against the wall, gawking. Unlike the rest of the partygoers, he’d gone casual. A pair of button-fly Levi’s, a flannel shirt, and motorcycle boots. Hannah supposed that when you were the best-looking man at the party you could wear whatever the hell you wanted.

  He lifted his chin in greeting, pushed off the wall, and cut a swath through the crowd to get to her. “You look beautiful. New dress?”

  “It’s old.” She did a visual lap around the room. “Big attendance.”

  “Yeah? I missed last year’s so I wouldn’t know.” Given where he’d been, what he’d seen, this must feel pretty frivolous, she thought.

  “You ready for tomorrow?”

  He beamed. “As ready as I’ll ever be.” He pushed a loose strand from her updo away from her face. “You’ll be there, right?”

  “Unless I can talk you out of it.” She tilted her head to the side. “You really don’t need to prove anything, Josh. There’s no one in this town who’s a bigger hero than you.”

  “How about I’m doing it just for fun?”

  She shuddered. “I can’t think of anything less fun.”

  “If I didn’t know you better I’d think you lacked a sense of adventure, Hannah Banana.”

  He used to call her that in high school and she’d hated it. But today for whatever reason it gave her goose bumps. “I do.”

  “Nah. You’re more of an adventurer than you know.”

  She didn’t know what he was alluding to but didn’t have time to think about it. An arm snaked around her waist and suddenly she was being pulled onto the dance floor by Win. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Josh shake his head.

  Win could barely keep a beat. He looked like a horse suffering from blind staggers. It was weird because he could spring down the face of a mountain on a snowboard like an acrobat.

  “Ah, come on.” He tried for a little bump-and-grind action.

  “Hey, Win, you’re embarrassing yourself.”

  He laughed, which Hannah had to give him kudos for. Guys as good-looking as Win Garner usually weren’t self-deprecating.

  “You coming over for Christmas breakfast?” he asked, whipping her closer to the DJ.

  Josh’s trip down Royal Slope was supposed to be a surprise so she didn’t tell him she’d see him at the crack of dawn—that’s when the whole Garner clan met at the mountain. “No, I’m hanging with Deb and Foster.”

  After Royal Slope Hannah wanted to keep as much distance as possible. It hurt too much to have finally rediscovered the right man only to be rejected by him.

  “You should come. Josh wants you to.” Win must’ve sensed that something was up because he added, “He may need a little time to find his place in the world but he cares about you, Hannah. He always has.”

  Unfortunately, he’d always had a funny way of showing it.

  Win returned her to Josh, who was back to leaning against the wall. Hannah wasn’t sure if it was because of his leg or because he knew how hot it made him look. Colt was dancing with Deb and Hannah wished her best friend could fall for that Garner instead. Although Colt was probably as much a confirmed bachelor as Win. TJ was huddled in the back of the room with a hotel owner Hannah knew from Nugget. Nate Breyer. He, his sister, and wife owned a cabin resort fifteen minutes away. If Hannah knew TJ he was probably embroiled in a business deal.

  “Who you looking at?” Josh asked her.

  “Your brother.”

  He snorted. “Which one.”

  “TJ.”

  Josh craned his neck, found TJ in the crowd, and with keen eyes observed his brother in action for a few minutes. “He’s finagling something. The guy can’t even take a night off.”

  The party wrapped up around ten. Deb insisted they stay until the bitter end, even though most of the partygoers had left to finish the night off with their families.

  “I’ll walk you to your car,” Josh said.

  “It’s right outside, in front of Glorious Gifts. Save your energy for the morning.”

  He ignored her and walked her anyway. It had begun snowing and she worried about his leg on the wet sidewalk.

  “You want me to pick you up on the way to Royal Slope?” he asked.

  She thought about it for a moment. “It would be better if I came on my own.”

  Josh started to say something and stopped himself. “You should get in your car before you freeze.” He grabbed the keys from her hand, clicked the fob, and opened the door.

  “I’ll see you tomorrow, Josh.”

  As she drove the few blocks to her house, snow flurries covered her windshield faster than her wipers cleaned them away. There’d be plenty of fresh powder for Josh’s foolish run down the mountain. As she got ready for bed a sense of foreboding hit in the pit of her stomach. Hannah feared that the whole scheme would end badly and it would be her fault for being an enabler, just like she’d been with Chip.

  Chapter Ten

  Hannah’s alarm clock went off before dawn. Forcing herself to get out of bed, she pulled her curtains aside to peer outside. It was a white Christmas, perhaps too white. A deep layer of snow not only covered her front lawn but the street as well. If the city didn’t plow, she might not be able to get out of her driveway.

  She quickly showered, wanting to give herself extra time to get to the resort, and bundled up in the warmest clothes she had, including thermal underwear and snow boots. Downstairs, the smell of coffee filled the air. Good thing she’d set the timer. Hannah filled a thermos, put on her down jacket, scarf, and mittens and slogged to her car, the snow so deep she could barely open her door. In the glove box, she found an ice scraper and got the frost off her windshield while snowflakes stuck to her hair. It was wicked cold so she sat in the car waiting for the engine to warm and the interior to get toasty before heading out. Luckily, she had all-wheel drive but it would still be a trial getting up the mountain.

  She managed to maneuver her car out of the driveway and across town, using city streets, to Route 22, a one-lane one-way road that climbed the steep, winding grade to Royal Slope. Even in good conditions the road was not for the faint of heart with its sheer drops off the side. At least reverse traffic came down the other side of the mountain.

  Visibility from the snow was so poor that Hannah opened her side window and stuck her head out to navigate the treacherous road. A few times she considered pulling over and phoning Josh to cancel the whole thing. But turning off onto a shallow shoulder seemed even more risky, not to mention that cell reception up here was sketchy at best.

  So she continued to inch up the mountain, doing less than five miles per hour, her tires sliding on the icy pavement. With the whiteout conditions she didn’t even know if there were other cars on the road. If so, their head- and taillights were invisible.

  Although she was used to winter driving in the Sierra, the mountains seemed particularly desolate and she turned on her radio just to hear something besides her pounding pulse. All she got was static. She kicked herself for not catching a ride with Josh. This wouldn’t have fazed him a bit. She’d read about what it took to be an Army Ranger. Just to make the grade, you had to be able to handle anything. Josh had always been like that. In high school he was the guy who could start a bonfire without matches, the one who stopped Chip from sucking the venom out of Stretch Kandinsky’s leg when he’d gotten bitten by a rattlesnake, knowing that the procedure was more fiction than fact. He’d been the one to rescue Hannah when she’d climbed halfway up Sawtooth and suddenly discovered she was afraid of heights.

  She took a deep breath, starting to feel claustrophobic from not being able to see the horizon—or anything. There was a curve and she tried to turn into it slowly. That’s when she hit a patch of black ice, her car fishtailing out of control. She slammed on her brakes, causing the car to spin and roll down an embankment.

  The la
st thing she remembered was hanging upside down from her seat belt.

  * * *

  “She’s not answering her goddamn phone . . . not her cell or landline.” Josh continued to pace across the kitchen floor.

  “You think she tried to head up to Royal Slope and didn’t know about the road closure?” Gray Garner asked. Even Josh’s Zen father seemed worried.

  “That’s exactly what I think.” Josh grabbed his jacket and started for the back door.

  “Son, let’s talk to Colt.” His brother had gotten called out early that morning on weather-related accidents.

  “What can he do that I can’t?” Josh challenged.

  “He can get us past the barriers, for one thing. He also has better equipment.”

  All benefits of being the town’s top cop, Josh supposed. Gray didn’t wait for his son to acquiesce, just took the landline away from Josh and speed-dialed Colt.

  Win came in the door covered in snow. “Damn, it’s as windy as it is cold. She’s not home, but there was a fresh pot of coffee made.”

  “Did you break in?” Josh asked.

  “No, Deb met me over there with a key. She’s worried sick.”

  Sick didn’t even begin to describe what Josh was feeling. Petrified and guilt-ridden. He’d tried to call her to say the ski outing was off but she didn’t answer. Josh figured she’d started off before they closed the road and the goddamn Highway Patrol hadn’t bothered to check before putting up their barriers. If she’d made it to the resort she would’ve notified them by now.

  Gray held the phone between his ear and shoulder. “Colt is calling the CHP. If we don’t hear anything from them, he’ll take us up.”

  TJ looked up from his coffee. “You want me to gather up the search-and-rescue guys? It might take a little time since it’s Christmas.”

  “Start calling them,” Josh said.

  Gray got back on the phone and everyone in the room stopped talking so they could hear the conversation. TJ went to grab his cell and Mary started filling thermoses.

  “Colt says the CHP has no report of accidents on Route Twenty-Two and nothing coming from area hospitals.”