by Carol Ross
* * *
HANNAH FELT THE impact before she saw what she’d hit.
Her tube flipped and she somersaulted through the air, eventually landing hard on one shoulder before flopping onto her left side. A pain shot through her leg and she was immediately grateful she hadn’t landed on it with all of the force her shoulder had taken.
“What the...? Hannah? Is that you?”
Hannah couldn’t contain a groan as she rolled onto her back. Tate?
He muttered something unintelligible and then asked, “Are you hurt?”
She winced up at him. “Are you?”
“No.”
She bent her right leg at the knee and then slowly mimicked the motion with the left. A wave of relief followed.
“My shoulder is going to be sore, but I think my leg is fine. What are you doing here?”
“What is it with you and this reckless behavior?” He shot out the question in that stern, lecture-y tone she remembered from their initial encounter.
Why did she find it kind of funny? Her lips curved up into a grin. “Reckless? I’m tubing. What’s reckless about tubing?”
“Backwards? You weren’t watching where you were going.”
“I was spinning. My sisters and brothers and cousins—we used to do this thing when we were kids where we’d spin our tubes while swerving across the hill.”
Now he was scowling down at her so she quit explaining and asked, “What’s the matter?”
“It’s no wonder you look so young.”
Hannah looked up at him in confusion. “What?”
“Obviously there’s still a child dwelling behind that pretty face. Can you get up?” He extended a hand.
She felt her face grow warm at the weird compliment-insult. “Of course I can get up.” Except that she realized she sort of couldn’t, not without embarrassing herself.
He waited. She smiled up at him, wishing he would leave.
“Do you want me to help you up?”
“Nope,” she said, pushing herself up to rest on her elbows. “I got it. I’m good.”
“Okay.” Placing his hands on his hips, he continued watching her, waiting obviously.
“Hannah?”
“Hmm?”
“Why aren’t you getting up?”
“Well, Tate, it’s complicated.”
“Complicated? Are you hurt?” His voice went up several decibels and she realized he was worried about her.
Kind of sweet, she thought and added a smile before confessing. “My pants must have caught on your board because they are ripped on my south side.”
A gloved hand went up to cover his grin, which Hannah thought was pointless because of the laughter now accompanying it. “Seriously?”
“Do you think I’m lying here in the snow because it’s fun?”
He tipped his head as if considering the question. “I don’t know. I’ve seen you do it before.”
She opened her mouth, and then snapped it shut. She let out a laugh before asking, “Did you just make a joke?”
“Yes,” he said, still grinning. “I guess I did.”
“It was funny. You should do it more often.” Keeping her tone nonchalant she asked, “Maybe you could go fetch my tube?” Which she’d noticed was now flat. She was probably lucky she wasn’t hurt. Other than the jolt of pain in her leg, but it seemed fine now. Well, as fine as it had been lately.
“I can carry it behind me strategically.”
She couldn’t make out the words he muttered as he stepped toward her, bent and scooped her up—one arm beneath her shoulders one under the knees, and carried her toward the lodge.
She tried to look dignified, but she could tell Tate was trying not to laugh because she could feel the rumble of a chuckle deep in his chest. She gave up, buried her face in his jacket, and let her own laughter roll.
Mindy looked a bit startled when they came through the door both still grinning.
“Hannah?” she asked. “Are you okay?”
“Hey, Mindy. Yes, I’m fine.” She added a wave, still cradled in Tate’s arms. “Have you met Tate Addison yet? Tate, this is Mindy Reese. She works at Little Cubs Preschool and is in charge of the after-sledding snacks for the troops today. Mindy, this is Tate. He’s working here as a consultant for Snowy Sky.”
“Nice to meet you,” Mindy said. If she thought it strange that Tate was holding her, she refrained from mentioning it. Hannah appreciated that.
He said, “You, too, Mindy.”
Hannah pointed across the large expanse of mostly empty room. “You can take me down there. I have a room I use as an office.”
He headed there where he finally lowered her to her feet. She could tell he was being careful to keep her backside away from the door, and she liked the gentlemanly approach.
He was gesturing backward toward the door with his thumb. “I’m just going to... Unless, is there anything else I can do for you before I go?”
She held up a finger as her phone buzzed in her pocket. She removed it and read the text from Janie. She cast a thoughtful look at him and wondered if it would be too much to ask. Although, he had offered.
“Yes, actually there is.”
CHAPTER FOUR
TATE DIDN’T HAVE much experience with kids, but how difficult could a sledding party with a group of four-and five-year-olds be? He’d been spending nearly every minute of the past few weeks with Lucas and aside from the near-constant worrying, he felt as though he was doing okay.
Roughly a half hour later he held a firm belief that the preschool teacher Elaine deserved a raise—a huge raise, and probably a very long all-expenses-paid vacation. A little boy named Bryce kept licking his inner tube, another boy refused to get on the magic carpet facing forward, and a blonde pixie of a girl had removed her coat and refused to put it back on. Tate was afraid she was going to end up with hypothermia.
“Would you please put your coat on, Bea?” At least he’d learned her name.
She gave her head a hard shake, blond locks peeking out from beneath a bright pink fleece hat.
He tried being firm. “Bea, put your coat on. It’s too cold to go without a coat.”
More head shaking.
“It’s dangerous,” he tried, which didn’t seem to faze her in the least.
He attempted a gentle threat, “Do you want me to get your teacher? She might make you go to the lodge.” Although he had no idea how to summon the teacher at this point, or even if she would do that. Elaine was currently on top of the hill with the rest of the tiny phenomenally energetic sledders.
She gave him another careless shrug.
He resorted to negotiation. “I’ll give you twenty dollars if you put your jacket back on?”
She smiled, lolling her head back and forth in a figure-eight pattern while he held the jacket aloft like some kind of frantic matador.
“Fifty dollars?” Was bribery the same as negotiation?
He was ready to double the amount when he sensed a presence behind him—or maybe he heard the snickering. He turned to find Hannah watching him, humor dancing in her eyes.
“Thank goodness, you’re here. She won’t wear her jacket. I’m not sure what to do. The teacher is up there And she’s...” Tate heard the desperation in his tone as he pointed at the top of the slope. “It’s like ten degrees out here.”
She took the jacket from him. “Bea, why aren’t you wearing your jacket, girlfriend?”
“Because Shane said it’s the same color as slime.”
“Slime?”
The little girl nodded her head.
“Ah, I see. But he means that in a good way. Shane loves slime. I think the danger here is that Shane might love you, too.”
Bea let out a gasp,
her arms shooting out straight at her sides, allowing Hannah to slip the jacket on. Hannah zipped it up, tucked her scarf around her neck and made sure her hat was secure.
“Thanks, Hannah. How do my curls look?”
“Perfect—just like you, little one.” Hannah flipped her head toward the magic carpet. “Now go get ’em.”
Bea trotted off to join the others.
“Ask Shane if he likes slime,” she called after Bea, who kept going as she gave her an over-the-shoulder thumbs-up.
“How did you do that?”
“Well, I have some inside knowledge.”
Tate gave her a look that said he knew it was more than that.
“I will give you a tip, though, so you don’t go broke. Five bucks, fifty bucks—kids this age don’t really get the concept of the amount. In fact, hold out a handful of change in one hand and a couple bills—any denomination—in the other and see what they go for. To them, more is more—literally. Except when it comes to candy. You’d be amazed at what they’ll do for one single piece of candy.”
“I was desperate. I would have paid a lot more. I thought she was going to freeze to death.”
Hannah laughed. “Not gonna happen—they’ll seek shelter before they dip to the freezing level.”
She pointed at her pink snow pants, her mouth forming a playful grin. “Thank you for holding down the fort for me so I could get these.”
He felt his pulse jump at the thought of recent circumstances. “You’re welcome. No problem. That was fast. You must live pretty close to here?”
“I do, you know that log cabin just up the road from the Faraway Inn? It belongs to my sister Shay. She owns the inn, and I rent the house from her. Have you taken a turn on a tube yet?”
“Um, no. Elaine suggested that I help the kids get back to the magic carpet after they arrive here at the bottom. It seems like a simple job, right? But they are a slippery bunch, not at all like my...”
He was going to mention Lucas when a pair of young boys with reddish-brown hair peeking from beneath their hats ran toward Hannah and enveloped her in a huge hug.
“Hannah!” They shouted in unison.
“Hey, my favorite twins! Wow, Finn I saw how fast you were on that last run. I’m thinking competitive luge is in your future, buddy. Gabe, guess what we’re having in the lodge after sledding?”
“Don’t tease me, Hannah-Banana, you better be talking hot chocolate.”
She laid a hand on his stocking-capped head. “You know I wouldn’t tease about hot chocolate. Hey, guys, this is Tate. He’s a friend of mine. These little cuties are my cousin Janie’s twins. As are the two teenage helpers there, Gareth and Reagan.”
A tandem greeting followed, then one of them commented, “Except Gareth and Reagan aren’t twins like us.”
“This is true. Thank you for clarifying that for Tate, Twin-Finn.”
The little boys nodded happily and galloped off...
“Later, twin-gators,” Hannah called after them.
“After a while, Banana-crocodile,” one of them shouted back.
Tate studied her. She seemed relaxed, amused and thrilled to be here. How did she do that?
“You’re so good with them. Do you have kids?”
“Nope. Big family. Lots of experience. Plus, I know these kids. I volunteer at the preschool one morning a week. And do some fun things with them—like this.” She gestured at the hill.
Hannah clearly had a gift—that kid-thing that some people were just born with, which served to remind him of how little of it he had himself.
* * *
“THAT WAS REALLY nice of the fairy to let you help her feed the goldfish. Next time be sure to come and get me when she’s here.” Tate smiled at Lucas who’d just finished relaying the details of his latest encounter with the fairy in the fish room.
“She hurt her hand so she needed my help. She thanked me and she told me the names of some of the kois. That’s what they’re called, not goldfish, Uncle Tate.” He heard the pride in Lucas’s voice and felt grateful to this lady for taking the time to make Lucas feel special.
He thought about Hannah and how natural her interaction had been with the kids on the sledding hill. He’d been reading books on childcare and child psychology, but he wondered if there was some kind of class he could take. Would it be weird to ask her for advice? What he needed was to get Lucas up on the snowboarding hill.
“That’s so cool, little man. I’ll try to remember that. Do you want to pick out a book for us to read together?”
Lucas examined the large selection on the bookshelf he and Viktor had stocked.
He chose a brand-new picture book, running his fingers over the cover. “The lady might not actually be a fairy. I think she might just look like a fairy. She has fairy—” he paused to think and then pointed at his own face “—eyes.”
Tate stifled a laugh. Fairy eyes? He had no idea what that meant. “I see. Well, she sounds like a very nice young lady whether she is actually a fairy or not.”
“She’s really nice,” Lucas assured him authoritatively as he moved toward his bed and peeled back the comforter. He liked to look at his sheets before he climbed in. This set was covered with tiny monkeys in goofy poses. Funnily enough, Tate remembered being fascinated by sheets, too. It was too much of a chore, or used too many quarters, for Penny to wash bedding so he’d always used a sleeping bag. Tate still hated sleeping bags.
“We’re friends. You should see if she wants to babysit me sometime.”
That was a good idea. Since Lucas had come into his life full-time, he hadn’t wanted Tate to leave him at all. He’d finally reached the point where he’d stay with Viktor, but for Lucas himself to suggest spending time with someone else felt like a huge leap of progress. Tate thought since the girl was fish-sitting for the homeowner, maybe she’d be willing to babysit for him.
“That’s a great plan. Maybe we’ll do that.”
He had intended to meet her and thank her for her kindness to Lucas, but so far she’d slipped in and out of the atrium without him even knowing she was there.
Tate knew he’d choose a book about animals. Lucas was enthralled with animals and Tate was both happy and surprised by how much he knew about them. He picked up the book about a hippopotamus who thought he wanted to be a rhinoceros and began to read.
* * *
FRIGID AIR TICKLED Hannah’s lungs. It was a gorgeous winter day. The sun might not have a lot of hours to shine in an Alaskan December, but today it had decided to make the most of the time it did have. Shards of light beamed through the grayish-blue clouds and spotlighted the snow-covered peaks in the distance. Pieces of heaven shining through, as her late grandfather Gus used to say.
She entered the beautiful wood-and-stone-constructed lobby of the Faraway Inn, removed and stowed her outer layers, and headed toward the restaurant. Delicious aromas assaulted her senses as she walked into the vast expanse of dining room. Her stomach responded with a hungry rumble as she thought about Chef Javier’s cooking.
Waving to some of the other committee members already seated at a long rectangular table, she headed toward the drink station to fetch herself a cup of coffee. Her cousin Adele who was the Faraway Restaurant’s manager appeared at her side.
Hannah and the rest of the James family hadn’t even known of Adele’s existence until a couple years ago, after Shay had hired her inadvertently as a waitress.
At that time Adele had only recently learned of her heritage. She had come to Rankins hoping to find a place in the James family while thinking she might be entitled to a share of the inn. She’d earned the former even though she’d been mistaken about the latter. She and Hannah had become close friends during the ensuing ordeal.
“How’s it going?” Adele asked.
“Good. How
about you? The dining room looks super busy.”
Adele smiled, light brown eyes so similar to her own dancing merrily.
“Thanks to you. We’ve got another group of heli-skiers staying here. From what I can gather, if they’re not skiing they are eating.”
Hannah chuckled as she poured her coffee. “The sport definitely requires fuel. And Cricket does a great job of promoting the restaurant.”
Adele’s jaw tightened as she repeated his name.
Something had recently transpired between Adele and Cricket, but Adele wasn’t talking—yet.
Cricket had once been considered Rankins’s most sought-after bachelor, but his reluctance to date meant his status had gradually evolved from eligible to confirmed. Hannah secretly believed he and her brother Tag had turned their single statuses into some kind of competition.
“What about him?” Hannah asked.
“He’s here right now. Over by the windows, close to the fireplace, he’s having lunch with your snowboarder.”
For some reason the mention of Tate made her heart skip a beat. “My snowboarder? Very funny, Adele. Tate is here? Where?” What was with her hopeful tone of voice?
“Yep, right here.” She flinched as a deep, now-familiar voice sounded behind her.
She cast a wide-eyed look of horror at Adele.
Adele grinned and then whispered loudly, “Sneaky, isn’t he? For a big guy?”
“I’ll say,” Hannah said and turned around.
Tate’s eyes latched on to hers, an amused grin playing on his handsome face along with something else. Something that looked like interest and sent her pulse officially racing. As embarrassed as she was, at least she managed to eke a bit of satisfaction out of the fact that she’d finally made him smile without even trying.
Laughter laced his tone. “Can I help you with something, Hannah?”
“Um, no...I was just... Hello, Tate.” She gestured at Adele. “This is my cousin and—”
Tate smiled in Adele’s direction. “I know. Hi, Adele.”
“You do?”
