by Mary Leo
Tears fell freely down her cheeks.
She sucked in a deep breath and he watched as she tried to wipe the tears away with her fingers. Everything in him wanted to cradle her in his arms and tell her he was there for her, but reason told him she wouldn’t accept his embrace...at least not yet.
“Bella, I’m sorry you lost your mom last year. Losing a parent is never easy.”
“Thanks. Even though I’m mad at her right now for taking me away, I miss her like crazy. She was the one person I could always turn to for advice. I miss her hugs the most. She had a way of wrapping me in her arms so I felt safe and protected. My mom was a strong woman. Maybe a little too strong at times. She kept me away from my dad for no good reason, and I don’t know if I can ever forgive her for that... Divorce sucks.”
“Losing a parent, no matter what the reason, sucks.”
She pulled the truck up in front of Dream Weaver Inn, turned off the ignition, hesitated before she told him goodnight and left him sitting there. Emotion overtook him as he watched the love of his life walk into the inn and close the door behind her.
He knew there was no hope for any kind of reconciliation at this point. If she hadn’t turned to him now, she probably never would. As much as it tore his heart apart, he knew it was time to let her go.
* * *
BELLA SPENT MOST of the night coming to terms with everything she’d learned about her dad and his girlfriend, about her mom and about Travis. Now, as sunshine poured in through the windows in her room, all Bella wanted to do was heal from the emotional roller coaster she’d been on ever since she’d arrived in Briggs.
Bella couldn’t think of anything other than what a dope she’d been all these years. She felt as though she’d been living in an acceptance bubble and had never tried to step outside of it. Why she hadn’t questioned anything her mom told her was beyond comprehension, and now that she was gone, Bella would never get to tell her just how much pulling her away from Briggs because of her mom’s own fears had really hurt.
She showered, dressed and hurried down to the kitchen to grab a quick breakfast. The inn was eerily quiet and gave her a chill as she walked along the deserted hallway knowing that every room was now vacant. Even when she was a little girl and times got rough, the inn was never completely empty. There were always at least one or two rooms occupied. The knowledge that she and her dad were possibly the only two people in the building sent a jolt of fear through her. Fear that the final sale could actually be real. That the inn would finally belong to someone else and that someone else wouldn’t be a person, but a corporation.
That realization wasn’t sitting well with her on this fine Briggs morning, especially when she caught sight of a good portion of the town folk out the side window carving snow in the empty lot next door. It had snowed again last night, at least another three or four inches, which seemed to add to the event going on right outside the kitchen window.
Bella immediately spotted Amanda with her pink hair and her loving husband, Milo, close by, along with most of the Granger clan, including Travis. Dusty Spenser and his wife were out there along with almost everyone else she’d seen at Belly Up. They all seemed to be having a good time carving everything from teddy bears to entire towns out of huge squares of snow, some of them taller than the carvers.
Everyone thoroughly enjoying the magical moments of Christmas.
Everyone except Bella.
As she watched half the town out there in the snow, while she stood inside, alone in the kitchen, she allowed herself to feel the longing once again for her hometown. She concentrated on her emotions, on her nostalgia while the coffeepot gurgled out its remaining liquid, while she scrambled two eggs, buttered a piece of toast then sat on the chair next to the table to eat what she’d prepared. And she realized how much she longed to be outside with everyone else, to be part of the snow-sculpting contest, to be part of her hometown, Briggs, Idaho.
Maybe it wasn’t too late....
“All signed on the dotted line.” Her father’s voice echoed through the kitchen as he dropped the stack of papers on the table in front of Bella. She hadn’t heard him come in and his voice had startled her.
He came around the table and leaned on the counter in front of her as she found composure and reason.
“What do you mean? When did you sign these?”
She fanned through the pages and sure enough, there was his familiar illegible signature scrawled on every page on the highlighted lines.
“The first night you arrived.”
She gazed up at him, unable to grasp what he’d said. Her dad was dressed in a navy wool coat. A black knit hat concealed his hair, creased jeans covered his long legs and brown snow boots were on his feet. His nose was still pink from the cold.
“What? These have been signed the whole time?”
“Of course they have. I just thought you might change your mind if you hung around awhile and saw what you were missing. I took a chance, but I can see now, that was a pointless idea.”
Looking back, Bella wished he’d given them to her right away. She’d rather have kept her emotions hidden and flown back to Chicago in a blissful real-estate high than be second-guessing herself like she’d been all morning.
“Why didn’t you give them to me that first night? We could be sitting pretty right now on a sandy beach.”
“In Orlando?”
“Tampa.”
“Whatever.” He sat in the chair across from her at the table. “Honey, this is the most time I’ve spent with you in fifteen years. If I’d given them to you that first night, I’d be living on my own by now in some retirement home, trying to build up excitement about a round of golf.”
“We’ve barely seen each other.”
“But you were here, sleeping at the inn again, asking me for cinnamon milk, sharing a dinner at the Grangers’ and skating with Travis at Skaits. All the things you liked when you were a kid. Maybe now we can have a relationship, now that you know I’d do anything for you. I only hope you’ll have more time for me while I’m living in Orlando.”
She knew he was pulling her chain. “Dad.”
“Okay. Okay. Tampa. I don’t know the first thing about that part of Florida, but I’ll give it a whirl if it means you and I can have some fun together. Maybe play a little golf?”
“I’d like that.” She slid off her stool and hugged him, a real honest-to-goodness hug this time. “You’ll see. You’ll like it there. The condo I bought for you is fabulous. It’s on the seventh tee. You can see almost the entire course from your back patio.”
“Sounds great, really great.”
They pulled apart. “Did I detect some sarcasm there?”
“Me. No. Never. But what about Travis?”
“What about him?” Bella needed to dispel any hope her dad had that the two of them would somehow get together again.
“You and him gonna be friends or what? That man loves you. Always has, and probably always will.”
“We’re friends, but that’s it. I’ve changed so much since we were kids. If he is in love with me, which I doubt, he’s in love with the idea of me, not the real me.”
Nick smiled and shook his head. “I know that boy like he was my own son and you got him all wrong. Give him a chance. You might be surprised.”
She pulled away from her dad and sat back down on her stool, took a sip of her coffee and thought about what it would mean to have Travis Granger really in love with her.
“It would never work, Dad. I can’t live here, and he can’t live anywhere else but on the Granger ranch.”
“That may be true, sweetheart, but I know what I see. Two people who were meant to be together.”
“Exactly what I saw between you and Audrey. Why didn’t you tell me about her?”
“She’s none of your c
oncern.”
“Are you shutting me out?”
He stared at the floor for a moment, then back at Bella. “She’s a good friend, is all.”
“And you’re fine with leaving this so called ‘friend’ to move across the country.”
“If that’s what it takes for me to finally have a relationship with you, then yes. I’m ready to go.”
“Dad, don’t—”
“I’ve made up my mind. I lost you once. I’m not losing you again. Never mind about me. What about you and Travis? You really going to leave him again?”
Bella took a bite of her now cold eggs. “There’s nothing there to leave. All that romance stuff is fine for novels and movies but it’s not reality. We’re too different now.”
He shrugged. “That’s not how I see it.”
Bella didn’t want to talk about Travis anymore. “Shouldn’t you be out there carving a city or something?”
“I already finished. Travis told me what happened last night on the way home from dinner with the Grangers and I figured we were done trying to convince you to stay.”
“Is that what all this was about? You guys wanted me to stay?”
“Of course we did, sugar. Still do. He and I’ve been wanting you to stay ever since you arrived.”
* * *
TRAVIS HADN’T SEEN Bella all day. He’d been too busy running the snow-sculpting contest to call on her, and apparently she hadn’t cared enough to come looking for him, even though he was right outside her door. He thought he’d spotted her a couple times through the kitchen window watching some of the contestants while they worked, but she never made her presence known.
The contest had been a total success, with Amanda and Milo taking first prize with their rendition of Dream Weaver Inn. Travis thought the town gave it the blue ribbon for nostalgic reasons rather than for its detail and beauty. That win went to Phyllis Gabaur and her two grandkids who carved a miniature cowboy up on his horse. Phyllis tried to steal the blue ribbon, like she always did whenever she didn’t win it for whatever contest she entered, but this time her grandkids stopped her thieving ways.
In the end, everyone seemed happy and the sculptures would remain on display, illuminated by spotlights courtesy of the local fire department’s generators, until mid-January.
It had been a long day, and the night had only just begun. Travis contemplated grabbing a fast dinner in town when he spotted Bella standing in the town square. She watched as a line of children waited to talk to Santa-Milo. He sat in a giant red chair in the middle of a white gazebo strung with white lights as three elves, teens from the local high school, handed out homemade candy canes from the ladies of the Red Hat Society after each child sat on Santa’s lap. With the backdrop of all the twinkling lights on the row of pine trees that encircled the park, the lights and ornaments on the main tree, and all the people milling around her, Bella looked about as pretty as he’d ever seen her. She wore a white fuzzy knit hat, scarf and matching gloves. Her black coat was buttoned up tight, her jeans hugged her legs and her new calf-high gray boots, suitable for snow, made her appear taller than her actual height. He longed to walk right up to her, take her in his arms and kiss her. But he restrained himself and instead, smiled his welcome as he approached her knowing full well that any chance he had with her was over. Nick told him he’d signed the paperwork and given it to Bella that morning.
The defeat had saddened Travis more than he thought possible, but from the look on Nick’s face when he’d told Travis, it had torn him up even more.
Now, as Travis approached her and she turned toward him, a friendly smile creased her lips...probably due to her win with her dad. It occurred to Travis how different her reaction was compared to his and Nick’s and it reinstated what he already knew.
Bella Biondi had grown up city and wanted no part of country.
Amen to that.
“Is that Milo Gump playing Santa in the Gazebo?”
“Sure is.”
“It’s the perfect role for him. The town looks magical.”
“I don’t think I heard you right. Did you say the town looks magical?”
She nodded. “Yes. It’s lovely.”
He stared at her. “Just when I think I have you figured out, you say something like that.”
“What? Am I wrong?”
“No. Not at all. You finally said something...” But he stopped himself, not wanting to say what he was thinking. “I was going to grab a bite to eat. Want to join me?”
“Love to, thanks.”
They started walking across the street together as Travis contemplated this new situation with a Bella who seemed more like the laid-back girl he’d known rather than the obstinate woman he’d only recently met.
“Come to think of it, there are some really nice tasting booths in the square serving hot food. That might be more fun than sitting down to a regular meal. Are you up for it?”
“I’m up for anything.”
And with those words, Travis decided this must be how Bella reacted to getting her way. He wasn’t sure he liked the fact that she’d be leaving soon to close the deal on her father’s inn, but he sure liked the change in her personality as a result.
He decided to go with it and enjoy these final moments with her.
For the next hour, he and Bella tried various specialties from the different restaurants that were represented at the booths: fried calamari from Gino’s Fishy Fridays, sweet and sour pork from Wok n’ Roll, thick cut crispy fries from The Spud House, and a generous slice of Sweet Potato pie from The Pie Hole. They washed it all down with hot apple cider from Apple Ever After, a fresh-juice bar.
As they were finishing up Dodge and Edith strolled by and Bella made a point of apologizing to them. “I’m sorry I left so abruptly last night, but I—”
“No need to apologize for anythin’. You got a perfect right to do whatever it is you got a mind to do,” Dodge said as he gave her a tight hug.
Edith also gave her a hug. “It’s a beautiful night, now you two run along and have some fun.” She turned to Travis. “Isn’t it about time you pulled out that sleigh of yours?”
“I’d love to go for a ride,” Bella said.
Travis had planned on getting it out later that night, after he’d dropped off Bella, but looking at her smiling face, he couldn’t believe her response.
“Wait. Did you just say you’d like to go for a ride?”
Her face beamed. “Yep, seems like the perfect night for it.”
The sky sparkled with a million stars as a half-moon hung like a beacon over the Teton mountain range.
“Anything for you, darlin’.”
And they took off for the inn.
* * *
WHILE TRAVIS READIED the sleigh and horses, Bella went up to the main house. She wanted to slip on another sweater under her coat. She expected to see the inn in darkness, but instead it was ablaze with lights. Even the hokey life-size Santa and reindeer on the roof were lit and there was music and voices coming from the lobby.
A twinge of anger coursed through her veins as she approached the front door and saw a roomful of people gathered inside around her dad’s baby grand piano, but it quickly dissipated when she reminded herself she had the signed paperwork for the sale in her briefcase.
Truth be told, she wasn’t sure if the fact that the deal was going through made her happy or sad. If seeing her dad playing his piano again brought out more pain and heartache or made her happy.
All those years, lost. All those Christmases spent trying to ignore the holiday when Chicago’s Michigan Avenue turned into a virtual winter wonderland at Christmas. All that time she could have spent with her dad...stripped away from her by an overprotective mom.
She pushed open the front door and immediately her senses were ove
rloaded with childhood smells and sounds she’d long since forgotten. Cinnamon and pine permeated the air. The fireplace gave off the sweet scent of burning wood. The lights were dimmed and the tree sparkled. There had to be at least fifty people in the tiny room, all singing her favorite Christmas carol, “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas.”
Her eyes instantly misted over as she listened to the room filled with neighbors belting out the tune. She thought of all the times she and her dad had sat side by side at that piano singing that very song. They were good memories and now she added one more to the list...the last memory.
Audrey sat next to him on the piano bench, playing her part on the keys. They sang out the chorus, smiling at each other as if they knew each other’s nuances, as if they’d been intimate with each other. Up until last night, Bella never considered that her dad might be dating someone. Why hadn’t he told her? That would’ve changed everything. She had always pictured him a lonely older man, pining over his lost wife and child. Not a guy courting a woman from the next town.
A male voice somewhere behind her distracted her attention from her dad and the dark-haired beauty on the bench. “Too bad Nick’s daughter sold this inn right out from under him.”
A woman’s voice said, “I hear she’s a real Scrooge.”
Another man’s voice said, “How does someone kick out the guests and fire the entire staff just days before Christmas?”
“Someone who has no heart, that’s who,” the woman said.
“This town won’t be the same without Nick, and Nick won’t be the same without this town,” the first man added.
“I wish she’d never come home. She certainly doesn’t belong here anymore,” the woman remarked.
“That’s for sure,” yet another male voice said.
If Bella could snap her fingers and fly out of Briggs at that precise second, she would have. Everyone hated her, and with good reason. As she looked around at the smiling faces, and watched as her dad entertained everyone, for the first time since she left Briggs with her mom, she realized why her dad couldn’t have gone with them. Why he had insisted on staying and running the inn. Why he’d been pretending to drag his feet about signing the paperwork. Her dad was in love with the town, and when a man was in love, nothing else mattered.
