by Loree Lough
Once it sells? Sam thought, gasping audibly as Olive gave Bryce another nudge that put him on the sidewalk. “Come back at noon,” she said as he grinned and backpedaled toward the curb, “and maybe we’ll let you buy us lunch at The Coffee Cart.” After flipping the CLOSED sign to OPEN, she faced Sam. “I take it he didn’t tell you the job is short-term.”
It was all Sam could do to squeak a quiet “no” past her lips. The hotel was out of the question—unless they had an opening for a maid—and now this news? She’d promised to call home tonight. What would she tell her family? “Just how short-term?”
Olive waved the question away. “Don’t you worry your pretty head about it, Sammie-girl. Bryce thinks he’s gonna sell this place, but no way that’s gonna happen. He can’t sell it, not only because it’s the only tie he has to his mom and dad, but because the real estate market just plain stinks right now. And we won’t even begin to list the mountain of bills my brother and his addle-brained wife saddled the poor boy with.” She winked. “You’ll see. In no time, he’ll come to his senses and stop pretending he wants to put a ‘For Sale’ sign in the window.”
If Sam could believe that, maybe the lump in her throat would dissolve. “How can you be so sure?”
“Honey, that boy’s the closest thing to a son this ol’ gal will ever have. My brother and sister-in-law were nothing but a couple of silly hippies, I don’t mind telling you. Always on the lookout for the next get-rich-quick scheme. No wonder they died poor as church mice.” Olive cocked her head and grinned. “Church mice, indeed,” she echoed. “One of these days, I’m going to look up that phrase and find out what it really means.” Dusting chubby hands together, Olive said, “Follow me, sweetie.” And with that, she led the way into the back room again.
Oh, Lord, Sam prayed, please don’t let this be a temporary assignment. Or else her brothers would never let her live it down!
“Samantha Sinclair, I want you to stop looking so worried,” Olive said, shaking a finger under Sam’s nose. “You’re as safe as a baby in her mama’s arms.”
Sam shot Olive a half grin. “Baby, eh? Maybe that’s why I feel like crying.”
“Bryce doesn’t know it yet, but you’re the one who’s going to teach him that he loves North Pole and that he doesn’t hate Christmas, either.”
“What! Hate Christmas? How can anyone hate Christmas? It’s my all-time favorite holiday!”
“Newsflash,” Olive said. “He doesn’t like chocolate, either.”
“Good grief. Are you sure he’s human?”
Laughing, Olive explained how everything was falling into place just in time for her trip.
“By the way, I haven’t told that jarhead nephew of mine the real reason I’m leaving town.
“Jarhead? So I was right,” Sam said, mostly to herself. “I thought he had a soldier look about him….”
Olive’s pride was evident when she said, “Nearly ten years of ‘soldiering,’ I’ll have you know.”
“What happened to his eye?”
“One of his men stepped on a land mine, and Bryce put himself between it and the other guys.”
Sam gasped again as the image of a fiery explosion flashed in her mind. “Oh, my. How awful for him.”
“He saved nearly twenty men, but all he remembers is the one he couldn’t save.” Shaking her head, Olive sighed. “Shrapnel carved up his face but good and left him blind in that eye.”
“Poor guy. I feel so bad for him.”
“Me, too. But don’t make the mistake of letting Bryce hear you say that. He firmly disapproves of self-pity.”
Sam pictured the strong, manly face with its open, honest smile…and the ragged scar that crossed from his eyebrow to his cheek. “How long ago did it happen?”
“Just over a year, now. I’ve never had the heart to ask if it’s the reason he didn’t re-enlist—or if Debbie had something to do with it.”
“Debbie?”
Nodding, Olive handed Sam a clipboard and a pen. “I’ll read what’s on the bill of lading, you count how many of these ornaments we have on the shelves.” Then, “Debbie was his fiancée. It nearly broke his heart when she called things off.”
“It’s a good thing I didn’t pry, then.”
“Knowing Bryce, he would have danced all around the question, even if you had. Most of what I know about the ‘wounded in battle’ part of his life, I learned by telephone from the doctors at the Walter Reed in D.C.”
So he was the strong silent type, was he? Well, nothing wrong with that, especially compared to Joey’s never-ending whiny need to be the center of attention.
“So what’s it like growing up in a houseful of kids?” Olive wanted to know. “I just had the one brother, myself.”
“Never a dull moment. Never a quiet one, either.”
“I imagine it was tough, finding any privacy.”
“Oh, once in a while the boys plucked my nerves,” she admitted, “but mostly it was a wonderful, loving experience.”
Sam told Olive about Bill, who’d been more a best friend than a brother, and how just one year in Iraq had changed him in every conceivable way. And during the next two hours, as the women unpacked shipments, logged merchandise into the computer, and gave each article its own price tag, Sam had told Olive about the rest of her brothers, her parents, and her grandparents.
“You know what?” Olive asked. “I believe it’s our good fortune that Dan Brooks has a giant dollar sign where his heart oughta be. Everybody in town knows what a skinflint that boy can be, but I’d stake my reputation he hired his nephew for no reason other than it would save him money. So his loss is Rudolph’s gain.”
Sam grinned. “Think he’s the type to admit he’s wrong when his nephew messes up?” That sure would solve the problem of where she’d work if Olive was wrong and Bryce really did intend to sell the place.
“No question in my mind he’ll come to you, hat in hand, if the boy messes up.” Olive gave Sam a playful elbow to the ribs. “But he’ll sing every sad song ever written to convince you to work for next to nothing.” Bending at the waist, she leaned both palms on her knees and laughed, long and hard. “I just got a picture of him getting his first look at you. Oh my,” she added, fingers fanning her face. “Then he’ll have two reasons to be sorry!”
Straightening, Olive winced and patted her growling tummy. “Gotta quit skippin’ breakfast.” And in the next blink, she was smiling again. “Hopefully by the time that pinchpenny Brooks realizes he passed over the prettiest girl in North Pole for that li’l whippersnapper, my hard-headed nephew will have fallen baseball cap over loafers in love with you.”
Love? Sam repeated mentally. She’d only met Bryce yesterday, for heaven’s sake! And he was her boss, after all. Besides, she’d barely put the Joey fiasco behind her. No way she intended to go down Romance Row again. At least, not this soon. “No offense,” she began, “but I’m not in the least bit interested in a relationship right now.” Sam paused. “In fact, I may never be interested in a man again.”
“Aww, some cad broke your heart, eh?”
Just as Bryce preferred not to discuss his battle scars, Sam didn’t like talking about her most recent failure with the opposite sex. Especially not Joey Michaels, who’d led her to believe that “happily ever after” could happen in real life and not just in fairy tales. She’d devoted herself to helping him build his construction company. When she wasn’t at work or school, Sam could be found in his basement office drumming up business, finding innovative ways to get him a little free publicity, designing mailers and brochures, business cards and letterhead, furnishing and decorating his office, and taking great pains to ensure he’d look presentable and professional on every possible level. Sam had refused to accept a salary, too, even though she usually clocked twenty hours weekly on top of her other job and college schedule…believing that someday, the company they’d built together would support their growing family. Their hard work paid off, too, and before long, Michaels Co
nstruction had more work than she and Joey could handle. It had been Sam who’d placed an ad and interviewed candidates to take over her duties when graduation and final exams loomed, so didn’t she feel like the little ninny when, three months later, Joey announced he’d fallen in love with her replacement.
“Cat got your tongue?” Olive asked.
“No. Sorry. My mind’s just wandering, I guess.”
Sam’s brothers had often teased her, saying, “Whatever’s in your head is written all over your face!” But she’d managed to balance work and daydreaming before. Hopefully, Olive wouldn’t see what her brothers had.
“What’s his name?”
“Joey,” she said, forcing a grin. She didn’t even need to close her eyes to remember how he’d blamed her for the breakup, saying that if she’d spent less time at school and more time with him…
“Take it from a gal who knows, sweetie. When the man God has chosen for you comes along, you’ll forget all about this Joey character.”
“Yeah, and I guess I’ve come to the right place,” she said, laughing. “I read there are five men to every woman in Alaska.”
“Hmpf,” Olive snorted. “Just another one of those crazy rumors that goes around so many times it sounds authentic. Way out there in the boonies, that might be true, but then isn’t the same thing true for every other state in the U.S.?” Softening her tone, she patted Sam’s hand. “All you need is one man, Sammie-girl. The right one.”
Sam wondered where Olive had picked up such wisdom when it came to relationships, because hadn’t Bryce mentioned that she’d never married? As if to answer Sam’s unspoken question, Olive continued.
“Just because no man has put a ring on my finger doesn’t mean I haven’t come close a time or three,” she said, winking again. And handing Sam the last of the Christmas music boxes they’d been cataloguing, she whispered, “Can you keep a secret?”
Sam’s mood brightened. “I love secrets, especially when they don’t involve me!”
Olive glanced right and left to assure herself the coast was clear. “When I leave for Florida in a couple weeks, it’ll be for my honeymoon.”
Though Sam barely knew this woman, her heart overflowed with joy on Olive’s behalf, mostly because of the happiness radiating from Olive’s dark eyes. “Oh, that’s wonderful news! But…why keep it so hush-hush?”
Smile fading, Olive shook her head. “Bryce has been through a lot these past half dozen years or so. First, he lost his best friend in Iraq, then his parents, then came the awful breakup with Debbie and the injury….”
“Oh, poor Bryce!” No doubt misplaced guilt was responsible for his sad-eyed look, because he blamed himself for not saving the soldier who’d died the day he lost his sight.
“Right, and that, too,” Olive said.
“What, too?”
When Olive repeated what Sam had been thinking, almost word for word, she said, “I hope you won’t take this the wrong way, but you’re one spooky lady, Olive Stone. That isn’t the first time you’ve read my mind!”
“Pish posh,” she said, waving Sam’s comment away. “I did no such thing. I just pay attention is all.”
“Very close attention, obviously!”
But Olive didn’t seem to have heard her. “People think I can read minds because I notice nuances, subtle little things that most folks miss. Like the way you looked just now when I mentioned what Bryce went through. I don’t suppose you even realized that you touched your left eye when I made that short list of what he survived, did you?”
“No,” Sam admitted, “I didn’t.”
“So tell me, sweetie, where are you living now that you’re a fully employed North Pole resident?”
Talk about an abrupt conversation turn! “In my RV.” Sam explained how she’d sold her townhouse, her furniture, and her car to buy the RV and fund her trip West. “I have permission to park behind the hotel, at least until I find other arrangements. I saw in the paper that there’s a campground not far from here.”
“I can top that.” Olive paused. “There’s an apartment right upstairs.”
That captured Sam’s full attention. “How much is the rent?”
“There isn’t any. It’s there for the sole purpose of housing the manager of Rudolph’s.”
“But…you don’t live there?”
“Heavens no! I moved into the apartment over the garage years ago, and I’ve got it all fixed up, just the way I like it.” She gave Sam another gentle nudge. “Besides, soon I’ll be living in a pretty little house on the edge of town.” Grabbing a key ring from the cash register drawer, she said, “C’mon. I’ll show you the apartment.”
In minutes, Sam found herself in the middle of a cozy one-bedroom apartment that included a fully stocked kitchen and an old-fashioned claw-foot bathtub. “It’s…it’s just adorable,” she said, peering out the window at the brightly decorated street below. Then, pointing at the opposite end of the kitchen, “What’s through that door?”
“Bryce’s apartment. These units share the kitchen, but otherwise, you’ll have complete privacy.” She put an arm around Sam’s shoulders. “I sure hope knowing your boss is just a hop, skip, and a jump away won’t be a deal breaker….”
Sam didn’t know what to say. She loved the place and everything about it, right down to the braided rugs on the polished hardwood floors and the overstuffed plaid chair across from the TV. But sharing a room as important as the kitchen with her…with her boss? “I–I don’t know….”
“If it’s any consolation, the boy never cooks. Only time he’ll be in there is to make himself a cup of coffee in the morning. And if I know him, once he gets his workshop all set up, he’ll put a pot out there and he won’t use this one at all.” Olive chuckled. “Unless of course you want him to. I’m sure he wouldn’t turn down a home-cooked meal now and then.” She shrugged. “If you get bored and feel like cooking, that is.”
The place couldn’t be more perfect. “I suppose I could try it out, at least for a while, see how things work out.” She shrugged. “Worst case scenario, I can always move back into the RV. According to the ad in the North Pole News, the campground is fully equipped.”
“True…but then you’d need to buy a car. You’re hale and hearty, but it’s still a long hike. And walking will be near impossible once the bad weather sets in. Besides,” she tacked on, “have you ever tried to heat one of those tin cans when it’s thirty below and the winds are blowing at forty miles an hour?”
No, Sam admitted to herself, she hadn’t. In fact, she hadn’t even given it a thought. Her plan had involved moving into the room provided by the hotel as part of her salary and selling the RV so she could buy a used car and open a bank account. But Dan Brooks had completely rearranged all that.
Olive dangled the keys in front of Sam’s nose and let out a merry giggle. “Seriously, Sam. Just think how nice it’ll be, living just steps from your place of employment, when Old Man Winter takes control of this town.”
As though hypnotized, Sam stared at the reindeer-shaped key ring that held two shiny keys. “It’s tempting, I’ll give you that.” It would take no time to pack the few articles of clothing she’d boxed up for her trip. If she could find a safe, out-of-the-way place to park her RV—
“Why not park the big ugly thing beside the garage?” Olive answered Sam’s thoughts again. “Nobody ever goes back there, so there’s plenty of room. And that way you’ll be nice and close to give tours when prospective buyers stop by to see it.”
Had recent events turned her into a suspicious woman, or had Olive actually thought of every possible detail that would keep Sam closer to Bryce?
“You can hardly blame me,” Olive said, “for wanting to make sure the boy’s happy and settled before I start my new life.” She aimed her pointer finger at Sam. “I’m counting on you to keep that little tidbit of information to yourself, don’t forget….”
Sam pretended to zip her lip. “When will you tell him?”
&nbs
p; “Soon.”
“Has he met your fiancé?”
“No one has. Yet.” She giggled like a schoolgirl. “I had to close the store this past winter so Miranda Electric could replace the ancient wiring, so I booked a cruise to pass the time. Turned out, Duke was assigned to my dining table.” Blushing, Olive clasped both hands at her waist. “We’ve met a couple dozen times since—long weekends when I convinced Sally Mae to run the place for me—so I could visit him at his ranch. And we talk on the phone, couple times a day. And of course, there’s email…”
“So he’s a cowboy, is he?”
Another giggle. “Can you believe it? Until a few weeks ago, he owned one of the biggest cattle ranches near Amarillo.” Olive shook her head as if unable to believe it herself. “He sold it to his son and daughter-in-law for a song, said he’d much rather spend his golden years here, with me.” Another glance toward the door seemed to assure Olive that she and Sam were alone. “We bought an old house at the end of Santa Clause Lane, and we’ve already picked out a name for the place: Duke and Duchess Bed and Breakfast. That’s what he calls me,” she said, her blush deepening, “that silly wonderful romantic man.” She giggled yet again. “Duke says with my cooking skills and his people skills, we’ll make out like bandits.”
“Oh, Olive,” Sam gushed, hugging her. “I’m so happy for you!”
“He’s the answer to all my prayers, Sam. I’ve waited a lifetime for a man like him.”
Suddenly, what Olive had said earlier made perfect sense now. Maybe the day would come when Sam would forget all about Joey and everything he’d done to hurt her.
“Just put your faith in the Lord, sweetie. I’m living proof He won’t let you down.” Olive mussed Sam’s thick curls. “But I’ll pray He won’t make you wait till you’re in your fifties to find Mr. Right, like He did me!”
The bells above the big green door jingled and a rich baritone called out, “You ladies ready for lunch?”
“Well,” Sam said with a glance at the clock, “I don’t know yet if he’s Mr. Right, but he’s surely Mr. Right-on-Time!”
