Snowbound with Mr. Wrong (Snowflake Valley)

by Barbara White Daille

  After another deep breath, a shaky one this time, she smiled softly. “I love you, and I have almost since the day I met you. You have to know that. And I want us to have a second chance.”

  Before he could respond or she could continue, a loud banging noise erupted from the front of the house. Out in the living room, Tommy shrieked.

  Lyssa gasped. “What—?”

  Nick laughed. “Either Santa came early and forgot about the chimney, or there’s someone pounding on the front door.”

  Nick had been right—again.

  Lyssa had followed him into the living room, where they discovered the knock at the door had been her sister Callie’s, announcing the arrival of Snowflake Valley’s emergency rescue team and the snowmobiles that would take them all safely down the mountain.

  “We’re going to get you out of here,” Callie told them.

  “Good,” Tommy said. “I want to go home. Now.”

  Lyssa nodded. “You will, sweetie. In just a few minutes.”

  Though she returned Callie’s enthusiastic hug, she had never before had such mixed feelings about seeing a member of her family. Or about being rescued.

  The team had arrived at a terrible time.

  Nick hadn’t responded to the proposition she had made to him in the kitchen. Not one word about the offer she had made to try again. Granted, they hadn’t had any time alone together since then. But to her dismay, even before they had left the kitchen, she had lost his attention. She had almost seen his mind ticking away as he switched into fixer mode, focusing on their return to their everyday—and separate—worlds.

  “I’m counting heads based on what Amber told me,” Callie said. “Aren’t we missing someone? I thought Mollie was here with you.”

  “She went upstairs,” Brent said.

  “She was ma-a-a-d,” Tommy added. “My mommy would yell at her, ’cause she stomped up the stairs and slammed the door.”

  Callie’s eyebrows rose. The two men on the rescue team exchanged a glance.

  “Don’t worry. It’s fine,” Lyssa said. “She was just a little upset about something. I’ll talk to her.” She looked at Nick. “Why don’t you go with the first run? Your ankle’s fine. You could take Tommy on one of the snowmobiles.”

  She forced a smile, hoping no one could tell, but Callie, who stood beyond Nick, shifted abruptly. In a quick glance, Lyssa saw her sister’s eyes narrow. Callie knew something was wrong.

  Resolutely, Lyssa focused on Nick again. “Once you get down into the valley, you’ll have phone service again and can make your phone call to your client. Maybe you’ll even still be able to get to San Diego to help save him from himself.”

  He shook his head. “That’s okay. I’ll stick around and talk to Mollie.”

  For a moment, surprise stunned her into silence. She had been so sure he would jump at the chance to leave. “I don’t know if that’s a good—”

  “Miss Lyssa, I want to go with you. And I want to go now.”

  “You take Tommy home,” Nick said. “I’ll stay.”

  “Me, too,” Brent said. “I’ll wait with Nick.”

  “That’s a good plan,” Callie said. She gestured toward her two team members. “Lyssa, you and Tommy can go with them. Then, when they come back, we’ll have transportation for three. I’ll stay here in case Mollie needs another female to talk to.”

  Lyssa wanted to object. Now that Nick had shown he didn’t plan to leave Snowflake Valley at his first chance possible, she longed to hear him say that he had chosen to stay for her. She wanted to hear his response to the proposition she had made.

  But she couldn’t argue with her sister in front of everyone. Besides, knowing how Mollie must feel about catching Nick kissing her, she would be the last person Mollie would want to talk to. And considering Callie was Mollie’s teacher, it only made sense for Callie to stay.

  “All right,” she said. “Let me just run and get a few things.” She hurried upstairs and hesitated outside her bedroom long enough to glance toward the closed door down the hall. The slammed door, according to Tommy’s report, backed up by Brent’s affirmative nod. No, it truly didn’t make sense for her to stay with Mollie or even for her to check in on her now.

  She quickly grabbed her purse. In a few days, she would come back to wash the clothes and linens they had used and to straighten up the rest of the house. She couldn’t leave all that for Amber to do.

  At the top of the stairs, she saw Nick below, making his way up. She froze, one hand clutching her purse and the other holding onto the banister.

  Nick came to the top of the stairs and stopped beside her.

  “Are you sure you don’t want to change your mind?” she asked. “Callie can talk to Mollie. She’s Mollie’s teacher, you know that.”

  I love you… You have to know that.

  He hadn’t responded to her declaration, either, before jumping into fixer mode in the kitchen.

  She blinked and mentally shoved the memory away.

  “I’m fine,” he said. “You go ahead with them. Then you’ll still have time to get to your shop before it closes. After three days away, and with this being Christmas Eve, you must want to check up on things.”

  She froze. She had wanted to believe she was wrong about him. But this proved just how right she’d been.

  They had come close…so close…to an understanding. Or so she had thought. But again, she had been right the first time. Of course at this moment Nick would think of her job. He would always think first of work and money. Nothing had changed between them. And despite all her hopes and dreams, nothing ever would.

  “What happened to compromise?” she asked sadly.

  “I am compromising.” He smiled. “I’m thinking of you.”

  “No, you’re not. All you’re doing is reverting to your problem-solving mode.”

  “Well, yeah. I’m being logical and practical. It’s what I do.”

  She sighed. “Right. You’re logical and practical. I believe in magic and Christmas miracles. No wonder we can’t meet in the middle.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Nick paced the living room of the lodge in frustration.

  Why did it seem that this simple trip to Snowflake Valley to play Santa again had created more complications in his life than he’d ever had to deal with before? And why couldn’t he seem to get a handle on most of them? He lived to solve complications.

  Having Tommy believe he truly was Santa had turned out to be the least of his problems.

  Upstairs a few minutes earlier, Mollie had refused to answer his knock on her door, refused even to respond to his asking if she was all right. She had to be inside the room. It would be too coincidental to have two kids deliberately disappear on the same day—unless they were in collusion with one another.

  He couldn’t believe that. But he’d come to believe Lyssa was right. Mollie had developed a schoolgirl crush on him. He just hoped discovering him kissing Lyssa hadn’t scarred the kid for life.

  Instead of resolving the situation with the girl, he’d had to throw up his hands, throw in the towel, and let Lyssa’s sister, Callie, take over. Not the best situation for a professional troubleshooter to find himself in.

  And Lyssa… Lyssa, with her insistence on the magic and miracles of Christmas, had created the biggest complication of all. The biggest stumbling block to his successful attempt to… To what?

  Before he could figure out just what it was he wanted, he heard Callie’s footsteps on the stairs.

  Immediately, he stopped his pacing, dropped onto the couch, and grabbed a magazine from the coffee table. By the time she had entered the living room, he hoped he was managing to convey the impression of the calm, collected, rational thinker he had always been instead of the confused, conflicted man Lyssa had turned him into.

  “How’d it go?” he asked.

  Callie took the chair across from him. “Fairly well. Mollie seems to have calmed down. Just a case of preteen hormones going haywire, I th
ink. When it comes to male-female relationships, it’s not easy being a ten-year-old girl.”

  Or an adult male.

  “She gave me an earful, though,” she continued, “about what’s been going on around here.” She eyed him as if he’d done something worthy of jail time.

  “There’s nothing going on. All I did was kiss the woman I… I kissed a woman I used to date.”

  “Did she kiss you back?”

  “Yes,” he snapped. “What do you think, I forced myself on her? Just what the heck did Mollie have to say?”

  Callie grinned. “She didn’t say anything about your kissing Lyssa. You volunteered the info. And that was my question about her kissing you back. Because chances are good Lyssa won’t tell me what’s going on.”

  “Neither will I.”

  Now she laughed outright. “You just did, Nick.”

  He clamped his jaw tight.

  “Come on, now, don’t clam up on me. And don’t try to keep denying there’s anything going on. I’ve honed my lie-detection skills on fourth graders. Trust me, if I can see through them, I can see through you. Besides, that little slip you almost made told me a lot more than you probably expect it did. Why don’t you tell me the rest?”

  “There’s nothing to tell.”

  “Right. You two broke up months ago. Now you’re kissing Lyssa. She’s kissing you. There’s got to be something more to this story.”

  “There isn’t, except that she’s got to be the most stubborn woman I’ve ever met.”

  “I won’t argue with that. Sometimes, I think stubbornness runs in our family. And Lyssa got her fair share.” She settled back in her chair and crossed her legs at the ankles. “You might as well talk to me. Mollie’s still up in her room. Brent’s in the kitchen having a snack. It’s just you and me here, and we’ve got lots of time to kill.”

  He shrugged. He didn’t want to tell tales out of school—an appropriate phrase, considering Callie was a teacher. “I feel as though I’ve been called on the carpet in the principal’s office.”

  “Then, it’s probably time to get things off your chest and ’fess up.”

  Not going to happen.

  Besides, what did he have to confess? Lyssa claimed they couldn’t meet in the middle. Yet finding the middle ground of a situation was what he did best. His job was who he was.

  No, the truth had to be she didn’t want to compromise.

  I love you… You have to know that.

  How could he know? He was more than willing to meet her halfway, yet no matter what she had said about working together, she wouldn’t move an inch closer to him. And, just as he’d said to Callie about kissing Lyssa, he wouldn’t force himself on her.

  Negotiation is all in the timing, he’d told Lyssa. You had to get a feel for the other party, had to give in order to get. It couldn’t hurt right this minute. As Lyssa’s older sister, Callie would have to have some insight into what made Lyssa tick.

  Shaking his head, he confessed, “For someone who makes his living talking people out of trouble, I’m doing a poor job at saving my own skin.”

  “It’s not easy being called on the carpet.”

  “It’s not easy figuring out your sister. I’ve finally discovered she’s got this thing about spending money on Christmas gifts.”

  “You mean about not wanting to spend money on them. I’m sure you’ve also discovered she feels that way about everything.”

  “Yeah. And I found out the hard way.”

  “Sorry. But don’t take it personally. It’s just part of who she is. For one thing, she’s very much into crafts and homemade gifts and making things from scratch.”

  “Yeah, since we’ve been here at the lodge, I found that out, too.”

  “I saw that you did.” She looked at the pile of handmade stockings on the nearby chair and smiled. “I’m into all the homemade things, too. But for Lyssa it’s more than just a love of crafts.” She took a deep breath and let it out again. “Our family went through a rough time when we were kids. My mom had gotten sick and my dad had to work two jobs, and there still wasn’t enough money coming in to cover all the medical expenses.”

  “Lyssa mentioned money being tight.” She hadn’t said a word about her mom being sick, though. There was a lot she hadn’t said to him.

  And even more he hadn’t said to her.

  “She told me she first took the job at Holidaze to help out your family.”

  “Right.” Callie leaned forward, propped her elbows on her knees, and met his gaze. “Let me tell you a few more things about Lyssa.”

  …

  The bell over Holidaze’s entrance rang out. Lyssa started and glanced up in anticipation, as she had done ever since she’d stepped into the store a couple of hours ago. Once again, she faced bitter disappointment—though she could hardly say that to Callie, who had just entered on a whoosh of cold air and slammed the door closed behind her.

  And she could not—would not—ask Callie about Nick.

  After delivering Tommy to his mother and making a quick trip to see her own mom, Lyssa had come to work, after all. Holidaze was home away from home for her. As always, the cozy front room filled with the scents of cinnamon, cloves, and pine wrapped itself around her in welcome…almost the way Nick had wrapped her in the warm woolen blanket to pull her close for a kiss…

  She didn’t want to think about that kiss.

  She didn’t want to think about the one they had shared that afternoon at the lodge, either.

  When she and Tommy had put on their jackets to go with the rescue team, Nick had walked away. She couldn’t help feeling crushed. He had left the room without giving her even a backward glance…just as she had done when she’d broken up with him last summer.

  Immediately, she felt both empty and selfish. His concern for the kids—his interest in Brent’s future, his search for Tommy and the discussion she had overheard them having about Santa, his willingness to stay behind to talk to Mollie—all proved he was a good man.

  A very good man…even though he had ignored her offer to try again. His silence then, his absence now, both proved he didn’t want anything from her but a few stolen kisses.

  With an effort, she broke off her meandering thoughts to greet her sister.

  “I’m sorry we didn’t get to talk much earlier,” Callie said, giving her a quick hug. “I’m glad you’re safe and home again.”

  “Thanks to you.”

  “And the rest of the team. They got Brent and Mollie back home, too.” She shook her head. “What an adventure that must have been being snowbound at the lodge! I didn’t get to talk to Mollie for very long, either, but I’m sure I’ll hear more about everything next time I see her.”

  “You probably will.” Wondering just what stories the little girl would tell made her want to cringe. To distract herself from the thoughts, she picked up another raffia ribbon and tied it around a handful of cinnamon sticks studded with cloves. Even after Christmas, the spice bouquet was a popular last-grab purchase at the cash register.

  Funny…she’d criticized Nick for always having his mind on the job, yet here she was doing the same thing. Except, her attention to duty was only a way to keep herself from thinking of him. Wasn’t it?

  “I’ll bet you’re glad to be at work and back to normal.”

  “Yes,” she agreed, though she felt anything but normal.

  On this busiest day of the year at the store—in all of Snowflake Valley, for that matter—she had found herself wishing she could be somewhere else. With someone else.

  She had encouraged Nick to leave to take care of business. Yet in her heart she had hoped he would solve his client’s problems with a phone call, then cancel his plans of a flight to San Diego and stay in the valley with her.

  Why had she been foolish enough to think he would want to pick up where they had left off? Why had she considered he might have a change of heart and follow her here to Holidaze?

  “I’m headed home,” Callie told her.
“With Amber on hand and the twins in from school, Mom said she’s got enough helpers for the party tonight, so I’m planning to go jump in the shower.” The Barnetts traditionally hosted an open house on Christmas Eve. “Are you closing soon? You’ll want to have time to shower, too, before you change into your party clothes, won’t you?”

  “Yes, I will. And I’ll probably have to wait in line.” While independent Amber had a small apartment in town, she and Callie still lived at home with their parents and younger sisters and brothers.

  She glanced at the wall clock behind the counter, an Alpine cuckoo clock that chimed the quarter and half hours, with a cuckoo making its appearance to announce the hours. The store stayed open later on Christmas Eve, but she had rung up the last purchase a few minutes ago, and she and Callie were alone.

  “Maybe you ought to wear your elf costume,” Callie teased, “since you’ve spent so much time with Santa lately.”

  “Very funny. And I don’t intend to wear that outfit ever again.”

  “I hear Santa liked you in it.”

  She held her hand palm out toward Callie, warning her the subject was off-limits.

  Undaunted, Callie laughed. “Come on, Lyssa. Amber said Nick couldn’t keep his eyes off you all during the party. So, fill me in. After all, you were snowbound with the hunk for days. Something must have happened.”

  “Nothing good,” she snapped.

  Callie’s smile slid away. She put a hand on Lyssa’s arm. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have teased you like that. I just thought, from what Amber said, you and Nick might have gotten back together.”

  “What Amber said? Such as…?”

  “Well, I guess as the big sister I should be the one to break the news. She said from what she could see, you’re in love with the man.”

  “How did she see that?” She stopped, sucked in a deep breath, and tried again. “I mean, I’m not. So what gave her that idea?”