Mistletoe Cottage

by Debbie Mason

  Colleen snorted. “She’s his third wife…or is it his fourth? I’ve lost—”

  “You know darn well she’s his third wife.” Self-consciously, Kitty lifted a shoulder and said to Sophie, “He has a bit of the wanderlust. He’s an archaeologist. They’re living in Ireland at the moment.”

  “No excuse for him not to visit. We rarely see the boy. Barely know his girls,” Colleen grumbled then waved a dismissive hand. “Doesn’t matter. I took care of that problem months ago. But I want to prove to the mayor that she doesn’t need a bunch of high-end condos to revitalize the economy in Harmony Harbor. If I don’t put a stop to this nonsense, she’ll try and steal someone else’s property out from under them. We’re going to bring the manor and the town back to what they were in their heyday. And you’re going to tell us how to do that, Sophie DiRossi. So what’s the plan?”

  Kitty moved to the chair beside Sophie. She glanced at her mother-in-law when Colleen sighed then smiled at Sophie. “I have some ideas that I think will—”

  “For the love of all that is holy, Kitty. Give your brain a rest. The return of the Irish didn’t work.”

  “It wasn’t as successful as I had hoped, but I also came up with the idea to raffle off the cottage, and it’s doing very well. I think my new idea will too. Pirates.” She made a ta-da motion with her hands. When both Colleen and Sophie stayed silent, she did it again.

  Sophie cleared the nervous laughter from her voice before speaking. “I think that’s a great idea”—Colleen stared at her with her mouth half open—“for a theme night or even a weekend,” she added at the look of disappointment on Kitty’s face. “Once I’ve had a chance to go over occupancy rates in the last two years, the discounts, rebates, and override commissions you have in place with your distributors, as well as evaluate the manor’s online presence and guests’ feedback on TripAdvisor and Google Plus, I’ll be able to give you a detailed plan of action.”

  Kitty and Colleen stared at her.

  “Is something wrong?”

  Colleen grinned. “You’re the answer to my prayers, Sophie DiRossi. That’s what you are. You’ve taken a weight off my shoulders already. I don’t have to worry about Greystone with you at the helm. Kitty and I’ve done our best, but our hearts haven’t been in it since we lost Ronan, Mary, and Riley.”

  “Don’t worry, Colleen. There’s a lot we can do right away to motivate the staff and revitalize Greystone. The raffle’s a great start, but I’d like to come up with something in the next week to lift the manor’s profile in a wider market. Something that would draw attention from media outlets in Boston is what I’m looking for.”

  Colleen and Kitty shared a look.

  “Do you have an idea how we can do that?” Sophie asked. It was important that both Kitty and Colleen felt like they were a part of the changes. They might be happy with her taking over now, but she didn’t want them to start resenting her. Greystone wasn’t just a hotel; it was their home.

  “We had the perfect opportunity two months ago, but we had to pass. We didn’t have the energy to deal with everything Bethany was demanding. It’s a shame, though. A high-society wedding like that would have put us back on the map. If you’d only come home earlier, we would have jumped at the chance, dear,” Kitty said.

  Sophie was disappointed too. A high-profile wedding would have been just what they needed to jump-start cash flow.

  Colleen’s eyes roamed Sophie’s face, and then she gave a decisive nod and picked up the phone. “Don’t count us out yet, ladies. I have a feeling this is kismet. Michael, my boy, it’s GG. About your wedding…”

  Chapter Six

  Liam had two rules in his playbook that he hadn’t broken since he’d made the list after losing his mother and sister—keep it light and keep it simple. If you don’t get attached, you don’t get hurt. So for a guy who’d perfected the art of staying uninvolved, Liam knew he was in trouble the moment he offered to help out Sophie and take Mia with him. He shouldn’t be surprised. If there was one person in this world guaranteed to throw him off his game, it was Sophie DiRossi.

  When his dad told him GG planned to offer Sophie the manager’s position, that should have been Liam’s cue to get the hell out of Dodge. But no, the thought of going back to Ladder Company 39 before he got his head straight had worried him more than seeing Sophie again. Seeing her might have been okay. His hand up her skirt and his fingers skimming over an ass that was as shapely and perfect as he remembered…Yeah, so far from okay it wasn’t funny. Then he’d gone and made it worse by wrapping his belt around a waist his hand could span, standing close enough to see the yellow flecks in her golden brown eyes and smell her sweet vanilla scent.

  But it had always been more than Sophie’s pretty face, gorgeous eyes, and curvy body that had turned him on. She’d had this incredible warmth and energy about her that sucked people in. She never stopped doing and dreaming and made everyone around her feel like they could move mountains. Which meant trouble of another kind. If there was anyone who could convince GG and Kitty that they could turn Greystone around, it was Sophie. With her cheering them on, they wouldn’t listen to reason or his very real concerns.

  Just before he’d left his great-grandmother’s study to see Sophie dancing outside the door, he’d laid out his concerns about the generator. It needed to be replaced. And that was just one of many things that needed to be either replaced or repaired. Greystone was the mother of all money pits.

  If he was lucky, they wouldn’t be able to afford the going rate for a hotel manager, and Sophie would refuse the job. Maybe then they’d listen to him and accept the developer’s offer. He closed the study door. Mia tugged on his hand, reminding him that Sophie had more than herself to think about. She had a little girl to support. GG might not be able to offer the going rate, but there weren’t many jobs available in town that would pay better. Clearly luck was not something he had a lot of these days.

  Mia smiled up at him, her small fingers tightening around his. Yep, out of luck and in trouble. She’d be about as tough to resist as her mother. At the thought, he considered returning Mia to the study, but she was happily skipping alongside him, and he didn’t have the heart to disappoint her. Apparently GG’s attempts to browbeat Mia into speaking bothered Sophie more than her daughter.

  “Careful, sweetheart,” he said as she hopped down the steps leading into the lobby with its timber-vaulted ceiling and gray slate floor. An attractive woman with shoulder-length hair the color of a copper penny looked up from where she sat in one of the brown leather wingback chairs beside the massive stone fireplace and smiled.

  Liam returned her smile. He’d seen her around but hadn’t been formally introduced. Dana something. GG and Kitty were constantly singing the woman’s praises. She’d decorated the cottage for the raffle and had been a paying guest at the manor since the beginning of September. And paying guests were few and far between these days. As evidenced by the nearly empty lobby. Other than Dana, there was an older man sitting at the bar. A woman Liam didn’t recognize sat behind the reception desk filing her nails. He wondered if Sophie had any idea what she was getting herself into.

  “Okay, Mia, let’s get you those cookies,” Liam said, and started toward the dining room. He didn’t get far.

  Mia stood staring at the grand staircase with its red runner. The door to the basement was behind the staircase, so he was worried that she was thinking about being lost in the tunnels the night before. Liam crouched beside her. “We’re going to the dining room. It’s over there”—he gestured to the far right of the lobby—“nowhere near the basement.”

  She shook her head and dragged him to where a brass easel held a laminated poster advertising the raffle. He took it off the stand and stood it on the floor in front of her. The poster was bigger than she was. She beamed up at him and tapped on the stone cottage decorated for Christmas. He imagined the holiday decorations were the draw. His sister had been the same. Riley had loved everything about Christmas.
Days before they’d lost her, she’d cut the top off an evergreen and put it in her room. By then, she’d been playing carols for a month.

  His sister’s love of all things Christmas had been the reason Riley and his mom were on the road that night. It was the second week in October, and they were headed to Boston for some early Christmas shopping. Riley and his mom had planned to make it a family affair. He and his brothers had been home to celebrate his dad’s birthday. His mom and sister had been disappointed when Liam, his brothers, and his father bowed out. It was a decision each of them had lived to regret. If they’d been in the car, they could have saved them.

  He pushed the memories aside. “The cottage is a short walk from here. Maybe your mom will take you to see it.”

  She pointed to herself and then at the cottage.

  He took in the lightweight sweater she wore over her T-shirt. “You’re not really dressed for a walk today, sweetheart.”

  She repeated the gestures more emphatically this time, as though Liam were a little slow on the uptake.

  He scratched his chin. He’d never liked charades. “You like the cottage?” She placed her hands over her heart and nodded. “Okay, you love the cottage.” She nodded enthusiastically. Now they were getting somewhere. He glanced around. When he didn’t see any sign of Jasper, he handed the poster to Mia. “There you go. Now let’s get some cookies. I’m starved.” She didn’t move. “Sorry, it’s too big for you to carry, isn’t it?” He tucked the poster under his arm and headed for the dining room…without Mia. He turned. Her arms were crossed, her eyebrows drawn inward, her mouth bunched up. At that moment, Liam kind of empathized with GG. He was tempted to say, Just tell me what you want, kid, but he didn’t want to upset either Mia or her mother. Besides, if he was frustrated, he could only imagine how the little girl felt.

  He walked back to her. At a loss at what to do, he replaced the poster on the easel. Dana glanced their way. She held up a magazine and moved her hand as though writing. Thanks, he mouthed. He didn’t think Mia was old enough to write, but right about now, he was willing to try anything. He dug out a pencil and small pad of paper from the pouch in his toolbelt and held them up. “Why don’t we go sit in the dining room, and you can draw me a picture of what you want?”

  She gazed longingly at the easel, but nodded. As they walked into the almost-empty dining room, he immediately spotted another problem. Hazel Winters, Harmony Harbor’s mayor, and local realtor Paige Townsend were seated at a table by the back wall of windows.

  He pulled out a chair at the table nearest the door. “We’ll sit here, Mia.”

  With the pad and pencil clutched to her chest, she turned in a circle, taking in the space. He supposed through the eyes of a little girl, it was pretty impressive. Housed in one of the mansion’s four turrets, the dining room was an octagon. She wouldn’t notice that the Persian carpet was threadbare or that there were nicks in the dark wood paneling that covered the bottom half of the walls. The red damask wallpaper covering the upper half had seen better days too.

  “Hey, Erin,” he said to a twentysomething blonde pushing the dessert cart their way. She gave him a flirtatious smile.

  “Hey there, hot stuff. Haven’t seen you here for a while. Who’s your little friend? Hi there, cutie.”

  Mia didn’t look up. Her tongue sticking out the side of her mouth, she chewed on it while drawing her picture.

  “Mia. She’s shy,” he said in order to stave off any questions about why she didn’t speak. He wondered how Sophie handled all the questions. Had to be tough explaining to everyone she met about the fire. “How long have Paige and Hazel been here?”

  “Long enough to interrogate Jasper and the other staff about last night. Sounds like they think Colleen will be more open to an offer now.” She gave him a worried look. “You don’t think she’ll sell, do you?”

  A sane person would. “No, your job’s safe for now, Erin. Hey, have you heard any of the staff talking about the fog machines?” Jasper and his grandmother had already questioned the staff, but Liam had to give it another shot. If Erin knew something, she’d tell him.

  “Would you go out with me if I told you who did it?” she asked with an impish grin.

  He liked Erin. She was a pretty woman and exactly the type he typically dated—she wasn’t looking for a serious relationship. But she worked at Greystone, and staff was off-limits. Something his parents and grandparents had drilled into their heads. It was a good rule. Too bad his cousin hadn’t abided by it that long-ago summer. But Michael never thought rules applied to him. At least back then.

  Mia stopped drawing, her eyes flicking from Liam to Erin.

  “Sorry, I already have a cookie date.” The side of Mia’s mouth turned up in a small smile. “Besides, I don’t want you to lose your job. I’m pretty sure, if you read the small print in your contract, there’s a no-dating-a-Gallagher clause.”

  She laughed then glanced over her shoulder toward the kitchen. “I better serve you or I’ll never hear the end of it from Helga,” she said, referring to the cook who’d been with Greystone for as long as Liam could remember.

  “So, you never did tell me if one of the staff was responsible for turning on the fog machines.”

  Glancing at the kitchen again, Erin placed a platter of assorted cookies and cakes on the table. “Coffee?” He nodded. Once she’d retrieved the pot off the cart, she lowered her voice and poured his coffee. “Weekend staff isn’t around, but everyone thinks Kitty did it. You know how she is. She wants everything to be a big event.” She made a face and held out her skirt. “Case in point. Hey, did you hear Colleen’s interviewing Sophie DiRossi for the manager’s position? Jasper isn’t happy. He said—”

  Liam cut her off. He had a fairly good idea what Jasper thought of Sophie. Any DiRossi for that matter. “Erin, Mia is Sophie’s daughter.”

  “Oh...ah…Really? I thought she was one of your relatives.” She shrugged. “Guess it’s those blue eyes. Do you want a chocolate milk or orange juice, cutie?”

  Mia looked at him.

  “Chocolate milk?” he asked, and she nodded.

  “She really is shy,” Erin said as she poured Mia’s milk then placed the glass in front of her. “Hey, didn’t Sophie go out with your cousin Michael back in the day? Guess she didn’t have a problem breaking the no-Gallagher-dating clause.”

  No, she didn’t. Which wouldn’t have been a problem if Liam had been the Gallagher she’d wanted to date, but he’d missed his chance. He was five years older than Sophie. And being a guy who followed the rules and was also her brother’s best friend, he’d been waiting until she grew up to ask her out. He’d missed out by one day. The night of her eighteenth birthday, his cousin asked her out. “They’re the reason GG added the clause.”

  “Miss,” a man a few tables over called.

  “Be right with you, sir.” Erin smiled then said to Liam, “I think you’ve been spotted.” She nodded in the direction of Hazel and Paige’s table.

  “Thanks for the warning,” he said, though it wasn’t as if he could leave. Mia hadn’t finished her cookies and milk yet. But maybe it was for the best. He’d get rid of Hazel and Paige before GG ran into them. They’d just get her riled up, and she didn’t need the stress. Doc Bishop had called last week to tell his dad he was worried about her blood pressure. Which was the reason Liam hadn’t forced the issue of the generator with her. He’d talk to his dad instead. And add to his stress level. Right about now, Liam was missing his drama-free life in Boston.

  Mia slid the pad of paper across the table. She’d drawn three stick people and what appeared to be Mistletoe Cottage. He smiled and pointed to the tallest of the stick people. “Is this me?” She nodded shyly and took a bite of her cookie. “And this is you and your mommy?” he guessed. She’d added long hair to both, and the one in the middle was short. That earned him another nod. “You want the three of us to go for a walk to the cottage?”

  She shook her head, and he held back a sig
h. He’d been doing well up until then. She put down her cookie and took the pad of paper from him, flipping to the next page. He blinked. She’d written tickit and Mia beside what he imagined was supposed to be a raffle ticket. The first thought that came to mind was that she wanted to win the cottage so that the three of them could live there. He quickly banished the idea before it took hold.

  Before he thought about how much he’d once loved Sophie and how, if things had turned out differently, Mia would be his and they might have been living happily ever after in the stone cottage in the woods. Obviously the banishing thing wasn’t working out as he’d planned. And for a guy who kept his life simple and entanglement free, that was kind of scary. A family wasn’t in the cards for him. He refocused on the paper. His imagination was working overtime. Mia hardly knew him. “Okay, I get it now. You want me to buy a raffle ticket for you so you and your mommy can win Mistletoe Cottage, right?”

  He didn’t know how to break it to her that staff and family members weren’t allowed to enter the raffle, but he didn’t get the chance. Hazel and Paige arrived at their table. “Oh my, is this the adorable child who was trapped in the fire?” the heavyset mayor in her brown wool suit asked. Hazel went to stroke her hair and Mia ducked away from her hand.

  “There wasn’t a fire, and she wasn’t trapped,” Liam said. He’d known Hazel since he was a kid. She was a nice woman and had been mayor of Harmony Harbor for at least a decade, but she had a tendency not to think before she spoke.

  “I do hope her mother isn’t going to sue. Poor Colleen has enough to worry about with all the bad press,” Paige Townsend said with fake sympathy, tucking a strand of silver-blond hair behind her ear. He’d gone to school with Paige. Her family owned a frozen seafood plant in town, and she’d lorded it over the kids in school. He had a feeling she hadn’t changed.

  “Not sure what you’re talking about, Paige. There wasn’t any bad press. It’s okay, eat your cookie, sweetheart.”