Jonas personally apologized to the guest for the confusion and offered them some extra perks while he explained that they’d have to stay in the Alpine Luxury suite. It was the same as the Presidential but with a corner view rather than a head-on view of the ski hills and was a one and a half-bath instead of two. Smoothed over in less than five minutes. He hung up the phone.
“All done. Change them to Alpine Luxury, and I’ll let Gabe know that the system did something weird.”
“Thank you.” A smile crept back over her face. He couldn’t remember where she’d worked before, but it had obviously been somewhere that made it harder to recover from mistakes like that. Jonas didn’t want to run that kind of business.
He brought Scott out from behind the counter, and as he rounded the corner, Jonas spotted his grandmother. She was standing at the foot of the Christmas tree, the light gently reflected on her face. They’d have to cross in front of her to get to the gift shop.
Jonas took a deep breath and reminded himself not to hunch his shoulders. He wasn’t hiding. As they approached, he noticed her eyes were closed as if deep in thought. She must have sensed his presence, her eyes opening, and going wide when she noticed Scott in his arms.
“Well, hello, you two,” she said, her eyes flicking back and forth between his face and Scott’s. She smiled, but her expression was one of confusion. “Is this where you snuck off to? Who is this sweet boy?”
What? Didn’t she recognize him as the boy from the room upstairs? Clearly not, and in the next moment, he registered the dark circles under her eyes. His grandmother looked tired—more tired than she’d looked in recent weeks.
“His mother is staying at the hotel.” A technical truth, though it felt wrong to say it. “She wanted to take some photos, so I offered to look after him for a while.” He was hedging. The question was, why? It would have been the perfect opportunity to fess up. They were alone, but he just couldn’t bring himself to do it.
His grandmother laughed. “You’ll do anything for the resort.” She patted Scott’s arm. “What’s your name, honey?”
“Cott,” he answered, looking up at Jonas for approval.
“Great job, Scott,” he said, both correcting the name for his grandmother and sending a stamp of approval to his son. “His mother will be back soon.”
“Lovely,” his grandmother murmured absently. “I just came downstairs to see the tree for a few minutes. I’m going to retire to my apartment. I’m plumb wore out.”
“Do you need anything?” He desperately wanted to help her—more than he wanted to help the resort. Who cared about the business if his grandmother needed him more? “I could bring some dinner—”
“I’ll call down,” she told him and rose on tiptoe to kiss his cheek. “You’re too good to me, Jonas.”
I am not. “You’ve always been there for me. Always.” The conversation had turned heavy, but then Scott made a burbling sound.
They both laughed, lightening the mood all around. His grandmother swept away, stopping to look at the decorations as she went.
When she was out of sight, Jonas let out a deep breath. “Okay, kiddo, let’s go up to my office. No more run-ins for now.”
“Okay,” Scott mimicked. “Okay. Okay.” The kid had a new word, and Jonas couldn’t wait for Rachel to hear him say it.
Chasing after Scott in a place this size was daunting. He sent a quick text message to Rachel to let her know he was going to take Scott to his place and directions on how to find it, and then sent a message to the manager of the gift shop. Toys were definitely on the agenda and not something he’d have at the cabin.
By the time they arrived, the man was waiting with an armload of toys and a stuffed elk that was as big as Scott. Jonas went inside, letting the man put the delivery in the living room. He dropped the diaper bag on the floor, setting Scott down on his feet.
“Okay, kiddo. It’s playtime.”
Scott crouched down among the toys, content with the plan. “Okay. Okay. Okay.”
Maybe novel words weren’t so great. A few of the toys were wrapped in crinkly cellophane, which attracted Scott’s attention. Score. “You see that? It’s called cellophane,” Jonas explained.
It had been awkward out in the lobby, without a doubt, but now? He felt a thousand times more awkward. Out of his depth. What was he supposed to do with a two-year-old? Jonas settled in on the carpet next to the things from the gift shop to watch his son play.
An odd feeling settled in his chest, a sense of satisfaction. Scott seemed equally content, especially after Jonas discovered a cookie sealed in a plastic bag in the side pouch of the diaper bag. His son ate it contentedly, leaving half of it in the form of crumbs on the carpet. Once finished, he started running around the room in circles.
Scott stopped running around the room and burst into tears, throwing his upper body onto the sofa. Instinct drove Jonas to pick him up, and Scott dropped his head onto Jonas’s shoulder, his hand up by his face. Jonas decided he liked having him around. It was the unpredictability that made him nervous.
Scott fidgeted a little, then relaxed, his little body melting into Jonas’s chest. One thing he hadn’t thought of was a crib, and by the looks of things, he needed one. And he didn’t want to call over to the lodge and have one delivered, afraid it might wake Scott when they arrived to set it up. Not to mention, it would be gossip-worthy.
Jonas stood by the window, swaying back and forth for a long while. Scott’s breathing evened out and got deeper, his hand dropping away from his face. Jonas briefly wished he’d thought to change out of his shirt and tie, but he hadn’t.
His arms started to go numb. Jonas eased himself toward the sofa, still swaying. Was Scott deeply asleep enough to stay sleeping if he laid him on the sofa? He had no way of knowing what to expect, his experience zero. The one thing he did know was that his son was safe in his arms and that it would have to do for now—numb arms or not.
Scott stayed sleeping as he lowered himself onto the sofa, shifting his body a little to readjust to Jonas’s new position.
Sitting there, Jonas started to drift off. He was tired. Had been for weeks. Months. Maybe years. It was all catching up to him now. Jonas put his legs up on the sofa, trying to stretch out a bit without waking his son. He couldn’t keep his eyes open.
It was peaceful here, with the faint sound of air moving through his heater and the rest of the resort blocked out by the walls. In his suite, nobody was calling him for help with reservations. Nobody was taking second glances at his son and drawing conclusions that he’d have to explain. There might be work that needed doing at his office, but he couldn’t do it—he was busy holding a sleeping toddler. Surely that was the most important job he could do.
Just a few minutes, he’d rest his eyes. And then he’d wait for Scott to wake or Rachel to show up. The sunlight on his face told him it was late afternoon. Perhaps if Rachel finished for the day, they could take another tour of the property, and she could get more photos. It sounded nice. Just the three of them.
He pictured her laughing, stretching out on the bed beneath him, whispering something in his ear that didn’t quite make sense. The image was from the past, and Jonas let himself drift into it. It was a warm and welcome memory as he drifted off to sleep, unable to fight the urge to give in any longer.