Blurb
The last place Chase Elkins wants to spend Christmas is at his family’s ski resort. He loves his family, but he’s nursing an injury and doesn’t need the temptation of the slopes. However, when his grandmother says she’s seen enough of her grandsons in the tabloids and they’re to return home for Christmas, he can’t refuse. And when he runs into the captivating ski instructor Tana Birch upon arrival, he's secretly glad he returned.
Tana is sure she’ll be fired after making a fool of herself in front of one of the resort owners. How could she not know the gorgeous man she insulted was Chase Elkins?! Instead she finds herself up for promotion—recommended by Chase. But she’s working at Elk Lodge to escape her past and support her young daughter, not to get involved with a billionaire athlete—especially one in her employer’s family. She wants to earn the promotion on merit, so any relationship is completely off limits. Even if her daughter is totally obsessed with him.
But when Tana is accused of stealing from a wealthy client, Chase is confronted by the fact that he might not know her as well as he thought. It doesn’t take much digging to find that Tana has also made the news. Will Tana’s past catch up with her and leave Chase’s heart in the cold?
1
Chase Elkin had never once in his life thought he’d end up back in his grandmother’s office in the Elk Lodge. Sure, it was their successful family business, but it didn’t belong to him. The only thing that had ever belonged to him was his career as a professional skier, and now he didn’t even have that.
His grandmother sat behind her desk, head bowed over a massive ledger. Even at work, she was the picture of elegance—silver hair swept back in a neat bun, a cream sweater that looked soft enough to fall into. They kept computer records now, of course, but there were some things Elin Elkin still liked to do by hand. One of those things was keeping track of the staff.
Chase watched the swoops and falls of her pen across the paper while he lowered himself carefully into one of the antique chairs across from her. Any wrong move could bring back the pain of his old injury. Being back at the Elk Lodge felt like having his knee wrenched all over again.
Fine—it wasn’t as bad as that. But the ache he felt when he moved through the halls had little to do with the ski injury. He waited without speaking for his grandmother to acknowledge him. This, at least, didn’t hurt his feelings. She’d always been focused on keeping the Elk Lodge functioning at its best. When Chase was little, he’d learned to sit quietly and wait. But now sitting quietly reminded him that his old place at the Elk Lodge didn’t quite fit, like clothes that had gotten too small. Who was he, if he wasn’t a skier?
But where else was he supposed to go? The bottom had fallen out of his skiing career. There was no going back to that now—not with his injuries. He’d come home from Salt Lake City, ordered home for Thanksgiving just like the rest of his brothers. Gabe hadn’t come, despite the orders—claiming an emergency at work.
Chase suspected it wasn’t much of an emergency, but who could say—and at first, he’d been mildly jealous of Gabe’s ability to slip the bonds of the family. The dinner had been traditional—they dressed for the occasion, and Chase still felt the stiffness of his suit jacket, though he’d long since taken it off. After the dinner, though? Grandmother had ordered the servers out of the room and announced her diagnosis.
She’d always been a formidable woman when it came to running the company, but now, at seventy-four, there was some question about how much of a toll the treatments would take. Was she even going to survive it? Now Chase wished Gabe had been at the dinner. They were under a new set of orders not to say a thing to him until Grandmother had had a chance to speak to him herself. Chase didn’t like to imagine getting the news over the phone. But she wouldn’t do that. She’d probably decide to tell Gabe when he arrived for Christmas. It would change everything that came after for him, but Chase pushed those thoughts out of his mind.
His grandmother put down her pen, closed the ledger, and slid it to the corner of her desk. Her green eyes met his. Chase’s throat went tight with regret and shame and something else, too—fear. She looked so much older than he remembered. He’d been back to the lodge twice in the last year, but somehow time sped up at breakneck speed between visits. She looked older and smaller than he remembered. Chase wanted to throw his arms out and create a barrier between her and the rest of the world. Except it wouldn’t do any good now—the world had already gotten to her.
She reached across the desk, palms up.
Chase placed his hands in hers. Some things still fit, he supposed. His grandmother squeezed tight, not looking away. “How are you, Chase? You doing all right with the news?”
He let out a sorrowful laugh. “Is anybody?”
She gave him a rueful smile. “This is something we’ve got to face as a family. And we will be able to face it as a family, just as soon as your brother arrives for Christmas.”
Chase would never forget the announcement she’d made last night as they sat around the dinner table. Cancer. And the doctors weren’t sure if they could stop it or slow it.
After a stunned silence came the questions. Jonas had retreated deep into his own thoughts, sullen. Perhaps he thought she was finally handing over the company. Who knew with Jonas? He kept everything bottled up inside. And Gabe—well, they’d have to wait to see how he reacted. Maybe he’d bury himself in business again. Get right on the next plane out. It was impossible to say, and the wait till Christmas seemed interminable.
Chase didn’t have much stake in the resort, but the thought of his grandmother not being here in her office anymore made his heart ache. “We will. We’ll face it.” He squeezed her hands, the words scratching at his throat and making his eyes burn.
His grandmother gave him a stern look. “Don’t get all choked up on me, Chase. We’ve got things to talk about.”
“I’m fine.” His tears were reflected in his grandmother’s eyes, but to her credit, she simply laughed.
For a moment, Chase sensed everything would be all right. His grandmother might be getting on in her golden years, but her laugh was still the same. He found himself trying to memorize the sound. No matter what was going on, it would be okay.
She took a deep breath. “Chase, it’s time to start figuring out what your next steps are in life.”
Too late. It’s too late for me, and everything I’ve worked for has come to nothing. It’s pointless to even discuss this. Chase choked back the instinctive, negative response. What could he say? How could he communicate this hopelessness to her without making her feel worse? “Is that a question, Grandmother?” He tried and failed to put on his most winning smile. “We don’t really have to discuss this. I’ll be just fine figuring things out for myself.”
She patted his hands and sat back. “Chase, you’ll always have a place here.” He caught a flash of tears in her eyes again, which almost killed him. He wanted to put a hand to his chest and hold his own heart in. His grandmother looked down at her ledger and pressed her hand to the paper. When she looked back up, her eyes were bright. “Which brings me to my second request. As part of that place, your first task is to help your brother wrangle a replacement for the ski-program director.”