Page 9 of Sweet Christmas Wish
Before he’d even finished his spiel, Lacy quickly sent off one last email and then closed her laptop, sliding it into her carry-on bag and settling back against her seat for the descent. She wriggled in her seat a little, trying to get comfortable, and thought about how much she couldn’t wait to settle into her own bed at the mansion later that night. Commuting between St. Louis and Snowy Pine Ridge for business trips could get tiresome sometimes, but she wouldn’t change it for the world. She loved her new life in Snowy Pine Ridge, and she counted herself as fortunate to continue to work with her clients in both places.
A short time later, the plane landed and the arduous process of disembarking all the passengers from the plane began. Lacy, an old hand at this by now, stayed seated until it was her row’s turn to get off the plane. After that, all that remained was to get her luggage from the baggage claim and find her car where she’d left it parked in the airport’s parking garage, then the forty-five minute drive back to Snowy Pine Ridge. As she walked toward the baggage claim, she fished her phone from her bag and dialed her assistant, Brenda.
Brenda picked up on the first ring. “Hey, boss.”
Lacy rolled her eyes and smiled. “You know I hate it when you call me that.”
“That’s why I do it,” Brenda shot back cheerfully. “What can I do for you?”
“I just emailed over the Silverton contract. Can you see that it gets sent over and signed first thing tomorrow morning?”
“I’m on it. Don’t worry about a thing.”
“I don’t. I know you’re taking care of the St. Louis side of things without any issues.”
“That’s why you pay me the big bucks,” Brenda joked.
“Seriously, thank you. It’s a relief to have you watching out for things on that end. I couldn’t do this without you.”
“Not a problem! Anything else I can do for you tonight?”
“I got a call from Don Locke. Could you schedule a conference call with him in a couple of days? Then get back to me when it’s scheduled?”
The sound of Brenda typing out notes on her computer came through the line. “Okay, I have that written down. I’ll send you the calendar invite when the call is set up.”
“Thanks, Brenda. You’re the best.”
“And don’t you forget it,” Brenda sang. “Okay, boss, I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”
“Bye, Brenda.”
Lacy, spotting her luggage, dropped her phone into her bag and hurried over to the baggage claim to grab her suitcase. Soon, she was heading to the parking garage and throwing the suitcase into her trunk. Now that she was so close to home she suddenly found herself dying to be back in the mansion, curled up by the fireplace or soaking in a hot bath. Home couldn’t come quickly enough.
As she navigated out of the parking garage and out toward the highway, Lacy couldn’t help but think about her first trip to Snowy Pine Ridge some months before. How differently she had felt about everything. Back then, she had just learned that her grandfather, Nicholas Spielman, had left her his mansion in his will. She had come, begrudgingly, to look it over and see if it was worth anything—not that she had wanted anything to do with him. Far from it. She had, at the time, believed that he and her father had abandoned her, leaving her with the legacy of a stained name and not much else. She had spent her whole life trying to outrun her past, to put that legacy behind her, and so when the attorney for Nicholas’s estate had called her, it had been earth-shattering.
A light snow began to fall, landing in puffy flakes on the windshield, and Lacy turned on her wipers. It was so strange, she thought, how the same winter that made St. Louis so ugly and unbearable made the world of New Hampshire so picture-perfect and homey. It was like living in a Christmas greeting card or a Hallmark movie. Humming a little with the soft Christmas music on the radio, Lacy turned up her seat warmer, her thoughts returning once again to her first trip to Snowy Pine Ridge.
When she’d gotten to Snowy Pine Ridge that first time and had seen the horrible state of disrepair the mansion was in, she’d wanted to cry. It hadn’t taken long, however, to see that she could turn a profit from the place, beautiful as it was beneath all the disrepair. And so, she had dived in, taking the time to repair, clean, and renovate every inch of it until it was restored to its former glory. As she’d worked over the weeks, so much had changed within herself as well.
She had met Derek Morse, for one, falling deeply in love over time. She had fallen in love with the town of Snowy Pine Ridge too. But, perhaps most importantly, she had learned the truth about her grandfather and her father—how they had never abandoned her or stopped loving her, and that they had been good men who had gone through difficult times.
Lacy’s heart had broken as she’d learned the truth after believing lies for so much of her life and, honestly, she was still healing from it all. To honor her grandfather, she had decided to keep the mansion instead of selling it.
She had named it St. Nick’s Place, after his nickname, and now ran it as an event venue and historic site, although she did live in a part of it, which wasn’t open to guests.
Lacy sighed with pleasure as the lights of Snowy Pine Ridge came into view and she took her time driving through the well-lit streets, all decked out with wreaths and garlands in honor of the season. Since it was only early evening, couples and families strolled through the quaint downtown area, taking care of Christmas shopping or stopping for a bite to eat. She turned down the road that led to the mansion, eager to be home again.
There is a hot bath with my name on it,she thought, and I can’t wait to be in it and scrub all the travel grime off.
Parking the car and pulling her suitcase from the trunk, she made her way up the snowy front steps and let herself in. She blinked as she entered the grand foyer, realizing that some candles were lit on the front table and that soft jazz music was playing. She shrugged out of her coat, a smile already forming on her lips. There was only one explanation for the candles and the music: Derek.
As if on cue, Derek emerged from the kitchen, wiping his hands on a towel and smiling as he saw her. “I thought I heard the front door open,” he said, coming toward her with open arms.
Lacy melted into his embrace, resting her head against his chest and inhaling the familiar scent of him. “You caught me.” She wrapped her arms around his waist, feeling now that she was truly home again. “What’s all this?”
“What’s all what?”
“The candles, the music…”
