Page 124 of Christmas with the Elkin Billionaires

“But you don’t feel like that now, do you? You’re still here.”

Gabe reappeared then, dropping into a nearby overstuffed chair. “She’s settled in her rooms and asked to be alone. What did I miss?”

Chase snorted. “I was trying to tell knucklehead here that the women we care about, change us and it’s not a bad thing.” His expression went solemn again. “I wanted to be anywhere but here. Tana changed all that for me. And Lindsey.”

“Same here. If you hadn’t called about Gran’s diagnosis, I’d have skipped out on the holidays again this year. I’d thought that if Gran could see that my life was great, she’d stop worrying about me, and well, that was a disaster,” Gabe said.

“How is it that three grown men—who are successful, I might add—manage to act like teens when it comes to our need to please Elin Elkin?” Jonas asked and his brothers chuckled.

“If you figure it out, don’t tell us because we’ll probably screw it up again,” Gabe said.

“I don’t know if what I have is salvageable,” Jonas said. “I’ve really made a mess of it all.”

“Gran will forgive you,” Gabe said, his voice like a solemn promise. One Jonas wanted to hold on to.

“Maybe she will. But Rachel might not be so forgiving. Her past…” He outlined it for them in broad strokes, without giving away too many details. “How can I earn her trust a second time if she never really gave it to me in the first place?”

The brothers were silent. Across the lobby, a pair of guests laughed with Aimee, who was working at the check-in desk. The music had changed to a song about silver bells. Jonas felt the ghost of an old evening across his face, night air a long time ago. His parents’ voices in the back of a sleigh on the grounds of Elk Lodge. He’d been trusting, then. Trusting they’d always be there, but it hadn’t worked out that way.

“You should go after her,” Gabe said softly. “I went after Anna. I flew back to Vegas with my heart in my throat, and so should you. Go after Rachel.”

Jonas stood, ready to end the discussion. “She doesn’t want me there,” he argued.

Chase let his head fall back on the sofa. “Are you kidding? Of course she does. If she didn’t want to be near you, she wouldn’t have come back to let you take care of her. You should go,” Chase added, seconding Gabe’s suggestion.

Maybe they were right. No, there was no maybe about it. They were right. Jonas needed to fight for what he wanted. For what he loved. For his family. He patted his pockets. Keys—he’d need keys. And her address. And then what? He had no idea how to convince her that she could trust him, or that he would do anything to be with her and Scott.

Start by getting there.

His brothers rose from their seats, watching him. “Do you need anything before you leave?” Gabe asked. “Anything we can do here?”

It was on the tip of his tongue to sayno,but... “If you can keep an eye on things for me here, that’d be great. Everyone knows their jobs, but it’d be good if you were here.” It was the first time he’d ever left his brothers in charge of the resort and neither of them worked here. Yet. But that was an argument for another day. “And more importantly, I need you to make sure Grandmother’s going to be okay. Tell her I’m sorry and trying to fix things.”

Suspicion grew in Chase’s eyes. “Are you coming back?”

“Yes.” Whether he convinced Rachel or not, he would be back. For most of Jonas’s life, the resort had been his one constant—the resort and his grandmother. Even the rest of his family had come and gone. But he wouldn’t abandon them, or this place. Never. It was only that he had someone else he couldn’t abandon, either. “I’ll be back. Keep the building standing, would you?”

Gabe and Chase shared a glance, and then Gabe looked back at Jonas. “Get out of here,” he said. “Rachel’s getting away.”

18

RACHEL

Rachel put her head back on the headrest of the passenger seat and sighed, her shoulder still ached even with the pain medication.

“Scott’s asleep,” Annabeth said, her gaze flicking to the rearview mirror and back. “Let me just—” She reached forward and adjusted the music down a few notches. Annabeth had turned on the local pop station back at the resort, and ten minutes into the trip, the beats had lulled Scott into a nap. “Okay. Tell me what happened.”

Rachel closed her eyes. “I told you most of it.” There wasn’t much more to the story. With each passing mile, everything seemed more and more simple, but also more complicated. Like looking into a funhouse mirror. Running into Jonas, the father of her child, had been a shock. The fact he was not the man of her dreams as she’d fantasized for years was a huge letdown. Except it hadn’t been simple realization. Instead, she’d fallen hard for him, making the truth hurt worse than she cared to admit.

“You didnottell me,” Annabeth said. “You told me how this started. You didn’t tell me what led us to this little road trip, and you said you’d fill me in. Spill it.”

“I like road trips,” Rachel pointed out, opening her eyes.

“Iloveroad trips,” said Annabeth. “And you know I’d drive to the ends of the earth for you, but—”

“It was a dream,” Rachel said, the words bursting free. She whipped her head around to make sure she hadn’t woken Scott. He slept on, his arms curled around the stuffed elk Jonas had given him. Her shoulder protested as she turned back around. “Elk Lodge is this ridiculously magical place during the holidays, and I got sucked into it all and thought that Jonas was the one. That he could love me for me. That he could be a good dad. Okay, that I do believe. He’d only been around Scott for a week, and I’m pretty sure he’d move mountains for him.”

“So what happened?”

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