Page 98 of Christmas with the Elkin Billionaires

“Hi,” Jonas repeated, earning him a leg hug.

They made their way to the lobby, where a fire burned and Christmas music drifted down from hidden speakers. Yesterday, Scott had wanted to play with the presents by the tree, but they were real gifts meant for the staff who hadn’t come in for their next shift. The gift shop would be a much better place to take his son. He scooped Scott up just to be on the safe side.

“Mr. Elkin?” His front desk clerk’s voice held a note of panic, and he turned to see what was wrong. “What can I do for you, Elsie?” She was one of their newer employees. He was excruciatingly aware of Scott on his hip as he made his way to the desk. “Problem with reservations?” he asked.

“Well, I—yeah. There is.” Elsie clicked around on her computer, going through window after window. “It’s one of the VIP reservations. They just called and wanted to change their booking dates to five days later in February. I said they could, but another VIP party has the Presidential Suite on one of those days,” she said, her voice rising. “I don’t know why it let medothat. Something in the system didn’t work right, and now—” Poor woman was close to tears.

“It’s all right.” He watched over her shoulder.Nowthe calendar was blinking red, telling her that two reservations conflicted. “Tell you what. Get them on the phone for me.”

She let out an audible sigh of relief and picked up her handset, dialing the number from the reservation record.

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 and ask him to check it out before he leaves.”

“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 admit the truth. They were alone, but he 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. It’s been a long few days with the holiday and everyone here. Not that I mind. But your brothers do enjoy riling each other up. Perhaps it’s a good thing you aren’t up there too.”

“Do you need to take a break? We could reschedule the rest of the photos for later, if you want to rest.” Jonas looked around to see who wasn’t busy and caught Helen’s attention.

The older woman had worked at the resort for years and often helped out when his grandmother required additional assistance. "How can I help you, Mr. Elkin?”

Before he could answer, his grandmother spoke. “Oh, Helen, would you be a dear and walk with me back to the fireplace lounge, and then I would love a cup of tea and some of those cookies I know the chef is backing. I can smell them upstairs.”

“Of course, Mrs. Elkin.” Helen offered her arm to her.

“Thank you, dear.”

“Are you sure you wouldn’t rather postpone the photos?.”

“No, dear,” 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 all laughed, lightening the mood all around. Leaning on Helen for support, his grandmother walked away, stopping to look at the decorations as she went.

When she was out of sight, Jonas let out a deep breath. “Okay, kiddo, I think we’re done here. 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 taking 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 his house.

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