Page 41 of Christmas with the Elkin Billionaires

“I was looking for the bracelet.” Chase held his grandmother tight. She could beat her cancer, but tonight was proof life was short and fragile enough as it was. “And I found it.”

Jonas scoffed. “You didn’t. In the snow?”

“I was lucky.” He straightened up, keeping his arm around his grandmother. “I put on a pair of skis and then skied until my leg gave out. It happened to give out next to a big fir tree, which is exactly where I found the bracelet. I’ve returned it to the family. The little girl, Emily, admitted that it broke while she was skiing, and she made up the story about Tana to keep her dad from getting upset.”

Jonas put a hand to his forehead, dropping into his leather chair. “Damn.”

“So, whatyou’regoing to do,” Chase continued, “is give Tana her job back right nowandpromote her to the position she earned. Either that, or I’ll leave with Tana to wherever her next job is, assuming she even wants me anymore. From now on, we’re a package deal.”

Grandmother took a step back and beamed up at him. “That’s my Chase.”

“Right now, Jonas. And be prepared to grovel.” Chase wasn’t backing down, and he wanted this over so he could go home with some dignity before his leg gave out.

Jonas nodded. “We have to make things right.”

He hadn’t failed Tana after all. Chase went back to his house and waited for word Tana had returned. Except all he got was a text from his brother saying that she wasn’t answering his calls. Come morning, Chase would make sure the message got delivered. Personally, if he had to. But right now, he had to get off his leg.

23

TANA

Tana didn’t have much to pack, but it was taking forever. She surveyed her bedroom in the cottage and sighed. This place was supposed to be a new beginning—a house stuffed full of memories. She still had boxes in the closet that had yet to be unpacked from the move. Now they’d go into storage in her parents’ basement until she found another place. Tana lifted her suitcase, surprisingly light, and hauled it out toward the front door.

She didn’t want to leave. Leaving felt like giving up.

But Tana lifted her chin and went back for the last few boxes anyway. Lindsey was waiting for her at her parents’ house, and she couldn’t—wouldn’t—leave her daughter hanging. Not now, and not ever. They had a life in front of them.

It wouldn’t be the one Tana had planned on when she first got the job offer at Elk Lodge. But it would be something amazing. It had to be.

Speaking of the greatest kid on the planet—or thinking of her, she supposed, since there was nobody in the cottage to talk to—Tana needed to figure out something special for her. Something to make up for the upheaval in her life.

There were no ski slopes in her parents’ town, but maybe she could treat Lindsey to some borrowed studio time at one of the dance places. Once upon a time, Lindsey had been in love with tutus and pliés.

Tana was halfway to the door when a knock sounded, startling her. She set the box in her arms down before pulling the door open. “Chase! What are you doing here?”

Chase stood there, feet planted, looking slightly out of breath and as gorgeous as ever. His presence flooded the room along with the morning sun. He looked slightly tousled, as if he’d just climbed out of bed. Tana was seized by the urge to drag him directly back to her bedroom. Against all reason, because she was leaving. The bed wasn’t made, but they didn’t need sheets to do what she wanted to do. She didn’t need sheets to lose herself in Chase’s body and forget all the things that hurt her.

“I couldn’t get a hold of you.” His green eyes shone with light and hope, and Tana couldn’t catch her breath, either. “Your voicemail is full, and nobody at the lodge can get you to pick up, either. But I had to see you. I had totalkto you. I kept coming by here to see if you’d come back. It’s been two days, and I—I can’t let you drive away for the last time without hearing me out.”

“I turned my phone off.” Her life was in shambles around her, or at least it had been until this moment. Chase was the first real spark of hope she’d felt, aside from Lindsey, in days. A spark she didn’t want to feel. “I emailed my resignation this morning, and I don’t want to talk to anyone from Elk Lodge. Anyone, including you,” Tana huffed. She’d done enough crying, and now she needed to stay strong. But it was hard with him standing in front of her.

“If you don’t like what I have to say, then I’ll turn around and leave, and I’ll never bother you again. Okay?”

I want you to kiss me. Less talk. More kissing. At the very least, she needed to hear him out.“Go ahead. I’m listening.” It was the easiest way to get him to leave.

“What happened in the past isn’t important to me. What’s important to me now is that youknowI believe in you. I shouldn’t have reacted the way I did when I found out what happened because of your ex. You’re right, it was in your past. You couldn’t be expected to divulge every detail when you didn’t know how I felt about you.”

“How you felt?”

“How Ifeel.I love you, Tana. That’s why I went to find the bracelet.”

“Wait, what?” Tana tried to wrap her head around what Chase just said.Impossible.All of it.Thinking back to the morning it happened, she knew she’d been all over the ski slope with Emily. The odds of Chase finding a delicate tennis bracelet made for a child were astronomical. And the odds of him falling for her? Miraculous. She wasn’t sure which shocked her more—the bracelet or theI love you.“You found it in the snow? On the slopes? But you don’t ski anymore.”

“I do now.” Chase grinned. "I skied until my leg gave out. Landed almost on top of it. But I found it. It had a broken clasp. I took it back to the family, and Emily confessed that she’d made up the story about it being stolen because she knew her dad would be mad.”

“Chase, that—that couldn’t have been easy, searching in the snow. Are you okay?” Even the bunny hill would have been painful for him. And yet he’d kept going.For her.Tana thought her heart might explode into a ball of glitter and song. Gratitude sang in her veins. She could be thankful for this, even if he said nothing else to her.

“I’m fine. I’m completely fine. And it’s over, Tana. You’re cleared. Right before all this happened, my brother told me he was going to give you the promotion. After I returned the bracelet to Emily and her parents, I talked to Jonas and demanded he give you your job backandgive you the promotion. I made it pretty clear to my brother that if he didn’t reinstate you, I was leaving with you.”

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