Page 48 of A Cozy Christmas Escape

Rudolph shrugged. “Wasn’t good enough for her, I guess. Her family was well-to-do. And they had someone picked out for her to marry. Not an arranged marriage, per se. But close to it. And she didn’t want to disappoint them.”

“So she went home?”

He gave her another nod. “She did. She went home and she married him. I hated it, but what can you do? Turns out he was horrible to her. Word traveled to me about the divorce, through some of her friends that she’d introduced me to while she was visiting.”

Shelley’s heart gave a pang of sympathy for the old man as he shook his head.

“By the time I found out about it,” Rudolph explained, “I felt like too much time had passed. I thought about it, about going out to Montana and telling her that I wanted her back. Would have raised that baby girl like she was my own. But I was a coward. And the more time that passed, the more impossible it felt to reach out.”

She nodded. “I can’t imagine how difficult it all was.”

She watched as Rudolph’s throat bobbed, and she could only imagine the barrage of emotions that were coursing through him at that moment.

“I followed her career,” he murmured as he stared somewhere off into the distance, speaking low enough that for a moment, Shelley wondered if he was so caught up in his memories that he was talking to himself. “Valerie’s. Did you know that?”

His eyes flicked back to Shelley, and she shook her head.

“I did. Saw her on a magazine once and she looked so much like her mother, I knew instantly who she was. Didn’t even need to read the title or her name. Kept up with her all these years. And then when I heard about Paula’s passing.”

His voice choked off, and Shelley couldn’t stop herself from reaching across the table to where his hands rested on the table and taking one, giving it a reassuring squeeze. Rudolph looked at it, clearly surprised by the sympathetic gesture, but he didn’t pull away.

“I am so, so sorry,” Shelley began, speaking as softly as she could. “Have you thought about telling Valerie any of this?”

Immediately, he shook his head. “I can’t put all of this on her. She’s just a girl.”

Shelley snorted. “She’s thirty. And maybe, she might want to know. I mean, she lost her mom. Her dad is clearly out of the picture. It might help her to have some kind of connection to family. Even if it’s just because you both loved the same person.”

Rudolph was silent, his gaze turning pensive all over again and she could tell that he was mulling it over.

“At least think about it?” she asked, tilting her head to the side.

She allowed him a few moments to remain silent, not wanting to pressure him into a decision he wasn’t ready to make, but also not wanting him to push the idea to the side either.

“I’ll think about it,” he finally said, the corner of his mouth ticking up into a small, hesitant smile.

Shelley squeezed his hand again before letting go, bringing her arm back to her side of the table and giving him a smile of her own. She wasn’t sure if Rudolph would decide to approach Valerie and at the very least talk to the daughter of the woman that he’d loved. But she really hoped that he did.

CHAPTEREIGHTEEN

Valerie ran her fingers through her hair to smooth down any fly-away pieces a second before she climbed out of the old cab in front of The Rustic Hearth. It was another restaurant in town, one that sat a little bit removed from Main Street, and it had an upscale feel to it that Valerie hadn’t been expecting based on the name.

She thanked the man who had driven her there before climbing out of the car and walking across the parking lot. Clark had offered to pick her up, but she’d declined. She had wanted a bit of extra time to think before arriving at the date.

Valerie still didn’t know where they stood. Whether they were casual or how they were supposed to be behaving. She knew that it could never amount to much, not when she still intended to leave. But then again, the more time she spent in Snowy Pine Ridge, the more she considered if maybe staying was what she wanted.

She pulled open the door and walked into the threshold, immediately getting wrapped up in the warmth and the atmosphere of the place. Gunmetal sconces and chandeliers dotted the space, complementing the dark wood walls and the rich burgundy fabric of the rugs and the tablecloths. And the smell of the food drifting out to her from the kitchens was heavenly.

Valerie walked up to the hostess, giving her Clark’s name, and was immediately escorted through the restaurant toward a table. Clark was already there, and when he glanced up and saw her, he rose from his seat and hustled to the other side of the table to pull out her chair.

He hugged her in greeting, pressing a kiss to her cheek before the two of them settled into their seats.

“You look beautiful,” he told her, eyes shining with so much sincerity that it made Valerie blush.

“And you look very handsome,” she replied, giving him a soft smile.

Immediately, they launched into conversation, catching each other up on their days and then talking about how things were going at the Hilton house. And happiness exploded through her when he advised that they’d be able to start moving in the following day.

They were interrupted briefly by the waiter coming to take their order. She ordered the spaghetti and black truffle meatballs, while Clark ordered a steak. Valerie watched him as the waiter walked away, not able to stop her thoughts from drifting to how grateful she was for the man in front of her.

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