And she hugged him back, surprised by the strength in his bony frame, thinking that this man was as much a part of Snow Crystal as the mountains and the snow. “I’ve set up some interviews. You’re going to be a star, Walter.” Her voice was croaky. “Just don’t scare them too much.”
“You’d better come back and keep me in line. And do it soon.” Patting her back, he released her and cleared his throat. “Alice isn’t good with goodbyes. She’s inside. You could give her a wave.”
Alice was standing in the window holding her knitting, the lights from the Christmas tree glowing behind her.
Deciding she wasn’t good at goodbyes, either, Kayla waved and Elizabeth pressed a small package into her hand.
“A few gingerbread Santas. In case you’re hungry on the journey.”
“You’re not going to cry, are you?” Tyler drawled. “Because if there’s one thing I can’t stand it’s a sobbing woman.”
“Dad!” Rolling her eyes, Jess gave Kayla an awkward smile. “Come back soon so you can teach me to skate.”
Tyler winked and stepped forward to give her a warm hug. “Take care of yourself. Place isn’t going to be the same without seeing you lying flat on your back in the snow every time I turn a corner.” He lowered his voice. “Jackson’s taken the groomer up one of the trails. He said he’ll catch up with you soon.”
In other words he hadn’t wanted to see her.
And she couldn’t blame him for that.
He’d offered her everything, and she’d given him nothing in return. Nothing except her skills at her job, and they both knew that was something she gave freely to anyone with the money to pay Innovation the going rate.
The cabdriver leaned on his horn.
“I’d better be going—” Kayla turned and walked back down the path. As she slid into the cab she felt as if someone had taken one of the boulders from the top of the mountain and pushed it onto her chest.
She sat, flattened by misery and something heavier that she didn’t recognize.
The car moved silently along the snowy track toward the road, and Kayla stared at the lake, her vision blurring. She blinked a few times, remembering the first day she’d arrived here.
“Home for the holidays?” The taxi driver glanced in his mirror and she shook her head.
“I was working. Home is New York.”
Her life was in New York.
She’d come here to escape Christmas, and Christmas was over, so why didn’t she feel more excited about going back?
Trying to pull herself together, she reached for her phone and tried to check her emails, but the signal was so patchy it was impossible to work. Or maybe it was her concentration that was patchy. All she knew was that her head throbbed and she still had preparation to do for her meeting. The meeting with the partners to discuss her promotion.
She should have been buzzing with excitement.
Instead she kept thinking of Alice’s face in the window. Of Walter hugging her. Of Maple licking her toes as she’d stepped out of the shower.
Of Jackson.
Feeling tears burn her throat, she reached into her bag for tissues, and her fingers closed over the envelope she’d forgotten. Her Christmas gift. Numb, she ripped it open and read the card. The message inside was printed, a generic festive greeting that would have been sent to all her father’s clients.
She waited for the thud of disappointment, but it didn’t come.
Somewhere along the way she’d given up expecting anything different from her family. Given up wanting something they couldn’t deliver.
They weren’t close, and nothing she did was going to change that.
Stuffing the envelope back into her bag, her fingers scraped against something rough, and she found the pinecone Jackson had given her the night he’d taken her on the sled ride through the moonlit forest.
And suddenly she realized why she wasn’t more excited about going back to New York.
She didn’t feel as if she was going home.