“Are Sage and Nix here too somewhere?” I asked, looking around as discreetly as I could for Nellie. If Sage was here, Nellie probably would be too.
“Yeah, they’re here. Nix, Sage, and Nellie went with Parker to the café.”
I nodded.
“Is Uncle Bob driving tonight?” Damien asked from behind me.
Our aunt and uncle, Tabitha’s parents, still ran Stonewood Farm, along with the help of her siblings. Tabitha used to work there too, before she and Parker got married and had a family. Now she focused on raising her kids, although she’d occasionally help at the farm and for events.
“Nah, Rob forced him to take the night off, so he’s driving one of them. Lucy’s driving the other one. It was looking like we were going to have to bring in the third and interrupt Dad’s night off, but it’s slowed down a bit and people don’t seem to mind the wait.” Tabitha explained, referring to her brother, Robert, and her sister, Lucinda.
There were probably about fifteen people ahead of my cousin, which meant we’d be standing for a bit. My mom asked Tabitha how her mom was doing, and Tabitha happily filled her in.
Easton had spotted some friends, so he’d gone over to chat with them while Damien and Charlotte watched as the girls played in the snow. Damien had his arms wrapped around Charlotte from behind, and he was whispering something to her. It seemed like they were lost in their own little world.
I kind of half-listened to Tabitha and my mom chatting while I kept looking around for any sign of Nellie. I don’t know why I wanted to see her so badly again, but I did. After telling Nix about the job posting for an office administrator last night, I’d hoped all day long I’d end up with Nellie’s resume in my email inbox, but no such luck. I don’t even know if he told her, but I wanted to ask her myself.
It would put Nellie at close quarters with me, but it would also selfishly help me out. I was already damn tired of office work. We still had the rest of the holidays to get through, and the new year. If I didn’t find someone soon, I’d go stir crazy. I dedicated a day every week to payroll in my office, and the rest of the time, I wanted to be outside managing the resort, not stuck in the front office playing receptionist.
Parker and Nix strolled back to join Tabitha; their hands full of to-go cups of hot chocolate from Tout de Sweets. A little way behind them walked Sage and Nellie. My heart seemed to jump in my chest, pumping a little faster as I took her in.
Her dark hair was tucked beneath a warm, red toque. Her black winter jacket was zipped up to her chin, and she had mitts and a scarf wrapped around her neck that matched the toque she was wearing. She didn’t notice me at first, not until Parker saw me.
“Noah! S’up, man?” He greeted me. His twins ran up to him, and he passed them their hot chocolates, taking Bryson from Tabitha and passing her the last cup.
Nellie’s eyes shot to me the moment she heard my name, then back to Sage. She had a guarded expression on her face. Sage lifted a shoulder, sending her an apologetic look, as if she was saying, I didn’t know he’d be here.
Was Nellie that pissed at running into me again? What had I done to entice such a negative reaction from her? Had I misremembered our night together? In my memories, we’d both been extremely satisfied, and the chemistry had been downright explosive. But Nellie couldn’t seem to get away fast enough the next morning, and she’d bailed on the group breakfast. My ego had taken a bit of a hit, and I spent weeks worrying that I’d creeped her out or that the whole thing wasn’t as enjoyable for her as it had been for me.
“Not much, just doing the old Christmas Eve-Eve tradition with the fam jam,” I replied, gesturing to my brother’s twins. At least one person every other generation had multiple births. Usually twins, but there’d been a few triplets scattered throughout the family tree.
The long running joke was that the love elixir made the Wood and Hartley lines very fruitful.
“Cool, cool. Good night for it,” Parker said.
And it was, the weather wasn’t too cold, and snow was falling sporadically but gently, making conditions perfect for a carriage ride along the beautifully lit streets of Hartwood Creek.
Some more idle chit-chat later, and the carriages returned. Passengers got off, and the next wave of people went; a group of eight climbing into Lucy’s carriage, and a group of six climbing into Rob’s carriage.
We all shuffled forward to the start of the line. I moved around the group, coming to stand beside Nellie. “Hey, I wondered if I could talk to you for a minute?” I said to her, ignoring the curious glances of everyone else.
Tabitha was staring at me with an intrigued, almost giddy expression on her face, while Parker seemed mildly curious. Sage looked hopeful, but also like she’d come at me if I said one wrong thing, and Nix had a cautious look about him, like he didn’t trust me as far as he could throw me.
Nellie looked guarded. “You’re talking now, aren’t you?”
“Yes, you are.” I said, loving her sass. “Heard you were in the market for a job. Did Nix or Sage get a chance to tell you that we’re hiring at the resort?”
“Sage might have mentioned something,” Nellie said carefully.
I noticed she wasn’t meeting my eyes. She was looking anywhere but directly at me. “Is it something you’d be interested in?”
“I haven’t given it much thought,” she replied, shrugging her shoulders.
“Well, think about it. We could really use you,” I don’t know why I was pushing it—hell, Nellie might not even have the credentials for the job. But I somehow knew in my heart it was a good fit: she’d be the perfect addition.
Nellie sighed. “I don’t have much experience with office work. I have café experience. I can run a schedule like nobody’s business and I’m excellent at event planning, but other than that…”
“We can train you in all that other stuff,” I pushed away her concerns with a wave of my hand. “The program we use for booking reservations is straight-forward, it practically does everything for you. And if you’re excellent at event planning, you’re already an asset to us. We do a lot of events for the guests at the resort. The rest of it is answering emails and phone calls.”
