The Mistletoe Effect (22 page)

“Can you find it in your heart to forgive me, Mrs. Decker?”

“I do forgive you, Cord. You’ve been a gentlemen ever since and I thank you for that.”

Nodding his gratitude, he started back toward the lobby.

“Cord? One last thing. Out of curiosity, who would have won the pool if I quit my job?”

“Well, no one, ma’am. Everyone knows you’d never quit this place.”

Then everybody was in for the surprise of their lives. She watched him go, a brand-new set of plans taking shape in her mind.

There was a time when Carina would have lain down and let everyone walk all over her. But standing there listening to Decker make plans to leave her life for good, she couldn’t ignore the truth that in letting him go, in choosing to take the job in California, she was making the biggest mistake of her life in letting her career take priority over the man she loved.

She’d vowed to never again bend to the will of others at the forfeit of her own wants and needs, but somewhere along the line in the past month those wants and needs had shifted. Following her career, pretending that was still the most important dream of her life, wasn’t going to get her anywhere but alone, nursing a broken heart.

She tuned back in to Decker and her father’s conversation as Decker asked if the marriage license had been destroyed. Her pain and grief briefly surfaced at that, even though he had a right to ask and they’d agreed that was the best course of action to dissolve their marriage.

Good thing the county clerk was on vacation still, because that license was key for the plans Carina was busy reinventing. But what wasn’t in the plan was Decker walking out of her dad’s office and catching her listening. As soon as he declared he was rushing off to Fort Worth, she scrambled out from behind the desk and ducked into the copy room.

She gave him a few minutes to clear the building, then made a beeline for her dad’s office, not bothering to request an audience with him before plopping into her usual chair across the desk from him.

He didn’t seem surprised to see her at all, but tired and distracted. Rather than working at a feverish pace, as he usually was when she stopped by, she’d caught him staring out the window. “I take it Decker told you to come talk to me?”

“No. I’m here on my own.”

He screwed up his mouth like he was fixing to say something important. Carina gave him time. But all he said was, “Is everything ready for the Mistletoe Ball tonight?”

She should have figured as much. “For the most part. Two of the ovens in the catering kitchen wouldn’t heat, but we commandeered part of the dining room’s kitchen, so that shouldn’t affect the start time on hors d’oeuvres service. The doves haven’t been delivered yet, but that company has been known to run late and the roads are icy. I’m confident they’ll arrive in time. We’ve been in touch by phone.”

Her dad steepled his hands together. “All the appliances in the catering kitchen will need to be replaced before too long.”

“I know. I’ve been setting money aside in the budget so we could spring for a full kitchen overhaul next year.”

“That’s why you’re the best at what you do.” He grabbed his pen and leaned back in his chair. “Which means you probably already know that if the dove company is late, don’t pay them in full. It’ll only encourage bad behavior.”

“Yes, sir.” There was a warped comfort in talking business. It was so easy between them. But that wasn’t why she was there. After a fortifying breath, she screwed up her courage enough to start. “Daddy …”

He let his pen fall from his fingers, then folded his hands across his chest. “Are you quitting, too?”

She drew a breath in preparation to say what had been unthinkable up until a few days earlier. “Yes.”

His stony expression didn’t give anything away. “You’re following Decker to Fort Worth?”

Her gaze shifted past her dad to the floor-to-ceiling windows that looked out over the south end of the property, at the stables and Decker’s house in the distance, the golf course to the west and acres and acres of wildness beyond it all. She loved this land and she loved this resort—but not as much as she loved Decker.

“Yes.”

Her father sprung from his chair and put his back to her, walking to the windows, his hands in his pockets. “What will you do there? You don’t have the temperament to be a housewife.”

“I’m going to open a seamstress business so I can design wedding dresses full-time.”

He huffed at that. He never did take her passion for dress design seriously. “Not event planning?”

“That was never my dream.”

He turned and pinned her with a searching gaze. “Do you love him?”

With her whole heart, in a way that left her breathless and dizzy and dreaming of forever. She stood, ready to declare it loud and proud. “Yes, I do.”

His attention shifted back to the view from the windows. “It’s going to be damn near impossible to hire a new event planner for the salary I got away with paying you.”

Her heart squeezed. She knew this was all he had to offer her, his way of dealing with anything close to resembling emotion, at least where she was concerned. It would have been easy to come back with a defensive comment about how he put her second to the business, about how he didn’t care about her as much as he cared about money, but she knew now, deep down, that wasn’t true. He did care about her, and this was the only way he could express it.

She blinked away tears as she walked around the desk. “I’ll miss you, too, Daddy.”

His chin dropped. “He’s a lucky man. I hope he realizes that. If he doesn’t, you come back here. There will always be a job for you at the resort.”

She stood near her dad’s back, staring at the curve of his shoulder blades beneath his dress shirt. Why was it so difficult for them to connect? Why was it so hard to reach out and hug him? Even if he didn’t hug her back, she might feel better for having done it. But she couldn’t bring herself to spoil the tender words that still hung in the air.

She touched a hand to her heart, willing him to know how much she loved him, too, though the words wouldn’t come. “Thank you.”

∗∗∗

Granite Hill Ranch was a cowboy’s equivalent of Disneyland. As far as the eye could see, white fences, stables, and riding arenas set up for every kind of equestrian discipline imaginable stretched over the land.

While Decker waited for Outweller to finish up a phone conference, he stood at the doorway of an empty room adjacent to Murray Outweller’s office within the sprawling architectural marvel of an office building that sat at the center of his empire and looked out through the window, trying to keep from glancing at his watch too much. The trouble was, time was ticking and Decker had a lot to do if he hoped to make it back to the resort in time for the ball. Seeing as how his plans hinged on him being there, he sure hoped Outweller’s conference didn’t run too long.

After a few more long minutes, Decker heard boots stomping over the hardwood floor behind him.

“That’s going to be your office right there. Nice view, isn’t it?”

Murray Outweller walked out of his office, leading with his beer gut and wearing a tall, gray cowboy hat that reminded Decker of J.R.’s from that TV show
Dallas.

It truly was an impressive view, one that looked out over a wide, green fenced-in pasture for mares and their foals. The office space itself was twice the size of Decker’s office at the resort, as well as twice as nice.

Outweller gestured to an empty desk out in front of the office. “The job comes with a secretary, too, just so you know.”

Decker remembered that from before.

The grounds, the office, the salary and opportunity to perhaps someday make this ranch his own—it was all a dream come true. Decker’s old dream, as it were.
Can you see this where you are, Dad? This would have been one hell of a life.

But he knew now what his dad would have told him, if he could have answered. Nothing in this world was more important than the people you loved, not even the dreams you had for yourself.

“Mr. Outweller, that’s what I’m here to talk to you about.”

Decker was shown into an office much like Ty Briscoe’s, with leather and wood, and a huge picture window that looked out on Outweller’s empire.

“Please tell me that you’re officially accepting my offer.”

It was a good thing Outweller forwent the small talk, because Decker was on a time schedule if he hoped to get back to Briscoe Ranch in time for the ball.

“Sir, I appreciate your forthrightness, but the reason I’m here is to let you know that I can’t work for you. My apologies for that. Your offer was generous, and I wish you the best of luck finding a new foreman, but my wife is taking a job in California and I’m following her there.”

“You sure about that, son?”

“One hundred percent.”

Chortling, Outweller walked to a bar at the side of the room and splashed bourbon into two rocks glasses. “Stood up because of a woman. Well, I guess I can understand that.” He handed one of the glasses to Decker, then held up his left hand and wiggled his massive gold wedding band. “It’s because of a woman that I’m looking to retire. The wife wants me around a bit more while we’re still young enough to enjoy ourselves.”

“Thank you for understanding, sir.”

“Since I already got you here, tell me a little bit about your woman while we drink to your big move.”

Decker barely resisted the urge to look at his watch and instead took a sip of the bourbon. “It’s Ty Briscoe’s daughter, Carina.”

Outweller spewed bourbon all over his desk, then dissolved into a fit that sounded more like laughing than coughing. The laughing went on and on, long after Outweller had mopped up the spill with a tissue.

“I’ll be a son of a bitch, I didn’t see that coming. Good luck, Decker. You’re going to need it with that family.”

At that moment, Outweller’s secretary ducked her head in. “Sir? Ty Briscoe’s on the line.”

That solicited another bark of a laugh from Outweller as he picked up his phone and punched the call through. “Speak of the devil. I hear congratulations are in order because your daughter got hitched.”

Amazing.
Ty really had come through on vouching for Decker with Outweller. Maybe Ty Briscoe wasn’t such a bad guy after all.

In response to something Ty said, Outweller’s eyes flashed wide in shock. “All right, here he is.” He held the phone out to Decker. “Your father-in-law would like a word.”

Decker took the phone, having no idea what Ty would want to say to him. “Hello?”

“Decker, it’s Ty Briscoe. Carina was just in my office, quitting because she’s determined to follow you.”

“Follow me? What do you mean?” She told her father she was going to follow him to Forth Worth? That was unacceptable. She was too smart and had waited too long to follow her dreams to give them up for him—not when he was more than willing to give up his job to follow her.

“You know exactly what I mean,” Briscoe snapped. “So the way I figure it, my best bet to keep her here is to keep you here at Briscoe Ranch Resort no matter what kind of hit that means for my bank account.”

“I’m not sure I follow you, sir.”

“You need me to spell it out to you? Fine. I’m offering you a blank check. You want to build a horse-breeding center on my property, it’s yours. You want to build an equestrian center there, I’ll finance it. Whatever Outweller’s offering to pay you, I’ll double it. Just name your price for keeping my Carina close to the family. I don’t know what I’d do without her in my life, and I’m not keen on finding out.”

Chapter Twelve

As soon as the Mistletoe Ball’s four-course dinner concluded with a succulent roast duck, Emily made her usual grand entrance while Carina’s father stood at the microphone praising her culinary skills as the guests rose for a standing ovation.

Carina stood near the back of the room—the best place to watch the double doors for Decker, who was two hours late already, not that she was ready to give up on him yet—and clapped along with everyone else as Emily bowed, eating up the limelight like she was born for it.

The ball was being held in the same ballroom as Decker and Carina’s wedding reception, but gone was the winter wonderland garden and in its place was an ornate red, green, and gold theme. Ribbons and evergreen garlands decked the ceiling and met in the center of the dance floor where a massive crystal and gold chandelier hung. A gas-burning fireplace at the rear of the stage kept the atmosphere cozy and the string quartet and a capella singers were dressed in period pieces of a bygone era that reminded Carina of
A Christmas Carol
.

Though she’d overseen the event planning, she’d delegated the décor to Alex. And while the general artistic theme of the event didn’t waver year to year, Alex outdid himself every time, probably because his partner, Xavier, was in attendance, as he was every year, so they could renew the vows of the wedding of their hearts, as they called the not-so-legal ceremony they’d held in their home five years earlier with their own church’s pastor.

This year, Alex had added new touches of extravagance to the ball, such as staging a library in one corner, complete with shelves lined with leather-bound volumes, leather chairs artfully arranged to encourage conversation, and a hot toddy station.

After the praise for Emily had died down and the dancing and mingling started, Emily made a beeline for Carina. “Hey, sweetie, that was a nice response to dinner. Everyone deserves to get a standing ovation at least once in their life.”

“The meal really was ovation worthy,” Carina said.

Emily waved off the praise. “What can I say, I have a passion for roast duck.” On her last word, she looked past Carina and gasped, her eyes going wide.

The next thing Carina knew, Emily had her by the shoulders and was turning her away from the door. “Look at me, Carina. And only me.”

“What?”

“Keep your eyes on me and think of something happy, something peaceful.”

Even if Carina were prone to happy, peaceful thoughts, she wouldn’t have been tonight. Not with the Mistletoe Ball in full swing and her nerves going haywire about whether Decker was going to show. “What? Why?”