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By the time they’d arrived on December twenty-third, the Sterling ranch house had already been prepped by staff for the holidays, with a fourteen-foot tree in the great room, and fresh green boughs wrapping the rough-hewn bannister railings. Gingerbread cookies had been baked and fires had crackled in all seven fireplaces. There had been a lot of eating and drinking and extravagant gift giving. Quinn had found Christmas with the Sterlings perfectly enjoyable—after all, it was his second holiday spent with them—but a Sterling Christmas was a far cry to his humble beginnings in Paradise Valley, Montana.
Last year, on Christmas Day, he drove to Marietta for an evening meal with his family—sister McKenna and her clan, brother Rory and his new bride. McKenna hosted a Douglas family dinner at her and Trey’s house, and it was the complete opposite of the Sterling Christmas—noisy and chaotic with babies crying and kids fighting and lots of good-natured ribbing and laughter. There was no staff to do the work, thus everyone pitched in, with cooking and kids and cleanup.
Quinn enjoyed playing bachelor uncle, even on his back in front of the living room fire with his nieces and nephews crawling all over him. He’d loved being with his family, and he adored the nieces and nephews, but it made him question the future. His future.
His phone rang as he waited for his rental car to be brought around. He glanced at the number. Alice.
Quinn tensed and then took a deep breath and answered the call. Even though they’d broken up over the summer, she still stayed in close touch, in hopes that they might get back together. “Hey,” he said, answering, the call.
“So you made it?” she asked.
“Just got here. Picking up my car now.”
“I wish I was there. I love Jackson Hole.”
“It is gorgeous,” he agreed, suppressing the ambivalence he felt every time they talked.
Alice had wanted to marry him. She still wanted to marry him. They’d dated for almost three years, and she’d taken the breakup hard, feeling as if she’d invested a huge chunk of her life into him and she was still trying to get him back. There would be no going back. He didn’t know how to explain it to her without hurting her more, and so he smashed his unease and tried to be supportive, hoping that eventually she’d meet someone new and be able to move on.
“Lots of snow?” she asked.
“It’s been snowing all day.”
“The powder would be amazing.” Alice sighed wistfully. “We haven’t had great snow in the Cascades yet, which reminds me why I’ve called. Dad is still interested in that resort. He knows they’re struggling financially and he’s considering making them an offer.”
“I don’t think they’re looking to sell.”
“But they would, for the right price.”
“Your dad lowballs everyone.”
“Come on, sweetie, that’s not fair. He’s just a tough negotiator, and it’s what makes him so successful.”
“Mmm.” Quinn wasn’t about to contradict her, because Alice had always been a daddy’s girl, but Leo Sterling was ruthless, and he’d made a fortune by taking advantage of those who were desperate. It wasn’t the way Quinn had been raised and it made him leery of the future. If he married Alice, he could walk out of professional sports and be set for life, not because of what he’d achieved, but because her father, Leo Sterling, had built a dazzling real estate empire of luxury properties across the world and was one of the wealthiest men on the West Coast. Quinn could leave baseball behind—and Alice was desperate for him to leave ball and get off the road—and then Quinn could become her father’s right hand, the son he never had. It was all that Alice wanted.
And nothing Quinn wanted.
He tried to share with Alice his reservations, but she couldn’t understand why he wouldn’t want to be part of her family’s company. His resistance to working with her family became an issue between them, and it made him question his commitment to her.
If he truly loved Alice, the shifting of his career shouldn’t be so hard. If he loved Alice, he should be happy to stay in Seattle and become vice president of Sterling Luxury Resorts. It would be a cushy job. All the hard work would have been done for him. All he needed to do was show up, dress the part, wine and dine clients, shake hands, sign a few autographs and be the good son-in-law, Seattle Mariner third baseman, Quinn Douglas, baseball hero.
There was nothing about the job description that appealed, though.
“The car is here,” he said, noting the black four-wheel-drive truck pulling up.
“So what shall I tell Dad? That you’ll report back?”
“Alice, I’m here for me. I’m looking for investment opportunities for me.”
“You’re getting into property, too?”
“I’m looking for investments that make sense to me. This one is close to home—”
“It’s five hours from your family, across the Tetons. I wouldn’t call it convenient.”
“I have a house four hours from here, and I like driving.”
“Dad says they are in deep. They’re not going to survive this year. You don’t want to take on something like that. You could lose your shirt.”
“I’m not looking to buy them. I’m looking to invest in them. Huge difference.”
“Dad wants them. Don’t undermine him.”
“Peter Pace, the ow
ner of Little Teton, is an old friend. I’m not going to stand by and let him go bankrupt if I can help.”
“You played minor league ball with him. You barely knew him.”
“We were roommates in single A ball. I knew him quite well.”
“But that was years ago. Don’t throw your money away. Dad says—”
“Your dad is smart. He is. But his way isn’t always the right way, Alice. We both know that. Goodbye.”
Quinn hung up before she could reply and ground his teeth together. This was the part he couldn’t stomach. Alice might be beautiful and smart and well connected, but she didn’t understand that he came from a very different family, with different values. And maybe his parents had died when he was a teenager, but he was old enough to have internalized those values. People mattered. Kindness mattered. Integrity mattered.
Alice had a good side, and he admired her immensely for being ambitious and hardworking, but he wasn’t ever going to be able to peel her away from Seattle, and he had family in Montana and it was his dream to one day return to Montana full time. When he broached the subject to Alice in early July, she recoiled, rejecting the idea of ever living in Montana permanently, and he suddenly had clarity on their relationship.
He could love someone, but it didn’t make the relationship right.
He could want the best for someone, but it didn’t mean that person was his person.
And so instead of proposing, during the July All-Star Break, he broke up with her. It had been five months since he ended the relationship but she was still hanging on, determined to get him back.
He had no plans to get back together with her. Ever. She was a great woman. She just wasn’t his woman.
*
Charity had been worried that forecast of snow would make the drive over the Teton Pass treacherous, but her seven-year-old Subaru handled the roads beautifully, and yes, the snow fell steadily, but there was no wind and her windshield wipers did a great job of scraping the window clean, keeping her view clear.
