Page 7

Lorelei’s donations to charities weren’t a surprise to him, but the gifts she’d left Joy were. He didn’t understand it at the time, but it’s become clear over the last six months. Given how prominent Joy was in his mother’s life, and how well she’s run the mall since his mother’s death, he now understood why Lorelei gave Joy half ownership of Snowcap Ridge Outlet Mall.

After spending the last few months going through the books and putting out fires at the other malls, he dug into Snowcap Ridge and found strong profit margins and high customer satisfaction. Nearly every review mentioned Joy’s name or praised how clean and well cared for the mall was. Joy’s mall was night and day above all the others, so it was easy to see why his mother wanted her to retain control of it.

While all the other malls were under the Van Adler Holdings umbrella, Snowcap Ridge was not. That mall had only two owners, Joy Brady and Kian Van Adler. On Christmas Eve, it would no longer be part of the Van Adler portfolio. It hadn’t been a lie when he’d told Joy that the board wanted to know how she had turned the mall into a flagship business. They did want to know so they could recreate it at the other malls, but they had no say over what happened at Snowcap Ridge. Only Kian and Joy did.

Pacing the room, Kian shook his head. The rub was that Joy couldn’t learn she owned half the mall until the first Christmas Eve after his mother’s death. She’d receive a letter and information from Lorelei’s attorney explaining the inheritance. If he told her before then, they would both lose the mall, and it would have to be sold. Kian wasn’t happy about being in this position, but his mother rarely cared as much about what would make him happy as about what would teach him an important life lesson. Her insistence that he spend time at each mall to learn how they were run gave him time to make things right with Joy. Forcing them to work together was the first step toward learning to tolerate each other, something they would have to do to keep the mall a top destination for shoppers.

Kian suddenly understood that having skin in the game mattered. It made the losses and gains more tangible when they hit your pocketbook rather than the company’s. Glancing around the room, he sighed. Did he have to do something with the estate? Yes, but maybe that would just mean leaving it as is. He’d pay the house staff to keep it clean and ready for use. Maybe he could rent it out as a high-end Airbnb. He’d had worse ideas. The estate boasted gardens and horse barns in the summer, cross-country ski trails in the winter, a deck for fires on a winter night, and downhill skiing just minutes away.

Shutting off the light in his mother’s office, he walked out and headed down the stairs toward the kitchen. He’d grab his laptop and a cup of coffee, then spend an hour or two investigating the idea. If he was already paying the house staff to be here with very little to do, maybe renting it out could bring in enough revenue to cover all the expenses. Not that he was broke by any stretch of the imagination, but if the estate paid for itself and he blocked out time for himself to use it, he’d love to keep it in the family.

His mind was moving faster than he could pin his ideas to his mental information corkboard, so he paused at the bottom of the stairs to jot down a few notes. He barely had the app open when the wall-mounted camera and two-way speaker activated.

“Miss Joy Brady is here to see you, Mr. Van Adler. Should I let her in?” Max, his security boss, asked in his refined British accent. He’d lived in the States for two decades, yet his accent remained.

Wait, Joy was here? They were supposed to meet tomorrow because today was her day off. What could she want out here? It was almost a thirty-minute drive from Snowcap Ridge to the estate, but she would know that, given how many pictures he had seen of her around the house.

Tipping his head side to side, Kian finally punched the reply button. “Let her through,” he said. He stepped back to watch her car pull into the parking area. He had no idea why she’d come, but he’d hear her out. After all, he had a secret, so any insider information he could get from Joy before he handed over her half of the mall was ammunition he might one day need to hold onto his own half. Kian may have graduated as valedictorian of high school and earned an MBA from Wharton, but he had no doubt the woman driving toward him in a sensible Ford SUV could run circles around him.

For the first time in six months, a ball of excitement settled in his gut. This was his chance to make things right with Joy before he gave her the best Christmas present she’d ever receive. He smiled, determined to put his best foot forward. Let ‘Operation Win Joy Over’ commence.

6

#Strategery

Despite the SUV being in Park, Joy didn’t make any move to get out. Instead, she stared at the estate before her, a place that had once been her home. She hadn’t been back since Lorelei died. She’d sworn she’d never return; the grief was simply too much to face. But here she was, facing that grief and dealing with the King at the same time. What on earth was she thinking, believing this was a good idea?

“Operation Bye-Bye Bossman is a good idea,” she corrected herself. “Your execution is the issue.”

With a groan, she shut off the SUV, opened the door, and lifted her legs out of the vehicle to make sure her braces didn’t get caught on the edge. Then she grabbed her crutches and slammed the door, stoking the fire in her heart to make this happen. As she walked to the front door, she realized she didn’t have to go inside. She could hand Kian the key in the entryway and leave. Yes. That was the answer.

The giant oak door wore an evergreen wreath that brought back so many memories. Joy trailed a finger over a bundle of cinnamon sticks and smiled. Lorelei had wanted a classy wreath for the front door. It was the first thing visitors would see when they arrived, so it had to stand out. None of the premade options Lorelei could buy struck her fancy, so she had begged Joy to help bring her design to life. Nothing made Joy happier than making Lorelei happy, so they had spent the night in their pajamas, crafting while drinking sweet wine.

Lorelei could have paid to have the wreath made, but she was never afraid to work for what she wanted. The wreath was no exception. The evergreen boughs were covered with bundles of cinnamon sticks, dried orange slices, dried lotus heads, and a smattering of ornaments and flowers. It was topped with a burgundy ribbon that had taken them three YouTube videos to learn how to tie into an elegant bow. It had been worth it. The result was all Lorelei. The wreath had welcomed visitors during the holidays for years, so Joy was happy to see it still adorning the door, though a bit surprised. She figured that with Lorelei gone, the estate would be replaced on the Snowcap Ridge Holiday Light Show. Wintercrest was supposed to be the final house on the tour this year, but now, with Lorelei gone, there didn’t seem much point.

Before she could knock, the door was opened by the King himself. “Joy?”

“Hey,” she said, forcing a smile. “I was just remembering the night Lorelei and I made this wreath.”

“Come in. It’s cold,” he said, stepping aside so she could slide past him. Not an easy trick with two crutches that had to clear his big feet, too.

Once she was in the entryway, he shut the door, letting the house’s warmth wrap around her. “Sorry to intrude. This won’t take long.”

“It’s not an intrusion at all,” Kian assured her, motioning her down the hallway toward the kitchen.

“Oh, I’m not staying,” she said quickly, but he wasn’t listening. He kept walking, leaving Joy no choice but to follow him into the kitchen.

It had been years since she’d seen Kian Van Adler dressed down. High school, to be exact. When he arrived at the hospital the day his mother died, he was still dressed to impress, though she had no idea why. The funeral had been another Hugo Boss suit, but this afternoon there was no suit, tie, or dress shirt. He wore a soft cashmere sweater, tan to bring out his eyes. Eyes framed by the very definition of slutty little glasses. Wait, is that a thing when a guy wears them?

Whoa. Back up the bus, girl. You do not need to be thinking about the King’s eyes or his slutty little man glasses!

Joy couldn’t deny that thinking about his eyes kept her from thinking about his tight ass in those nearly threadbare jeans. She suspected they were the fancy kind you bought off the rack to look that way, but regardless, they hugged that booty so tightly that his cheeks popped with every step.

Girl, you have to staaaaahppppp.

Nowhere, in any alternate universe, does Joy Brady appreciate any part of Kian Van Adler.

Except, apparently, this one, because that is one fine-ass, her inner voice said.