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There was no way to ignore Jace Jardine. Whew! If any man could pull her from her protective shell, it was this one. Her friend Taryn would say he was smoking hot, and he definitely was. The more impressive thing to Ayla was his kindness, intuitiveness, and superhero powers. He had rescued her twice now. Once when he’d accidentally knocked her down avoiding the toddler, wrapped her up, and beautifully cushioned her with his arms, and now he’d saved her from her snake of a boss. Her blood boiled thinking about Bryan trying to sneakily get them sleeping in the same suite. He shouldn’t even be here. She’d been looking forward to the break from him almost as much as she was anticipating the first vacation of her life.
She’d worked for him for almost ten years now. He owned a State Farm Insurance agency and had hired her straight out of high school as his receptionist. He’d been married at the time, happily she thought. Over the past ten years, she’d worked her way into running the agency while Bryan had a daughter, cheated on his wife and got divorced, married again, got divorced again, married a third time, had a son, got divorced again, had more affairs and girlfriends that were his “soulmates” than she could count, and had mostly been absentee from the business. Which she didn’t mind at all.
To his credit, Bryan did recognize that he’d be sunk without her and paid her accordingly. She made ten times what she would make at any other job in Barstow California with only a high school diploma. She knew because she’d checked other job opportunities. Multiple times.
She was still making plans to leave and deal with the insane pay cut. As soon as she paid off the final credit card bills and had enough saved to pay the steep monthly payment to the skilled nursing unit her grandmother lived in. Her parents pitched in, but running their dry farm—emphasis on dry—didn’t give them much extra money. None of her uncles, aunts, or cousins contributed much, frustrated that the facility was so expensive and that the government didn’t subsidize more.
Her extended family also thought Ayla should declare bankruptcy to rid herself of all the debts her deceased husband Tim had run up gambling online and just across the border from Barstow in Primm Nevada, plus spending loads of money on hotel suites for his one-night stands. She’d naively thought he was getting his master’s degree in engineering at the local college and traveling to job fairs and interviews. She’d thought eight years to get through a four-year bachelor’s and one year master program was a lot. Little did she know Tim hadn’t even finished his undergrad. He’d claimed he didn’t want to go to some stuffy graduation ceremony.
Shame on her that she hadn’t somehow known he was lying. She wasn’t sure that could really be her fault. Tim had been smart, kind, and he’d seemed to adore her. He’d been a bit of a nerdy engineering student, but she’d fallen for his gentle manner and magnetic blue eyes. He had treated her like a queen and she’d thought they loved each other and had a good marriage. Until he was killed in a car rollover accident coming home from a late-night high-stakes poker tournament in Primm with his friend Malcolm. Malcolm had been on painkillers and a mess when she got to the hospital. He’d spilled everything to her about the gambling, drinking, and women. She’d thought she was devastated then. She was stunned when she found out Tim had run up over a hundred thousand dollars in debt, all in her name.
She had tried to refinance their condo to at least have a lower interest rate on the debt but the second mortgage he’d taken out was larger than what she owed on the condo. She’d proudly paid extra on their condo every month and bragged that they’d be debt free before he even graduated college. Debt free … what a farce. Her credit was shot and nobody could help.
Ayla shook it all off and focused on this ski resort owner. He was tall, dark, and handsome with a lean, fit frame, dark, soulful eyes, and a smile she could get lost in. She hadn’t dated since Tim had passed three years ago. She worked a lot, made Bryan’s business flourish, earned bonus after bonus, and paid down her debts. In her spare time, she helped her parents on the farm, went to visit her grandma, or trained for marathons with Taryn.
She, Taryn, and her sister Shayna had been inseparable as children. When her little sister had died of a heart attack ten years ago, a crazy fluke because of a congenital heart defect that had never been diagnosed, Taryn had been there for her as her parents fell apart for a while. She loved Taryn like a sister and they both missed Shayna. She and Taryn laughed and cried and could solve the world’s problems on their runs. Sadly, they couldn’t solve their own. Her running was the only thing she did for herself.
This was to be her first vacation. A trip Bryan had awarded her as a pre-Christmas bonus, promising her the real Christmas bonus was going to blow her mind. It had better be enough to finish up those credit card bills. She was close. Then she’d only have the second mortgage and her condo loan.
She knew Bryan would take home well over two million dollars this year, thanks to her. When she’d seen him in the first-class seats as she walked onto the plane from Barstow to Denver, she’d been confused and filled with dread. She should’ve refused when he was waiting for her as she exited the plane and said he had a rental car ready to take her to Summit Valley. She’d only accepted because she hadn’t thought of the cost of a rental car and definitely didn’t have it in her budget. Bryan made regular passes at her, like he did every woman, and she always shot him down. What a sleaze thinking he could get her alone in a suite.
Until a few minutes ago, she’d worried that this dream vacation might turn into a nightmare.
She looked to her rescuer. “You have a cabin?”
“Yeah. I’ll take you.” Jace smiled at her, almost shyly. Sheesh he was attractive. “It’s half a mile from the resort. Is that okay? You won’t have the ski-on, ski-off access.”
“I can run half a mile in under three minutes,” she told him, bragging slightly, but she could do a six-minute mile on shorter distances. Marathon time she was closer to seven, but still, that was pretty fast and it had taken a lot of fartlek training to get to that speed. She hated fartleks. Sadly, they worked.
“Nice. And you claimed I was the athletic one.”
“You are,” she insisted. She looked over his impressive build in a soft, long-sleeved Henley and chino pants. She’d felt that strength as he’d held her and seen it as he’d leaped over the little girl.
He grinned. “But you might not run quite that fast if you’re carrying skis.”
“Well, first of all, I’m going to be renting my skis.”
“Rentals?” He stared at her as if he’d never met a person who didn’t own several pairs of high-quality skis. “But you’ve skied before.”
“Nope. I’ve hardly seen snow before, and I’ve never seen a view like that.” She gestured out the two-story windows showcasing the glorious valley stretching out below them. Would he think she was a loser as her few limited sort-of vacations had been waking early to drive to the beach a few hours from her home and driving back that night because she, or her parents, could never justify spending money on a hotel room? Most farmers she knew rarely took vacations. Working for Bryan and watching him jet around the world had stunned her.
“That’s insane.” His jaw tightened. “That settles it. I’ll teach you how to ski.”
“Are you serious?” Her vacation was suddenly back on track. This handsome ski resort owner was not only saving her by offering a cabin for her to stay in, far away from the loser Bryan, but he was going to teach her how to ski? How perfect was he? Could she trust that he was genuine, or was she being deceived again? Trust had to be earned, but he was definitely walking the right direction. But could she trust herself to see through deception?
“Of course. You need to learn from the best.” He winked. He directed her toward the door with his hand on her elbow, pulling her suitcase with her large floral purse strapped over it.
“You’re the best?” she asked as he held the door and she walked out onto the wide wooden deck and into the picture-perfect world of snow floating down, a gorgeous valley stretched out below, hemmed in by high mountains studded by snow-covered trees. Even driving into the valley with that jerk Bryan hadn’t tampered her enthusiasm for the most perfect Christmas postcard location she’d ever seen.
If only she could stay for Christmas, but she’d need to get back to work and be there for her parents and grandma. Her parents would beg her to forget all her responsibilities and stay. She could never do that. They’d lost Shayna, and Ayla was the only bright spot in their life. They were hard workers and loved their farm, but all of the work rarely paid off.
“He’s not the best. I the best.” A man walked toward them in ski boots, slid his skis onto a rack near the door, and grinned widely at them. He looked like Jace, but there was something different in his eyes and speech.
“Bentley,” Jace called out.
“Hi, bro.”
The two men hugged and Ayla thought Jace Jardine was incredible, first being so cute with the little girl and now with his brother.
