A Family Like Hannah's Read online

  CHAPTER THREE

  TATE HANDED A set of Christmas lights to his longtime coach, mentor and friend Viktor Kovalenko. He began unwrapping another string from its exasperatingly tight packaging, barely resisting the urge to use his teeth.

  “I’m telling you, Viktor, she hasn’t made one move to accommodate snowboarders. At all. Other than the resort will be offering board rentals in the shop. Park told me she has plans to order maybe a third of the equipment she has slated for skiing.”

  “Really?” Viktor started up the stairs, looping the string of lights around the banister. Tate had purchased the lights in town as well as a wreath for the door and some other decorations with the intent of spreading some Christmas cheer around the house for Lucas.

  “She knows about skiing. I’ll give her that. And she’s doing a fine job there. She’s working on an awesome cross-country set up. And the heli-skiing venture she started with Cricket is amazing. It’s already becoming super popular with backcountry enthusiasts. I went up with Cricket when I was here in the fall. I got a glimpse of the incredible terrain they have access to. And now with this snowpack I’m anxious to get out there and try it out myself.”

  Tate had met Cricket Blackburn on his first scouting trip to Rankins. They’d become friendly over the course of three successive visits. Cricket had introduced him to Park Lowell, who had turned him on to the investment opportunity that Snowy Sky offered. Snowy Sky had tipped him over the edge when making the difficult decision of trying to decide where to make a permanent home for himself and his makeshift family.

  “This resort could be really special, but she’s limiting its potential. Plus, she seems awfully blasé about her position as resort manager.”

  Viktor paused. “Blasé?”

  “Yes, she’s young and she’s...” He searched for a description but all he could think of was cheerful. “She’s not unconcerned, but...”

  Flippant? No, that wasn’t exactly the right word either. Lighthearted? Yes, but there was really nothing wrong with that, was there? And he didn’t add that she was funny and that he’d also had a good time with her. None of that mattered because he needed to think about the resort’s future success. And Lucas. Especially Lucas.

  “I don’t know exactly. She’s mostly professional, though maybe not quite serious enough or...” That wasn’t right either. He gave up with a dismissive head shake.

  “What are you going to do?” Viktor asked, plugging one end of the string into an extension cord. The multicolored strands flickered and then glowed with cheerful color. He surveyed their work and grinned with satisfaction. “Lukie will like this.”

  Tate agreed. “I asked him what kind of tree he’d like for Christmas and he told me he doesn’t remember ever having a Christmas tree.”

  Viktor nodded sadly. It didn’t need to be said that money had specifically been sent each and every year to give Lucas a proper Christmas because they both knew. There had been a tree the last time Tate had spent Christmas with Lucas and Lexie, but Lucas had only been three years old.

  “This year we change that,” Viktor stated confidently.

  Like always, Tate appreciated Viktor’s optimism. Tate knew he needed to make a lot of changes for Lucas’s sake. It was difficult to even know where to start.

  “Yes, we will.” Tate adjusted the lights, making sure they hung evenly. He knew Lucas was asleep in his room upstairs but still he lowered his voice as he asked, “Was I as troubled as Lucas when you took me in?”

  Viktor halted his ministrations, his hands twinkling with color, and thought for a long minute. “I am not sure how to answer. It is difficult to know the mind of a child—the damage that is done. It comes out over time. I believe as part of healing process. You were unsettled also, like Lukie, tentative and even quieter. But your dedication to snowboarding saved you as much as I did.”

  Tate smiled at the man who had managed to wrest him away from Penny at the age of seven—purchased him essentially after dating her during a brief stint of sobriety. She’d been waitressing at the ski resort where Viktor worked. He’d been kind to Tate, introducing him to snowboarding. Tate had been a progeny and Viktor, seeing his potential, had offered to coach him, eventually striking a deal with Penny that allowed him to raise Tate as long as she kept receiving financial help.

  Viktor always downplayed the role he’d assumed in Tate’s life, but they both knew very well that he wouldn’t be where he was if it wasn’t for Viktor—not anywhere even close.

  “Let’s hope that works for Lucas, too.”

  “Yes, we will hope. And if not, we will find what does.”

  But Tate wanted this to work. It had to because he didn’t know anything besides snowboarding. He was counting on using the sport to forge a bond with his nephew. Just as it had between him and Viktor.

  Viktor added, “He is two nights now without nightmare.”

  “Yes, he is,” Tate said with a relieved sigh. “He loves that crocodile night-light you got him. Told me it keeps the darkness away. The actual darkness and the scary kind he has bad dreams about.”

  Viktor’s lips curved up into a grin. “You had night-light, too. It was tooth. You remember this one? You get from dentist.”

  He did remember. He still had it, tucked in a box in his condo back in Colorado.

  “I wonder if Lucas has ever been to the dentist?”

  “We will check on that. Before toothache comes.”

  “Good idea,” Tate replied. “As far as Snowy Sky goes, I don’t have any choice. I’ll have to take my recommendations to the board. Now that we’re investors we need to think about the bottom line, as well.”

  “Does Ms. James know how much of resort you own?”

  He grimaced. “Not exactly.” He joined another string of lights to Viktor’s.

  “Does she know you own any shares of Snowy Sky?” Viktor asked, adjusting the strings as he slowly descended the stairs.

  “Uh...no.”

  “How do you think that will go over when she finds out?”

  He shrugged helplessly and tried to squelch a surprising, annoying niggle of guilt as the tiny bulbs flashed on, as bright as Hannah’s smile. He couldn’t think about her smile or those amber-colored eyes that seemed to dance with a kind of mischief.

  Cricket had mentioned the James family of course. He had even met a few people he now realized would be Hannah’s brothers or cousins. Park had also filled him in about the status and reputation her family enjoyed in Rankins. Undoubtedly she’d had a storybook upbringing as a member of the esteemed James family. It was certainly easy to deduce from her demeanor that the woman hadn’t known much hardship in her life.

  But Tate had, and so had Lucas—which was why he needed to stay focused on the endgame.

  “I didn’t want that knowledge to influence anything she told me. I wanted her to think she was talking with an objective observer. And, I didn’t want her to think she had to impress me.”

  Viktor slowly descended the last few stairs, admiring their handiwork as he went. When he reached the bottom, he turned a hesitant look on Tate.

  “Hmm,” he finally said.

  “Hmm, what?”

  “How are you objective?”

  “In my capacity as a consultant I’m objective.”

  “But what about your capacity as snowboarder? How does that make you any more objective than Ms. James with her background in skiing?”

  Tate conceded that Viktor had a point. But he didn’t harbor any prejudice against skiing like she so obviously did against snowboarding. If only she would make a few simple—okay, maybe not-quite-so-simple—adjustments, equality could be achieved. Then harmony between the two sports would naturally follow at Snowy Sky.

  * * *

  CLOSING HER EYES, Hannah forced herself to do one more set. The
doctors and her physical therapist had told her that the better shape she remained in, the less the trauma her body had suffered would prevent her from doing what she wanted to do in life.

  Which made perfect sense, but this was heavy; she’d added more weight to her routine this morning. She focused on pushing the bar up as her muscles began to quiver.

  Uh-oh, she realized, barbell now definitely heading in the wrong direction. She was going to have to roll out from under it somehow.

  Her eyes snapped open as the bar was suddenly snatched out of her hands. The clinking sound it made as it was dropped on the rack seemed to echo through the empty weight room of the community center.

  Cricket scowled down at her. “Are you trying to kill yourself?”

  Hannah grinned up at him, wiping her brow with the sleeve of her shirt. “No, but I admit I may have pushed it a little too far. Thank you.”

  He leaned over so his upside-down face was only inches above hers. “You should know better than to lift this much weight without a spotter. It’s weight lifting 101.”

  She shifted her gaze one way and then the other. She tried to sound casual even as the danger of her actions began to sink in. “Well, there’s no one else here.”

  “That’s because no one else in their right mind gets up at four in the morning to work out.”

  “You do,” she spouted with a laugh.

  “Yeah, so next time wait for me, okay?”

  She sat up and mumbled a “fine” as she did so, because she knew he was right. That had kind of scared her.

  He took a seat on the bench beside her. “How are you feeling anyway?” He motioned in the general direction of her left leg.

  She nodded, but didn’t make eye contact. “Good.”

  He kept staring. He always watched her close and for some reason she didn’t mind. She had known Cricket forever, but the last year and a half since becoming her business partner he’d also become like a brother to her. Closer actually than her own two brothers, who were both wonderful yet...

  Her family was close, but Hannah had always felt odd having been born the middle child among her siblings—five years after her sister Shay who had come just two years after their oldest brother Tag. Those two were tight. Then Hannah had come along, and five years later the triplets had been born; Hazel, Iris and Seth. Those three were their own special kind of unit. Which had left Hannah kind of floundering in the middle, and then she’d been away so much of her childhood, skiing.

  She knew it would be pointless to lie to him. “Still having some pain. It’s probably nothing, but I’m going to call the doctor.”

  “When?”

  “Soon,” she promised. “Right after the holidays.”

  “Hannah—”

  “That’s only a few weeks. It’s not getting worse. It’s just there. And I doubt it will make any difference.”

  He eyed her skeptically. “How in the world could you possibly know that?”

  She chuckled. “I don’t, but I was hoping you would buy it.”

  * * *

  HANNAH HADN’T SEEN the little boy during the next couple visits that followed their first encounter in the atrium, so this morning she was pleased to find him waiting for her. Technically, he was hiding again, but she felt confident he was doing so in anticipation of her arrival.

  She pretended as if she didn’t see him as she ducked into the storage room to collect the fish food. She strolled over to the pond where the koi began to swim at a faster clip as they spotted her. Keeping one eye on the little boy, she threw a handful of food into the pond and then another.

  “Ouch! My wrist hurts,” she called out and then shook her hand as if the motion had caused her pain. She looked toward the pond. “How will I feed you guys? I could really use some help.”

  A soft voice floated over to her. “You should use your other hand.”

  She stifled a grin. “Oh, I guess I could try that.” She reached into the bucket left-handed and then made a show of sloppily throwing the food on the floor. A few pieces dribbled into the water where the koi quickly gobbled them up.

  A little breath huffed out its disappointment. “That wasn’t very good.”

  She smiled. “I know. Cut me a break, will you? I’m not ambidextrous.”

  A giggle followed and Hannah knew she was making progress.

  He added, “I already know you’re not a frog.”

  She thought, Ambidextrous? Oh, amphibian. She laughed. “Are you a frog?”

  More giggling and then, “No.”

  “Are you sure? I don’t trust frogs. They’re really jumpy. Have you noticed that?”

  “Well, they hop.”

  “Yeah, what’s that all about? It’s suspicious. I think they should walk like normal people.”

  “But they’re not people. They’re frogs.”

  “Like you?”

  “Nooo...” He erupted with a fit of laughter and the sound warmed her heart.

  “Maybe you should come over here and let me see for myself?”

  Still grinning, he stepped tentatively out from behind the tree. Hannah asked, “Do you want to help me feed the koi?”

  He shuffled sideways a few steps. “The what?”

  She pointed. “The koi. These fish, they’re called koi.”

  “I thought they were goldfish.”

  “Nope, they’re different. Come a little closer and I’ll show you how and tell you their names.”

  “They have names?”

  “They do.” Hannah peered into the pond and then pointed. “That one—with the black and white, and the big spot of orange on its back? That is my koi and her name is Bridget. That spotted bright red and white one there is Jasmine.”

  He cautiously skirted around the edge of the pond until he stood by her side. “What about that one?”

  She followed his finger with her eyes. “The one that’s almost all orange? That’s Carmen.”

  “Are they all girls?” Hannah thought he sounded disappointed by the notion.

  “No. That’s Henry and that’s Emmett.” Pointing to a large white fish with black spots, she informed him, “The biggest one there. That’s Silvio.”

  An interested expression lit his face and she felt certain he was committing this all to memory. She looked forward to quizzing him next time.

  “What’s your name?”

  “Lucas.”

  “Okay, Lucas.” She handed him the bucket. “Go ahead and toss in some more breakfast. Remember we can only give them certain kinds of food or they might get sick, but after you’ve helped me feed them a few times, they’ll start to recognize you when you get close to the pond...”

  * * *

  HANNAH BAILED OFF the magic carpet—the conveyor system she’d chosen for the resort’s beginner slopes. The conveyor worked like a flat escalator allowing riders to easily step on and step off the belt. She pulled her tube across the hillside, stopping to assess their progress.

  “Hey, Gareth, Reagan,” she called to her cousin Janie’s sixteen-and fourteen-year-old sons. “Let’s go over to...” She traipsed about forty feet and stopped well before the giant metal chairlift pole. “Right about here. That way we won’t have to worry about the little ones hitting anything.”

  She wanted everything to be perfect before Janie’s four-year-old twins and the rest of their preschool class arrived for the sledding party.

  Gareth and Reagan were going to assist kids on the magic carpet and with transporting sleds up the hill, while Freddie helped with unloading.

  Hannah saw Janie’s Suburban pulling in. Janie’s husband, Aidan, had purchased it the day after they’d found out she was pregnant with her fifth child. The baby girl she was carrying would be Aidan’s first, but Janie had already had four boys with her late
husband when she and Aidan had met. Gareth and Reagan were the oldest of these.

  Hannah waved. The boys whizzed down the hill past her on their tubes.

  “It’s awesome,” Gareth called out to her.

  Hannah loved kids and regularly volunteered to arrange special seasonal events like nature hikes, fishing trips, bicycling or rock climbing. Today’s snow tubing would last two to three hours and they’d have hot chocolate, juice boxes and snacks served in the lodge afterward. “Hey, Gareth, I’m going to sled down to make sure Mindy has everything ready for later. I should be back by the time the crowd of ruffians arrives.”

  He gave her a gloved thumbs-up.

  She nodded and carried her tube to the slope that led toward the lodge and prepared to take off in that direction. Freddie had just groomed this hill, and as she stared at the vast expanse of bare white snow, she couldn’t resist the opportunity beckoning to her.

  * * *

  TATE HAD BEEN all over the mountain on a snow machine, but wanted to get a feel for the slopes firsthand. So that morning he’d loaded his board and rode as far up the mountain as he could. He’d arranged for one of the employees to bring him back up later to fetch the snow machine.

  He hadn’t been on his board in weeks and it felt great. Snowboarding was the one activity where he could really lose himself. It was second nature, especially since he’d quit competing and could now ride solely for fun. He thought about Hannah’s adrenaline-junkie comment as he flew down the hill and wondered if his riding would change now that he didn’t have to worry about getting injured.

  Although now he had Lucas to think about; he immediately slowed and then stopped. From there he decided to switch his course and head toward the lodge in order to view the area where he thought the first half-pipe should be constructed.

  After halting again about halfway down, he bent over to fiddle with the binding on his boot. He was trying out a new design and didn’t have it adjusted quite right. Removing one boot from the board with the intention of making a further adjustment, he turned to assess the uphill landscape, and that’s when he saw someone flying toward him on a tube—backwards.