The Billionaire Athlete’s Christmas Fling - Leslie North Page 0,52

“I think someone lost this.”

“He found my bracelet?” The door flew open, and a squealing Emily ran out. She tore it from Chase’s hand, pressing it to her cheek. “I can’t believe you found it!”

Chase met the woman’s gaze, her open mouth proof of her shock. “Where—where was it?”

“It has a broken clasp,” he explained. “It was in some churned-up snow near a tree.”

The little girl burst into tears.

“Emily, what—” Emily’s mother put a hand on her shoulder.

“Hey, listen—it’s okay.” He knelt to Emily’s level. “Did your bracelet break while you were skiing today? I’d love to hear what happened.” He wanted all the truth and needed to hear the words for Tana’s sake.

Emily looked up at him, her bottom lip quivering and her face red. “It broke,” she howled. “It fell off my wrist. I got to the bottom of the hill, and it was g-gone.” Her eyes went wide. “I didn’t want to tell my dad. He would have been so mad at me. So, I said my teacher did it.” Emily hung her head, tears dripping down onto the floor.

Her mother gasped. “Mr. Elkin, I promise you, we will make things right. Emily?” She crooked a finger at her daughter. “Come back to bed. We’ll sort all this out in the morning.” She turned back to Chase. “I’m sincerely sorry about this and my husband’s overreaction, Mr. Elkin. You leave him to me.” The glint in her eyes suggested that her husband should be very, very worried.

She shut the door with a muted click, and Chase felt like the weight of the world had been lifted off his shoulders. Almost all the weight, anyway. He still had one more conversation to have tonight before he could finally give in to the pain and head for home.

Chase took the elevator back down to the main floor and headed for his brother’s office.

“Hey,” he said. Their faces lit up, and his grandmother rushed to him, throwing her arms around him.

“Chase, we heard from the ski patrol. What made you go out on the hills? Your leg—” His grandmother said, her voice worried and strained.

“I was looking for the bracelet.” Chase held his grandmother tight. She could beat her cancer, but tonight was proof life was short and fragile enough as it was. “And I found it.”

Jonas scoffed. “You didn’t. In the snow?”

“I was lucky.” He straightened up, keeping his arm around his grandmother. “I put on a pair of skis and then skied until my leg gave out. It happened to give out next to a big fir tree, which is exactly where I found the bracelet. I’ve returned it to the family. The little girl, Emily, admitted that it broke while she was skiing, and she made up the story about Tana to keep her dad from getting upset.”

Jonas put a hand to his forehead, dropping into his leather chair. “Damn.”

“So, what you’re going to do,” Chase continued, “is give Tana her job back right now and promote her to the position she earned. Either that, or I’ll leave with Tana to wherever her next job is, assuming she even wants me anymore. From now on, we’re a package deal.”

Grandmother took a step back and beamed up at him. “That’s my Chase.”

“Right now, Jonas.” Chase wasn’t backing down, and he wanted this over so he could go home with some dignity before his leg gave out.

Jonas nodded. “I’ll do it. We have to make things right.”

He hadn’t failed Tana after all. Chase went back to his house and waited for word Tana had returned. Except all he got was a text from his brother saying that she wasn’t answering his calls. Come morning, Chase would make sure the message got delivered. Personally, if he had to. But right now, he had to get off his leg.

21

Tana didn’t have much to pack, but it was taking forever. She surveyed her bedroom in the cottage and sighed. This place was supposed to be a new beginning—a house stuffed full of memories. She still had boxes in the closet that had yet to be unpacked from the move. Now they’d go into storage in her parents’ basement until she found another place. Tana lifted her suitcase, surprisingly light, and hauled it out toward the front door.

She didn’t want to leave. Leaving felt like giving up.

But Tana lifted her chin and went back for the last few boxes anyway. Lindsey was waiting for her at her parents’ house, and she couldn’t—wouldn’t—leave her