Winter Magic: 4 (The Hawks Mountain Series) (10 page)

AFTER ANDI’S unprecedented departure from his office, and having given her a few minutes to pull herself together, Jonathan started after her. However, he only made it to the bottom of the stairs before he was confronted by an angry Aunt Sarah.

“Jonathan Charles Prince, what did you say to that girl to upset her so?” His aunt never used his full name unless she was extremely angry about something.

“Nothing.” He backed away from the furious woman. “I merely assured her that the kiss we shared outside wouldn’t happen again, that it was a mistake and—”

“Mistake? Mistake? I saw that kiss from an upstairs window, and from that vantage point, it certainly didn’t look like either of you thought it was a blunder, especially Andi. Then, you break her heart by telling her the kiss didn’t mean anything?” She tapped his temple. “Hello, anybody up there?”

Unsure what to say that would calm his aunt, he simply waited while she took a deep breath and delivered her next salvo.

“After your brilliant explanation, it’s no wonder she ran out of here like the hounds of hell were chasing her. And in tears, I might add.” Red faced, Sarah took a step toward him and pointed a finger squarely at his nose. “Let me tell you something, nephew, you’re not going to find a woman with her qualities around every corner, and it would do you good to remember that.” She lowered her hand and took a deep breath. Then, in a tone stiff with tension, she went on. “Now, I suggest you find her and make amends for your second
mistake
of the day.” She skirted him and walked down the hall mumbling. “Mistake. Just what every woman wants to hear after sharing a kiss with a man. Lord, deliver me from males suffering from terminal stupidity.”

Jonathan had no qualms about speaking to Andi and clearing up any misunderstandings. After all, that’s what he’d been on his way to do when Aunt Sarah attacked, but he had no idea where to find Andi.

“Did she say where she was going?” he called after Sarah.

“You will probably find her at her home, and if she is anything like me, she’ll be sticking pins in a voodoo doll that looks a lot like you.” She hadn’t turned around but just yelled her response over her shoulder and kept walking. A definite sign he was far from forgiven.

He was beginning to feel like the dog that had chased the neighbor’s cat. Although the cat had been lying in the prize flower beds, the dog had gotten the reprimand. However, emitting a deep sigh, he had to admit that Sarah was right. Even though he felt he’d been doing the right thing, his explanation for the kiss had been abrupt and insensitive to Andi’s feelings. When he thought about the crushed expression that had washed over her face, it felt like a kick to his heart.

The last thing in this world he had wanted to do was hurt her. If he were totally honest with himself, what he wanted was to hold her close enough to smell her hair and taste her skin. But more than anything, he wanted a repeat of that searing kiss.

First, he had to find her and set things right.

Jonathan stared at Sarah’s receding back.
She went home.
Where exactly was home? Not once had she mentioned where she lived, but even worse, he’d never asked.

He had her cell phone number. Perhaps he could
 . . .
No, this wasn’t something to be done over the phone. He needed to straighten this out in person. But how could he do that when he had no idea where she lived? There was always the option of waiting until tomorrow when she would undoubtedly show up for work. But something told him that waiting would be an even worse idea than using the phone to convey his apology.

There was the address on the business card, but he wasn’t sure how her associate would take him asking for her home address.

Back at his desk, he doodled on a sheet of paper while he thought about how to find her. Then he remembered something and picked up the phone.

Andi hurried purposefully toward the hospital elevator. As she stood in front of the shiny steel doors, she made up her mind. She was not going back to Jonathan Prince’s house. When she thought about the last time she’d called her sister to check on her condition, Miranda had told her she was doing so well, the doctor might release her in a couple of days. If that came to pass, then Miranda could step in and take over, and Andi could go home, and there would be no more meetings with Jonathan, no more humiliation . . . no more kisses.

She shook off that thought and pushed the elevator button. By the time the elevator doors
swished
open at her sister’s floor, Andi had firmed up her resolve to stand resolutely against any argument her sister could make for her going back to the Prince mansion.

A few moments later, she pushed open the door and walked determinedly into her sister’s room. She stopped dead just over the threshold. Miranda was propped up against a pile of pillows, her eyes closed and her face as pale as the white pillowcases. The IV was once more standing beside the bed and taped to her arm. She opened one eye a slit.

“Oh, thank goodness it’s you.” Her voice was weak. “I was afraid Aunt Laureene had come back to regal me with more stories about how her daughters would catch the eye of Jonathan Prince, and we’d better prepare for a spring wedding.” She stopped talking, took a deep breath, and closed her eyes again. “Like I wanted to hear about those two hound dogs on the prowl.”

“Miranda!”

“Sorry, but I’m not feeling terribly benevolent at the moment.” She sighed and lifted her hand, then let it drop back to the bed beside her. “Could you get that glass of water for me?”

Andi picked up the glass from the bedside table and held it while Miranda drank, then replaced it. Miranda’s flesh was unusually warm.

As she gazed down at her pale sister, Andi forgot about her resolve and grabbed her sister’s overly-warm hand. “Miranda, are you all right?”

Miranda slowly opened her eyes. “Peachy keen.”

Andi didn’t believe her. “You don’t look all right.”

Her dry lips curved up slightly in a shaky smile. “Busted.”

Andi started to ask what the problem was, when the door opened and an older man she recognized as the surgeon who had operated on Miranda’s burst appendix came in.

“Dr. Adamson, is my sister okay?”

He looked at Miranda, then to Andi. His gentle, brown eyes held a warmth that helped ease some of the chill from her tense body. “She’s gonna be fine. That pesky infection is proving to be extra difficult, but we’re starting a regime of strong antibiotics that should get rid of it. All the same, I want to keep her here until we make sure it’s all gone.” He made a note on Miranda’s chart, and then patted her hand. “If all goes well, she’ll be able to go home in about a week.” Nodding at Andi, he left the room. The sound of the door swishing shut behind him punctuated the end of Andi’s plan to get out of this nightmare situation with Jonathan.

A week? I can’t wait a week.

The date of the gala was growing closer each day, and there was still so much to be done. It didn’t look like Miranda was going to be any help in that department. It was all up to Andi. She squared her shoulders. She couldn’t worry about what Miranda could and couldn’t do, nor about Jonathan finding out Andi was a fake or the mistake they’d made out in the snow. The Wishing Place was depending on this gala being a success. And Jonathan was depending on her to see it happen.

Determination rushed through her like an ocean wave. She could do this. Nancy had ordered the food from the caterers and the tablecloths and napkins from the linen service. Andi had an appointment to meet with the florist tomorrow and then get some sketches for the village ready for the carpenters.

But right now, she just wanted to go home. If they were going to use the Santa’s Village theme, they’d have to start getting the props built. In other words, someone had to get things underway immediately. She couldn’t ask Miranda to take over.

So it looked like that someone would be Andi.

ANDI LET HERSELF into her cottage and closed the door. After slipping off her boots and tossing her keys on the end table, she went straight to her bedroom and collapsed on the side of the bed. Her gaze was drawn to a photo album on her dresser. A sudden urge came over her to look through it. Perhaps she could find comfort there, if nothing else.

Retrieving it, she began to slowly leaf through the album. Several pages in, she came upon her parents’ wedding picture. Tears welled up as she ran her fingertips over the glossy surface of the photo and wondered what hers and Miranda’s lives would have been like if their parents had lived to see them grown. Andi knew for sure her life would have been far different than it had been. Her mother and father would have run interference for Miranda, and Andi wouldn’t have felt compelled to be her sister’s keeper and savior.

Wiping her tears away, she flipped the page, unwilling to get mired in what-might-have-beens.

A small snapshot tumbled to the floor. She picked it up. The sight of the two smiling teens brought new heartaches to bear. She recalled vividly the night it had been taken.

She and Miranda were all decked out for the senior prom. They’d shopped for weeks for the perfect dresses and had spent hours at the beauty salon getting their hair done. Andi had looked great. She was sure she would capture her date’s heart for good. Jerry Lake and Denny Henderson had arrived to pick them up in a black limo. Both guys looked so handsome in their white dinner jackets, but Andi had been sure that Jerry, her date, was the better looking of the two.

The evening had been magical. Andi wore the pink carnation wrist corsage Jerry had given her with all the pride of a war hero sporting his medals. The school gym had been turned into a fairy land with twinkling white lights and streamers. They’d danced and talked and laughed the evening away. Being in love for the first time in her life had made Andi feel like she was floating on a soft, fluffy cloud as Jerry whirled her around the floor.

Then the band had taken a break, and Andi had gone to the ladies room to freshen up, certain that by evening’s end she would be wearing Jerry’s class ring. When she’d emerged, she went looking for Jerry and found him beneath the big maple on the school’s front lawn
 . . .
kissing Miranda. All these years later, she could still vividly recall the pain that had shot through her heart and almost brought her to her knees.

All she remembered after that was running and running, until she’d reached home and the privacy of her bedroom. Miranda had come later and tried to apologize, but Andi wouldn’t let her in. She didn’t speak to her sister for days after.

So, why now, almost ten years later, was the pain of the past burning a hole in her soul?

It didn’t take long for the answer to pry past her defenses and settle into her conscious mind. She’d allowed Jonathan to kiss her. Worse, Andi had allowed him into her heart, knowing that when he came face to face with Miranda again, he’d realize which of them he wanted, and she’d lose him to her sister.

Realizing she was becoming mired in self-pity, she jumped to her feet. “Stop it! Just stop it! You do armed battle with twenty five-year-olds on a daily basis. Surely you can manage to make it through a few more weeks with Jonathan Prince and keep your heart intact.”

Her declaration of war against her own emotions sounded good, but would she be able to hold her ground when she was faced with the man himself?

AS JONATHAN rounded a curve, he checked the slip of paper with Andi’s address written on it, the address his friend in the Charleston PD had given him after tracing her cell phone number. Supporting the Policemen’s Benevolent Association had its perks.

According to this, her house should be somewhere close. He slowed the car to a crawl and read the numbers as he passed each house. “428, 426, 422. Yes, there it is, 420.”

The house, small, very plain, and as white as the snow surrounding it, was tucked back into a small grove of maple trees. It certainly didn’t look like the house of the woman who had first entered his office a few weeks ago. She’d brought to mind penthouses or elaborate condos in Palm Beach. Not a tiny cottage with a Christmas wreath hanging on the front door as its only decoration. But then, nothing had correlated with that woman since Andi had showed up in his office the second time. However, any doubts about whether or not he had the right house vanished when he got closer and saw the orange Volkswagen with a dented fender parked on the far side. This was definitely Andi’s place.

He pulled his Mercedes into the drive behind her car and shut off the motor. For a moment, he just sat there, trying to gather his thoughts. Now that he was here, what would he say to her?

I’m sorry
 . . .

For what?

He still had no idea why she’d run from the house like a scared rabbit. If it had been what he’d said about the kiss, that didn’t make sense. He’d been sure when she left him sitting in the snow that she’d regretted it as much as he had.

But did he really regret it? Was he really sorry it had happened?

To his surprise, his heart answered with a resounding
No!
Never had he ever experienced a kiss like that one, one that resonated down to his soul. He could still taste her cool lips, feel her heart beating against his chest, savor the sweetness that was Andi. And hoping it would never end.

He’d told her it was a mistake. But was it?

It had been a long time since Jonathan had put his trust in anything but his own gut instincts. And his gut was telling him not to let Andi walk out of his life without at least finding out how she felt.

Not being one to overwork a problem, Jonathan got out of the car and headed to the front porch. He took a deep breath and knocked.