Jingle Bell Wolf, page 3
“So did you catch him?” Roxie asked.
He smiled at Gabrielle. “I caught the swimmer red-handed. I’m going to give the person hard labor—kitchen duty.”
“The rule breaker, is it a she-wolf perchance?” Roxie asked.
There was no getting anything past his sisters.
Landon cleared his throat. “Yeah.” He figured one of his family members would learn about Gabrielle soon enough. Not that he had any real plan to hide the truth from them long-term.
“Okay.” Roxie hung up on him.
He’d expected more of a response from her than that.
“Hard labor? Kitchen duty?” Smiling, Gabrielle set the menu aside. She didn’t look like she was worried about it in the least.
“Yeah, but we have to be open for a while or you won’t have enough dishes to clean. Did you pick out what you wanted to eat?” Landon asked.
The waitress hurried to take their orders. “I didn’t expect you here this early, Landon.” She glanced at Gabrielle and smiled.
“Minx, meet Gabrielle. Gabrielle, this is Minx.”
“Oh, a date.” Minx offered them a carafe of coffee and smiled again, notepad in hand, ready to take their orders.
“Not a date,” he corrected Minx.
“Sure.” Minx sounded like she didn’t believe him. “What would you like, then?”
Gabrielle motioned to the menu. “I’ll have number three on the breakfast menu.”
“One number three: sweet roasted tomatoes with eggs, sweet Christmas sausages, and hash browns. And for you, Landon?” Minx asked.
“I’ll have a stack of pancakes and bacon.”
A few people were beginning to gather at the doors to the restaurant, and Minx shook her head. “See what you did? Now they all will want to come in and eat early.”
“Owner’s prerogative.”
“I knew you would say that,” Minx said.
Suddenly, Roxie was at the door, unlocking it. Landon thought she was opening the bar and grill early, but she locked it back up and came straight to his table. “You know the trouble this gets us into when any of us eat early at the restaurant before we’re open for business and everyone wonders why.”
“As if any of us ever do this. Besides, we’re wearing staff shirts or, in my case, a staff sweater,” Landon said.
“True.” Roxie smiled at Gabrielle and offered her hand. “You are the wolf who went running with us last night.”
“I am.” Gabrielle shook her hand.
Roxie folded her arms and looked sternly at Gabrielle with mock seriousness. “And you were swimming after hours last night and before hours in the pool this morning.”
“I was. Now I have kitchen duty for my transgressions.”
Roxie laughed. “I should have known Landon found a she-wolf in the pool—you must be unmated—and that’s why he is ‘buying’ you breakfast instead of giving you a lecture.”
“I figured she would take the lecture better on a full stomach,” Landon said.
Roxie and Gabrielle smiled.
Blake peered in the window at them, shook his head, and left. Then Kayla came by to check them out. She looked through the glass at them just like Blake had, smiled, and walked off.
“That was our other brother, Blake, and that’s Kayla, our younger quadruplet sister. Blake’s mate, Nicole, who ran with us last night, is working on a PI case with her brother, Nate, today in a town up north of here, or Nicole would be checking you out too,” Roxie said.
Gabrielle smiled.
Minx served their meals.
“Where are you from?” Roxie asked Gabrielle.
Landon gave Roxie a look that said it was time for her to get back to work so he could ask Gabrielle all the questions.
“Daytona Beach, Florida.”
“Wow. Have you skied before?” Roxie ignored Landon’s annoyed look.
“Nope. This is my first time.”
Roxie smiled at Landon. “He’s an expert on the slopes. He can teach you all about it. When he’s not working, of course. So what do you do in Daytona Beach?”
“Roxie…” Landon said, his annoyed tone of voice telling his younger sister to beat it, since she was disregarding his more subtle look of exasperation.
“All right, but you get all the details then and share them with us tonight. Oh, and ask her to run with us again tonight. Unless she sneaks into the pool area and you want to catch her at it and swim with her instead.” Roxie smiled and hurried off as he opened his mouth to tell her to leave.
Gabrielle began eating her eggs. “You’re paying for breakfast? Maybe I should because I broke the rules.”
“We own the restaurant. The meal is on me.”
Her mouth gaped, and then she smiled. “Wow. Was it the string bikini that did it?”
He chuckled. “It helped.”
“I never wear it on trips, normally. I had to bring it because it was a joke gift my girlfriends, twin sisters, gave me last year before Christmas when we went to Cancun. They are coming here too. None of us have any family so the three of us take trips together right after Thanksgiving. Only this time they got hung up at work and now they’re late in arriving. I thought when no one would be in the pool, I could wear it and no one would ever see me in it.”
He smiled. “Not everyone can wear a string bikini and look great in it.”
“Thank you. As to the other question your sister asked—my occupation? I’m a vet.”
“A veterinarian?”
“Yeah. I love working with animals, and nothing makes me feel better than when I can keep them healthy or take care of them when they’re sick or injured.”
“A veterinarian. That’s great.” He was really surprised, maybe because she was breaking the rules and she looked so hot in a bikini. Doc Mitchell was their veterinarian, old, white-haired, big and lumbering, and Gabrielle was a totally different version of a vet—all legs, blond, young, and beautiful. “Did you know we’re wolf-run here?”
“Your lodge and restaurant? I suspected as much since all of your staff that I’ve met so far are wolves.”
“Not just our place is run by wolves, but all of Silver Town.”
Her green eyes widened. “Really?”
“Yeah, since its inception. The Silver family runs it, and all the businesses in town are wolf-run.”
“Wow. That’s amazing. So, the town is made up of just wolves?” she asked.
“Uh, yeah.”
“My girlfriends are jaguars.”
The restaurant doors were opened and several guests came in to grab seats and order their meals, a few of them looking at Landon, but upon seeing his staff sweater, they didn’t say anything about him getting special treatment. Though a few of the people coming in for breakfast were wolves of Silver Town, getting a bite to eat before the ski slopes opened. Some were ski instructors or lift operators, so they knew who he was.
“They’ll still be welcome, won’t they?” Gabrielle asked.
“Jaguar shifters? Sure. We’ve had some stay at the lodge and ski a week or so ago. I think they were as surprised to learn about us as we were about them when we first found out they existed. But we all have a shifter secret and something in common, even if we’re very much different when we’re wearing our fur coats.”
No one near them was human, so Landon could speak freely.
A couple of bachelor male wolves were sitting nearby, trying to listen in to the conversation, wondering just who Landon was eating with before the restaurant was even open. He and his family usually ate here for lunch, but grabbed breakfast and dinner at home. This morning, he’d missed breakfast to come in early, thinking he could catch her swimming, but Gabrielle hadn’t been there that early and he’d ended up having to handle guest business after that. When Roxie told him that the swimmer was in the pool, he was glad it had been Gabrielle again and not someone new.
“You’ve never skied before,” Landon said.
“No. I’m from Florida. There are no mountains or snow there, and when my friends and I have taken trips after Thanksgiving the past five years, we’ve hit beach resorts. But this is just beautiful. I have never seen such lovely decorations at Christmastime. The huge tree in the lobby—all the cute little hand-carved wolves, black bears, polar bears, Arctic foxes, and penguins. I took pictures of them to send to my friends. I’m getting some wolf decorations to take home with me.”
“Many of our wolves did the hand-carved woodwork. The photography hanging about the rooms and lobby were done by Jake Silver, brother to our pack leader, Darien.”
“How wonderful.” Gabrielle buttered her toast and added marmalade on top. “A pack. I didn’t think of that. So you and your family belong to a bigger pack?”
“Yeah. We have all kinds of events that our wolves can take part in. And the Silver Town Tavern caters to wolves only. Uh, I should say shifters. Your friends would be welcome at the tavern.”
“Okay, we’ll have to check it out. If they ever get here.” She sounded disappointed.
He didn’t blame her since the three friends were supposed to be doing this together and she didn’t ski. Skiing alone wasn’t safe or half as fun as skiing with friends.
“When are they coming in?” Landon asked.
“They were supposed to arrive here last night, then this morning, but they texted me to say they were delayed again until later this afternoon.”
“Did you want me to take you skiing this morning?” Landon didn’t intend to impose on her if she wanted to just wait for her friends, but if he could make her stay more enjoyable while she was here without them, he would.
“Don’t you have to run the lodge or restaurant or something?” She finished off her toast and licked marmalade off her finger.
The sight of her licking her finger brought unbidden images to mind, such as how he would like to hold her close, kiss her, and tangle his tongue with hers. “I can be on call. We often take turns skiing. That’s the whole point of having the lodge, so that we can take the time to enjoy the ski resort too. There’s no sense in you sitting around the tavern waiting for your friends to show up. Do they ski?”
“They do. A lot. They finally convinced me to come with them this time. I left Florida early so I could have more time to get settled in here, but I had expected them to come in last night too.”
Landon finished his bacon and took another drink of his coffee. “Well, I’ve been skiing since I was three. So if you want me to get you started, I certainly can.”
“Three years old? Wow. I will be down on the ground more than I’m up, I’m afraid. I swim much better.”
He laughed. “We all have to start somewhere. Have you got lift tickets?”
“No.”
“Ski boots? Skis? Ski poles?”
She shook her head.
“Okay, first, I’ll take you to the ski rental shop and get you set up.” He smelled her tension. “You can do it. We can take this nice and easy. You can quit anytime you feel you’ve had enough.”
“All right, but don’t fault me too much if I spend most of the time on my bottom.”
And what a beautiful bottom that was.
After she finished the last of her breakfast, he left a tip, then texted Roxie: Tell Blake and Kayla I’ll be taking Gabrielle out for a few ski lessons.
Roxie texted: Are you serious?
Landon texted back: Just tell them.
He knew they would be laughing their heads off and he would hear more about it later.
Then he and Gabrielle left the restaurant. Kayla usually stayed in the office to work on marketing materials and anything else office-related with regard to the lodge and bar and grill. But she had to come out to meet the woman Landon was with. He introduced Gabrielle to Kayla, who shook her hand and smiled.
“Welcome to Silver Town. You’ll have a blast here. Do you have a wolf pack back in Daytona Beach, Florida?” Kayla asked.
Gabrielle shook her head. “No. A few stray wolves coming through, mostly on vacation, but no real leadership or pack.”
Kayla folded her arms and nodded. “We left Vermont for the same reason. We wanted to be with a pack. We love it here. The pack has been really good to us.”
“They have,” Landon said. “We’re going to get some ski lessons in. Gabrielle’s friends aren’t arriving until this afternoon. We’ll see you later.”
“For another wolf run, right?” Kayla asked Gabrielle. “We loved having you play with us. And if Landon can skip swimming in the pool, he can come with us this time.”
Gabrielle smiled. “Sure, I would love to. My friends too, if they arrive before we go for a run tonight? They’re jaguars.”
“Absolutely. That will be a new experience for us and we’ll have fun,” Kayla said.
“Okay, let’s go and get you ready for your first ski lesson, Gabrielle.” Then Landon hurried her off before Blake came along to talk to them too. Wolves were curious by nature, especially when it had to do with the family. When Blake began seeing Nicole, and she was taking care of a PI job at the lodge, the whole family got involved to help her out.
“So what do your friends do?” Landon asked Gabrielle.
“They’re both with a JAG agency that deals with rogue jaguar shifters.”
“Really.” Landon had heard about them, and how they had a facility to actually incarcerate shifters—any kind now, but only shifters. No humans. It was privately funded by their own kind, so no one—especially no humans—were the wiser.
“Yeah. They were supposed to be through with the case they were on by now, so I’m not sure what the problem is. They didn’t give me any of the details, just that they would be late in arriving.”
Once Gabrielle was all set with skis, poles, boots, and a ski pass, Landon walked her back to the office where they had a storage area for the family’s skis, poles, and boots.
“You’re sure you don’t mind at all?” she asked, looking uncomfortable about trying this out.
He could smell her anxiousness. “Yeah. I let everyone know where we’re going to be in case they need me.”
“All right.” She sighed. “I could just hire someone to give me lessons.”
“There’s no need to waste your money when I can do this with you.” He walked her past the Christmas tree in the lobby, sparkling with lights. They headed outside onto the deck of the bar and grill where early skiers were grabbing coffee, or hot chocolate, and pastries before they headed for the ski lifts. The deck had a coating of snow, though they cleared it every day so that it wouldn’t end up being knee-high.
First, Landon took Gabrielle to the bunny slope where she rode the magic carpet up the 50-foot incline. He talked to her about giving right of way to other skiers. “People ahead of you have right of way. Which means you have to avoid them, not run into them. When you stop, you have to be out of the path of others, and you don’t want to be someplace hidden from view as a skier comes up over a hill on the trail. Whenever your trail merges with another, you have to look uphill and not ski into a downhill skier’s path. You have to always stay in control.”
She laughed. “Oh, that will be a fun trial, I’m sure.”
“You’ll get the hang of it.” He was sure of it. Though she might have to practice for several days to feel comfortable with it. “How long are you going to be here?”
“Eight days. Well, seven days left now. We leave on the night of day eight, so we’ll ski in the morning, eat lunch, go to the airport, and fly out.”
Seven days of teaching her how to ski? He could certainly go for it. But once her friends came, that would probably be the end of all the fun times he wanted to spend with Gabrielle.
* * *
Gabrielle was so nervous about this business of skiing that she hoped Landon proved to be a good and patient ski instructor. She’d barely made it to the top of the bunny slope when she fell. She was just standing upright, doing nothing but just standing there. And then she wasn’t.
“Okay, next lesson. How to get up. It’s really important that you learn that lesson.”
She laughed. “I can see that.” She watched little kids get up easily since they didn’t have half the distance to fall down or stand up. She was finally up and then she practiced forming a wedge, or a snowplow, with her skis to learn to control her speed and practiced turning. After that, she finally was ready to learn how to get on the ski lift and go down an easy green slope. She was beginning to feel like she might be all right with skiing, and she was having fun in Landon’s company. It made her feel better about her girlfriends not getting here on time. Sure, she could have sat around the lodge watching all the skiers in their ski clothes laughing and smiling, with red cheeks and red noses, and looking like they were having the time of their life.
Gabrielle was much more of a doer, even if she did feel bad that she hadn’t been able to do this with her dad like they’d planned a decade ago. She almost felt guilty about enjoying it. But she knew she needed to move on and put the past behind her.
She was hopeful that if she got good enough, when her friends arrived, they wouldn’t have to teach her the very basics.
First, she was taking the ski lift to the top of the slope. At the top, she managed to get off the ski-lift chair just fine. Landon had told her to ski away from the lift so others could get off after her. She was standing in the way and felt panicked that she needed to ski away from the chairlift right away, but she was still trying to remember how to move her skis in the snow while trying to ski. Then she fell. Ugh. She envisioned everyone running over her as they tried to unload from the chairs and a pile of bodies fitted out in skis and poles all tangled up in that mountain of a mess. Landon skied around her to get out of everyone’s path and waited for her to get up. At least she was getting good at that part. She thought she’d had the most practice at that—falling down and getting up.
Then she was at the top of the easy slope that looked a lot higher and scarier than she’d thought it could be—for being a green slope. But at least it was nice and wide and had a gentler slope than the intermediate and expert slopes had. Other skiers headed down the hill, looking like experts to her as they weaved back and forth, their skis close together, their turns like little hops. Not like she had to do it, by making a wide snowplow each time she pointed her skis downhill and picked up speed.
