A Merry Little Alpine Love Affair

Chapter 1

SILLY SOCK KITCHEN SINK DUMPSTER FIRE

CLAIRE

“You’re not coming?”

I stood from my desk and started pacing, placing my free hand on my hip so I didn’t pick up a paper weight and throw it through the seventeenth story window.

“I’m so sorry, Cee. Alec can’t get leave and the flights are too expensive. I promise I am just as upset as you are.”

My younger sister, Warner, was pleading with me over the phone so I didn’t freak out but it was too late.

She’d already bailed on Thanksgiving last week, and now she was bailing on Christmas, too.

Normally this wouldn’t be something that would cause my body to go into flight mode, but I couldn’t do another holiday alone with our parents.

Plus, Christmas without her wouldn’t be the same. Warner and I had never spent a Christmas apart, but up until two years ago we’d never spent more than a long weekend apart, either.

When Warner turned eighteen, she married her high school sweetheart.

She gave up her chance to go to college when he enlisted in the military.

They’d been together for four years at that point so when he asked, she decided that it was their natural next step.

Our families thought they were young to take the plunge into marriage, but they were adults so we all just had to support them.

Their first duty station was in Oklahoma, only six hours from home in Austin. It was the perfect transition to Warner being away because when I missed her, I could get in the car and drive to her.

Now, two years later, they got moved to Colorado. It still wasn’t that far, but the distance posed more of a barrier that would only get worse when they were moved again.

I missed her, and I was really looking forward to having her home for a few weeks.

It wasn’t that I didn’t get along with my parents, I did. We were actually very close. But, whenever Warner wasn’t around they constantly questioned me on what I was doing with my life.

I wasn’t married—or even dating, really. I worked a job that I was somehow over and under qualified for. I had no social life and I lived with my parents. Twenty-five and nothing to show for it.

I sank back into my desk chair and sighed. “I know you are, but it stinks to miss our movie night.”

No Warner meant no Christmas traditions. No silly sock night where we watched the Grinch on repeat, taking a shot every time they said “Who”. No kitchen sink popcorn. No peppermint bark. No torturing Dad with Christmas carols as he pretended to complain.

All of the happy memories would be skipped this year.

I knew I was being dramatic, okay? It wasn’t like Warner was dead, she was one video call away.

But, it felt like this was the start of something new and the end of something great.

New wasn’t always better. Life wasn’t going to go back to how it was before Warner got married, and she wasn’t coming back.

Guess it was time I put my big girl panties on and accepted that.

“I bet you could convince Dad to take my place,” Warner laughed. “You’re going to have a great Christmas, Claire. I promise.”

“I know,” I agreed but in my gut, I wasn’t so sure. Right now my life felt like a dumpster fire. Everywhere I looked, something was up in flames.

In the distance, I heard the elevator door chime. My spine went rod straight as I stood and gathered the pile of folders that were meticulously stacked on my desk.

“I gotta go. Call you later.”

“Is Hot Boss Man coming?” Warner cooed.

“Bye.” I hung up the call and dropped my phone on my desk just as Declan Alexander turned the corner.

The man really was something to look at.

When I got an interview at Driscoff and Pugh Marketing, Warner helped me do research on the team to prepare.

One look at Declan’s face and he’d been deemed “Hot Boss” in my household ever since.

At thirty-one, the man had a jawline that could hypnotize even the strongest of women, and a wallet that could buy their dignity.

“Good morning, Mr. Alexander.” I beamed at him, but Declan brushed past me without even a glance away from his phone. He stepped into his office as I trailed behind him. “I have the quarterly reports for you, the proofs for next year's location budget, and your travel itinerary.”

The last part of my statement finally had Declan breaking his focus from his phone and glancing toward the folders in my hands. I dropped them onto his desk with a thud before placing his coffee down.

“Black coffee. Lunch is ordered for noon. Mr. Gilbert will be here at ten. Do you need anything else at the moment?”

Declan grunted and waved a hand in my direction.

Guess that was a no.

I turned on my heel and practically ran back to my desk.

I’d been working for Declan Alexander for three years and he was… particular. He was an asshole, okay? I didn’t even think he knew my name. He only spoke to me when absolutely necessary and rarely made eye contact.

I worked late most nights of the week. If Declan was in the office, so was I.

This wasn’t supposed to be a long term position for me.

After college, I had a degree in digital marketing, but the job market was scarce.

I interviewed for this position on a whim, and dazzled them with my color coordinated check lists and date planner that would have some concerned I have a more than a mild form of OCD.

My plan was to do this for a year and then apply for marketing jobs within the firm.

Well, I was still here.

This job paid well, and while Declan wasn’t pleasant, he wasn’t exactly unpleasant either. He wasn’t mean or cruel. He expected results and other than that, he left me alone. There was no prying into my life and no small talk. I took care of him and then went on with my life.

And by taking care of him, I mean I did everything for this man.

The biggest lesson I’ve learned in my time here was that money can’t buy you competence.

I ordered his meals and groceries, coordinated his laundry, organized his schedule, and arranged social outings.

The man would sit in a white padded room if it weren’t for me.

Luckily, I loved that shit.

My entire life, I was made fun of for being neat and organized to a fault. My shirts were always ironed and my pens were always in a perfect line. It might have been annoying, but it made me great at my job.

As I opened my email, my phone buzzed on my desk.

Warner

We’ll make up for this year. Promise xo.

Attached to her message was a picture of the two of us when we were kids. We were sitting on the couch covered in flannel blankets with a bucket of popcorn on our laps. Pressure grew behind my eyes as I stared down at the little girls who had so many dreams.

I wasn’t anywhere close to where I wanted to be in life and I had no idea how to change that.

I dropped my bag by the front door and walked into the kitchen where my Mom was stirring something on the stove.

“Hey, Mom.” I kissed her cheek before grabbing a cup from the top cabinet and filling it with water.

“Hi, Sweetie.” My Mom sighed dramatically in a way that told me she wanted me to ask why she was upset.

“Warner told you?” I assumed.

She nodded. “We’re going to miss her this year, but it was the mature decision.”

I shrugged. It wasn’t that I disagreed with that, but she also could’ve let me pay for her flight when I offered. She didn’t have to stay in Colorado. Alec would be fine on his own for the holidays, he hated them anyway.

My Mom walked up to me and tapped my cheek with her pointer finger. “It’ll be okay. We have you, and you’ll never leave us.”

She was joking, but her words still cut.

“Har, har,” I snarked, swatting her away. “You’ll all miss me when I’m gone.”

My Dad walked into the kitchen, wrapping an arm around my mother as she stood back at the stove.

“Of course we will, Sweetie. Who else will be the sounding board around here?” He laughed as he looked over at me.

“Who will organize the fridge every weekend?” My mother added.

“Who will turn the music down when it gets too loud?” My Dad, ladies and gents, with another zinger.

“Who will—”

“Okay, I get it.” I picked up my glass and headed out of the kitchen. “Your fun daughter is stuck with her fun husband and you’re suffering alone with the responsible spawn. I get it, it’s a tragedy,” I muttered under my breath.

You can make me sound horrible and boring, but at least I wasn’t afraid to be myself at the end of the day. There were worse qualities in a person than the ones they constantly made fun of me about.

And if I was being honest, I was over it.