Chapter Three #3
Suddenly a sheepish expression crossed her face.
“To be honest, I’m a bit of a flavor junkie.
I like all the odd combinations like pomegranate-ginger or cucumber-blueberry.
Hattie discontinued my favorite,” she said with a frown.
“Pineapple colada. It wasn’t selling well at all. ” She let out a deep-throated chuckle.
Landon made a face. “Sorry, no insult intended, but it sounds awful.”
Bailey let out a hearty laugh. “No offense taken. Since Hattie liked it as much as I did, I consider myself to have been in amazing company.” She was beaming. “That woman has impeccable taste.”
He couldn’t miss the poignant look on her face—one of pure awe and admiration. All due to Hattie.
“Ginger flavors could really work for the holiday line. Maybe ginger raspberry or ginger cranberry,” Bailey suggested.
He nodded. “Reminds me of the gingerbread cakes my mom used to make us when we were kids. That would be amazing in a hard cider.” Honestly, he could almost taste it.
This was way more fun than he’d imagined. The ideas were pouring out of the right side of his brain, where creativity lived. Something told him that Hattie had known that he needed something like this in his life in order to shake things up.
“I’m thinking tangerine,” he told Bailey. “Ginger. Variations of cranberry since it’s a holiday flavor. Maybe pomegranate mixed with lime.”
“Those are awesome,” Bailey said, her voice full of encouragement. “Let’s lean in to the holiday-ish pairings that might really cause a buzz.”
He snapped his fingers. “What about cranberry orange?”
She let out a squeal. “I love that idea. It would really play into the holidays.”
He loved tossing around ideas with her. She was full of a zest for life and enthusiasm for the process.
It was written all over her face, radiating like the sun.
Her attitude served as a reminder that this was how he used to feel.
Working as a scientist at Abbott had been the culmination of so many years of study and hard work.
He had been intentional about working at a lab where medical discoveries for diseases were the main agenda.
He’d loved every minute of it and had devoted his life to his work—until the rug was pulled out from underneath him.
But now he was plunging headlong into a new adventure. And Bailey was leading the way with her outgoing personality and knowledge about the product. It was obvious that Bailey loved her job.
“I have an idea,” Bailey said. “We can do some cider mixing with various flavors and get an idea if our flavors will pop. That way we’ll be able to see if it’s worth creating the flavor.”
“That’s a great idea, but can we drink hard cider while we’re on the clock?” He knew that he might sound like a Goody Two-shoes, but he didn’t want to break any company rules. Even though Hattie was his grandmother, she wouldn’t hesitate to read him the riot act.
“Nothing to worry about. We just sample the combinations. We don’t drink more than a taste. If we really like it, maybe an extended taste.” She winked at him. “It gets the job done.”
“Well then, who am I to say no?” he asked. As far as job duties went, taste-testing hard cider combinations had to be high on the list of best ones ever. He still didn’t know what he’d ever done in this life to deserve Hattie or this opportunity.
Within minutes Bailey had assembled a variety of canned hard ciders along with small plastic cups. She began cracking open the cans and mixing together the flavor combinations they’d come up with. She handed him the first plastic cup and said, “Cheers!”
He downed the sample, his gaze fixed on her as she drank hers. Bailey consumed it in two sips, letting out a contented sigh when she finished. Her tongue darted out of her mouth to lick the rim of the cup. His stomach clenched. Landon couldn’t take his eyes off her.
It was a bit startling for him. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt this level of attraction.
Maybe never. Bailey was straight-up sexy without even trying.
She was simply enjoying the moment and the taste of the hard cider.
And Landon was enjoying watching her. If she were the spokesmodel for the holiday campaign, the entire line would fly off the shelves.
“Yum. This is a great combination,” Bailey said as she placed her cup down with a slight bang. “We should definitely make this one a centerpiece for the holiday campaign.”
His mouth felt dry. “W-what was that one again?” His brain was a bit frazzled.
“Cranberry orange. Your suggestion. Nice, huh?”
“Very nice,” Landon said. And he wasn’t just talking about the hard cider combo. Bailey Daniels was the most enticing woman he’d ever met. Not only was she beautiful, but her sense of humor and personality were off the charts.
It was just his luck. He had spent almost a year in Alaska without meeting anyone who sparked a romantic interest in him, even though he’d been open to the possibilities.
Now, out of the blue, he’d met Bailey, a woman he was working in close proximity to.
When it came to relationships, he’d always been a bit adrift.
It wasn’t that he didn’t want a partner in love, but he’d allowed his past failures to get in his head.
Who’d want to date a nerd like him?
Science geek.
His brothers are so hot.
Words were just words, but they still managed to get in his head and hold him back. Even though he’d soared professionally, his private life had always been like a dead zone.
Landon had learned to stay in his lane and to focus on the one thing that he was good at. Science had always been his thing! He excelled in that one area. His mind flashed back to a pivotal moment he’d shared with his mother.
“Landon, I’ve always been so proud of your accomplishments,” she’d said, squeezing his hand. “You’ve always had such a natural-born love for science and discovery. It seems as if you came out of the womb with a microscope in your hand.”
He’d let out a hearty chuckle at the imagery she’d brought to mind. “I guess I’ve always known the path that I wanted to take.”
“That’s a good thing, my darling, but—”
But? Uh-oh. He hadn’t seen any buts coming. His body had tensed up.
“If you don’t mind my saying so, I think you’ve hidden yourself away in the laboratory as a way of avoiding intimacy.”
Landon had winced. He had not wanted to discuss intimacy with Daisy under any circumstances.
“Mom, let’s not go there,” he’d replied, practically stammering.
“Emotional intimacy,” she’d pointed out. “Relax.
“I know it might feel icky getting feedback on your love life from me, but here we are. I’m going to give it to you straight.” They’d locked eyes. “You’ve got to take a good look at what you’ve been doing. If you always do what you’ve always done, nothing in your life can change.”
Although a part of him knew what his mother said might be true, in the past he’d never found a way to break free from using the lab and his professional pursuits as a crutch.
Coming to Alaska had given him the opportunity to spread his wings and grow as a person. Maybe now was his chance to put those wheels into motion.
Landon was a certified babe, Bailey thought as she left work for the day. Brainstorming ideas with him had been productive and fun. He was a breath of fresh air for the cider lab. And when he’d put on his glasses, she had nearly given him a standing ovation.
More importantly, he was one of the good guys.
She could tell. When he’d asked about drinking hard cider on the job, Bailey had nearly melted.
He was taking his position at the cider lab seriously and doing a pretty bang-up job at it.
Landon radiated intelligence and kindness, two qualities she’d never really found in any of the men she’d had relationships with.
Not that she planned on pursuing Landon in a romantic way, but he was a definite catch for someone. The cynical part of her was waiting for something to drop about him—maybe he was a serial cheater or his breath stank.
So far, he was everything she’d heard he was via the Moose Falls grapevine.
He was super intelligent, kind, and all kinds of sexy.
It was odd how hot he was in her estimation, since she had a history of going after bad boys.
Landon Stone, from what she had observed, was nowhere near being a bad boy.
In fact, he was the type of man that one brought home to the parents. He had keeper written all over him.
Yet she sensed a trace of sadness hanging over him like a slight fog.
It made her feel protective toward him. Bailey wished she could make it all better for Landon.
She imagined that Hattie’s terminal illness was at the forefront of his mind, especially since her condition was rapidly deteriorating.
The grande dame of Moose Falls put on a good act, but Bailey’s younger sister, Regina, was a nurse at the local medical facility where Hattie received treatment.
After years of receiving dialysis treatments, nothing further could be done to prolong her life.
The news was shocking and sad for Bailey, but she imagined that it was far more devastating for Hattie’s family.
Life was strange. Hattie had brought her grandsons to Moose Falls so they could learn the ins and outs of Yukon Cider.
Lots of town gossip had surrounded their return.
Some said they were set to inherit the company along with their father, Red.
Others whispered that she was leaving it all to her partner, Jacques.
Bailey didn’t know what to believe, but she couldn’t imagine Hattie overlooking her beloved grandsons.
Yukon Cider was her legacy, along with Landon and his brothers.
Even though she tended not to stick her nose in other people’s business, Bailey was intrigued by the situation, and the family dynamics of the Stones.
Landon seemed very close to Hattie despite the decades they had been separated.
She figured that there was a lot of family drama at the heart of the situation.
Not that she was unfamiliar with drama in her own family.
She was moments away from arriving at the home she’d grown up in.
Although it was filled with warm memories, it was also a place that still had a huge hole in it due to her father’s absence.
She smiled as she drove past the skating rink where she’d learned to skate as a kid.
Klondike Ice Rink. A moose-crossing sign popped up.
Someone had decorated it with pink hearts, and no one had changed it back as of yet.
No doubt some lovesick teenager had altered it, Bailey figured.
The sign always made Bailey grin, as well as reminding her that she was close to home.
Before Bailey knew it, she’d arrived.
The family home was a two-story white and brick structure with a quaint wraparound porch.
Although it was on the smaller side, this home had held a lot of love over the years.
Bailey shook her head as she pulled into the driveway.
Out of her entire family she was the only one who had continued to hold a grudge against Christmas.
Just seeing all the glittering lights adorning the property made her insides painfully twist. Another year to just suck it up.
She hated Christmas and everything that went along with it. And she knew that she always would. Bah humbug and all that good stuff. She was the living embodiment of the Grinch. She disliked decorating for the holidays, and she never bought her own Christmas tree.
It wasn’t her fault she hated Christmas.
She placed all the blame on the drunk driver who had hit her father’s Volvo wagon head-on, killing him instantly on Christmas Eve.
In a perfect world Bailey could spend the rest of her life lashing out against the drunk driver, Bobby Thorpe, but he’d just been some selfish eighteen-year-old who’d died on impact in the crash, ruining his own life as well as her family’s in the process.
Bailey still thought about him, and she wished that she could let it go.
She had professional and personal goals to accomplish, like her dream of developing a cider line based on growing up in Alaska.
Yet holding on to this trauma might be holding her back.
Doing so wasn’t moving her forward in her life.
Landon’s face flashed before her eyes. He was a good example of someone who was putting his past behind him and forging ahead despite past trials.
One way or another, Bailey was determined to do the same thing.