Chapter 6
CHAPTER SIX
ABBI
“ O h, my gosh!” Daisy bounces with excitement, hugging Holly as they both celebrate their shiny new Christmas presents with hugs and dancing. “We both got new bikes!”
Erin and I had the bikes delivered here, to Ryan’s house, and Jake offered to put them together for the girls so they’d be by the tree, waiting for them when we arrived.
The Wilds decided to gather at Ryan and Polly’s for Christmas, rather than at the family farmhouse, because they’ve added so many members to the clan over the past couple of years, and this house is big. The tree in the main living room has to be thirty feet tall.
And it’s decorated, from the tippy top to the bottom with shiny, glittery balls and lights.
Polly said that a company came in to do most of it and that she, Ryan, and Jake decorated the bottom few limbs with special ornaments.
I thought that was sweet.
“I got a scooter,” Johnny adds, doing his own happy dance.
“We want to ride,” Holly announces.
“It’s a little too snowy for that,” Erin reminds her. “Sorry, baby.”
“We have a shop that’s pretty much empty,” Jake says with a wink. “Come on, you guys, I’ll take you out so you can ride.”
“Yay!” Daisy yells as the three kids follow Jake out the back door. The young man has a red bike under one arm and a purple one under the other, carrying them as if they weigh nothing at all, and Johnny follows behind with his scooter.
The shop is only a few yards away, and knowing Ryan, I’m sure it’s heated, so they’re fine running over with just boots and jackets.
“I got you something,” Brady says quietly as he sits on the couch next to me, passing me a box wrapped in red with a gold bow.
“You didn’t have to get me anything,” I reply softly as my heart thuds. “You made Daisy’s year with the pink Stetson. She’ll never take it off.”
He laughs and continues to hold the small box out to me, so I accept it and rip the paper off.
Inside is a pair of teal fuzzy socks. And these are way better than the ones I usually get. They’re thick and lined with what looks like sherpa fuzziness, and I know without a doubt that they won’t get holes in the heels like the ones I usually buy myself.
“I notice that you wear these a lot,” he says after clearing his throat. “And I thought you might like them.”
“I can’t wait to get home and wear them,” I admit and lean in to kiss his bicep. “Thank you. I have a little something for you, too.”
“Wait,” he says with a smile. “There’s something else. Do you think that I’d just get you socks ?”
Brady scoffs and lifts another box from under the tree, and I feel my eyes widen. This is a small box. Also red with a gold bow.
“Brady.”
“Take the gift, Abbi.” I look up and see him watching me with humor-filled hazel eyes, and I know that I can’t resist him.
Taking the box, I tear the paper and flip open the lid, and I’m pretty sure I just swallowed my tongue.
Twinkling up at me are a pair of gorgeous diamond earrings. Not simple studs. No, this cowboy bought me diamond studs with huge teardrops hanging from them.
My jaw drops, and then I close it again. I don’t know what the fuck to say.
“Brady.” It’s a whisper now. My lungs are having a hard time taking in air, and finally, Brady reaches over and takes my hand in his.
“I couldn’t pass them up,” he says, drawing my eyes back to his face. “Nothing could ever be as beautiful as you are, but these earrings are trying, and they’ll look fucking amazing on you.”
I bite my lip and brush a fingertip over the diamonds. “I can’t accept these.”
“Oh, you don’t want them?” Brady shrugs and tugs the box out of my hand, then starts to unfasten one from the black velvet. “Too fucking bad, Blue Eyes. They’re yours.”
He fastens them to my ears and then pulls back to admire them.
“Just as I thought.”
“What?”
He leans in and brushes his lips over my cheek, then presses his lips to my ear. “You’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.”
Heat floods through me, and I have to clear my throat before taking a deep breath.
“Thank you.” I lick my lips. “And I got you something, too.”
Leaning over, I snatch up a box from under the tree and pass it to Brady, who’s frowning at me.
“What’s wrong?”
“You didn’t have to get me a Christmas present.”
“That was my line. And after freaking diamond earrings , I’m glad I did get you something. Here, it’s small.”
He narrows his eyes at me and then rips the paper, opens the box, and smiles.
God, that smile melts me every time. It’s an arrow right to the heart.
“What is it?” Erin wants to know as she saunters in from the kitchen, where the others have been picking away at Christmas morning cinnamon rolls. “I want to know. She wouldn’t tell us.”
“It’s a leather bracelet,” he says. “With a silver bull head.”
Erin’s gaze meets mine, and I can see in her eyes that she knows . Hell, they all know that I’ve had a crush on Brady for a while. I don’t make a big deal out of it, but it is what it is.
And when I saw this, with the rugged leather strap, I knew that I had to get it for him.
“You could really put it on anything,” I reply. “Doesn’t have to be your wrist.”
He takes it out of the box and loops it around his wrist, admiring it.
“Thanks, Abs.”
“You’re welcome.”
“Whoa,” Erin says, rushing to me. “You weren’t wearing those earlier.”
I finger one of the earrings. “They’re from Brady.”
“Damn. Good job.” She high-fives Brady and then smiles softly at me. “You can wear those to the party next week.”
Oh, I already planned on it.
“I’ll be right back.”
Needing a minute, I stand, walk into the kitchen, and pour myself some juice. Millie, champagne bottle in hand, raises an eyebrow, and I nod, giving her the go-ahead to add it to my glass.
The kids run in through the back door, their cheeks flushed with happiness.
“It was awesome ,” Holly says, and Daisy nods.
“I can go faster than both of them,” Johnny says.
“I didn’t fall down,” Daisy adds. “Not even once. I remembered how to ride, even though it’s not summer anymore.”
“Because you’re amazing ,” I remind her and bend down to kiss her cheek. “I’m proud of you, baby.”
“Would you like a cinnamon roll?” Brady’s mom, Joy, asks the girls.
“Yes, please,” they say in unison.
“Grandma, can I please have some juice?” Daisy asks, and my eyes go wide.
“Daisy, her name?—”
“No, ma’am,” Joy says, interrupting me. “I love being called Grandma. Nothing brings me more happiness than these kiddos, and Daisy is absolutely one of mine. Now, of course, you can have some juice. Come on, you can help me pour it.”
I have to take a long, slow breath as tears threaten.
I don’t know what I did to deserve being welcomed into this big, amazing family, and as I watch Joy with all three of the little kids, helping them get their breakfasts, I’m suddenly overwhelmed with gratitude.
Blinking, I excuse myself from the kitchen and walk down the hall, looking for the half bath.
But before I can get there, Brady takes my elbow and pulls me into a theater.
“Hey.” He frowns as I wipe away a tear. “What’s wrong? Who the fuck made you cry? I’ll kill them.”
“No one,” I reply with a half laugh. “It’s happy tears. And maybe I’m a little overwhelmed, too. I’m not used to this.”
“What? Christmas?”
“Not like this. With all the people and the food and the presents. Feeling included and loved. And I’m so grateful that Daisy has it. That your family makes her feel like she belongs here. She called your mom Grandma, and when I tried to correct her, Joy wouldn’t allow it.”
“Of course not,” he says with a half smile. “Being a grandma is her favorite thing. Hell, she’d let you call her grandma.”
I laugh at that, already feeling much better.
“I’m just…grateful,” I say again. “I don’t have another word to describe it. And you got me this incredible, outrageous gift, and I really shouldn’t accept them, but I’m going to because they’re so beautiful, and I couldn’t stand it if someone else wore them.”
“No one else is going to wear them, Abs. I bought them for you.”
“What was Christmas like for you, as a kid?” he asks as we sit in two of the wide, deep theater seats, turning to face each other.
“Before I was twelve, it was pretty normal. Or, my mom tried to make it as normal as possible. She was a single mom, and she was so poor. Always poor. She cleaned houses for a living, and sometimes I helped her. I enjoyed it.”
“I guess so. You followed in her footsteps.”
I grin, nodding. “Yeah. We always had a tree. I had at least one thing to open, and we had a good meal. Every year. She made sure of it.”
“What happened when you were twelve, Abs?” He takes my hand in his, links our fingers, and I hold on tight, not wanting to tell him this part.
“Mom died,” I whisper. “She had been sick. Cancer. And I went into foster care, and that piece is not a conversation for Christmas Day.”
“Fair enough,” he replies, not pressing the subject. He reaches over and tucks a stray piece of hair behind my ear. “I’m glad that you and Daisy are here. I know we’re big and loud and kind of obnoxious most of the time. Okay, that’s mostly just Chase.”
I bark out a laugh, and he smiles, as if that’s exactly what he was going for.
“But,” he continues, “we’re mostly harmless.”
“You have a wonderful family.”
“Yeah. I do. I have to say, Daisy’s been a kick today. So happy and excited, like she usually is, but on steroids.”
“My kid loves presents. Giving and receiving, as she proved today by giving every single person a piece of art that she made herself.”
“My picture of a horse actually looks like a horse,” he says, obviously impressed. “I should have bought her art supplies.”
“She didn’t want to go to bed last night,” I confess. “She wanted to stay up for Santa. So, I had to wait her out before I could do the Santa thing.”
“Wait.” He holds up a hand, scowling. “You mean, Santa’s not real ?”
I grin at him. “Of course, he is.”
“And what did Santa bring her?”
“He filled her stocking, and mine, actually. I always fill my own stocking because otherwise, Daisy would think that Santa doesn’t love me.” I shrug a shoulder. “It’s kind of nice to get some new shower gel and chocolate of my own that I don’t have to share. Anyway, she got some clothes, a couple of Barbies with clothes for them, and a couple of small toys. The bike was the biggest thing, and Erin and I decided we wanted to give them to the kids at the same time.”
“It was a hit,” he replies with that sexy grin. “What else did Santa bring you ?”
“Uh, a healthy kid and a thriving business. I don’t need anything else, Brady. Besides, you got me socks and these glorious diamonds.”
“Hold up. Are you telling me that the only Christmas presents that you opened today were from me?”
“No. Erin, Polly, Summer, Millie, and I exchanged gifts. Daisy made me an ornament for the tree in school… Don’t look at me like that.” He’s scowling at me, and it makes me shift in my seat. “What did you get this morning? Did you even have a stocking?”
“That’s different.”
“Why?”
“Because it just is.” He’s still scowling, so I reach over and smooth the lines between his brows with the pad of my thumb.
“Merry Christmas, Brady.”
He sighs, then lifts my hand and kisses my knuckles, sending shivers up my arm. “Merry Christmas, Abs.”
“What are you doing ?” Daisy demands as she opens the door. “Oh, are we watching a movie?”
“No, baby, we were just talking.” Daisy climbs into my lap and wraps her arm around my neck. “What are you up to? Are you having fun?”
“I had a ciminim roll.” She grins happily, and I can’t resist kissing her smooth cheek. She smells so good.
“Was it delicious?”
“Yes.” She smiles shyly at Brady. “Did you have one?”
“Not yet. We’d better go get our share before my brothers eat them all.”
“Come on!” she exclaims, jumping off of my lap and running out the door, and Brady smiles at me.
“Come on, then,” he says, offering me a hand and pulling me up to my feet. “Let’s go find a sugar coma.”
The week between Christmas and New Year’s is always chaos for me. I want my employees to have time off, too, so they rotate the holidays between them, and I cover. Typically, I only clean a couple of houses each week for clients that I especially enjoy and spend the majority of the week in my office and doing all the laundry that comes in from the rentals.
It’s paid off big time to buy sheets and towels and offer them to the short-term rentals that we clean, so we can just haul them back to the office to launder and put them back into the rotation. I have two industrial washers and dryers that are running pretty much all day.
But, this week, I’m short by two cleaning teams, so I’m picking up the slack, spending my days cleaning rather than in the office.
And that’s okay. I enjoy cleaning. If I were to see a therapist, they’d probably tell me that my love for keeping things clean and tidy stems from a need for control, and that’s something that I actually have control over. When I was in foster care, my rooms were always sparkling. And even now, if I’m stressed, I clean.
It’s just who I am, and it’s likely something I inherited from my mother.
I have two clients today, both short-term rentals in the condos at the ski resort. One asked for a late checkout, so I have them on deck for later this afternoon. I’ll take the bigger of the two units first.
I love Bitterroot Ski Resort. I’ve never been on a pair of skis in my life, but being at the resort is just nice. It’s new, with so much recently remodeled or added, and the mountains are beautiful. The restaurants are great, too. Our Iconic Women’s Collective meets up here often for our monthly meetings, and the lunch provided by the on-site restaurant, Snow Ghost, is always delicious.
I might just have to take something to go on my way home.
Daisy’s spending the day with Merilee, our next-door neighbor. She’s a retired school teacher, and she loves spending time with my girl, so if I ever need a sitter, Merilee is my go-to.
Having her just steps away is convenient.
Since Daisy will eat with Merilee, I might as well grab a burger and onion rings from Snow Ghost to eat at my office as I process the day’s laundry. God knows I’ll be working off those calories today.
Merilee isn’t expecting me home until well into the evening. It’s rare that I have a day that I don’t have to worry about what to fix for Daisy, so I’ll indulge a bit.
With that decided, I park my SUV in the visitor parking and cut the engine. These two units both have a locked closet with most of our supplies inside, so I have minimal things to carry in with me, which is nice, as they’re both on the second floor.
I ease around the car gingerly, since there is a lot of ice on the ground, and I don’t want to fall. I pull out a bucket with rags, a tote full of clean sheets, and my favorite mop, then close the SUV and turn for the building.
Once the elevator doors open, I muscle my gear down the hallway to the first condo and knock on the door before unlocking it and stepping inside.
“Housekeeping,” I call out, just in case the guests haven’t left yet, but the condo is still and quiet, so I shut the door, set my stuff down, and slip out of my coat and boots before hauling the bucket and rags into the kitchen to get started there first.
There are pots and pans in the sink, which is an irritation. We always ask that guests at least load the dishwasher on their way out, so this will take me longer, but it is what it is. I’ve just finished loading the dishwasher and started the cycle when I turn to scrub the glass top stove that has dried spaghetti sauce stuck to the surface.
What a mess. I’ll let the owner know that they shouldn’t refund any of the cleaning deposit.
Suddenly, the hair on the back of my neck stands up, and I feel the air in the room shift.
“I don’t think we’ve met.”
I yelp and spin, my heart climbing into my throat at the sound of a man’s voice, and I grip the countertop behind me as I swallow hard.
“I called out when I got here,” I reply, my voice sounding calmer than I feel. Jesus, he can probably hear my heart hammering against my breastbone. “I can come back later or tomorrow.”
“No need for that.” He’s a tall man with blond hair and a sneer as he looks me up and down. He’s shirtless, covered only in a pair of jeans that ride low on his hips. Under any other circumstances, I might think he’s handsome. “I must have fallen asleep.”
“Like I said, I can come back.” I start to move toward the door, but he blocks my path. I move to the right, and he moves with me, as if we’re kids playing a game, and it irritates the hell out of me. “You’re going to want to get out of my way.”
“Or what?” He lifts an eyebrow. “Why don’t you just calm down and come back to bed with me? It’s warm, and I’d like to have a little fun with you.”
“Absolutely not.” This is why I make sure everyone on my staff works in teams. “I’m leaving.”
He moves way faster than I give him credit for, and suddenly, he strikes out and hits me, right on the cheekbone, and I fall against the counter, seeing stars.
“I’m going to fuck you either way,” he drawls, and I hear the sound of his zipper, and every cell in my body goes ice cold.
Never again. I’ll never be used like this ever again. His hands are on me, my shoulder, my hip, and he reaches around to grope my breast, trying to pull me around, and my hand closes around the handle of a frying pan on the stove, and I spin, moving with the force of him pulling on me, and smack him right on the side of the head with a loud bang .
“Ah!” He falls to the floor, moaning, and I run, my sock-clad feet sliding on the hardwood floors. I can hear him still moaning behind me, but I don’t look back to see if he’s chasing me.
I just need to get the hell out of here.
I don’t stop running, bypassing the elevator to take the stairs down two at a time, and then out to my car, running on the ice in my socks.
Thanking all the gods above that I forgot to lock it because my purse is still upstairs, I climb inside, lock the doors, and pull my phone out of my pants, calling 9-1-1.
“Nine-one-one, what is your emergency?”
“I was just physically assaulted.” I have to swallow hard against the hysterical tears that want to come. My face is killing me. “I’m at the resort. Cleaning rooms.”
“Take a breath,” the operator says calmly. “I’m sending someone up there now. What unit?”
I give her all the information that she asks for, but I feel the panic attack coming. It’s right on the edge of taking over, and I have to hang up this phone so I can try to breathe.
Usually, when this happens, and if Daisy is with me, she holds her fingers up and tells me to blow, like I’m blowing out the candles, and she puts the fingers down as I blow them out.
But she’s not with me. Thank fuck.
“Do you hear the sirens?” the operator asks.
“Yes, ma’am.” My accent kicks in when I’m upset. “I hear them.”
“Okay, they’ll be there soon. You can hang up and flag the officer down. It’s Officer Wild.”
Thank God.
“Thanks. Thank you.”
I hang up and open my car door as the cruiser pulls to a stop in front of the building, and I stand, waving my arm.
“Abbi?” Chase scowls and hurries over to me, bracing my shoulders in his hands. “Shit, Abbi, what happened?”
I can’t breathe. I just can’t catch my breath, and it pisses me off.
“Whoa,” Chase croons, as if I’m an upset horse that needs calming. “Deep breaths, honey. Are you hurt?”
I look up at him, and his eyes immediately narrow.
“Black eye,” he says with a hard voice. All crooning is gone, and now he’s good and pissed. The fierce cop has taken over the kind friend. “Who the fuck did this?”
“C-condo 210,” I reply. “Guest who didn’t leave. Was going to r-r-rape me. Oh, Jesus, Chase.”
“Hey. You got away, you hear me? I’m going to take care of this. I want you to sit in your car and wait for me.” He looks down and scowls. “Where are your shoes?”
“Inside.”
With his jaw set grimly, he urges me into my seat and speaks into the radio at his shoulder, calling for more help.
“He didn’t leave?” he asks me.
“Not that I saw.”
“You hang tight here.” He hurries away, pulling out his phone, and I give into the tears. The fear.
The memories.