Chapter 16 Entitled Entry
ENTITLED ENTRY
LILAH
“Ready, Holiday Goddess?” I took my place beside Lilah behind the cookie buffet table while she slid the last tray of cookies into place with precision. I stole one last kiss from her right as the doors opened to the first employees arriving back to work, each one like family coming home.
Huge smiles came her way due to the eight different colorful varieties of cookies that awaited them, with positive reviews flowing.
“Chef, these look amazing!”
“Oh my God, are those powdered donut snowballs? My favorite.”
“Is that eggnog I detect in the glaze? I love eggnog.”
They got their fill and smiled wider, talking excitedly about their time away to celebrate the holiday. I rallied them all to finish strong for the grand opening.
During a lull in arrivals, I turned to Lilah and couldn’t be prouder. “The cookies are a hit. But I’m not surprised. This buffet idea was just the thing we needed. I claim this as a morale win. If I had a gold medal, I’d award it to you.”
“As long as we don’t run out, which we will if you keep sneaking bites, Mr. Snowman,” she scolded with a gleam in her eye, looking up at me so fresh in her crisp white chef’s coat, hair pinned up prim and proper as always.
I missed when it was just us alone here, because I could carry her off over my shoulder to our cozy library.
After letting her hair down and stripping away her coat, finding nothing underneath, no bra, only soft, warm Lilah, she could be my gold medal, the prize I earned if I played things right.
But the doors opened again, reminding me the lodge wasn’t our secret playground anymore.
Rita stepped in and gasped, hand to her heart, clearly noticing the lack of the twenty-foot tree in the lobby that I’d fallen into and broken thanks to a bat from Hell.
“Rita! I have a special plate of cookies here just for you.” I grinned and hoped the buffet might especially help smooth things over once she arrived.
“Oh no. Chef Lilah, what did he do to the tree?”
I smirked. “You went right there, assuming it was me?” My innocent act didn’t work.
While Lilah explained the entire ordeal, from the fall to the ornaments breaking, I reached around her and stole another salted caramel and chocolate chip cookie from the tray she intentionally placed closest to her hip to watch over.
“Holden, what are we going to do? The lobby looks less festive now for the big day,” Rita worried, absentmindedly biting into peppermint shortbread, eyes darting around.
Lilah came to my defense. “He made up for it though. All those towels? He got them into every room, folded perfectly on the towel bars.”
Rita’s eyes about fell out of their sockets. “He did? You did, sir? Thank you. I can’t wait to tell the others that we can scratch that off our list.”
“Yes, and I also talked to Cal. I had the ski patrol scout another tree. They found one, and Mack and the ground crew are already out there, chopping it down and bringing it in,” I explained.
“Alleluia! That’s wonderful news. But where will we find enough ornaments at this point?”
“I spotted a boxes of vintage ones down in the basement storage room. Can we repurpose those?” I suggested.
“Perfect. Now, Holden, don’t you worry about a thing. The housekeeping staff will have the new tree completely decorated in time for the opening. We don’t need your help. We’ll make sure it’s lovely.” She winked.
“I trust you will. We’ll have a department head meeting over lunch today in my office to talk about the list of things to fix around here, and, surprisingly, not all of them are my fault.”
Rita laughed and took her plate of cookies with her.
Lilah turned to me. “I didn’t know you'd found another tree?”
“It wouldn’t be a holiday without one.”
“I suppose our tiny library tree decorated with vending machine wrappers just won’t do for this large lobby space,” she chuckled.
“I had someone move that tree to your suite this morning, so you have a special reminder from our weekend together.”
“You did? I’m impressed with the lengths you go to sometimes, Holden.”
“I’d be happy to show you a great length in private later,” I mentioned under my breath, holding her appreciative, loaded gaze for a moment. How I wanted to put an exclamation point on that sentence with a kiss, but for now, keeping the secret of us between us gave this situation a new thrill.
“Patience, Mr. Snowman. We have a long day ahead of us.” Lilah resumed smiling and handed out cookies.
I could only admire her a minute more, my Frosty little bunny, when the doors flew open, drawing a gust of wind sweeping through the lobby. A woman in a long fur coat stepped in, sunglasses on, entitled, like the world owed her everything.
Oh. Fuck. My heart jumped into my throat. With one look, I sensed the pending disaster on my hands.
It was Madison from the Sports Network, arriving with her usual flair, followed in by a cameraman, struggling with her luggage and his.
In my Lilah-induced happy place, I’d forgotten all about my arrangements for the interview with Madison. And with nowhere to hide unless I darted under the cookie table, the reporter spotted me instantly.
“Holden! Thank God you’re okay. I heard about the storm,” she exclaimed, and drifted toward me with open arms. She hugged me—I did not hug back—and kissed my lips—again I did not partake.
Lilah glared. “Who is this?” The chef asked in a frosty tone, arms crossed, eyes darting between the two of us.
Madison peered over sunglasses at her. “Oh hello. Would you be a dear and call a bellman to take my bags to Holden’s suite?”
Shit. No, no, no. My pulse raced at the mess I had made.
“Holden’s suite?” Lilah’s eyebrows hit her hairline. I needed quick thinking before she became another runaway bride, er, runaway fling.
“Uh, Madison, this is Chef Lilah Childs that I told you about. Lilah, Madison is here from Sports Magazine to do a thorough interview with the two of us about the lodge and the restaurant,” I explained.
“Chef Childs, nice to meet you.” Madison at least showed professional courtesy, sticking out her hand to shake.
Lilah took it gingerly, as if it had too many germs and she wanted to avoid transferring them to her spotless kitchen—but her eyes were still locked on me, filled with unspoken accusations.
“You’re a day early, aren’t you?” I blurted out to take the heat off of me, loosening my tie. Big mistake.
“I thought we could spend some extra time together. We always had fun, you and I, and my Christmas with the family was awful.” Madison put on the full-court press, flirting with her eyes, even reaching out and walking her fingers from my collar down to my belt. “You know exactly how to cheer me up.”
With an exasperated huff, Lilah stormed away, taking my heart with her.
“Lilah, wait!” But too late, she ducked through the restaurant door.
“Well, someone’s a little insubordinate,” Madison clicked her tongue.
“Oh, Carrie—” I grabbed one of the front desk staffers walking by. “Please give Madison keys to one of the available suites and have her bags brought up.”
“Right away, sir.”
I turned to Madison. “Look, I have a day full of meetings ahead of me. Very last minute. I’ll have one of my department heads reach out to you.”
I rushed off, ignoring her protests. Finding Lilah before it was too late was paramount to anything else.
“Where is she?” I burst through the kitchen doors.
Ridley pointed. “Stormed into the walk-in cooler.”
Inside, I found her, arms crossed, pretending to inspect the shelving like she wasn’t seconds from freezing me out of her emotional orbit completely.
“Frosty, that wasn’t what it looked like,” I started.
“If you don’t mind, I have lunch to prepare for.” Her most professional icy voice returned.
“Come on. Don’t do that.” I stepped inside, shutting the cooler door behind me. Cold air wrapped around us the second the door latched shut, most of it coming off of her. “Don’t go Frost-mode on me.”
She lifted her chin. “Why shouldn’t I? Madison clearly—”
“Means nothing to me.”
Her throat bobbed.
I moved closer. “She’s an old occasional hookup from years ago. We set up this interview before the holidays, before anything happened between you and me, I swear it.” I let the truth settle between us.
Her eyes flicked up at that. “For a second, it looked like you were going to be another Brad,” her voice cracked.
“No, absolutely not. I wouldn’t do that to you.”
“Then why didn’t you tell Madison, right there in the lobby in front of me, that you weren’t available? Unless… it’s not like we said things would be exclusive between us.”
“No. I mean, yes, I want to be with you. But it’s complicated.
This article could be big for the lodge.
For us. When I set up the interview, I gave Madison notes on you too—to feature the restaurant and your culinary expertise.
She’s supposed to highlight you as well. This could be excellent exposure.”
“You told her about me?”
“When I booked the interview, of course I did. But that was before this weekend and us. Now, I worry Madison may not take the news well about our being together. She’s a little… temperamental.”
“A diva, I’d say.” Lilah rolled her eyes.
“Exactly. If she’s upset by it, she could derail the interview and ruin all the exposure we’d get from it appearing on Sports Network.”
“Would she really do that?”
“I don’t know.” I shook my head at the ridiculous position this put me in. “Look, let’s just get through the interview. Until then, I’ll hide away from her. Once the interview is done and she’s back in New York, I’ll tell her I’m off the market.”
“You’d do that? I want to trust you, Holden.”
“You can, Frosty.” I stepped closer, cupped her face and brushed her hair back. “You’re the only woman on my mountain that I see.”
Her breath hitched, with a hint of a smile. “You mean that?”
I claimed her lips with all the convincing I could muster, searing them, hoping, praying she’d believe me.
“I guess, interview first. Then you tell her,” she whispered on my lips.
“Done.”
“But Holden, please don’t turn into another Brad. I don’t think my heart could handle it.” It should offend me she’d lump me with him, but the pain and mistrust in her eyes resurfaced, thanks to thirty seconds with Madison ruining everything I’d built with Lilah over the past few days.
“You have nothing to worry about. I’ll set the interview up for tomorrow.
Until then, I’ll have Mack, Charles, Cal, and Rita keep Madison busy with tours of the property.
This will work, trust me. We’ll get our interview, get rid of Madison, and keep what you and I have started building.
” I kissed her forehead, hoping I was right.
“Because I don’t want to lose you, Frosty. ”
“You won’t as long as you’re honest with me. Now go on. I have work to do.” She pecked my lips quickly and turned back to the shelves of food.
I could sense she only half froze me out, waiting to see if I’d let her down. But I wouldn’t now after everything we’d built in the middle of a storm. I wasn’t ready to lose her to a misunderstanding, or to my own mistakes. Now that I had her in my life, I intended to hold on tight.
After a long day, by the time I finally dragged myself back to my suite, I had to laugh at how toasty warm it was. The heating definitely worked. Mack had figured out earlier that I’d accidentally lowered the heat to the suites from my phone app on Christmas Eve. The generators were fine.
Meaning if I hadn’t been an idiot with technology, Lilah and I would’ve been sleeping in separate rooms all weekend. I would have missed out on melting her frosty ways.
Thinking of her, I needed to hear her voice. She’d texted me back once today, politely distant, which I took to mean ‘Give me space.’ I hated how we’d left things in the cooler, and especially hated the look in her eyes when Madison kissed me.
Common sense said to give Lilah the space she needed. I clicked her name anyway.
She answered on the third ring. “Hello?”
“Hey, Frosty. Are you back in your room?”
“Yes. Long day.” She sounded wrung out.
“Same here.” I sat on the edge of my bed, scrubbing a hand down my face. “I wanted to apologize again about the Madison situation.”
“You don’t have to.” She lied; I was sure of it.
“Yeah, I do,” I insisted. “That ambush in the lobby was on me. I should’ve remembered she was coming before she swanned in wearing a dead animal and kissing me like we were still a thing.”
An exhale came through the line that I interpreted as a laugh. “You attract chaos, Mr. Snowman.”
“I attract chefs who call me Mr. Snowman,” I corrected softly. “Which I like a hell of a lot more.”
She chuckled and then yawned in my ear.
“You sound as tired as I do. We’ve both been running nonstop. How about I fix that? My suite has a ridiculous soaking tub. I could run you a bath. Keep you company. Wash your hair. Maybe give you one of my world-famous massages.”
That earned a genuine laugh—warm enough to hit straight for my heart. “World-famous, huh?”
“Come over. No lodge talk. No Madison. Just you and me in a tub big enough for two.” The image nearly killed me of Lilah, relaxed and trusting, steam curling around her skin. Us. Together. Quiet times leading to more…
“I’ll take a rain check?” Regret softened her tone. “I’m stressed and missing a key ingredient for a dish I planned to unveil on opening day. The storm wrecked my delivery schedule.”
“What ingredient?” I asked immediately. “I can make some calls with my connections in New York.”
“I doubt they could get white truffles flown in from Italy in time for New Year’s Eve. I need them for the Snowfall Risotto I designed for the Quest by West signature dish. Comforting, luxurious—named for your mountain.”
“It sounds incredible. Do they have to be from Italy? Is there nothing you can substitute?”
“I can’t present a signature dish without the signature part.”
“Ah, foodie logic, got it,” I quipped.
The line fell quiet until a stifled yawn crackled through.
I sighed. “I’m collecting that rain check for a bath after this week is over.” There’d be no Lilah keeping my poor cock company tonight. Which was for the best because I needed a good night’s rest, too.
“Deal, Mr. Snowman.”
“Get some sleep, Frosty. Big day tomorrow with that interview with Madison.”
“Right. Goodnight, Holden.”
“Night, Lilah.”
We hung up. I lay there staring up at the shadows across the ceiling. I tossed and turned most of the night like a man who’d gotten far too used to her beside him scrunched on a leather couch together.
She was only supposed to be a Christmas fling. Someone to pass the storm with. But between cookies, chaos, the sexy moments in the library, and the way she fit against me like she belonged there, Lilah had become something else entirely. Something I wasn’t ready to lose.