Chapter 2
Chapter 2
Kaylie was at one of her favorite wine bars with Rachel, The Wine Vine. But she wasn’t exactly following the mantra written on a sign that said Only Wine No Whining Allowed.
“I still can’t believe it,” Kaylie said, depressed. “A few hours ago, I was celebrating an upcoming promotion, and now I’m unemployed and have no idea what I’m going to do about my career or how I’m going to pay my bills.” Kaylie frowned when she picked up her wine glass and it was empty.
Rachel quickly motioned for the bartender to pour them another round.
Usually, this was Kaylie’s favorite place for happy hour. It was cute and cozy and right around the corner from the TV station. She didn’t even mind how the bar always went all out to decorate for Christmas. There was upbeat Christmas music playing, a giant Christmas tree in the window that had ornaments made out of wine labels, and glittering white and silver snowflakes hanging from the ceiling. The vibe was festive and fun, but right now Kaylie wasn’t feeling any of it.
She took a deep breath and tried to steady her raw nerves. “Rachel, I don’t know what I’m going to do. I’m freaking out. I had a plan and now everything I planned is gone…”
“Okay, you just need to breathe,” Rachel said. “We’re going to figure this out.”
Kaylie nodded and tried to put on a brave face, but she still felt like she was drowning.
Rachel reached out and gave her hand a reassuring squeeze. “You’re sure there’s no way there’s any job for you at the station? Can’t they keep you on as a general assignment reporter, or a writer, something, anything?”
Kaylie shook her head. “Bob says they’re cutting everything. You’re lucky you still have your job.”
Rachel nodded and looked grateful. “Oh, I know. Thankfully, they always need photographers. I still can’t believe how many people got laid off today.”
“And a lot of them are here,” Kaylie said, looking around the bar. When Kaylie saw a few people from the TV station that still had their jobs, they gave her a look of sympathy. But it only made her feel worse. She didn’t want to be pitied. What she wanted and desperately needed was her job back.
Rachel tried again to wave the bartender over, but he was the only person behind the bar and he was hustling, pouring drinks as fast as he could for the growing crowd.
But when Kaylie held up her empty glass, the bartender hurried right over.
“Seriously?” Rachel muttered. “He must be a fan.” But Rachel’s frown turned into a bright smile when the bartender got closer. He was hot.
“Sorry to keep you waiting.” He gave Kaylie a sexy smile and filled her wine glass to the very top. “It’s on the house, and my name’s Rick if there’s anything else I can do for you…”
Rachel held up her empty glass, but Rick only had eyes for Kaylie.
Kaylie was clueless. She was going through emails on her phone.
Rachel cleared her throat. “Excuse me? May I also get a refill, please?”
“Of course, sorry,” Rick said. He was still looking at Kaylie as he poured Rachel’s wine. “I’m here if you need me for anything else.”
“Uh, huh,” Kaylie said. “Thanks.” She never looked up from her phone.
As soon as he walked off, Rachel snatched Kaylie’s phone from her.
“Hey!” Kaylie exclaimed, trying to get her phone back. “What are you doing?”
Rachel laughed. “What are you doing? The bartender, Rick, was totally hitting on you.”
“What? No…” Kaylie shook her head.
“Uh, yes,” Rachel countered. “Wow, you’re even more far gone than I thought. I swear, the most eligible bachelor in the world could walk in here, and all you’d be checking out is his watch to see if it’s counterfeit in case there was a story there.”
Kaylie started looking around the bar at all the guys. “You know, that’s not a bad idea. I bet you a lot of the watches here are fake. There’s a new scam going on around Times Square and…”
“Stop.” Rachel laughed. “Enough about work. You know what you need? A little work-life balance, because if you had a life, you would have noticed that the bartender was hot.”
“I’ve been doing just fine,” Kaylie said. “I’ve been concentrating on what’s important. You have to go after your dreams if you want to make them come true. So, yes, I work a lot, but that’s how I’m going to get where I need to be.”
Rachel sat back. “Really? And how’s that working for you right now?”
Kaylie, not amused, crossed her arms in front of her chest and stared back at Rachel.
Rachel leaned in. “Too soon? Sorry.”
“Way too soon,” Kaylie said. “Look, if you want to worry about me, worry about helping me find a job. That’s what I really need right now.”
Rachel was still eyeing the sexy bartender. “That’s not all you need.”
Kaylie picked up a menu, glanced at it, and quickly put it back down. She then grabbed one of the candy canes out of a glass mason jar on the bar. She peeled the wrapper off and took a big bite and then another. She was stress eating and didn’t care.
“Seriously,” she said. “I was planning to start having more balance in my life, or whatever you want to call it, after I got this promotion,” Kaylie took another bite of her candy cane that was already half gone. “I just needed to focus on one thing at a time. That’s the only way I can get things done. Work has to come first then everything else will follow. I learned that when I graduated college.”
“What do you mean?” Rachel asked.
“I had this college boyfriend, Steve, we were great together.”
“And?” Rachel asked.
“We graduated and both got jobs in different states,” Kaylie said. “We tried to make the long-distance thing work, but it was hard with our schedules. Finally, we had to pick our careers or each other.”
“And you picked work,” Rachel said.
Kaylie nodded. “And it was the right choice.”
“No regrets?”
“Never,” Kaylie said. “I always think we’re exactly where we’re meant to be. He went on and got married and has two kids. He’s happy.”
“And you?” Rachel asked. “Are you happy?”
Kaylie sighed. “I was, until I got laid off a few hours ago.”
“A job is a job,” Rachel said. “It can’t keep you warm at night, or go to dinner and movies with you, or…”
Kaylie held up her hand. “Stop. I get it. I hear you, but I think everyone is different and needs different things. What I need to make me happy is work, so right now I just feel…lost. I just have to regroup and figure out what to do.”
Rachel moved Kaylie’s wine glass closer to her. “No, what you need to do right now is try and relax. Give yourself a minute to catch up with what’s happened. It’s a lot, and I’m here if you need me.”
Kaylie picked up her glass and held it out to Rachel. “To good friends. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
Rachel clinked her glass to Kaylie’s. “Good thing you’ll never have to find out. Cheers.”
Just as Kaylie was about to drink, an alert went off on her phone. When she glanced at her phone and saw it was Bob, she checked it quickly. Her eyes grew huge.
“No way.” Her eyes lit up with hope.
“What?” Rachel asked, trying to read Kaylie’s text.
“Bob says he might have a job for me!”
“That’s amazing. Already?” Rachel said. “I knew he’d come through for you.”
“Oh…” Kaylie’s voice trailed off, and she frowned as she read the rest of the text.
“What?” Rachel asked.
Kaylie put down her phone. “The job’s not at the TV station. It’s for a friend of Bob’s who owns an online magazine. It’s just a quick freelance assignment, a puff piece feature to interview some family about their Christmas traditions.”
“Oh…” Rachel tried to hold back a laugh but couldn’t. “Your favorite kind of story. A feature story and a Christmas story. You hit the jackpot.”
“Right?” Kaylie sighed. “I haven’t done a feature since college, and even then I was never very good at them, and Christmas, really? A story about Christmas traditions, what was Bob thinking?”
“Uh, maybe that you need a job and it’s a week before Christmas, so most people probably aren’t hiring until the New Year—that’s what he was thinking,” Rachel said.
“You’re right,” Kaylie said. “What am I saying? I should be thankful for any job right now. I just don’t want to take a job I can’t do and let his friend down.”
Rachel laughed. “You have taken down some of the top criminals in New York City I’m sure you can write a Christmas feature story. Have a little faith, my friend, and remember, if all else fails, ’tis the season.”
“For what?” Kaylie asked, confused.
“For Christmas miracles, of course,” Rachel said, like it should have been obvious. “You just have to believe.”
Kaylie laughed. “Oh, wow, did you just get all that from some holiday fortune cookie?”
“No,” Rachel said, completely serious. “Those are words I live by, so you’re welcome.”
Kaylie laughed louder. If there was one thing she could always count on, it was Rachel making her laugh. She picked up her phone and texted back Bob to tell her more.
His text back to her was almost instant.
“Bob says it will just take a few days to do the story, but I need to stay over Christmas.”
Rachel frowned. “That’s a bummer.”
“No,” Kaylie said, reading more of the text. “No, it’s actually a good thing. They’ll pay me double time because I would be working the holiday and…” Her eyebrows rose with interest. “The story’s in Eastern Europe. I’d have to leave tomorrow.”
“That’s pretty last minute,” Rachel said. “But Europe’s cool. Think of the frequent flyer miles. You’re always saying you want to travel more.”
“All I’m thinking about is the overtime,” Kaylie said.
Another text came in from Bob that asked: Are you in?
Kaylie looked at Rachel.
Rachel nodded, looking excited. “Go for it.”
Kaylie took a deep breath and texted back: I’m in. She picked up her wine glass and waved at the bartender. “Hey, Rick, we’re going to need another drink.”
Less than twenty-four hours, and two plane rides later, Kaylie found herself jetlagged and blurry-eyed in Eastern Europe, stepping off a private jet that had just landed on a tiny airstrip somewhere in the middle of a snowy mountain range.
It was early in the morning, and a stretch of thick, dark clouds was blocking the sunrise.
Kaylie shivered as a blast of icy wind hit her full force and gratefully took the hand of the pilot who was waiting at the bottom of the stairs to help her.
“Thank you,” she said as she wrapped her black scarf even tighter around her.
“You’re welcome,” he said. “And please be careful. It’s a little icy out here, so watch your step.”
Just as he said these words, her black leather riding boots slid on the slick tarmac. He grabbed her arm just in time to keep her from falling.
She laughed. “And thank you again. If I’d known I would be up in the mountains, I would have worn some different boots.”
She’d been surprised that after her first commercial flight landed in London, she was picked up and transferred to a private jet airport just outside the city. She was even more surprised when she’d found out she would be taking a private jet for the rest of her journey and that she would be the only passenger. It only added to the mystery that had started right after she’d accepted the story assignment from Bob.
When she’d started asking him about the family she’d be interviewing and for more details about where she was going in Eastern Europe, Bob had barely given her anything. He’d said the family she was featuring had asked she only be told all the details once she arrived to protect everyone’s privacy. Kaylie had heard about things like this before from other reporters who had interviewed celebrities, prominent CEOs, and politicians, so it had her imagination working overtime trying to guess who this family was.
When Kaylie had gotten on her second flight, the private jet, she’d tried to get some more information. She’d asked the pilot where they were going, how long it would take, and if he knew the family she’d be doing a story on.
But the pilot had merely given her a discreet smile and told her that they would be arriving at their destination soon and that she should just relax and enjoy the flight.
Since relaxing wasn’t something she embraced, Kaylie had turned her attention to the friendly flight attendant to try once again to get some answers. Unfortunately, the chatty flight attendant had clammed up as soon as Kaylie started asking questions about who owned the jet and where they were going.
Never one to give up easily, she had continued to ask vague questions during the flight, but so far, she was still as much in the dark as she’d been when she left New York.
All the secrecy had Kaylie’s investigative senses firing on all cylinders. In her experience, secrets usually meant someone was trying to hide something. Maybe, she thought, her fluff piece would turn out to be more interesting after all. A girl could dream.
She stood on the tarmac gazing up into the sky, blinking away the snowflakes that fell on her lashes and were covering her black wool coat.
The pilot followed her gaze. “It looks like we made it just in time,” he said. “A storm front is on the radar and it looks like it’s going to roll in here tonight. That could shut the airport down for days.”
“Airport?” Kaylie looked around, confused. All she saw was one small hangar and a quaint brick building that was decorated with red and gold Christmas lights. “What kind of airport is this?”
“A private one,” the pilot answered, making her even more curious.
When another blast of wind swirled around her, she rubbed her arms to stay warm.
The pilot motioned to the brick building. “You go ahead and get out of this cold. Your car should be waiting for you out front. I’ll have someone bring your luggage.”
Kaylie’s teeth were starting to chatter. “Thank you so much.” She moved as fast as she could, being careful not to slip, toward the building. She was about to go inside when she saw a black town car pull up.
“Thank goodness,” she said, shivering. She was starting to go numb. When the car stopped, she eagerly ran up to it. She grabbed the back door just as another gust of wind blew her scarf into her face and blinded her. She practically fell into the car, landing right on the lap of a very surprised man.
“What the…” the man exclaimed, grabbing her hips.
“Oh my God!” Kaylie, horrified, locked eyes with the man. For a moment, she forgot she was sprawled across some stranger’s lap, because he was one of the most handsome men she’d ever seen. His eyes were green with gold flecks. He had thick, black, wavy hair and a chiseled jaw that had just enough stubble to look sexy. She was staring at his full lips when someone grabbed her arm and pulled her out of the car.
“What are you doing?!” a large, stern man in a long black coat demanded.
“I’m so sorry,” Kaylie said, still dazed. “I thought this was my car. I couldn’t see because of the snow and the…”
The man quickly shut the door so the handsome stranger disappeared.
Kaylie tapped on the black-tinted window, trying to see the passenger again. “I’m really sorry…”
But it was too late. The man who had yanked her out of the car was already back in the driver’s seat, and the car sped off.
Kaylie, still shaken, watched it go.
“Miss Karlyle?”
Kaylie spun around and found another formidable-looking man staring at her. He was holding her luggage.
“I’m your driver, Thomas, if you’re ready to go.”
“Did you just see that?” Kaylie asked, embarrassed. “I thought that was my car. They probably think I’m some kind of crazy person.”
“Right this way, please,” was all Thomas said as he walked toward the other side of the building where Kaylie saw another black town car waiting.
As Kaylie hurried to keep up with him, her boots kept slipping and sliding. As she fought not to fall, she was suddenly hit with a rush of nerves.
What have I gotten myself into?she wondered. She was in the middle of nowhere, freezing, and she had no idea where she was or where she was going. She was usually up for any adventure, but at this moment, she was cold, tired, hungry and had already humiliated herself once.
This was not the start she was hoping for.
When she caught up with Thomas, he was already holding the passenger door open for her. She cautiously peered inside but didn’t move.
“Is everything okay?” Thomas asked.
Kaylie looked around inside the car. “Just making sure I don’t run into any more surprises.” Kaylie got into the car. “I hate surprises.”
After Thomas shut her door, Kaylie could have sworn she heard him laugh.