Tiptoe Around the Mistletoe: A Rogue Mountain Billionaire Second Chance Sweet Romance Christmas Novella Read online

  Tiptoe Around the Mistletoe

  A Rogue Mountain Billionaire Second Chance Sweet Romance Novella

  Kateri Collins

  Gripping Tales LLC

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  JOIN THE CIRCLE OF FRIENDS

  Chapter 1

  Wellyn Olivier used to love Christmas. She loved the cinnamon candles. She loved baking sugar cookies. She loved picking out the Christmas tree with her parents at the Brosnan’s Tree Farm, and she really loved flirting with Noah Brosnan. Every year mid-December, her family would pile up in the beat-up pickup and head out to the tree farm, and every year, she’d smile at Noah Brosnan and his older brother, Ciernan, and hope that maybe one of them would smile back. Ciernan was the more serious one and always looked away when Wellyn walked up the path pulling the overloaded tree cart with her parents. It was Noah who always ran over and helped with the cart.

  As the years passed, Noah and Wellyn were eventually able to pull the overloaded tree cart by themselves, and later it was Noah who insisted on pulling it by himself for Wellyn. Around that same year, they exchanged email addresses. For Wellyn and Noah, it was love at first email. As their technology updated, they began text messaging, then video-chatting, then they arranged their first real date. Their parents agreed to meet halfway and pass the time with coffee while Wellyn and Noah went to their first movie together.

  The over-crowded movie theater probably wasn’t the best place for a first date. All they wanted to do was talk and shyly look at each other without their parents or Noah’s brother watching, so they sat in the theater’s lighted hallway and shared their hopes and dreams with one another.

  Meanwhile, Wellyn’s and Noah’s parents became fast friends. The Olivier’s annual Christmas tree shopping trip soon began at first light and lasted well into the evening eventually turning into a weekend adventure with her parents helping the Brosnans with the tree farm and holiday shop. Wellyn started working in the shop when she turned fourteen. With Ciernan away at school, his empty room became her home away from home, and her parents slept in the neighboring guest room. A year later, they moved to Vernal Woods full time.

  Mrs. Brosnan always baked homemade sugar cookies with candy canes and red-hot cinnamon candies. It was her signature Brosnan Farm item. That and the mistletoe, which they grew in a greenhouse far away from the Christmas trees. She hung it from every rafter and door frame. It was under the mistletoe hanging in the big barn that Wellyn and Noah shared their first kiss. It was all very innocent and romantic, a true happily ever after in the making, and that’s what made Noah’s death at twenty-four all the more tragic.

  And now, a year later, Wellyn hated anything to do with Christmas, especially the mistletoe, but in a small town like Vernal Woods, Christmas is everywhere, and there’s no escape.

  Ciernan Brosnan never enjoyed working at his parent’s tree farm. Well, he did, but he didn’t like when the weekend tourists ventured out of their metropolitan lives, came out for the country experience of cutting their own tree, and proceeded to act like he was a country hick without an education or a mind of his own. That really burned him. Especially when his parents played the part of the happy country family even with several degrees between them. Growing healthy Christmas trees required an extensive knowledge of forestry, tree management, and invasive species which is why he never understood why his parents insisted on growing and selling mistletoe even though the pervasive vine could destroy the carefully monitored balance of the tree farm. Unfortunately, his parents were romantics, and Christmas was their favorite holiday. At least they grew it in a greenhouse away from the tree crops.

  His little brother never seemed bothered by the tree buyers patting his head and calling him a good, solid country boy. Ciernan used to wonder if Noah would one day sprout a tail, so he could wag it for the guests, especially when that girl with the dark skin and light eyes came to the farm. Noah would count down the days for her arrival at the start of every Christmas tree buying season. Ciernan never understood his brother’s fascination with her. She was just a girl who couldn’t even pull her own tree cart when she was old enough. Noah always had to help her.

  He did appreciate that her family never treated him like a redneck. They smiled at him and asked how his year went and what colleges he was considering. All the while Noah would stare at the daughter, and the daughter would stare at Noah, and they acted as if the rest of the world didn’t exist. Ciernan couldn’t get his high school diploma fast enough and wash the sap off his hands. He did miss the smell of pine trees though. The concolors were his favorite. He used to rub the needles with his hand whenever he walked by and smell them. They reminded him of oranges. That’s probably what he missed the most about the farm. That and his brother who was killed while on active duty in Afghanistan last January. This December marked the first Christmas tree season Noah wouldn’t be there to help his parents tie trees to the top of the cars for the customers or kiss his fiancé’, Wellyn, the girl he used to count down the days until her next visit, under the mistletoe.

  “Flight to Denver boarding now. Priority seating please come up to the gate,” the airline worker said over the loud speaker.

  “That’s me,” Ciernan said to boarding attendant.

  “Weekend getaway to the mountains for business or pleasure?” She asked smiling at him.

  He was used to that question. His blue eyes, dark hair, and expensive business suits garnered attention from most females, especially when they noticed he wasn’t wearing a ring. Frankly, he was surprised though. Today he opted for the casual look, slacks and a button down. No tie, which felt strange but freeing. Noah always joked ties felt like a noose around his neck. Maybe his brother knew what he was talking about. Ciernan didn’t plan to give away his business wardrobe anytime soon, but his future bosses adopted a much more business casual approach. Actually, business casual was a step up from most of the employees’ dress. Flannels and corduroys were more like it, but that hit a little too close to home for his liking. He adopted formal business attire after college. He wanted to present the correct image at all times, and that’s why the attendant’s interest threw him a curve ball. He was still sitting in first class, so he supposed she figured he must be doing something right. The money he made from selling his own start-up would set a person up nicely for the rest of his life.

  “Both, but longer than a weekend. I’m spending the month helping my parents at their tree farm. I fly out Christmas eve.”

  “You’re not staying home for Christmas?”

  “Never been a fan of mistletoe.”

  “Oh,” she said, handing me my boarding pass. “Well, enjoy your stay.”

  “I’ll certainly try.”

  Chapter 2

  Wellyn stared out the window. The Vernal Woods town decorating committee, yes, the town was small enough to have a decorating committee, spent the day before Thanksgiving getting the town ready for Black Friday—the kickoff to the holiday spending season. Day-trippers would spend the day or the weekend in Vernal Woods. They’d hit the sales in town, they’d “oh” and “aw
” over the local artisan made goods, and then they’d go out to Brosnan’s Tree Farm sometime over the weekend to cut their own Christmas tree before driving back to the city. It was the same every year. She used to love the holiday season, but without Noah, she wished she could fast forward through December and skip right to January. Well, not January, that’s when she received the news about her fiancé’s death. Skip right through to April and be done with the entire winter season.

  She thought about moving South or West, far West like California, but she’d miss her parents too much and the town. Sure, Vernal Woods was like other small towns with their run of gossip and rumors, but it was home, and the people were there for her when she needed them the most.

  “Miss, can you ring this up for me?”

  “Sure,” she said looking up to smile at her customer.

  The middle-aged woman gasped. “You have the loveliest eyes.”

  Wellyn got that reaction a lot. Noah called them aquamarine, and she guessed that’s probably the closest shade to describe them. She knew with her skin tone her eyes were all the more striking. When she moved to Vernal Woods in high school, the kids assumed she had colored contacts, but Noah told everyone her eyes were as real as theirs were. She still couldn’t believe that her parents left their high-paying jobs in Denver to move to Vernal Woods in order to be closer to the Brosnans. Her mom loved working with Mrs. Brosnan at the farm’s holiday shop and shared in the baking of the beloved Christmas cookies. She also loved making wreaths out of the leftover greens. Her dad became something of a horticulturalist. He helped expand the tree farm into a year-round landscape business. Together, the families bought the corner store on Third and Pine when Noah and Wellyn were juniors in high school and “Brosnan & Oliviers” was the result. The shop was open year-round and sold local artisan goods, but they specialized in Christmas wares. Wellyn worked it for the holiday season while Mom worked with Mrs. Brosnan at farm, Dad ran back and forth between the shop and the farm, and Mr. Brosnan manned the Christmas tree stand.

  Without Noah, they were down not just in spirit because he was such a positive, good person but in physical labor. Surprisingly, Ciernan, the Brosnan’s older son, offered to come home to help for the month of December. She hadn’t seen him since the funeral, and before that, it hadn’t been since her first kiss with Noah under the mistletoe. He left after graduation, which was the year before Wellyn and her family moved to Vernal Woods, and he hadn’t been home since.

  It used to bother Noah that his brother didn’t care enough about the family to visit even during the holidays, but Wellyn heard he was the mastermind behind some big search engine startup, so she guessed he was busy. Still, it was weird that he was going to spend the month of December in Vernal Woods when he’d been away for so long.

  “Excuse miss, are you going to ring me up?” the woman asked.

  “I apologize. My mind is elsewhere today.”

  The woman nodded. “Well, with mistletoe hanging from every rafter in the store, I’d guess you have gentlemen callers stopping in hoping for a kiss under one.”

  Wellyn’s eyes watered as she glanced up at the ceiling. The woman was correct. Her parents and the Brosnans always got carried away with mistletoe at Christmas time, but she wouldn’t be meeting any gentlemen callers under one. She swore off men and mistletoe the day Noah died.

  Ciernan walked into the barn. The night before, his parents surprised him at the airport. He wanted to rent a car for his stay, but they insisted on picking him up. Black Friday wasn’t a busy day for Christmas tree purchases, and they wanted time with their son. They spent the evening talking around the fire about the sale of his business and his new job in January. They promised he’d be busy the length of his stay—which was good. It would keep his mind off his brother.

  “Would you mind dropping off a delivery of trees and wreaths to the shop?” His dad asked as he added a new roll of twine to the tree baler in preparation for the weekend tree rush.

  “Sure, where is it again?” Not that Vernal Woods was a large town, but still, he didn’t quite remember the name of the shop his parents had opened with the Oliviers, and he didn’t want to admit the oversight.

  His dad handed him the keys. “Third and Pine. The trailers full of trees, John loaded up the bed with the wreaths, but check with your mom to see if she wants to send in some cookies. Wellyn probably called in with an order for today. This weekend kicks off our season, and shoppers expect trees, wreaths, cookies, and mistletoe—a one stop holiday shop.”

  Wellyn. He hadn’t seen her since the funeral, and then, he barely talked to her. What could he say anyway? She was so wrapped up in her own grief that she couldn’t carry on a conversation with anyone. He didn’t blame her of course, but it would have been nice for her to extend him some sympathy to him. After all, Noah was his brother.

  They barely knew each other. Her family moved to Vernal Woods after he moved away. He had seen her during her family tree shopping excursions, but she only had eyes for Noah.

  “Hey Mom!” He called as he walked into the kitchen.

  “Hi Ciernan, she’s upstairs taking a quick shower before it gets busy. Is there something you need?”

  It was strange to see Mrs. Olivier in the kitchen opening drawers, putting things away, making herself at home, but again, he knew he’d been away a long time, and as his parent’s business partners it was her right to be there.

  “I’m taking a load into town. Dad said to check if there’s a cookie order that needs to go in.”

  She picked up a large box. “As a matter of fact, Welly sold a lot yesterday. We’ve been at it since 6 whipping up a new batch. There’s this box,” she said handing it to him, “and three more. We’ll bake more tonight or tomorrow morning if we need to.”

  He took the box from her and peeked in. It was loaded with sugar cookies decorated as snowman, elves, reindeer, and Santa Claus. “What happened to the no carb diet? What’s it now keto? Paleo?”

  She smiled at him. “Everyone wants cookies for the holidays! We all return to our nostalgic cookie eating, mistletoe kissing, Christmas tree decorating roots. It’s tradition.”

  “As is their diet to kick off the New Year, they’ll abandon on Day Three. Maybe if they didn’t indulge so much at Christmas, they wouldn’t have to lose so much then.”

  She shook her head and laughed at him. “You are a practical soul, aren’t you? Just as serious as I remember you to be. Sometimes you need to loosen up and take what life offers you. I think this month will be as helpful to you as it will be to your parents.”

  He remembered his mom mentioning that Mrs. Olivier or he should say Dr. Olivier ran her own practice in Denver. Still, he didn’t appreciate the fact that she suggested he was lacking something. He didn’t make the money he did because he was an idiot. “I’m only here because Noah isn’t.”

  Her eyes watered. Everyone loved his brother. He made people smile wherever he went. “Well, we appreciate you all the same, and I still think this month will be good for you. Who knows what joy you might find this holiday season?” She winked at me.

  Her optimism was in stark contrast to the cynicism he encountered with techies and corporate types. She’d never last in the world outside of Vernal Woods. As for the joy she suggested he might find, he knew that would come the moment he stepped on the plane and left the tarmac in Denver.

  Chapter 3

  Wellyn was thankful for coffee. Well, double shots of espresso in her coffee. She figured the combination was the only way she was going to get through this holiday season. She knew December would be a difficult month for her, but she didn’t realize how difficult. Even in a crowded room of family and friends, Thanksgiving Dinner felt empty. She should have been thankful for the blessings of the full table, but without Noah, a sadness filled her. Thank goodness for tryptophan and red wine. She passed out somewhere around midnight and didn’t wake up until five am—a full five hours of sleep. It was a record this past year. Unfortunately,
Black Friday wasn’t as busy as she’d hoped, and she didn’t want to drink every night in order to fall asleep, so she didn’t sleep at all. Thus, the reason for the coffee with espresso.

  She always got to the shop before eight even though she didn’t open until ten. She liked the quiet time in the mornings when the rest of the town was still sleeping. She’d move shelves and dressers, fill candy jars, and put the cookies in the display case. Unfortunately, the next batch of cookies hadn’t been delivered yet. She wondered what was taking her dad so long. He was usually there by eight, because he knew she liked to decorate. It also took a while to unload the trees and set up the wreaths, and she liked to have the shop ready for the holiday season well in advance of opening. Actually, she liked to surprise her customers by opening a half hour early. They’d grown to expect it over the years, and she knew she’d have half a dozen shoppers bright and early ready to shop.

  All her redecorating was done except for the empty cookie display shelves and the nearly empty wreath and Christmas tree racks. Where was her dad?

  Ciernan drove through the quiet little town and forgot all about the fifteen miles per hour speed limit. However, Officer Becker made sure the Ciernan knew where the speed limits were posted and exactly when he needed to follow them.

  “We’re not in your big city where everyone drives around like idiots and hits pedestrians every day,” Officer Becker said.

  Ciernan couldn’t remember the last time a pedestrian was hit in Silicon Valley. Most employees rode their bikes to work or took public transportation, but he didn’t argue with Becker, who in high school was nicknamed Peckerhead for a reason. Now Officer Peckerhead had the ability to seize the vehicle and throw Ciernan away for the rest of his natural life or at least until his big fancy lawyer could come in and save his lying ass—Becker’s words not Ciernan’s.