The Albright Hotel (A Frosty Season #4)

Chapter 25

Chapter Twenty-Five

R obby couldn’t believe his eyes. There she was—the love of his life—standing in his bedroom, wearing a big T-shirt and getting ready to sleep beside him for the first time in nearly three months. Her hair hung in curls down her shoulders, and her eyes were sleepy and glinting with the light from the moon outside the window. He turned off the overhead lamp with regret. But he could still smell her lavender soap and her perfume. His throat nearly closed.

“Merry Christmas,” he breathed as they got into bed together and cuddled tight. It was one thirty in the morning, and he knew his grandchildren would be there soon, jumping on his stomach, demanding his attention.

“Merry Christmas, my love,” Olivia breathed as she drifted off.

It was like she didn’t even know she was saying it. That made it so much better because it was her instinct to say it.

Robby didn’t fall asleep right away. His adrenaline still pulsed from that evening. It was hard to believe the cops had come and arrested Phoebe’s fiancé. Harder still to believe Olivia had nearly dated a con artist and sociopath.

We can’t always protect the ones we love.

We can only try.

Robby held her hand while they slept. Sometimes, he woke up and turned over, prepared to find an empty half of the bed. But there she was. She wasn’t a mirage. She was real.

He wouldn’t ask her not to leave him. Nobody could ever promise that.

But he firmly believed they wouldn’t leave each other again. They’d learned their lesson.

Just as Robby suspected, his door screamed open and brought in his grandchildren at five minutes past six. They jumped on the bed and yelped in his ear and cried, “Santa was here! Santa came!” Robby tore out of bed and hurried them away so that Olivia could put herself together. But adorably, Olivia barely did much of anything to prepare to see his family. She didn’t put on makeup; she didn’t put on anything nice—just a pair of sweats and a big sweater from his closet. It was like she was already comfortable around them. She smiled happily at Stan and Adam and shook their hands.

“I’ve heard so much about you,” she said. “I’m Olivia.”

Adam, Stan, Imogen, and Bee were mystified. They blinked at one another over cups of coffee as the children hurried to the tree. Robby knew they would demand answers soon enough, but he wanted to enjoy the morning. So he took his coffee into the living room, sat with his grandchildren, and watched them open present after present. Olivia sat near him, laughing happily at each child’s ripping techniques. By the end of the twenty-five-minute span, wrapping paper had been strewn every which way, and two kids had already started crying. But everyone else was in good spirits.

Robby went to the kitchen to brew another batch of coffee. That was when Stan and Adam decided to surround him.

“Where did you go last night?” Stan muttered.

“Yeah, Dad. What is going on?” Adam asked.

In the next room, Olivia asked Imogen and Bee questions about where they lived, their children, and childcare options in their city. Imogen and Bee sounded tentative, as though they didn’t want to trust her. But Olivia sounded so warm and inviting that they couldn’t possibly ignore her.

“It’s a long story,” Robby said.

“We have all day,” Adam reminded him.

“Start talking!” Stan said. He took a Christmas cookie and ate it nervously.

At this moment, Robby thought Stan looked a lot like Addison’s brother Ralph. He’d always liked Ralph. He wondered what had happened to him.

Another Christmas ghost, he thought. But he was done being haunted.

Stan’s phone buzzed, and he pulled it out of his pocket. His eyes widened. “It’s a news alert,” he explained, flashing the screen to Adam. “There was an arrest at the Albright Hotel last night?”

Robby winced. “I told you. Long story.”

Adam took a breath.

“We got conned,” Robby said simply. “It’s part of the reason we broke up.”

“Part of?” Stan asked.

Robby thought about this for a moment.

He knew they’d broken up partly because of themselves, too. Because of their inability to communicate. Because of how frightened they were to love and be loved.

Not anymore.

“Like I said,” Robby said. “It’s a long story.”

Stan started to read, “Last night, a man named Christopher Valentine was arrested for suspected fraud at the Albright Hotel. His co-conspirator, Walter Randall, was arrested down the road in a rented cottage. The two are suspected of having paired up to swindle the newly opened Albright Hotel via relationships they formed with members of the Albright family. This story is ongoing.”

“What a scandal,” Adam said under his breath.

Robby knew he’d impressed his sons with this story. They were always talking about how “sleepy” Hollygrove was. Maybe now they’d decide to move back. There was drama here!

Robby went to the living room and pressed a mug of coffee into Olivia’s hands. She smiled up at him. “I love your family,” she said.

“And I love you,” he returned.

Olivia’s eyes welled with tears. “I love you, too.”

“I know,” Robby said, then winked.

“Okay, Indiana Jones,” Olivia said, smiling wide at the reference.

It was part of the reason Robby loved her so much. She got his jokes. She got him.

Olivia was embarrassed that she didn’t have gifts for anyone. But as Stan, Adam, Imogen, and Bee warmed up to her, they assured her that the gift of her company was more than enough.

“You must come out to the Albright Hotel before you go home,” Olivia told them. “There’s plenty of room to run around for the kids, and we have carriage rides and hot cocoa and plenty of wine to go around.” She winced. “Although we’ll probably be short on pastries. We just lost our chef.”

“Right! That’s how he got in!” Stan snapped his fingers. He’d already read three more articles about the arrest at the Albright Hotel and considered himself an expert.

“I’ve never heard of a con artist being so good at pastry making before,” Imogen said thoughtfully.

“I think he genuinely enjoyed it,” Olivia said after a pause. “It’s a shame he decided to go all in on crime. He could have really made something of himself.”

Something flickered across Olivia’s face. Robby wondered if Vinny-or-Harry had told her something about his past; something that offered a window into what he really thought behind the facade of what he’d built.

But a con artist was a liar , he reminded himself. There was no way to know these men. Not really.

Robby drove Olivia back to the Albright Hotel by nine o’clock, true to his word. In the parking lot outside, they kissed like teenagers, as though they couldn’t spend more than an hour apart. Even during the early days of their romance, Robby had never felt like this.

“Come back tonight,” she begged. “We’ll have a nightcap by the fire.”

“After everyone goes to bed,” Robby promised.

Olivia nodded. “I know. You need to enjoy your family time while they’re here.”

“I think they like you,” Robby said.

“They think I’m a con artist,” Olivia teased.

“Maybe. But everyone likes a con artist,” Robby said.

Olivia raised her shoulders. “Actually, I sort of broke things off with Harry. Even before I knew who he was. I decided I genuinely did not like him. Isn’t that funny?”

Robby’s head rang. “Did you really?”

“Well, I texted him before the church service to say I couldn’t see him anymore. Not like that,” she said. “He never wrote me back. And now, I guess, he’s in jail. So I doubt I’ll be getting any mean messages any time soon.”

Robby chortled. “That’s a bad day. He got dumped, then arrested.”

“I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy,” Olivia agreed.

Robby walked Olivia to the front door of the Albright Hotel. He wanted to see the way the foyer looked in the bright light of Christmas morning. He’d worked so hard on it all year long. He wanted to see every pristine detail. His heart sang.

A Christmas breakfast was already in full swing. Robby wondered what sorts of people wanted to spend Christmas at the Albright Hotel. He decided they were people who’d lost family or hadn’t many friends. They were people who needed communion and conversation; people who didn’t know how to find that in their ordinary lives.

The Albright Hotel brought the magic their everyday lives were missing.

“This hotel is the best thing I’ve ever done,” Robby said softly as they stood in the foyer, listening to Christmas music and the hum of conversation.

“It’s the best thing I’ve ever done, too,” Olivia said. “Besides make you fall in love with me.”

Robby chuckled and kissed her again. “Merry Christmas.”

“The merriest.”