Worth the Fall (Sugar Mountain #1)

SUGAR MOUNTAIN SNOW

brOOKLYN

I t was officially December, and just like I’d predicted at Thanksgiving, the first snow had fallen in Sugar Mountain, coating everything in a sea of white. I wasn’t sure what it was about this time of year, but things always felt a little more magical. Promise, hope, and generosity filled the air. I loved it.

Working at the resort brought it to another level entirely. I couldn’t wait to show Clara the brand-new Christmas decorations that had just gone up. I almost cried when I saw them this morning—they were that pretty.

Mrs. Green had a doctor’s appointment today, so I knew that Clara would be coming here after school. Even though I saw her every night, I still loved seeing her during the day. It was like a special treat that didn’t happen often enough. If I had my way, she’d come here every afternoon and hang out, but then I’d never get anything done. At least not in a timely manner. She was a lot of fun, but she was very distracting.

The sound of little feet running down the hall had me grinning from behind my desk.

Speak of the little devil , I thought to myself.

“Hi!” Clara said as she hauled her tiny self into my office and didn’t stop until she reached my chair.

“Hey, you! I’ve been waiting for you to get here,” I said as I hugged her as tight as I could through all her puffy layers.

“You have?” she asked.

“Of course! How was your day today?” I wondered, knowing that the kids weren’t always nice to her when she wore two different shoes. And this morning, she’d insisted on two different-colored boots.

“It was okay. Scott started to make fun of my boots, but then he stopped and said they looked cool,” she said, and I refused to hide my shock.

“He said they looked cool? Wow. That’s an improvement. Maybe Scott is growing up?” I asked as Thomas suddenly appeared in the doorway. I wondered how long he’d been standing outside, eavesdropping.

“Did you hear that, Daddy?” Clara swung around to face him as she started to take off her gloves, followed by her hat and then her jacket.

“So, he was nice to you today?” Thomas asked as he made his way over to where I still sat and gave me a kiss. “Hey, baby.”

“Hey.”

Clara shrugged at us both. “I guess. He wasn’t mean.”

Her winter clothes were in a pile on the floor, and she bent down to scoop them all up in her little arms. I watched as she put them on top of the tiny couch, taking up as little space as possible.

“I’m going to show Clara the new decorations,” I said with a giant grin.

Thomas knew how much I looked forward to the themes here at the resort, and he’d refused to tell me anything about the winter one, even though he knew exactly what it would entail. I’d tried to bribe him with sexual favors, but he’d only laughed and told me that patience was a virtue and other stupid crap like that. Patience was a pain in my ass.

“The Christmas ones?” Clara asked, her eyes wide with excitement.

She and I had talked about them the other night, and she’d spent almost an hour telling me all her favorites from the past few years. As much as she remembered anyway.

“Yes! They’re so pretty. You’re going to love them.”

“Can you come too, Daddy?”

Thomas glanced at the watch on his wrist. “I have a call. You go see them with Brooklyn, and then we can all look at them again later, okay?”

“Okay,” she said, sounding completely unbothered.

“I can’t believe you kept this design from me.” I tried to sound annoyed at Thomas, but I truly didn’t care anymore now that they were up for me to enjoy daily.

“I didn’t want to spoil it.” He gave me a wink. “I’ll see my two best girls later,” he said as he headed out.

“Ready, Waffles?” Clara asked, shortening my nickname the way she sometimes did, and I laughed out loud.

“Let me finish up this email, and we’ll go.”

She plopped up on my couch and crossed her little legs as she waited patiently. I guessed it was a virtue, and this kid had it in spades. My little show-off.

I finished a handful of work emails, synced my calendar, and made sure the team was up-to-date on bookings for the rest of the month. Everything in my department ran so smoothly; it truly was a dream. It was nice, having a staff that pulled their weight and enjoyed what they did. I knew how lucky I was.

“All done,” I said as I pushed back in my chair and stood upright as Clara jumped off the couch.

“I can’t wait. Are there candy canes?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Does Santa have a house?”

“Yep.”

“What about the elves? Are there elves?” she asked, and I decided that maybe Thomas was right. Some things should be a surprise.

“Just wait and see,” I said as we walked hand in hand toward the main lobby.

As soon as it came into view, Clara stopped walking, and I heard her gasp. I felt the exact same way, seeing it again. Oversize snowflakes of all colors hung from the ceiling at varying heights. Each one was lit up with what looked like a hundred colored lights.

In the middle of the room stood the biggest Christmas tree I’d ever seen, decorated to match. There were giant ball-like ornaments sitting in a sea of red poinsettias that lined a makeshift walkway, which was made out of gingerbread and peppermint-wrapped candies. They led the way to a neighborhood, where multiple gingerbreads houses stood clumped together, with names like Workshop, Feeding Station , and Toy Store , written on top in white cursive. Of course, it looked exactly like frosting.

The more we walked around, the more we saw. In another section sat a whole area for Santa Claus. The resort always brought in a Santa on the weekends to meet with the kids. It was another tradition that I’d grown up going to, and now, I was a part of it in a different way.

I smiled as I noticed the same massive red velvet chair, lined with gold, that always appeared year after year. A mock fireplace made out of candy canes with gumdrops placed next to the chair. And a nearby desk was covered in sugar cookies and a scroll of paper with a seemingly never-ending list of kids’ names. The whole thing was simply stunning. And made me feel like a kid all over again.

This year’s theme was nostalgia , and the team had definitely nailed it.

Clara tugged on my hand, her mouth hanging open at the sight. “It’s like magic,” she breathed out.

“I know. I think so too.”

“Is there more?” she asked, clearly feeling the same way that I did.

I shook my head and pulled her down a hallway. There was another tree, surrounded by oversize presents and stockings for giants that hung in the air. The bigger things were, the more miraculous they seemed to appear.

We kept going, following the candy canes that led the way. In the distance, I spotted a bright red mailbox that read Letters for Santa in white paint. On each side of the box stood a matching massive nutcracker standing guard. Behind them was another Christmas tree. With even more lights. And more massively sized decor.

It was never ending.

“This is the prettiest one.” Clara beamed.

“What part is your favorite?” I wondered.

“I think the gingerbread houses where the elves work. That was really neat.”

“I like that too,” I said right as my cell phone rang.

I glanced down at it, noticing that it was a call that I’d forwarded from my office line. “I need to get this real quick,” I said.

I watched as she wandered back toward the mailbox, opening the door and letting it close again. She did this a few times before she tried to poke her head inside. I bit back a laugh.

Without realizing it, I began to wander. I did that sometimes when I was focused on a call, and this person was asking a lot of questions. I walked in a circle before I headed down a hallway, my brain committed to the person on the other end of the line. Only once I ended the conversation did I realize that I wasn’t where I’d started out at.

I looked around and noticed that Clara hadn’t followed me and I’d walked pretty far away from where I’d left her. Hustling back to the nutcrackers, I ran to the mailbox, but Clara wasn’t there.

“Clara?” I shouted, but there was no response.

Before I allowed myself to panic, I noticed that the candy cane trail went in two directions—one led outside, and the other went back in the direction we’d come from. I ran toward the door and looked around for any tiny footsteps in the snow-covered walkway, but didn’t see any. Assuming that she wouldn’t go outside in the cold, I turned around and followed the trail back toward the front desk. But when I walked the entire length of the holiday decorations and still caught no sign of her, I had to admit that my heart started to race.

Clara knew the resort well, so I tried to convince myself that she had wandered back to Thomas’s or her Pops’s office. Or maybe she was sitting in mine, waiting for me to get back. I hustled that way first just to check.

“Clara?” I said as I poked my head into my office and noticed her pile of warm clothes still sitting on the couch.

But she wasn’t there. I sprinted to my desk and looked underneath it, but it was empty.

I ran into every restroom. I checked the gingerbread houses one more time to see if she was hiding inside one of them, but she wasn’t. Santa’s room was empty as well. She wasn’t under any of the oversize trees or hiding in the field of poinsettias.

When I spotted Mr. Gonzales at the concierge, I asked him if he’d seen Clara anywhere.

“No, Miss Brooklyn, haven’t seen her, but I’ll keep an eye out.”

“Mrs. G, have you seen Clara?” I shouted toward his wife, who was manning the front desk, as I tried to hide the panic building inside me.

“Not since she was with you,” she answered, and my chest filled with dread.

There was no sign of her.

Practically jogging into Mr. O’Grady’s office, I asked his assistant if she’d seen Clarabel anywhere, to which she responded with a resounding no.

And by the time I reached Thomas, I was out of breath and downright terrified.

“Thomas, is Clara in here?” I asked, my voice shaking.

“No. Why?”

“I can’t find her.”

“What do you mean, you can’t find her?” His eyebrows pulled together in a mixture of confusion and concern.

“She’s gone,” I said, not knowing what else to say.