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  Haley’s

  Hangdog Holiday

  by

  Tamie Dearen

  The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead is coincidental and not intended by the author. To the extent any real names of individuals, locations, businesses or organizations are included in the book, they are used fictitiously and not intended to be taken otherwise.

  Haley’s Hangdog Holiday

  by Tamie Dearen

  Copyright © 2016

  All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means now known or hereafter invented, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the author.

  Shara’s Happy New-foundland Year

  Holiday, Inc. Series

  Book 3

  Coming December 20

  Pre-Order Now – Only $2.99!

  FROM THE AUTHOR

  In an attempt to give my readers a richer reading experience, each book in the Holiday, Inc. Christian Romance Series includes an original song, performed and recorded for your listening pleasure. If you are unable to access the link to hear the song on your reading device, you can listen, at no cost, at TamieDearen.com, under the heading, Music. I hope you enjoy Haley’s Hangdog Holiday.

  Dedication

  To my daughters, Alyssa and Avery, who’ve taught me so much about God’s love.

  Acknowledgements

  I’d like to thank all my beta readers for your wonderful feedback. You’re amazing! Thank you: Bill Turley, S.R. Booth, Stephanie Adams, Lea Bowman, Joy Gibson, Holli Davila, M.L. Heron-Heidel, Nancy Kuykendall, Chris and Helen Danielson, Bree Watzak, Jennifer Novak, and Linda Berkline.

  Thanks to my husband, who is my first and best beta reader and biggest fan. Thank you to both my incredible editors for all your hard work. Thanks to my fans for encouraging me to keep writing when I was exhausted. Love you all!

  Chapter One

  No knock sounded on Gerard Holiday’s office door to announce the angry visitor. Instead, his son’s fury caught him off guard, bombarding him with accusatory questions for which he had no good answers at the moment.

  “Dad! What were you thinking? You can’t put Haley Martin on my team!”

  With his gaze on his computer screen, mostly to avoid meeting his son’s eyes, Gerard pretended preoccupation, hoping to postpone the inevitable confrontation. “Gavin, I’m in the middle of something. We’ll discuss this later.”

  “Later? I don’t want to discuss it later, Dad. This is not okay. You blindsided me! You waited until last night to tell me you hired her, yet you somehow forgot to tell me we’d be working together?”

  From the corner of his vision, he saw Gavin pacing, flinging his arms to emphasize each word.

  Yep, he’s pretty shaken up seeing Haley again. At least I was on target with that assumption.

  Gerard knew when he hired Haley Martin to work at Holiday, Inc., he was walking on unstable ground, but he’d hoped the earthquake might be postponed a few more hours, at least until he followed up on his latest lead. His good friend, an accounting professor at the University of Texas, remembered some vague remark Haley had made while she was a student, and Gerard hoped it might provide a clue to solve the mystery.

  “I don’t see what the problem is,” Gerard remarked. “I simply hired the best possible applicant. Your brother-in-law concurred. In fact, I was following his recommendation.”

  Haley’s excellent scholastic record made her a prime candidate for Holiday, Inc., an accounting firm that had expanded to offer custom operating software to businesses all over Colorado and, more recently, the entire country. Her history with his son, however, promised no small measure of complications.

  Gerard hoped his efforts wouldn’t backfire—that his gut instinct was correct about the chemistry between the two. It reminded him of his own volatile relationship with his late wife—absolute proof that fireworks could be beautiful.

  Two of his kids were happily married now, with very little meddling on his part, beyond a lot of prayers. But Gavin was a different story.

  Gerard saw so much of himself in his son—like being the baby of the family, extremely competitive where school and business were concerned, driving himself to perfection. Gavin also approached his relationships with women in a similar way, remaining slightly detached and aloof. But the tough exterior hid an inner vulnerability because, like his father, Gavin was a softie at heart.

  In high school, he’d been the guy all the girls called when they had a terrible breakup with their boyfriends, because he would listen to them talk and cry for hours, usually convincing the girl by the end of the conversation she deserved better. Having two sisters had evidently taught him how to be empathetic and understand how girls think, at least a little better than most guys.

  But though he seemed to have a lot of female friends, a number of which acted interested in being more than friends, he’d never dated much, perhaps because his first real girlfriend had broken his trusting heart. After that, he appeared to have erected some kind of emotional wall to keep himself from being hurt.

  Only one woman had penetrated that steely protective façade, drawing Gavin to open up, bringing out his true trusting and selfless nature. That woman was Haley Martin.

  Unfortunately, she was also the woman who tore his heart to shreds.

  “Like I said, Dad, you shouldn’t have hired her without consulting with me first. I think you owed me that much.”

  “Haley graduated summa cum laude and passed every part of her CPA exam the first time she took the test. She’s quite intelligent, and—”

  “I don’t care if she’s smarter than Einstein. We can’t work together. You know that.”

  Gerard continued to peruse the obituary he’d found. Hmmm... Haley and her brother Tad are listed as survivors, so this must be her family. But the timing is off. It happened last December, and Haley broke up with Gavin two years ago. There must be something else...

  From the corner of his eye, he saw Gavin shuffling sideways around the desk, craning his head in an obvious attempt to see the computer screen. Blacking out the monitor in the nick of time, Gerard leaned back in his chair and propped his legs on his desk.

  “Are you telling me just because you and Haley went out on a few dates several years ago, the two of you can’t operate on the same team?”

  “You know it was more than a couple of dates, Dad.” Gavin’s eyes squeezed shut, and his voice dropped. “We were serious for a while.”

  “Yes, but that was over for months before you started going out with Rachel. In fact, I remember you saying something about how God had worked everything out for the best. So why would working with Haley bother you now, after all this time?”

  Gavin’s jaw tightened. “It’s not just me. Haley looked furious when I saw her a few minutes ago.”

  With a nonchalant yawn, Gerard skirted around the truth. “Haley didn’t voice any objection about having you as a team leader.”

  Technically, it isn’t a lie. Of course, I haven’t actually spoken to her since she received notice of her assignment this morning.

  “She didn’t object?”

  “She hasn’t even mentioned it. Are you sure it was the team assignment that had her upset?”

  “It certainly seemed that way.”

  “Haley’s female.” Gerard gave an emphatic wink.

  “I’m aware of that,” said Gavin, full of his usual sarcasm.

  “You have two sisters—you know how moody girls can be. Haley could have been irritated about almost anything. Did she actually sa
y she didn’t want to work with you?”

  “No, but—”

  “Awesome! So it’s all settled, then.” Gerard rose and placed an arm on Gavin’s shoulder, ushering him out of the office. “Thanks so much for coming by. You and Haley Martin are both consummate professionals, so I know there won’t be any problems. Trust me, you’ll be glad to have her on your team.”

  Gerard shut the door before Gavin could object and sagged against the inside, blowing out a relieved breath through puffed cheeks. Glancing at his watch, he said a silent prayer that his next appointment wouldn’t come early. He obviously needed a bit more time to prepare.

  Back at his desk, he returned to his research. A Google search of “Haley Martin Houston” produced 1.5 million images, none of whom looked like this Haley. Maybe if he searched her name along with her parents’ names and a date range from August to September two years ago, he might find something of import.

  The office phone buzzed, and he pressed the button for his secretary.

  “Your ten o’clock appointment is here.”

  Five minutes early... so much for my prayer.

  With a heavy sigh, Gerard saved the newspaper article to a computer folder and surrendered to the inevitable. “Thanks, Erin. You can send her in.”

  The door opened, and the woman entered the room, each long stride pounding her high-heeled pumps on the wood floor with a resounding snap. Stopping before his desk, she propped her hands on her slim hips, spearing him with a glare from her livid blue eyes, surrounded by a wavy mass of red hair.

  “Mr. Holiday! When you hired me, you neglected to mention the leader of my assigned team would be your son!”

  Chapter Two

  December—two years earlier

  Haley Martin captured a quick selfie at the top of the Vail Ski Resort lift with the snow-covered Colorado mountain peaks behind her, glistening in the sunlight, and posted on Instagram.

  “Top of Eagle Bahn Gondola #ILoveSkiing!”

  Of course, I only have ten followers, but that’s fine with me. Wow, I really miss this!

  Growing up in Glenwood Springs, Colorado, Haley spent countless hours skiing and snowboarding, having acquired her first set of skis at the age of two. In high school, both she and her younger brother competed on the downhill team until her senior year when her parents moved to Houston. After four years of skiing only during Christmas and Spring Break, she’d lost some of her competitive edge, but she was determined to get it back today. On the first run, her legs had felt a little rusty, but by the third, she was back in the groove.

  She tucked her cell phone away and pointed her skis downhill, picking up speed as she darted toward the side of the groomed run to make tracks in the fresh powder near the trees. With an enthusiastic whoop, she fell into a comfortable rhythm, conscious only of the feel of the snow beneath her feet, the cold wind in her face, and the rush of adrenaline and endorphins flooding her body.

  She forgot everything else in the joy of the moment. She forgot about the self-imposed pressure, the competition for the top spot in her iMPA program at the University of Texas, a rigorous program to achieve both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in accounting in five years. She forgot about her grade in her Management/Audit Accounting class, in which she’d been confident to achieve the top rank, an honor that came with an automatic summer internship referral to one of the Big Four firms. She forgot her shock and fury to see another student’s name posted on the announcement board where hers should have been.

  Gavin Holiday. How had he done it? He couldn’t have worked any harder than she had—there were only so many hours in the day, and she spent 90 percent of them studying. Sleeping and eating were optional. A social life was out of the question. The closest she’d come to having a boyfriend was singing harmony with a guy on the praise team at her church. And that weekly praise team practice was her only escape from the stress and pressure of her educational endeavors. No one could possibly invest more time than she had.

  When Gavin’s name flashed on the screen, Haley blinked her eyes hard, certain something was wrong with her vision. But no matter how she squinted, the letters refused to change. Meanwhile, Gavin’s face broke out in the smile he stole right off her face. With an almost imperceptible nod in her direction, he lifted a single eyebrow, even while his friends were clapping him on the back and calling out congratulations.

  He knew! He knew she’d been counting on that rank, depending on that referral. He wore his smugness as a royal crown, preening like the Old Testament Joseph when he showed off his “coat of many colors.”

  Now I understand why Joseph’s brothers wanted to kill him.

  The blood pounded in her ears, and her eyes stung. She had to leave before she embarrassed herself by bursting into tears. Then Gavin had the gall to actually approach her with some conciliatory comment. Haley didn’t know exactly what he said, beyond, “I’m sorry...” because she turned on her heel and left while he was still speaking.

  Haley hated every fiber of Gavin Holiday, from his dark hair and penetrating brown eyes, to his dazzling white smile, to his chiseled I-know-I’m-God’s-gift-to-women body. Sure, he was ridiculously handsome and evidently sported some brains along with his muscles, but he was also arrogant and cocky. She hated him, but she couldn’t get him out of her mind.

  Why can’t I forget about Gavin Holiday and focus on my goals, on what I have to do to be number one next semester? I’m sure he hasn’t wasted a moment of thought on me.

  Her only salvation was her family’s customary Christmas trip back to Colorado. Every Christmas and Spring Break since she could remember, she and her parents and brother had always stayed with her grandmother Gammy in her country home in Morrison, just outside Denver, a tradition that continued after her family moved to Texas. Holidays spent at Gammy’s had healing powers for Haley—she had nothing but good memories there. So as the plane left the ground in Austin, she felt her worries dropping away, falling like debris to the tarmac.

  I resolutely refuse to think about anything having to do with school, especially Gavin Holiday. Christmas. Family. Skiing. Those are the only things I’ll allow in my mind until I go back to Texas.

  And so it was with pure pleasure Haley skied the ridge of untracked powder on the side, avoiding the hard-packed snow and ice in the middle of the groomed black diamond slope. Without a conscious thought, she responded to every nuance of the snow, shifting her skis in perfect control. It was like heaven.

  Yes! I’ve got my legs back! Just like riding a bike!

  Blessedly free from her angry obsession with her grades and Gavin Holiday, she raced downhill, skiing in a smooth rhythm, in time to the rock tune playing in her ear buds.

  Until... she caught an edge.

  The world flipped upside down, tumbling haphazardly around her as she bounced and twisted on the icy slope, one ski flying off and goggles askew, until she landed, impacting hard on her back, which sent stars to her eyes, despite her helmet. Her momentum kept her hurtling down the slope head-first, flailing in a desperate attempt to stop her uncontrolled slide.

  As the trail curved around, she missed it, plummeting on her straight path, off the edge. A moment of weightlessness as the snow dropped from under her. She cringed, waiting for the impact. Deep snow cushioned her abrupt stop, low branches announcing how close she’d come to hitting a tree.

  Thank you, God! I’m alive and nothing feels broken.

  But the same powdery snow which cushioned her landing now held her captive. Clearing the snow from her eyes, she assessed her position. Having landed in the hollow bowl of snow around a tree trunk, she couldn’t see the slope from which she’d plummeted. In fact she couldn’t see anything but the snow in front of her face and patchy bits of sky through the pine needles.

  The single remaining ski on her left boot had buried itself in the snow, trapping her other boot beneath it. She tried to move her legs, but nothing budged. Stuck on her side, she pushed with her arms, but her gloved hands
sank into the powder, providing no leverage whatsoever. Any attempt to twist over onto her back produced a sharp pain in her left knee.

  Like a beached whale she lay, panting for breath, halfway hoping someone had seen the accident and would come to rescue her, and halfway praying her spectacular fall hadn’t been witnessed by a single living soul.

  It might be better to die of exposure than of embarrassment.

  The tinny sound of music floated from the ear buds that had dislodged during the fall, ironically playing, Knock Me Over by Rick Shanahan. “Knock me over. Throw me down. Baby, turn me upside down. Nothing’s gonna keep me down. Knock me over. Throw me down.”

  She took the lyrics as encouragement and made another attempt at shifting her feet. Nothing budged. Not an inch.

  Muffled voices. Male. Growing closer.

  So much for saving my pride.

  “Hello?” a deep voice called out from somewhere up high, beyond her feet. “Hello? Are you there?”

  “Here,” she croaked, just as her entire body started shivering, either from adrenaline or because the snow inside her jacket had begun to melt.

  More muffled talking.

  He called back, asking if she was injured. His tone was anguished, full of concern. If he’d seen her spectacular fall, he probably expected her to be dead or dying.

  “I’m okay,” she called. “ I don’t think anything’s broken, but I’m stuck.”

  “Hang on, I’m coming to get you.”

  Crunching snow and rustling ski clothes.

  What’s taking so long?

  After an eternity that probably lasted all of two or three minutes she heard his voice again, close by.

  “I’m here. Just trying to pack the snow down so we can crawl back out of here.”

  A face appeared over the edge of the snow well. A chiseled jaw, with a few days of beard growth, just the way Haley liked it. A pair of concerned eyes, so dark the pupils almost disappeared. Why did he look familiar?