Authors: Addison Fox

Baby It's Cold Outside (40 page)

Kneeling down at the base of the monument, she pulled the ugly hat out of her pocket that she wore the day of the snowball fight. The first day she and Walker had made love.

The ugly hat and its corresponding label—TASTY’S BAIT AND TACKLE—brought a soft smile to her face as she ran her hands over the embroidery.

And with it the memory that in this god-awful ugly hat, Walker had thought she was beautiful.

Folding it so that the embroidery was visible, she laid the hat in front of the monument, below the inscription that had spoken to her from the first moment she’d read it.

For those we aren’t allowed to keep
.

Standing, she turned around and walked back down Main Street toward the waiting lights of the Indigo Blue.

Myrtle greeted Walker as he let himself into the office. “’Bout time you got in.”

“It’s eight o’clock, Myrtle. You’re never here this early.”

“I’m here today. And I expect my boss to beat me to work.”

Unwilling to be baited by her incessant logic and endless harping, he walked into his office and slammed the door. It was rude and uncalled for, but if she didn’t already know why he was in a foul mood, it was only a matter of time.

The town grapevine was no doubt already ablaze about a bachelor and bachelorette who were not present at Saturday-night’s auction.

At a light knock on the door he hollered out a surly, “What!”

“Here’s some coffee for you.” Myrtle held out a steaming mug of dark, black coffee. “I made it just the way you like it. With about four teaspoons of sugar.”

“Thanks.”

She walked over with her hand extended and he had the insane urge to check and see if the contents on his desk had rearranged themselves at the spawn of Satan’s sudden act of kindness.

“You’re welcome.”

She marched back to the doorway, her expression thoughtful. As she pulled the door closed behind her, she turned to offer one last comment. “Rumor has it Sloan McKinley’s chartered a flight with Jack that leaves in about an hour. You can sit there and wallow or you can do something about it.”

Sloan was leaving?

For as horrible as Saturday evening was, he had been sure he could figure a way out of this.

Could find a way to make things right between them.

He just needed some time with her. And a plan to make her listen to reason.

“That can’t be possible. Jack would have told me.”

Myrtle shrugged. “Facts are facts.”

“Is that supposed to be some sort of advice?” Walker bit out the words.

“If I’m giving advice, you’ll know it. Like now. I suggest you either get your head out of your ass and do something about stopping that plane from leaving or shut the fuck up and let the most wonderful thing that’s ever happened to you walk out of your life.”

He choked on his mouthful of coffee as her last words registered.

“Nod once if you understand me.”

He nodded once.

Sloan clicked off her cell phone with shaking hands. Her editor had loved the notes she’d e-mailed and was anxiously awaiting the final piece. They even had a name all picked out for it—The Bachelor Game—and they were already brainstorming titles for her next article due in a few weeks.

And then Serena had hit her with the really big news.

If she wanted it, there was an editorial job waiting for her, managing one of the travel magazine’s sections both in print and in all their various digital formats. In addition to her overall ownership of the section, they were willing to send her around the world for articles and they’d offered a very generous salary to boot.

The brass ring.

She’d been reaching for it for so long—working with determination and diligence—it was so strange to think that it had finally arrived.

So why did it feel far emptier than she’d ever imagined?

Sloan collapsed back on the bed and eyed her suitcases sitting near the door. Her heavy down coat lay on top and the sight brought a well of tears she couldn’t hold back.

Had it really been no more than a week ago when she bought that coat in Sandy’s store?

How had everything she’d known—the very foundation of her life—changed so quickly?

A knock on the door pulled her from her misery and she swiped at the tears. What had happened to that resolution she’d made to herself? The one that convinced her to leave Walker.

To be hopeful and happy and ready to embrace what the world had to offer?

“In the new year,” she promised herself on a whisper as she moved to open the door. “In the new year.”

“I need your help.” Walker burst into his grandmother’s office and barely caught the door from slamming on its hinges.

“What’s wrong?” Sophie stared up from behind her desk, worry lining her eyes and weighing on her like a heavy blanket.

“It’s Sloan. She’s leaving.”

“I know.”

Walker ran a hand through his hair and tugged hard on the ends. “If you know, why didn’t you tell me instead of Myrtle?”

“I’m done interfering.”

“Well, it’s terrible timing. I need you to do it one more time.”

“What’s gotten into you?”

“Love, Grandmother. It’s smacked me upside the head and it won’t let me go.”

The worry seemed to lift from her shoulders as she stood to her full height behind the desk. “What can I do?”

“Sloan, I’m sorry but we need to make a little detour.”

“Oh, okay.” Sloan looked up from where she was organizing the airline tickets she’d printed off in the Indigo’s business center. Her eyes were still wet from crying with Avery and Grier as she hugged them good-bye and a few extra minutes to pull herself together was likely a good thing.

“Don’t worry. I’ll get you to Anchorage in plenty of time.”

She offered Jack a small smile. “I’m not worried.”

He started up the truck and pulled onto Main Street, driving through the center of town. Sloan kept her attention diverted, fumbling in her tote bag for her phone to keep busy. She didn’t want to look out the windows for fear of seeing Walker.

“This will only take a minute.”

She never looked up from her phone. “Take whatever time you need.”

Walker held the banner in his hands, the heavy vinyl rolled up tight. He’d seen it in his grandmother’s office and had suddenly known exactly what he needed to do.

Crossing the small space between the sidewalk and the monument, he pulled a length of rope out of his pocket to secure the banner. As he crunched on the snow, his attention caught on something wedged against the monument.

Setting the banner down, he started to reach out and realized it was someone’s hat. He almost left it where it lay before his gaze caught on the embroidery on the front.

TASTY’S BAIT AND TACKLE

And he knew.

Sloan had left it there.

Reaching down, he noticed where she’d placed the hat. Just beneath the inscription that had made her cry.

For those we aren’t allowed to keep.

Like the flip of a switch, Walker saw his entire life illuminated. He blinked a few times, slightly disoriented, but with each passing second, things came into clearer focus.

He’d been the worst kind of idiot.

But if he were lucky, the woman he loved would forgive him anyway.

With renewed purpose, he unrolled the banner.

“Here. Let me help you with that.” Bear walked up, his arm extended to grab the side Walker was unrolling.

“Thanks, man.”

“I’ll help you tie it down.” Skate walked up behind Bear and offered a hand.

As Walker looked up, he saw the rest of the townsfolk walking toward them, his grandmother right in front, leading the charge. When she got close enough to stand beside him, he leaned down to give her a hug and whispered in her ear, “What is this?”

“A grand gesture, my darling. If you’re going to eat crow, you might as well eat a very public portion.”

Walker crushed his grandmother to him in a bear hug and knew then and there that everything he needed to know about how to love someone had come from the extraordinary woman in his arms.

Everything.

“Sloan?”

“Yes, Jack?”

“Um, it looks like Main Street’s blocked.”

“What?” Sloan reluctantly pulled her gaze from her phone and was surprised to see what appeared to be the entire town gathered on the street. “Is that the monument?”

“Yep.”

“What’s everyone doing here?”

“I don’t know. Let’s go check.”

“Jack. Wait—”

Before she could stop him, he was out of the car and heading for her side to open her door.

“Oh, I don’t think we need to—”

“Come on. Let’s go find out what it is. I hope it’s not one of the grandmothers.”

At the idea something could be wrong with Sophie, Mary or Julia, Sloan took his hand as he helped her out of his truck.

Please no
, she prayed as they worked their way through the crowd.
No, no, no
.

The crowd parted, which was odd, but she didn’t pay a whole lot of attention in her rush to get to the front.

And that’s when she saw it.

And him.

Walker stood under the monument, twisting her ugly hat in his hands as a heavy banner hung behind him. Nearly all the words were scratched out in black marker with new ones written above it to take their place.

WALKER MONTGOMERY