The Christmas Inn. Stella MacLean

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СКАЧАТЬ KEEPING THE DOOR CLOSED against her brother, Marnie considered her options. How had he known she was in here? Knowing him, he would’ve driven by her house, then over here and found her car in the parking lot. Had he discovered her plan to sell?

      Scott was the last person she wanted to see right now. He’d rant on and on about how she was making a huge decision without seeking the family’s advice first. The unspoken issue was that Marnie McLaughlan, the youngest member of the McLaughlan clan, wasn’t allowed to make any changes in her life without their involvement.

      “Go away, Scott,” she yelled through the door. “I’m not doing anything that concerns you.”

      “Marnie, listen to me. Mom is all worked up over Christmas and worried about you. You know what she’s like,” he said.

      Her mother loved the holidays; she relied on Marnie’s support for whatever scheme she had in the works. This year she planned to have Santa arrive complete with sleigh and elves, which meant that Marnie had to be there to act as Mrs. Claus, a role she’d flat-out refused, much to her mother’s chagrin. The problem with Eleanor’s party schemes was that they always seemed to involve an unattached male—usually the temporarily single son of one of her mother’s bridge-playing friends—with whom she’d be forced to socialize. “I’m well aware of our mother’s ability to be a drama queen.”

      “Not fair, Marnie. Mom has always had your best interests at heart.”

      Right. Good old Mom, not to mention good old Dad and my four good old brothers.

      How she’d like to snap her fingers and have Scott disappear. But Scott’s Velcro tendencies were legendary once he decided to become involved in something. He beat a tattoo on the door, making her clap her hands to her ears.

      If, just once, her family could see her for what she was rather than what she wasn’t, her life would be so much easier. Reluctantly she turned the lock, opened the door and forced a smile. “What brought you here so early this morning?”

      “I heard that you were selling your half of the business.”

      “Who told you?”

      “Dad heard about it through some friend at the Elks Club—a friend of a friend of a woman named Gina something or other. Is it true?”

      “I’m not going to change my mind.”

      Dressed in his uniform of an immaculately tailored dark suit, silk tie chosen to match the tiny thread of magenta woven into the suit fabric, Scott gave her a persuasive smile—the one he usually saved for his marketing clients—as he stepped past her into the tiny office.

      “Hello, Shane, it’s great to see you, and I hear that congratulations are in order.” Scott was about to plunk himself down in the lawn chair, took a closer look and reconsidered.

      As Shane launched into the story about how he met his new love, and soon-to-be new partner, Marnie leaned back against the wall and enjoyed the look on Scott’s face. Her brother had problems with any conversation he didn’t control. Scott wasn’t mean. He was constantly thinking ahead to the next step in his plans, and thus he didn’t have much patience for small talk. Not surprisingly, it didn’t take him long to interrupt Shane and ask a couple of pointed questions concerning the contract.

      “Shane, you don’t have to answer,” she said hurriedly, wanting to block Scott’s interrogation of her friend.

      Shane closed his mouth and sank his neck into his turtleneck. “That’s right, I don’t,” he confirmed, his eyebrows rising to meet his hairline.

      “Shane, would you excuse my sister and me for a couple of minutes?”

      With an expression of resignation Shane rose from the chair. “I’ll be in the salon going over the renovation plans,” he said, giving Marnie his “chin up, kid” smile as he walked past her out the door.

      “You have yet to sign, and he’s already going over plans?” Scott asked, disbelief evident in his tone.

      “They’re old blueprints Shane and I had considered a couple of years ago. He and Gina are going to revisit them and see if they’re feasible for the expansion they want to make.”

      “This Gina person is certainly moving fast.”

      “That’s their business, not mine. What’s the family’s problem with me selling to Shane?”

      Scott scooped up the agreement Marnie had carelessly left lying on the desk and took his time reading it before he answered. “We want to be sure you’re being paid fair market value for the business and this building. And that Shane hasn’t slipped in a noncompetition clause that would stop you from working as a hairdresser once you leave here,” he muttered. “What’s this?” he asked, pointing at the page.

      “What?” she asked, refusing to glance at the page.

      “You can’t work in Boston as a hairdresser?”

      “We agreed it was only fair. My client list and the goodwill I’ve built up in the city are part of what he’s buying beyond the physical assets,” she said, exasperated with Scott’s attitude.

      “Marnie, I’m your brother, and I don’t want—”

      “Scott, will you leave it alone?” she said, struggling to remain calm. After all, her brother did have his good qualities; the problem was she couldn’t remember any of them at the moment.

      Still clutching the agreement, Scott leaned against the ancient file cabinet in the corner. “Okay, you take this to your lawyer, and you sign it. What happens the day after you sign? What are you going to do with your life?”

      “Run away to the south seas? Go on safari for a few weeks?”

      “Get serious. You must have a plan.”

      “I’m working on that. Please tell Mom not to worry,” she said, thankful that he was still concentrating on the agreement and couldn’t see the uncertainty in her eyes. Her family always looked for reasons to freak out over what she was doing and how she was doing it. She understood their concern in the beginning. Two major surgeries she’d had to undergo, one when she was eight to fix a heart defect and one when she had a serious car accident fifteen years ago, had given her family reason to worry. But not anymore.

      Scott placed the document on the desk before turning his intense gaze on her. “Tell you what. Angus McAndrew, the CEO of Advantage, you remember him, don’t you?”

      Scott once worked for Advantage Corporation in their PR department. “He’s the guy who got me in to see that superrenowned orthopedic surgeon in New York after my car accident.”

      “Our family owes Angus a lot. I’m convinced that without his help, you wouldn’t have had such a complete recovery.” He smiled down at her, warmth showing in his eyes. “Even though I left his company to start my own business, he and I have stayed in touch. He has a property in the Berkshires, The Mirabel Inn, and he’s going to put it up for sale. But before he does, he needs a business survey of the region, which one of my staff is working on, and he wants to know that the inn has no operational issues that could derail the sale. He’s asked me to hire a mystery guest right away as he has a potential buyer for the inn and he wants to make the kind of pitch the purchaser can’t resist. You’ll work the three СКАЧАТЬ