A Holiday Romance. Carrie Alexander

removed his suit jacket and cuff links. He loosened his tie. He took his cell phone out of his pants pocket and switched over to voice mail before tossing it aside. The device skidded across the surface and glanced off the single framed photograph on the desk.

      Automatically, he reached out to right the photograph of his family—a group of ne’er-do-wells if ever there was one. Its presence on his desk was Lani’s doing, a replacement for Jenna’s head shot. Also an irritating distraction. Abruptly he thrust the photo away, facedown.

      A tap of the mouse brought his computer out of sleep mode. He sat and rolled his chair closer to the desk. Time for serious work.

      After forty-five minutes studying the monthly reports from his department managers, Kyle stopped to straighten and stretch. He relished these early-evening hours, with his staff gone home and the Prince Montez East Coast management offices shut down. As long as there were no emergency calls from the evening concierge, he could get a lot of work accomplished. Normally he dove into it with gusto, putting in another two hours before his empty stomach forced him into calling room service.

      But not this evening. Lani’s words nagged at him.

      Fuddy-duddy. Lonesome.

      Kyle stood and moved restlessly around the sparsely furnished space before pausing at one of the three tall windows that overlooked the stone courtyard and Moorish fountain at the center of the resort complex. Towering palms lined the long curve of the main road, as well as the various paths leading away from it. In the distance, beyond the foothills, was the humpbacked crest of Camelback Mountain, cast blood orange in the fading sun.

      He was unaccountably distracted by the vista. When was the last time he’d noticed a sunset?

      He turned suddenly and grabbed the picture off his desk, relocating it to one of the nearly empty shelves in the storage unit along one of the unadorned walls.

      Kyle didn’t bother much with the trappings of his position—an expense account, a company car and driver, the large office for work and the luxury suite for sleep. They were valuable only for the air of success they gave him. That, admittedly, he savored.

      From the shelf, the faces of his family mocked him. Think you’re a big shot?

      “Hell, yeah,” he said softly.

       What about us? Didja forget us?

      He swung away. Hadn’t he done enough for them? Late-night calls to lawyers, arguments mediated, loans that would never be repaid. Strings pulled, jobs acquired, christenings and bail hearings and holidays attended, each one invariably ending in an argument.

      Lani was wrong. He’d put in plenty of face-to-face time. Real people were highly overrated.

      There was a staccato rap on the door. Gavin Brill thrust his head inside. “Hey, Jarreau. I’m on my way home.”

      “Give my best to the wife.” Kyle’s gut seized. He must be hungry.

      “Sorry, man.” Gavin raised his eyebrows. At a scarce five-six, he was eight inches shorter than Kyle, but considered handsome by the women around the office. They swooned over his jet-black hair, blue eyes and Hollywood profile. “I’ll be too busy giving her mine.”

      “No one likes a braggart.”

      Gavin grinned. “I can’t help it.”

      Kyle scowled; this was their act. “How many times did you call her today?”

      Gavin had married Melina, one of their former reservation clerks. A cute little brunette who thought he was the sun and the moon and all the stars, too. Her adoration seemed cloying to Kyle, but he gave the couple allowances to be sappy newlyweds. Not that he’d admit it to Gavin.

      The man’s grin widened. “Only eight. You owe me twenty.”

      “Yeah, but how many times did she call you?”

      “That wasn’t part of the bet.”

      “A technicality,” Kyle said, but he took out his wallet. “I only have a hundred.”

      Gavin gestured with his head. “Walk down with me and we’ll change it at the front desk.”

      “You know I’m good for the money.”

      “C’mon, bud. Don’t be a stick in the mud.”

      First a fuddy-duddy and now a stick in the mud?

      “I can offer extra incentive,” Gavin said. “Your unexpected arrival will put the fear of authority in the new night concierge. I hear he’s been hell on the staff, trying to prove himself.”

      “Sounds like he has the right idea.”

      To demonstrate that he wasn’t a fuddy, let alone a duddy, Kyle didn’t bother to roll down his sleeves and put on his jacket. They walked past the elevator to the stairwell and jogged down four flights, neither willing to break the pace.

      “Melina says…” Gavin pushed through the staff door that opened onto a hidden corner of the vast lobby. He’d missed more than a few of their workouts lately and was trying not to pant. “Her friends at the desk—”

      “Not my concern,” Kyle interrupted so the guy could inhale. Unless the minor problem had potential to grow into a larger issue, he’d learned to let his department managers deal with petty staff complaints. “Remember the chain of command.”

      Gavin slid a finger inside his collar. “That’s what I told Melina you’d say, but she…” He shrugged. “She thought you’d care.”

      “Care?” The word came out more sharply than Kyle had intended. He didn’t think of himself as uncaring, even when it came to his family. Just strict. With the Jarreaus, fed up.

      “I meant, if I brought up the problem on her friends’ behalf,” Gavin explained. “She doesn’t get that you don’t play favorites on the job.”

      “The new concierge is only establishing the proper authority over his staff,” Kyle said, but he was uneasy. He had played favorites. Hiring both his foolish sister and his scoundrel younger brother was nepotism at its finest. The family ties he hadn’t been able to completely break.

      Except for that small show of weakness, he’d been relentless in his climb up the corporate ladder. He was weeks away from a promotion that was a rare achievement for a man of thirty-six. Why should he have misgivings now?

      Because he’d rather be respected by his staff than beloved?

      Or was it because Lani had called him lonesome?

      Or because Gavin had both a successful career and an adoring wife?

      Kyle scanned the luxurious lobby. A reassuring sight. The lights of the stately yet rustic chandeliers cast a glow over ocher stucco walls. Tall palm fronds softened the empty corners. Guests moved about leisurely, most of them on their way to one of the lounges or restaurants. The bustle of white-jacketed employees was constant but discreet, as was the subtle infusion of music from a harpist and piano player on one of the overhanging balconies.

      Only one woman seemed out of place—a rather plain brunette, unobtrusive except for a brightly colored outfit that shouted its newness. She was noticeable because she stood alone at the entrance, rubbing her hands on her skirt while she gawked at the teak front desk and the potted orange trees and the skylights that opened the lobby to the lavender-tinged sky.

      An employee from the hospitality staff gestured to the solitary woman. They walked to the restaurant entrance, holding an animated conversation as if they were old friends.

      Satisfied that his employee was doing her job, Kyle erased the new guest from his mind and went to make change at the desk. He wished that all the day’s distractions were as easily forgotten.

       CHAPTER TWO

       “I S IT JUST my imagination, or is almost everyone here kind of old?” Alice asked as she