“Not really,” he admitted. “But I’d rather take over than have Mom and Dad sell it.”
I grimaced. The hotel wouldn’t be the hotel without the Edens. Without Eloise.
“If I did it, hopefully nothing much would change. I don’t want to take Eloise’s job. But rather than her answering to my parents, she’d answer to me. And I’d be fairly hands-off, just there to step in for the harder conversations.”
Considering I rarely saw Harrison or Anne at the hotel, I doubted Eloise would mind going to Knox instead. Maybe she’d actually like having someone closer to bounce ideas off of. Still . . . why did this feel so wrong?
“Feels like a betrayal.” He voiced the answer to my unasked question. “Did you know that Eloise was named after our great-great-grandmother, Eloise Eden? It was her hotel.”
“She told me that on my third day.”
“She’s proud. She should be. She’s worked hard.” He waved it off. “Anyway . . . I wanted you to know. Get your thoughts. We don’t have to talk about it today.”
The nerves I’d been battling all morning spiked as we drove underneath a log archway. At its apex was the Eden ranch brand.
“Why am I nervous?” It wasn’t like I hadn’t met Knox’s entire family. His siblings were often at the hotel. His parents were too. Talia was Drake’s doctor.
But today was a family function at Harrison and Anne’s home. And I was the girlfriend joining a holiday gathering for the first time.
“You’ve got nothing to worry about. Well, except Eloise mentioned baking cookies. Steer clear of those.”
I giggled as he rolled down a gravel road bordered by barbed-wire fences. Beneath the evergreens that towered over the land, the ground was covered in a blanket of snow. It was peaceful. Serene.
“This is lovely,” I said.
“It’s a beautiful slice of the world.”
I smiled. “It is. But I love your slice on Juniper Hill more.”
“Me too.” He winked and drove the rest of the way while I studied the countryside.
My heart raced when a log house with a wraparound porch came into view. The home stood proudly in a clearing through the trees. Beyond a wide, open lot was a shop building. Opposite it was an enormous barn and stables.
Every roof was dusted with snow. A plume of smoke came from the house’s chimney. A string of vehicles was parked outside.
“Are we late?” I asked.
“No. We’re not eating until later,” he said, parking the car. “But I’m guessing everyone’s been here most of the day, hanging out.”
“Okay.” My fingers shook as I unclipped my seat belt.
My family’s holiday meals were usually short and quiet. We’d sit around the table, staring at our phones through the meal. After our last Thanksgiving, the staff had barely begun clearing the empty plates before we’d all scattered.
Dad and Houston would disappear to Dad’s office to talk about work. Mom would drink too much champagne and go to bed early. Raleigh and I had never been close. Not as little girls, certainly not as teenagers. She loved shopping and traveling with her friends. She wouldn’t do anything to risk her trust fund.
We’d all been our own islands.
Except I was tired of being on an island. Today, I wanted to belong.
Knox climbed out of the car and retrieved Drake. He had the diaper bag over a shoulder and I was still stuck in the passenger seat. He bent, staring at me from his open door. “Need a minute? I can tell them you’re on the phone.”
He’d make excuses while I got my shit together.
“No.” I took one last fortifying breath and stepped outside.
The front door opened as we climbed the porch stairs. Harrison, tall and broad, like his sons, filled the threshold. The bright winter sun brought out the gray strands threaded through his dark hair. “Hope you two are hungry. Anne’s cooking enough to feed a hundred people.”
Knox laughed. “Sounds like Mom.”
“She made me buy all new plastic storage containers at the store so she can send the extras home with you kids. Which means if I want leftovers, I’m going to have to drive to your house.”
“I’ve got leftovers from the restaurant.” Knox clapped Harrison on the shoulder as we reached the top stair. “So you can keep ours. I’ll hide them in the garage fridge for you.”
“Attaboy.” Harrison laughed and pulled me into a hug. “Glad you’re here, Memphis.”
“Thank you for having us.”
“Come on in.” He shifted to tuck me against his side, making the squeeze through the door a tight fit. But he didn’t let me go as he led me through the entryway to the kitchen. It smelled as fantastic as the restaurant. “Make yourself at home. I’m not much for house tours so just poke around until you find what you need.”
Poke around. I hadn’t poked around at my parents’ house and it was the house I’d grown up in.
“Oh, good. You’re finally here,” Anne said as we walked into the kitchen, drying her hands on a towel before pulling me into a hug.
The moment she let me go, Lyla was there to take her place. Then Eloise joined us from the living room with her famous smile, the one that never failed to make me smile in return. Mateo wandered into the room with an older man I’d learned was Harrison’s brother, Briggs. And finally Winslow and Griffin came from a hallway, having just put Hudson down for a nap.
“What are you working on?” Knox asked Anne, walking over to the stove and pulling a lid off a pot.
“Don’t touch that.” She swatted his hand. “I’m experimenting with the cranberry sauce.”
“Want some help?”
“You’ve been cooking all day.” She shooed him away until he stood beside me on the other side of the island. “Lyla and I are doing dinner.”
“Can I help?” I asked. “I’m not much of a cook, but Knox has been teaching me a few things.”
Our cooking lessons were infrequent and infused with foreplay. Whenever I’d stand at the counter, Knox would come up behind me to toy with my hair or drag his palms over my ass. But I’d learned how to make more than boxed macaroni and cheese.
Anne glanced past me to where Eloise was talking to Griffin. Then she nodded to the Ziploc bag of cookies on the counter. “If those accidentally found their way to the trash can in the garage while you went to grab yourself anything from the fridge out there, that would be fine.”
“Are they really that bad?”
Anne and Lyla shared a look.
“Cookie disposal. On it.”
“Thank you,” Lyla mouthed, then went back to peeling potatoes.
The front door opened and shoes stomped on the floor. Then Talia breezed into the room in a pair of teal scrubs. “Hello! Am I the last one to get here?”
“Yep.” Knox moved to kiss her cheek but she ignored him and threw her arms around me for a hug.
The Edens had more than blue eyes and chocolate hair in common. They all knew how to give a hug that made me want to cry.
They hugged without hesitation. They didn’t stiffen like my mother. They weren’t worried about their makeup rubbing off like my sister. They weren’t averse to general human contact like my father and brother.