Before he had a chance to make his presence known, Stephanie spied him lingering in the center aisle opposite the front registers.
“Patrick, I had no idea you were coming in this early. Come and have some coffee and donuts before they’re all gone. Candy Lee and I concluded that shopping makes you extremely hungry.” She smiled at him as though he were the greatest thing since sliced bread. His heart flip-flopped, then did a backward somersault.
“No thanks. I’m only here for a minute. Just wanted to make sure you were prepared for the onslaught.” Patrick crammed his hands in his pockets for fear he’d reach out to smooth the unruly curl that clung to Stephanie’s peach-colored cheek.
Stephanie placed her mug on the counter and wiped her mouth with a paper napkin covered with snowmen and reindeer. “I think we’re more than ready. Between the two of us, we should be able to handle the rush. If we get too swamped, Melanie said she would help out. She’s bringing the girls over to ski today.”
Patrick wasn’t sure how to reply, so he just nodded. Damn this woman. She made him feel like an inexperienced teenager. All clumsy and unsure of himself. He hated the loss of control.
Stephanie stared at him, the smile leaving her face. “Is that all right? If not, I can tell her to forget it. She said she would stop in before they hit the slopes.”
Patrick heard the words, but couldn’t have repeated what they were if his life depended on it.
“Patrick! Are you listening to anything she’s saying?” Candy Lee asked, her voice several octaves higher than normal.
He blinked his eyes, then shook his head. “Uh, yes, I was thinking.”
Candy Lee, never one to mince words with Patrick and always getting away with it because she was not much younger than the age Shannon would’ve been had she lived, came out from behind the counter to stand beside him. She cupped his elbow in her small hand, guiding him to a stool behind the counter. She put a small finger to his lips. She poured coffee, a large portion of Half and Half, and three scoops of sugar into a white mug decorated with Santas. She plated three donuts from the box beneath the counter. A chocolate-covered glazed, a cream-filled, and a French cruller. “Get some sugar and caffeine into your system. You sound really stupid, Patrick. And I don’t believe you were thinking either,” she added, squinting her bright blue eyes into slits.
Patrick took a sip of the hot coffee, then took a huge bite of the chocolate-covered confection. Damn, maybe Candy Lee was onto something. This was decadent, almost pure bliss. “Stupid, huh?” he said, then finished off the rest of the donut.
“Well, yes. You have that off look on your face, you know, like you’re off in another world or something,” Candy Lee explained.
Patrick took a sip of coffee, then bit into the French cruller. He finished it off in three bites before attacking the cream-filled donut. He would have to spend hours on the slopes burning off all the sugary carbs he’d just consumed. When he finished, he wiped his mouth with one of the snowmen-and-reindeer napkins placed next to the pot of coffee. “Thanks for the compliment and the calories, kid. Stephanie, if you get in a bind, call my cell number. I’ll send a Maximum Glide employee from the ski school to help out. I can’t risk Melanie’s getting hurt or injuring someone else.”
Stephanie started to speak, but before she could utter a single word, Patrick spoke up. “It’s company policy. Sorry.”
“Of course, I understand, it’s just that Melanie offered. I told her to stop by just in case.” Stephanie swatted at the hair clinging to her cheek. “I doubt we’ll need the extra help, but of course I will call you if we do.” She swallowed, lifted her chin a notch higher, and met his gaze.
Avoiding her direct stare, Patrick glanced at the display of flavored lip balm on the counter for fear he’d give his feelings away.
Feelings? He wasn’t going there. No how, no way!
Absorbed in a sudden rush of unwanted emotions, new and unwanted emotions, Patrick gave her a disparaging look. After all, she was nothing more than an employee. “I’ll expect nothing less. Maximum Glide can’t afford another costly mistake.”
Much to his surprise, she showed no reaction to his comment. She simply turned her back to him as though he’d said nothing.
He hurried toward the door without another word said. Feeling like the idiot that he was, he started to return and offer an apology, then decided against it. He didn’t want her to think he was sorry for his comment. He truly meant it. Maximum Glide was in the red. If he didn’t pull off a financial miracle this year, they would all be out of jobs.
Chapter 3
Expert at hiding her emotions, Stephanie was too stunned to reply to Patrick’s hateful comment. She’d spent years deflecting Glenn’s insults. One would’ve thought she would be used to such verbal abuse. Too stunned to cry, not to mention how humiliated she was to have Candy Lee witness her being reprimanded, she swallowed back any thought of an outburst.
She tossed her Christmas napkin in the garbage can and downed the last of her now-cold coffee before turning to Candy Lee. It was all she could do to keep from commenting on what a jerk Patrick had acted like, but she knew it was best just to forget about it. And him. He was right. Sort of. She had cost the shop loads of money last year. There was no way she would repeat that mistake again this season. With a new sense of determination, Stephanie set out to prove just how wrong he was about her. She was quite capable of working as many hours as needed to see that Snow Zone turned a profit. She didn’t care if she had to peddle their wares on the slopes.
As soon as the back door closed, alerting them to Patrick’s departure, Candy Lee voiced her opinion. “He can be such a nitwit. I don’t know why you let him talk to you like that. You need to speak up for yourself.” She sprayed window cleaner on the glass-top counters. “If he doesn’t think we’re capable of doing the work, he should tell us straight up.”
Stephanie thought he just had, but didn’t bother saying so to Candy Lee. They had a busy day ahead of them. Whining and arguing would only put them both in a negative frame of mind. She was sure this was the last thing the Christmas shoppers wanted to encounter on the busiest day of the year. They wanted holly-jolly-ho-ho-ho, and she would give them holly-jolly-ho-ho-ho no matter what.
Wanting to discourage further talk of Patrick’s behavior, Stephanie cleared her throat. “He’s just doing his job. Forget about it because I intend to this very second.”
Candy Lee shook her head. “Well, then you’re a nicer person than I am. I don’t even know why I work here; well, I need the extra cash but still…I was in the storage room the other day and overheard two guys that work the lifts talking about him. I guess Mr. O’Brien chewed them out after four people fell when they were getting off the lift at their checkpoints, which we all know isn’t really anyone’s fault,” Candy Lee stated as she vigorously polished the glass-topped counters. “I’m