Welcome To Winterville by Carrie Elks

2

“Ineed you to sign these purchase orders,”

Josh Gerber turned his head to see his assistant, Willa, holding out a pile of papers and a pen. Josh took the papers, and looked at them, frowning at the words typed across the white expanse.

“Christmas invoices?” he asked. “Already?”

“It’s December,” Willa pointed out, biting down a smile as he sighed and scrawled his name across the line on each page. “We need to pay the deposits for the company party. Plus the gifts for all your employees. Holiday baskets, as usual. I sent out an email suggesting a change and you should have seen the replies I got back.”

“People don’t like change,” Josh murmured, handing her back the signed documents. She picked a piece of lint from the lapel of his jacket, wrinkled her nose, and threw it in the trash can beside her.

“Will you actually come to the party this year?” Willa asked, slipping the signed orders into her to-do tray. “You could surprise us all. Who knows, you might even have a good time.”

“Nobody wants the boss at the Christmas party.” Josh grinned at her. Willa was one of his favorite employees. At almost sixty, she gave as good as she got. He needed that in his life. “They want to kick back and have fun without worrying about what they said to me the next morning. It’s my Christmas gift to you all. An evening free of Josh Gerber.”

“You could dress up as The Grinch,” Willa said, ignoring his reply. “That would make everybody smile.”

Willa was the only employee of Gerber Enterprises who could get away with talking to him like this. Some of that came from the fact she’d known him since he was born. She’d been his grandfather’s secretary then, a fresh faced college graduate at the time. Josh had asked her to stay on when his grandfather had retired – or partially retired – and he’d taken over as head of the company.

She’d said yes, eventually. Thanks to a hefty pay raise and a promise that he’d let her tease him the same way she always had.

“I don’t hate Christmas. I just don’t understand it.” Josh shrugged. “It’s just another day, isn’t it?” He glanced at his watch. He was already late for his next meeting. “Anything else I need to sign?”

Willa shook her head and glanced over at the board room. “No. And they’re all in there waiting for you. I sent in some coffee and pastries, so they should be happy.”

Josh winked at her and straightened his tie, pushing a lock of hair back into place. “I knew I could rely on you.”

“Ah, one handsome smile from you and you’d be forgiven by them anyway.” Willa shook her head. “You have the same charm your granddad has. One look and you always get what you want.”

“I wish that was true. My winning charm has been sorely lacking lately.”

“Well it will work this time,” Willa told him, sounding certain. “Now go get ’em, tiger.”

Josh rolled his eyes because even though she was cheesy, she also made him smile.

“Thanks,” he said, walking over to the boardroom. Before he pushed the door open, he straightened his shoulders, lifting himself up to his full six foot three height.

“Okay,” he said, walking into the already-full room and taking his seat at the head of the table. “I don’t have a lot of time, so let’s make this snappy. Who wants to start?”

* * *

“What do you mean there’s a problem?” The meeting had been going on for two hours, despite Josh’s best attempts to move it along. His back was aching and his stomach was rumbling, reminding him how long it had been since breakfast.

“We thought we were buying the land,” Kevin Davies, the head of his real estate division told him. “But it turns out we’ve bought the town, residents, businesses, and all.”

“How the hell did that happen? Didn’t you read the deeds?” Josh frowned. Kevin was a veteran at Gerber Enterprises. He’d been working in Gerber Enterprises’ real estate division for twenty years, and Josh had made him the department head a year after he’d taken over the reins.

“It was my fault,” a woman’s voice said. Josh looked over Kevin’s shoulder to see one of the interns standing up. She looked scared to death as every member of the board turned around to look at her. Josh tried to remember her name. Ellie or Eliza or something? She was one of ten interns the company took on every year under their community outreach program.

“What’s your name?” Josh asked, looking at her directly.

“Elizabeth Norton.”

Ah yeah, now he remembered.

“Did you read the deeds, Elizabeth? Visit the land to do your research?”

She took a deep breath in, and Kevin shook his head at her. “It’s my fault. I should have double checked. She’s still learning.”

Josh could remember Kevin talking to him about the new intern. That she had great promise. He exhaled heavily and looked around at the other twenty people in the room. “Okay, I think we can finish here. Kevin and Elizabeth? Please stay so we can discuss this.”

It was amazing how long it took everybody to pack up their folders and leave the room. At least five of them asked for a quick word with him, and he pointed them all toward Willa to make an appointment. He didn’t have time to talk. Hell, he didn’t have time to deal with whatever the hell Kevin and Elizabeth had messed up, but it was his family’s money, and it was his job to make it right.

“Okay,” he said, when it was only the three of them in the room. “Talk. Tell me about this land.”

Elizabeth grimaced. “I was tasked with finding some land in West Virginia that would be suitable for building a new ski resort. And this place looked perfect. It has main roads leading up to the summit, has all the utilities already installed, and there are towns nearby where we can recruit workers. I really thought it would work.”

“But?” Josh raised his brows.

“But the only place we can build the resort is on the Main Street. And that’s already full of businesses that lease their buildings. As you can imagine, there’ll be uproar when we try to level all those places to the ground. And I know that you hate adverse publicity.”

“Have you checked the leases?” Josh asked. “Can we evict the tenants?”

Elizabeth nodded. “We can, but I called a couple of the businesses last week, pretending to do a survey. I didn’t tell them who I was or why I was calling, but all the business owners told me how much they loved being part of the town. That they weren’t planning on going anywhere soon.” She grimaced. “I can’t see how we can evict them without there being a lot of backlash.”

Josh sighed, leaning back to run his fingers through his thick hair. Bad publicity was poison for a business like his.

“I’m sorry,” Elizabeth said again. “The owners said it would be no problem to level the ground and build a resort there. I took their word for it and assumed the buildings were all empty.”

“Rookie mistake.” Kevin shook his head. “Never believe anybody, especially when it comes to money.”

“How much are we talking about here?” Josh asked, raking his hand through his thick hair. Kevin wrote a number on a piece of paper and slid it over to him.

“Shit.” Josh looked at the zeros. All of them. “Can we pull out of the contract?”

“We already signed.” Kevin swallowed. “The lawyers say it’s water tight.”

If his grandfather was here he would be shouting. Josh was cooler than that, but the fury was still pulling at his empty stomach. This was a mess of epic proportions. “So what do we do next?” he asked, as much as to himself as to them.

“I think we should visit the town,” Elizabeth said, glancing at Kevin. Her hands were still shaking. “It’s the only way to see the scale of the problem. And maybe there’s an angle we can take to make it right.”

“Yeah, I guess we should.” Kevin nodded. “Not that I have time to visit Winterville right now.”

“Wait, what?” Josh frowned. “We bought Winterville? As in the Candy Winter town?” An image of snow and twinkling lights escaped from his memories. The smell of hot chocolate and burning logs and soft lips that made promises against his.

“That’s the one.” Kevin nodded, his expression grim. “Although Candy has died. She left the town to her children. They’re the ones who are selling.”

Josh nodded silently, looking down at the paper with the numbers on it again. Welcome toWinterville. Where Every Day Is Like Christmas. He wondered if that sign still hung on the road leading to the town.

How long ago was it since he visited that little town nestled in the side of the mountain? He blinked, trying to remember. It had been right before he moved to London, and that was eight years ago. Damn, it felt like a lifetime ago.

He’d only been there for two days. And it was completely unplanned. He’d been driving from Cincinnati to Washington DC to deliver some documents before he left the US for London, and his car had skidded to a halt on the snowy roads.

It had taken an hour for a tow truck to come. Once it did, he and his car had been towed up to what looked like some kind of Disneyland wannabe, a little town covered with snow and Christmas lights, full of tourists and staff who made you feel welcome.

Including one very pretty receptionist who’d taken his breath away. At least, until his car was up and running and he could hightail it out of there.

Kevin and Elizabeth were looking at him expectantly, as though he could solve all their problems. He nodded slowly.

“I’ll talk to Willa. Book a few days out of my schedule and we can go see what the hell’s going on there.”

Kevin did a double take. “You’re coming too?” he asked Josh.

“Yes I am. I want this sorted out before the end of the year.” Not least of all because if his grandfather found out about it he’d throw a fit. Better to give solutions than problems. That’s what he’d been taught from a young age. “Talk to the sellers and arrange a meeting with them as soon as you can, then liaise with Willa over details,” Kevin said to Elizabeth, who looked almost green at the thought of it. “I guess we’re taking a trip to Winterville.”

* * *

“Darling.” Josh’s grandma wrapped her arms around his waist. The top of her head barely reached his chest. “You’ve grown again.”

“I stopped growing at least a decade ago,” he said, his voice teasing. “You must have gotten shorter.”

“Hush with that kind of talk.” She shook her head. “I hear you’re going on a trip. Or at least that’s what your grandfather tells me.” She lifted her hands, cupping his cheeks. The way her arms stretched up it was almost like she was saying a prayer. “Oh, I’ve missed you, sweetheart.”

It didn’t escape his notice that his grandfather already knew he was going on a business trip. That’s what happened when you took over the family company. The old man hated being retired, and somehow always knew what was going on at Gerber Enterprises. Josh had long since stopped trying to work out who the mole – or moles – were.

“Is that the boy?” a gruff voice called out, as if on cue. At almost thirty-two, there was nothing boyish about Joshua Gerber III at all. And yet that’s what his grandfather always called him. Josh had no idea if that was because it gave him a power trip, or because he was jealous of Josh’s comparative youth.

A little of both maybe. The old man had always been tetchy, ever since Josh was a young child. He’d moved in with his grandparents at the young age of three, when his parents had died in an accident. He could barely remember them, apart from when his grandma showed him photographs.

“Yes, Josh is here. I’m just making him a drink.” His grandma shook her head. “And stop shouting. I can hear you perfectly fine.”

His grandad grunted. “Send him in when you’re done. I need to talk to him.”

“Six years he’s been retired, and he still thinks he knows everything.” She rolled her eyes.

And didn’t Josh know it. In the time since he’d taken over the business, his grandfather had tried to interfere at every turn. Josh had learned to fend off his efforts where he could.

Sure, he’d been trained to run the business from an early age. After his parents died, Josh had been the focus of all his grandfather’s efforts. Working at the company during summer vacations once he was old enough, then during college, and finally being sent to run the London office for a year to prepare him to take over the reins.

Whether he wanted to or not. Because it was his birthright.

“What did you get him for his birthday?” Josh asked his grandma, as she fussed with the coffee machine.

“I thought about buying him a personality transplant,” she said, deadpan. “But then I realized he’d have to have a personality to start with.”

Josh bit down a laugh. “You’re on fire today.”

“Yeah, well. He’s grouchy as hell today. Doesn’t want to celebrate his birthday, doesn’t want anybody here. Keeps telling me you’re hiding something from him. He’s not exactly a delight to live with.”

“Then leave him.” Josh gave her a pointed look. This wasn’t the first time they’d had this conversation.

“You know better than that. I love the old grump, really.” She passed Josh a steaming mug of coffee. “Anyway, speaking of grouches, how’s your love life?”

“Grouches?”

“Willa told me you’re not going to the Christmas party this year. I don’t know how you expect to find a wife if you don’t socialize. Did you know that almost a quarter of people meet their future spouse at work?”

Josh leaned on the counter, shaking his head. “Okay, first of all, why are you and Willa discussing the Christmas party?”

“Because unlike you, I’ll be going.” His grandma gave him a pointed look.

“Well, second of all – and this is related – if I find a future spouse at work, then I’ll be opening the company up to a lawsuit. And if you think Grandad is grouchy now, he’ll be impossible to live with if I mess up at work. Remember what he always says?”

His grandma sighed. “I know. Never mix business and pleasure.” She looked up, her eyes soft. “But I want you to find somebody. To be happy. You deserve it. And I deserve great grandchildren.” She raised her eyebrows.

He pulled her close, pressing his lips to her hair. “You’re way too young to have great grandchildren.”

“And you’re way too good at smooth talking your way out of trouble. So when are you going to settle down?”

He gave her a lopsided smile. “When I meet Miss Right, you’ll be the first to know.” It was a complete lie, but he hoped it soothed her anyway. It wasn’t as though he had any time for relationships.

No woman liked being second to work. He’d learned that the hard way.

“Yeah, well don’t take too long. Some of us have an expiration date, you know.”

“Nah. You’re going to live forever.” Josh grinned. “It’s all that champagne you drink. It’s pickled you from the inside out.”

Ten minutes later, after finishing his coffee, Josh walked into his grandfather’s office. The old man was sitting completely upright in a wing backed chair. A cane was propped against it, though his grandfather hated using it.

Putting down the papers he’d been reading, he looked over at Josh, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose.

“Happy birthday,” Josh said, carrying his gift over. It was beautifully wrapped, the dark blue paper shining beneath the office lights.

His grandfather looked at it. “Socks?”

“Gloves, actually.”

“Willa always did have good taste. Put it on the desk with the rest of them. No doubt your grandma will open them later.”

Josh didn’t take offence at the casual dismissal of his gift. His grandfather hated birthdays and holidays. Anything that would once have taken him away from the office. Maybe that’s why Josh put no effort into choosing a present. So much better to task his assistant with finding the perfect gloves.

“I hear you have a project in trouble.” His grandfather looked up at him, his face impassive. The moles were obviously working overtime.

“It’s nothing to worry about. Just a small snafu with a purchase. I’m heading there tomorrow to meet with the sellers. I’m confident it’ll be cleared up within a few days.”

“Hmm. Whoever started that project should be fired.”

Josh ignored the bait. “I’ve got it covered,” he said again. “You don’t need to worry about anything.”

“It’s not me I’m worried about. It’s your investors. Our investors. They’ve put a lot of money into this transaction. People come to us because they can trust us. This is not a good look.” His face was flushed, his voice animated.

Josh was unblinking. “It’s okay,” he told the old man. “Calm down or Grandma will be in with the blood pressure monitor.”

“She needs to stop fussing.”

“Maybe you do, too.” Josh raised an eyebrow at him.

“Hmmph.” His grandfather waved his hand. “You can go now. You’ve done your duty, and I’m getting tired. No doubt you’ll need to get back to the office.”

“That’s where I’m heading now.”

“Good man.” The older man’s voice deepened. He really did look sleepy. It wasn’t a surprise, the number of medications he was taking. Pills to keep his heart beating, others to stop his blood pressure from getting too high, and then there were the painkillers and the diuretics that he always cursed.

“Happy birthday,” Josh said, giving him a nod. He couldn’t remember ever actually hugging or kissing his grandfather, and he definitely wasn’t planning on starting now. The old man was right, he’d done his duty, he could leave with his head held high.

After another few hours at work, he’d go home and pack for Winterville. The last time he’d visited that place he’d been a different person. A younger man, with hopes and dreams of being something more than what his family thought he would be.

Now he’d grown up and he knew who he was. A business man. A bachelor. Somebody with a few close friends and a hundred thousand acquaintances. A man who drank too much coffee to keep himself going during the day, and one too many glasses of whiskey at night.

He’d long since given up thinking about the boy he’d once been.

Even if sometimes he didn’t recognize the person he’d become.