Book 3: Gray (Christmas at Whiskey Mountain Lodge in Coral Canyon™)

Gray Hammond checked his teeth one more time in the rear-view mirror, though he hadn’t had anything in them when he’d left Wes’s house. Gray never went anywhere without all the proper pieces in exactly the right place—at least he hadn’t for the past twenty years.

Now that he was done at HMC, he had no idea what his days would hold. Probably a lot of time spent in pants with an elastic waistband and hours on the farm his parents refused to sell. A frown marched through his eyebrows at the thought of them on that piece of land, with all those animals, none of which they could take care of. His father tried, but he was almost eighty years old, and Gray had started talking to Ames about staging an intervention.

If there was a brother who would take such a thing seriously, it was Ames. The man took everything seriously, and most of the time, that grated on Gray’s nerves. And he was the lawyer in the family. He, by profession, took things seriously.

But an intervention with Ames involved would have steps and rules, and Gray had told him his concerns for a reason. Their parents simply couldn’t stay on the farm much longer. 

Ames and Cy had gathered to the farm in Ivory Peaks for the holidays, just to give Gray and Hunter a break. Gray felt like he needed a vacation from his life, and he was having a hard time not to take one. The only thing anchoring him in one place at the moment was Hunter. Hunter’s school. 

He couldn’t just pack a bag and board a plane and come back to his life when he felt like it, the way Wes had after he’d retired from the family company. He couldn’t move to Coral Canyon at the drop of a hat for a woman, the way Colton had done.

Gray loved his son very much, but he alone knew that his life wasn’t entirely his own. “It’s fine, Lord,” he said to himself. “I don’t mean to complain. I love Hunter, and I’d rather he be with me than his mother.” He let out his breath, hoping some of the negativity he harbored inside would go with it. A bit of tension released from his shoulders, and he added, “Guide me to what I should do next.”

Gray’s future was wide open, he knew that. Hunter would keep getting up in the morning and going to school. There would be science fair projects, and math homework he didn’t know how to do, and a brand new challenge for both of them—junior high. Multiple classes, dances…girls.

That last one Gray barely knew what to do with himself. His first marriage had been one long fight, and when it had finally ended, he hadn’t even recognized himself anymore. He’d tried a couple of relationships since, and both of them had been nothing but disaster after disaster. He should’ve known he couldn’t date in the greater Denver area—at least not anyone who used the Internet or drove down the freeways. His surname was everywhere there, and the two women he’d been out with since Sheila’s departure from his life had been after only one thing: Money.

That had hurt Gray, sure. But the worst part was knowing that Hunter had started to bond with Maddie. She’d known it, too, and she’d exploited the boy to get money from Gray for her. He’d never been so angry in his life. And having to explain his failures and shortcomings to a seven-year-old?

Gray hadn’t dated in years. Four years, to be precise. Which was why he still hadn’t gotten out of his truck either. 

Elise would likely be here already. He’d pulled in right at the time they were set to meet, and he’d been sitting in the vehicle for at least ten minutes. She hadn’t called or texted yet, but he knew he was probably causing some anxiety in her soul too. And he didn’t want to do that.

“Help me,” he begged as he got out of the truck. The chill in Wyoming in December was not to be trifled with, and Gray flipped up the collar on his coat to keep the wind off his neck. Someone had cleared the sidewalks, but he had to traverse snow and sleet to get there. His leather cowboy boots kept the dampness off his feet, and he hurried the rest of the way to the entrance of the restaurant.

He’d let Elise pick where she wanted to eat, because he didn’t live here and didn’t know what was good. By the level of noise and the amount of people waiting inside the reception area, he knew this place must be popular.

Glancing around, he searched for the beautiful blonde who’d first caught his eye at Colton’s house. Elise was light everywhere Gray was dark, and he wondered if their opposites extended to other things. He hadn’t spoken to her a whole lot over the months, little things here and there. The woman loved memes, and whenever Gray saw one he thought she’d like, he sent it to her.

They talked about Colton and Annie, her work at the lodge, and Bree. He did know she loved to bake and was good at it, and that she could literally cultivate any plant back to life. But most of what he knew about Elise hadn’t come from her, but Colton.

Her best friend.

Gray wasn’t sure what he was doing, getting involved with her. If things went badly—and Gray had no reason to think they wouldn’t—he’d have to deal with Colton. 

He couldn’t find Elise among the crowd, as she had a way of slipping through the cracks. Still, he’d never had a problem locating her at the lodge or among all the guests at his brother’s wedding. 

“Hey,” a woman said, and he turned toward the voice. Elise stood there, her cheeks pink and those light green eyes making something unhitch in his chest that he hadn’t even known was so dang tight.

“There you are.”

“Sorry I’m late.” She glanced around, nerves pouring off of her. Gray was exceptionally good at reading a person, and he could tell she didn’t like this

“Want to go somewhere else?” he asked.

Hope filled those beautiful eyes. “Did you put our name on the list?”

“I only got here myself,” he said. “I was looking for you. So no.”

“Sure, we can go somewhere else.” She turned and left the restaurant, and Gray followed. 

“There’s a great steakhouse over on March,” she said. 

“Okay.”

“Meet you there?”

“Yep.” Gray separated from her and got behind the wheel of his truck again. His heart beat a little faster than it normally did, because now he’d have to coax himself out of the vehicle one more time. 

“Make a right turn on Seagull,” his GPS said, and he obeyed. But when he arrived on March Street, it didn’t go all the way through. “Your destination is on the right.”

“But it’s not,” he said, pulling to the curb and picking up his phone. He was on a residential street, with homes on both sides. No steakhouse. He looked left and right out the windows. Definitely no steakhouse.

But this was definitely March Street. He typed in the search term “steakhouse” and got several results. Of course he would. This was Wyoming, after all, and they raised a lot of beef cattle here.

Frustration started to lick through him as he tapped and studied the addresses. In the end, he had to dial Elise, who picked up with, “I think I lost you.”

“I’m on March Street,” he said. “There’s no steakhouse here.” He swung his truck around to get out of the cul-de-sac. “What’s the name of the place?”

“The Branding Iron,” she said. “And it’s not on March Street. It’s on Marks Street.”

“Shoot,” Gray said, embarrassment moving through him powerfully. “I’ll be right there.” 

“Take your time,” she said. “They’re busy here too. I put our name on the list, and they said forty minutes.”

“Oh, wow.” Gray’s stomach growled as if telling him he better feed it sooner than forty minutes from now. “See you in a sec.”

Turned out that, no, he wouldn’t see her in a second. He’d somehow navigated clear out north of town, and it took a good half an hour to even get to the steakhouse. 

Something here was definitely wrong, but Gray pulled into the parking lot anyway. Easing around the restaurant, his phone started pinging, shooting out at least a dozen notifications for text messages in the space of two seconds.

“I hate the reception here,” he grumbled. He was used to lightning-fast Internet and text messages that went through the moment he sent them. His provider didn’t operate well in Coral Canyon, and half of Gray’s messages spun and spun, never going through at all. “Oh, wow.”

He stopped when he saw the crowds of people standing outside the steakhouse. 

And the big plume of smoke rising from the roof. When he heard the sirens for the fire engine, he got out of the way and picked up his phone.

He’d been gone from Colton’s for over an hour now, and he barely had time to eat with Elise at this point. She’d texted several times about a kitchen fire at The Branding Iron, and that she’d gone somewhere else.

“Be…right….” Gray dictated as his thumbs typed out the letters. Before he could finish the text and send it, he got thrown forward, the horribly loud sound of metal on metal crunching through his whole body, crackling in his ears, and imprinting on his soul.

He gripped the wheel, his phone gone and forgotten, the text not sent. He sucked at the air, trying to figure out what had happened.

An angry man’s face appeared through the driver’s side window. “You’ve got to move this.” He gestured furiously, and his clothing indicating he was an emergency worker. “Now.”

Gray punched the button to roll down his window. “You hit my truck.”

“You’re parked in a red zone, Mister,” the man said. “Now move immediately. We’ve got two more ambulances coming and another fire truck.”

“I am not in a red zone.” Gray knew better than that, and he got out of his truck, his own anger spiking. “I moved out of the way when I saw the smoke.”

“Just move,” the man barked, walking away.

“Who’s gonna pay for my truck?” Gray called after him, but he didn’t break stride or wave or anything.

Gray circled the back of the truck to access the damage, and sure enough, he was not in a red zone. Not even close. Fine, close, but at least ten feet away. 

He’d been hit by an ambulance, which had since been backed up. The tailgate had bent inward in the middle, and that whole assembly would have to be repaired. The fender hung off the truck completely on one side, and the whole thing leaned precariously to the right. 

He looked up to see if the ambulance drivers were still there, but they weren’t. Gray returned to the cab, frantically searching for his phone. He was a lawyer; he knew what to do to protect himself. And billionaire or not, he shouldn’t have to pay for damage to his vehicle that wasn’t his fault.

He first made sure the date and time feature on his camera was activated, and then he took at least forty pictures ranging from where he was parked to where the ambulance was—and the license plate of it—to the extent of the damage to his truck.

His fingers ached from the cold, and he’d forgotten about everything and anything else but the pictures and the icy chill threatening to overpower him. 

He finally climbed into the cab again, but it was as cold in there as outside, because he’d left the door open. His phone rang, and it didn’t connect to the Bluetooth and play through the speakers, which only made him more furious.

“What?” he barked at Colton.

Ohhh, Colton. Maybe something had gone wrong with Hunter. The fight left him, and Gray’s pulse pounded.

“Where are you?” he asked. “Elise just called me crying.”

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “This is a wonderful book that was amazing. I love it. It is well worth the time to read. The plot is great and so are the characters.” ~Marilyn G.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “I love Liz Isaacson with the Hammond Brothers in the Christmas at Whiskey Mountain Lodge series and Her Cowboy Billionaire Best Friend’s Brother is no exception! This is a story that keeps you wondering if they will ever get their acts together and just be! I mean a 12-year-old can see better than these two adults! A story well worth reading and I can’t wait for the next brother’s story!!!” ~Susan L.