Snow Queen (6 page)

Trying to stifle a smile, Aubrey bent over the table to get to work, her leg brushing Grayson’s. She had come here for the snow, not for a boyfriend. But if she couldn’t have one, maybe she would try out the other.

“I
’m sorry, but could it be any more obvious that Fabrizia is trying to shove Layla Chamberlain in the judges’ faces?” Aubrey ranted as she and Christie walked into the Spotted Owl’s lobby on Monday afternoon. She dropped her duffel bag on one of the couches near the fireplace and wriggled out of her brown coat. “She made absolutely sure that Madeline had Layla front and center throughout the entire dance sequence!”

“Aubrey, calm down,” Christie said, laying her hands out flat. She placed her pink dance bag down next to Aubrey’s and glanced over at the front desk, where Jonathan was chatting with a couple of guests. “Madeline is a world-class choreographer. I’m sure she wouldn’t change her work unless she thought the changes made sense for the piece.”

Aubrey guffawed as she lifted her arm overhead to stretch out. Her roller-hockey T-shirt was stuck to her skin with patches of sweat that peeled off as she moved. She’d had no idea that a two-hour dance rehearsal was going to be so labor-intensive.

“You’re crazy! Both those women are having their paychecks signed by the Chamberlains and they are making damn sure that the judges have their eyes trained on Layla as much as possible,” she said, fuming. “You’re the one who should be front and center. You’re a way better dancer than Layla.”

“You think?” Christie asked, turning pink with pleasure. She dropped down on one of the overstuffed plaid chairs facing the stone fireplace.

“
Beyond
better,” said Aubrey, looking out the window at the bright-blue, snow-free sky. She toyed with the strings hanging from the open blinds, her mind working overtime. What if Jim’s paranoia wasn’t paranoia at all, but good instincts? What if the fix
was
in? There was no way she was going to let nepotism get in the way of Christie winning the pageant. “Tomorrow we
have to find a way to get them to notice you and put you in the front line. You need to have the spotlight on you if you’re going to win.”

“What about you? You should be in front too,” Christie said, sitting forward.

Aubrey laughed. “Please. If they put me in front I’d twirl the wrong way and fall off the stage. Trust me. No one wants to be watching
me
.”

Christie smiled slyly. “That’s not exactly true,” she said in a leading way, gazing up at Aubrey. “There was one person there who couldn’t take his eyes off you.”

Aubrey blushed as she twisted the string around her finger. Grayson had been sitting in the audience throughout the rehearsal, and Aubrey
had
noticed that he seemed to be watching her quite a lot. Every time she looked over at him he had his eyes on her, actually. She had been both flattered and seriously distracted. In fact, now that she thought back, she wasn’t sure if she could remember a single dance move she’d learned.

She looked over her shoulder at Christie and caught her staring longingly at Jonathan. “Why
don’t you go talk to him?” she suggested.

“I can’t,” Christie protested.

“Why not? It went fine last night, didn’t it?” Aubrey asked. “You guys were cracking each other up for, like, an hour.”

“Yeah, I guess…” Christie said, blushing. “So can’t I just rest on my laurels or whatever?”

“No. You cannot. We’re only here for two weeks. You rest too long and all you’ll
have
is laurels,” Aubrey said with a laugh. “Whatever that means.” The couple Jonathan was talking to picked up their skis and walked off. “Look, he’s alone now. Just go over and say hi.”

Christie considered for a moment, then stood up with a grin. “Okay. But you’re coming with me.”

Aubrey rolled her eyes, smiling at her friend’s predictability. “Fine. Let’s go.”

“Hello, ladies,” Jonathan said as they approached. He grinned and tapped the desktop with his pen. “How was practice? You scare off the competition yet?” he asked, looking right at Christie.

Christie opened her mouth to respond, when suddenly they all froze. Angry voices rose up
from behind the closed door behind the front desk. Aubrey glanced at Christie. Rose and Jim were in the office arguing with a third person, but because of the closed door, Aubrey couldn’t make out anything. Then, suddenly, the door was flung open and out stormed a woman in a winter-white suit, her brown hair pulled back in a bun.

“That’s my final word,” she snapped, folding her wool coat over her arm. “If I were you I’d start thinking about a new source of revenue.”

She blew right past Aubrey, Christie, and Jonathan without so much as a glance and stalked out the front door. Rose and Jim emerged from the office, saw the girls standing there, and exchanged a defeated look.

“What was that all about?” Christie asked. “Why is Mrs. Chamberlain so angry?”

Aubrey glanced at the front door. The woman with all the fury was Grayson’s mother?

Jim took a deep breath and shook his head. “We have to tell her, Rose.”

Rose clucked her tongue and looked away. Aubrey’s pulse started to race. There was something very not good going on around here.

“Tell me what?” Christie asked, her voice growing tense.

“Mr. and Mrs. Chamberlain have decided to stop supporting the winter carnival,” Jim grumbled.

“What does that mean?” Christie asked.

“It means they’re not going to advertise it; they’re not going to run their shuttle over here…. They’re basically going to ignore its existence,” Rose replied wearily.

“And schedule as many highfalutin events at their resort as possible next week so that all the guests will want to stay there and not spend their money here,” Jim added, pressing his fists into the top of the desk.

“I don’t believe it,” Jonathan said. “But half the people who come to Darling next week come for the carnival.”

“Well, the Chamberlains are hoping to change all that,” Jim replied.

Christie looked as if she was about to cry. “But the Chamberlain is huge. If no one comes to the carnival from the resort…”

“We’re screwed,” Jonathan finished for her.

“You said it.” Jim blew out a sigh as he sat
down on one of the high stools behind the front desk, right next to Jonathan.

“So…why don’t you run your own shuttle?” Aubrey suggested. “You don’t need their stupid vans.”

“Actually, we do,” Rose replied. “You’ve seen the state of our van. It’s about ten miles away from breaking down for good. Plus Charlie has class at night, so we’d have to hire someone to drive it…
and
it’s a gas guzzler.”

“We’d need a new, larger van and someone to man it,” Jim said. “And we just don’t have the money to pay for either.”

“I’ll drive it,” Jonathan offered. “I’ll do it for free.”

Christie beamed at him as if he was Superman swooping in to save them all.

“That’s sweet, Jon, but you’re already working enough hours before and after school,” Rose said, placing her hand on his back. “Besides, like Jim said, we don’t have anything for you to drive.”

“We were planning on using the carnival revenue to fix the rusted-out pipes on the north side of the inn,” Jim explained. “But with the
carnival standing to make less this year thanks to the Chamberlains, we might not even be able to do that, let alone buy a van for next year.”

Aubrey’s heart felt heavy. No wonder Rose had seemed so uncertain that first day when she was talking about the plumbing. Aubrey had
known
that everything was not okay.

“And if we can’t fix the plumbing in all those rooms,” Rose said slowly, casting a sad look at Jim, “we may have to close the Spotted Owl.”

“What?” Christie and Jonathan said in unison.

“Which is, of course, exactly what the Chamberlains want. Then they’d be the only hotel on the mountain,” Jim said bitterly.

Christie’s eyes filled with tears, and an awful, sour feeling filled Aubrey’s chest. Did Grayson know about this? If he loved the Spotted Owl so much, why hadn’t he warned Jim and Rose this was happening? Or had all of that crap about liking the vibe here just been a lie?

Then, suddenly, a warm rush of realization came over Aubrey. Last night, she and Grayson had been talking about how much he liked the Spotted Owl, when he’d looked around in a
nostalgic way and started to say something, but stopped himself.

It’s just too bad that…

That what? That the place was about to be shut down by his parents? Aubrey’s face burned at the realization. No wonder he had clammed up. He didn’t want Aubrey to hear about his parents’ insidious plans and run back to the Howells with the news.

I’m crushing on a two-faced jerk
, Aubrey thought angrily.

“But you guys have owned this place forever,” Jonathan said.

“Yeah, they can’t just run you out of business,” Aubrey added, her fists clenching.

Jim and Rose looked at each other; then Rose took a deep breath. “Listen, you kids shouldn’t worry about this. We didn’t intend to burden you with our problems. We’re sorry you overheard anything.”

Jim stood up and cleared his throat, shoving his hands into the pockets of his corduroys. “Rose is right. This is our issue and we’ll figure out a way to fix it.” He touched his wife’s arm. “Come on, Rose. Let’s go take a
look at those numbers again.”

Rose gave Christie a hug before walking back into the office with Jim and closing the door.

“Are you okay?” Jonathan asked Christie from the opposite side of the desk, his expression concerned.

“I just don’t believe this,” Christie breathed, shaking her head. “I can’t imagine not having the Spotted Owl. And I’ve never seen those two so stressed out.”

“I’m sure they’ll come up with something,” Aubrey assured her friend. “It’s gonna be okay.”

Suddenly Christie snapped to, as if she’d just come out of a daydream. She looked at Aubrey and Jonathan, a brightness in her eyes. “Yeah. It is going to be okay. I’m going to make it okay.” She walked past Aubrey, heading for the stairs.

“Um, how, exactly?” Aubrey asked, chasing after her.

Christie stopped in her tracks and whirled around. “I am going to win that pageant,” she said firmly, lifting her chin. “And I’m going to take the prize money and give it to my grandparents. Let them use the Chamberlains’ own
money to fix the pipes and put a down payment on a shuttle van. That’ll show those jerks.”

“Nice!” Jonathan shouted after them.

Aubrey smiled. That
would
show those jerks. Mrs. Chamberlain, Layla, Grayson…
all
of them.

“Wow,” Aubrey said. “I’ve never seen you like this before. I like it.”

Christie smiled. “Me too. Now come on. We have a lot of work to do.”

“Dana! You’re supposed to move stage left, not stage right,” Layla snapped, causing Dana, the petite blonde she was confronting, to take a few startled steps backward. “You’re not even listening to Madeline.”

Layla was wearing black spandex pants that were so tight they were lewd, and a cropped red sweatshirt over a white tank top. Her brown hair was up in a high ponytail, and gold hoops dangled from her ears. She looked more like a streetwalker than a snow queen.

“Sorry, Layla! Sorry,” Dana said meekly, endeavoring to smile.

“No one
can
listen to Madeline because
Layla’s
too busy shouting at all of us,” Aubrey said under her breath.

“You said it, sister,” said the newly defiant Christie.

It was Tuesday morning and Aubrey was right smack in the middle of the dance rehearsal from hell. For the last hour she had watched Layla order girls around, adjust their arms for them, and criticize everyone within shouting distance, as if she was running the show. Every time the girl opened her mouth and no one said anything to stop her, Aubrey was that much more convinced that Fabrizia and Madeline were afraid of her—that, perhaps, Layla’s parents had told the director and the choreographer to
let
the girl run the show.

Aubrey glanced out at the front row of seats where Grayson usually sat, but he wasn’t there. If he had been in attendance, she was sure that Layla would not have been acting this way, and she wondered why he had skipped rehearsal. But then she remembered she wasn’t supposed to care.

We’re hating the Chamberlains, remember?
she told herself.
All the Chamberlains
.

“And
why
did you put Christie in the front row?” Layla demanded of Madeline. “It’s too crowded up here now.”

“More like you’re feeling threatened because she’s a better dancer than you are,” Aubrey said under her breath.

Layla shot her a look that could have melted the steel blades of her ice skates. Aubrey simply smirked in response. Before rehearsal had started she had made Christie go over the steps with her center stage, knowing that Madeline was watching from the wings. Christie had come off looking like a pro, and as soon as rehearsal had started, Madeline had moved Christie front and center, where she
should
be. Aubrey was still giddy that her plan had worked. And clearly, Layla was
not
.

“Shall we take it from the top?” Madeline asked from her position in front of the stage. The slight dance instructor had blond hair shorn very close to her head, and the biggest green eyes Aubrey had ever seen. At that moment, however, those big green eyes looked baggy and exhausted. Shocking, considering she was having to do her job around an obnoxious
know-it-all like Layla Chamberlain.

“Yes, let’s,” Layla said.

Aubrey’s fingers curled into fists. “She wasn’t asking your permission.”

Layla shot Aubrey another irritated look over her shoulder.

“Five, six, seven, eight!” Madeline called out.

The music started and Aubrey launched into her steps as best she could. She had never taken a formal dance lesson in her life and was still playing catch-up, while everyone around her seemed as if they could do the routine in their sleep—everyone except Dana, who was as mixed-up as Aubrey was. Aubrey felt almost grateful that she was dancing right behind Layla. At least the girl’s big hair would camouflage her a bit.

Still, Aubrey was starting to get the hang of it. At the very least, she was improving. She’d just started to feel proud of herself, when she executed a spin move and found herself facing the wrong direction. Suddenly, a foot came down right on top of her pinkie toe.