Page 12 of Wait a HO HO HO Second!

#Officiallyimpressed

The mall was deathly silent at 6 a.m. when Kian arrived, armed with keys to get him into the plaza through the employee entrance, legally this time. Dressed down in combat boots, jeans, and a flannel jacket, he was ready to work. Did he think he could pull off pretending to be an employee? No. There was no way he was going to pull off an episode of Undercover Boss. He was too well-known in Snowcap Ridge, but he hoped the lack of a suit and tie would keep people from thinking he couldn’t relate. At the office, he prided himself on being relatable, and for the most part, he was, once people learned to look past his name.

Wandering the mall's corridors brought back so many childhood memories. Ironically, few of them included his mother. They were mostly of him and his friends at the mall, playing at the arcade and grabbing food from the food court. Obnoxious middle school boys, thinking they were hot stuff, were probably what every store owner hated more than life itself, especially when the loudest, most obnoxious one was the boss’s son. The question is, if he knew he was loud and obnoxious, why did he keep doing it? Kian had pondered that question many times over the years, and after three therapy sessions, he had his answer. He wanted his mother to notice him. It’s that whole idea that any attention is good attention. In hindsight, with maturity, he now understood that was the furthest thing from the truth.

That was then, and this is now. He’s no longer a twelve-year-old boy trying to make his mother’s life difficult. He’s a thirty-year-old man out to change the opinion of the woman beside him. That was the entire goal. If he could gain Joy’s respect, he’d be happy. He wasn’t asking for them to be best friends. He knew for damn sure that wouldn’t happen. If they could find a way to work together without the years of mistrust between them, he couldn’t ask for more. He’d been an ass to her. She had every right not to trust him. He wouldn’t trust him if he were in her shoes. Not until he earned it. He would. Because if he didn’t, owning this mall together would be hell.

Could he sell his half of the mall? According to his mother’s will, he could sell only to Joy, and she didn’t have an extra 75 million dollars lying around. No banker alive would lend her that much to buy him out. Kian didn’t want to sell his half anyway. He had no doubt they could work together. Besides, given the way Joy ran this place, the profits alone would let him do whatever he wanted.

Eyeing Joy as they walked, Kian wondered whether, once she found out about the situation, she’d demand he pony up and do his share of the work at the mall. Probably not. She’d been running the place on her own for years, so inserting himself into the picture would likely make it run less efficiently. However, it wasn’t fair that she did all the work while he did nothing but reap the rewards.

As you’re doing right now, he reminded himself. Until she knows she’s a half-owner of this mall, you’re walking a dangerous line.

Kian knew it, but he also figured the hefty profit-sharing check he’d hand over at the end of the month would be enough to calm Joy’s anger about not learning sooner that Lorelei had left her the place. Not to mention, she was an overnight millionaire. That was why he’d had August working with her for the last six months. He wanted to get a feel for how she ran everything month after month to be sure the results they were seeing weren’t a fluke. The years of soaring profits told him it wasn’t, but he also had little idea how much help his mother was in running her original mall. From what he could tell, it couldn’t have been much, because if anything, profits had only grown over the last six months.

“How did you learn to run this mall?” Kian asked as they walked toward center court.

“Working with your mother,” Joy answered. “Harley!” she called to a woman, cutting off his line of questioning. “Come here!” He smiled when he saw she was waving the woman over with one crutch.

Joy had met Kian when he arrived at 6 a.m. and introduced him to the inner workings of the mall's maintenance. Now, almost four hours later, they’d been walking the mall for an hour, talking with store and mall employees as everyone prepared for the biggest retail season. His mother always said that if Black Friday fell short, the season would, too.

He remembered the anxiety she’d feel on Thanksgiving Day, always wondering whether she’d done enough to promote the sales. That was when he was in early elementary school. Once the portfolio took off, her anxiety eased, and she settled into the belief that even in bad years they’d be okay. He’d seen the Black Friday numbers. This wouldn’t be a bad year for Snowcap Ridge Outlet Mall.

“Harley, you remember Kian Van Adler,” Joy said as the woman stopped beside them.

“Of course,” Harley said, looking as if she had just sucked on a lemon. “You were both a year ahead of me in school, but it’s hard to forget such a famous Snowcap Ridge athlete.”

Harley said the word as if it left a bad taste in her mouth. It probably did, but he stuck out his hand anyway. “Nice to meet you, Harley.”

“You’ve met me,” she said, rolling her eyes. “Homecoming dance in 2014 ring any bells?”

Grimacing, Kian searched his mind's archives but came up blank. Before he could speak, she did. “Didn’t think so. It’s Harley Hamilton now. I own Bees and Trees.” When she pointed behind her, he noticed the storefront, its door adorned with a tree and a beehive, and the window display featuring children's mannequins in various stages of play.

“Cute display window,” he said, still wondering what had happened at the 2014 homecoming dance. He’d admit he’d gone to so many of those dances that they were all a blur now.

“Her store is one of our top-selling boutiques,” Joy supplied, probably just as annoyed that he didn’t remember Harley as Harley was. Chicks stick together like that.

“Your mother was always wonderful to work with,” Harley added. “We all miss her terribly here.”

“Me too,” Kian said, his teeth clenching. “She was the glue that held Van Adler Holdings together, but Snowcap Ridge held a special place in her heart.”

“Is that why you’re back for the holiday season?” Harley asked, softening. “To ensure her legacy lives on?”

“Something like that,” he agreed, glancing at Joy to see if she was enjoying this. She was. Did he think she’d set him up deliberately? No. It was probably just chance that she had flagged down someone who held a less-than-favorable opinion of him. Then again, that chance was probably still higher than average in Snowcap Ridge.

“Kian is here to see how I run the mall and keep it in the black,” Joy explained. “If there’s anything you’d like to share with him, I’m sure he’ll take it back to corporate and discuss it with the board.”

Harley stepped forward and jabbed her finger into his chest. Apparently, she wasn’t afraid of him. “Here’s my message for corporate: Hands off this mall and our GM. Joy keeps the mall running year-round and brings in new customers week after week. She learned from the best, who expected nothing but the best from all of us. We’ve met Lorelei’s expectations, and we won’t change the way we do things now that she’s gone. We have no alliance with Van Adler Holdings. Our alliance is to your mother and the woman she entrusted with her favorite place, Joy Brady.”

Unable to resist, Kian arched his brows, feigning surprise even though he was anything but. He’d heard the same message, one way or another, from every employee and owner in the mall today. Hands off our mall and hands off our Joy. He wouldn’t keep his hands off their mall because it was his, too. He would keep his hands off Joy because if he tried to lay a hand on her, he’d probably get it lopped off. Rightly so.

“Thank you for your input, but rest assured, we have no plans to make any changes at Snowcap Ridge Outlet Mall. I’m here primarily as an observer.”

“He wants to replicate the success of Snowcap Ridge at the other outlet malls,” Joy explained, and Harley laughed heartily.

“Unless you have a cloned Joy in your back pocket, good luck with that,” she said. “Nice to see you again, Kian, but I have to get back to the shop. The doors open in T-10, and I need to be ready.”

“Thanks for sharing your ideas,” he said, realizing how lame it sounded, but he couldn’t say much more about their interaction. If he said he didn’t notice Joy’s smug smile, he’d be lying, but he’d let her think she’d won this round. After all, he was here for the long haul. She just didn’t know that yet.