Second Chance Christmas (The Colorado Cades) (10 page)

He’d just made it back to the base station when a call came over the radio that Graham Donnelly had reported two missing teenagers.

* * *

T
HERE
WAS
NOTHING
like a mountain to give a person perspective. Elisabeth had been completely stressed out when she’d arrived at the lodge, but a six-year-old with a bad temper was not a life-or-death situation. Accidents—and, occasionally, even fatalities—happened in ski communities, but overall, the Donnelly lodge had been lucky. This was their first real crisis of the season.

Adrenaline was coursing through Elisabeth’s body, but she worked to keep her tone as calm as possible while speaking to Amanda Lamb.

Twenty minutes ago, the middle-aged Mrs. Lamb had shown up in a panic at the registration desk. She’d been hysterical, so it had taken both Patti and Elisabeth to piece together the story. The Lamb family, including sixteen-year-old Meredith, were staying at the lodge. Meredith had befriended a cute nineteen-year-old guy who was visiting along with some college buddies.

“She’s obviously got a crush on him, but he’s too old for her,” Amanda had sobbed. “I told her to stay away from him, and she was furious with me, said that all I ever do is try to ruin her fun.”

When the time came for the Lamb family to hit the slopes that morning, Meredith had complained of cramps and asked to stay in the room and read. Her parents had agreed. But after a couple of runs, when the chairlift was put on a wind-hold, the Lambs had decided to return to the lodge for lunch and to check on Meredith.

“She wasn’t in the room,” Amanda said, sounding horrified anew by the discovery. “But her phone was there. She never goes anywhere without it! I thought she must be at the vending machine or the gift shop. Something quick.”

As the Lambs grew progressively worried, Mr. Lamb had tracked down one of the college boys, who admitted Meredith had secretly met with his friend. Both teens had last been seen leaving the lodge, but the boys had expected their friend back by now because they had plans that afternoon. The Lambs were frantic.

And quasi-murderous. It had taken both Javier and Elisabeth’s dad to pull Mr. Lamb away from the college kid. “That’s my daughter out there!” the man had been yelling in full view of other diners. “If anything happens to her...”

Graham Donnelly took the father to a patrol station, and Lina joined Meredith’s younger siblings in the restaurant. Elisabeth ushered the weeping Mrs. Lamb into her office to give her a place to wait where her tears wouldn’t alarm her other children. Kaylee had been coloring in the corner, but Patti challenged her to a few rounds of air hockey in the game room, diplomatically removing her from the office.

“Th-that was your l-little girl?” Amanda asked, blowing her nose. She’d already gone through an entire box of tissues, so Elisabeth pulled out another from the supply closet.

“Yes.” She didn’t see the point in explaining that Kaylee wasn’t hers biologically.
She’s mine in all the ways that matter
.

“Daughters will break your heart. Every damn day, they’ll break your heart,” Amanda said. “But you love them more than anything in the world anyway. Meredith isn’t a bad kid, overall. Honors student, careful driver, sweet to her little brothers. But, still... Some days, it seems like everything I do is wrong and that she completely hates me.”

“Know that feeling,” Elisabeth commiserated. When the phone at her elbow rang, both women jumped.

“Oh, God,” Amanda wailed. “Have they found her?” The question she didn’t ask was, in what condition had her daughter been found?

The caller was Elisabeth’s dad. “Patrollers have Meredith,” he said. “She’s going to be fine.”

Elisabeth relayed this news to Amanda, who began crying even harder.

“Meredith and the boy she was with ducked under ropes onto a closed trail,” Graham continued, explaining their mysterious whereabouts.

Elisabeth’s heart sank. Those trails were closed for a reason. People didn’t understand, looking at the snowcapped trees and seemingly peaceful white landscape, how deadly conditions could be with no warning at all.

Her father confirmed her fears. “He was buried, and she couldn’t find him. She went running for help. Justin Cade was one of the patrollers already looking for her, and he’s bringing her to the station. Tell Mrs. Lamb that she’s not hurt, only scared. A rescue team’s out looking for the boy.”

Elisabeth thanked her dad for the update and hung up, vastly relieved that she had good news for Amanda Lamb but still worried for the other missing teen. Who they now knew was missing under an avalanche of snow. Her pulse pounded. She’d seen avalanches in person, and the comparison that always came to mind was lava—an unyielding spill crashing down the mountain, a threat to every single thing in its path.

“It’s okay. Meredith is okay.” She squeezed Mrs. Lamb’s hand, surprised to find her own eyes were damp. “Your daughter was lucky. She was found by one of the best patrollers in Cielo Peak, my friend Justin.”

“Is Justin here?” a high-pitched voice demanded.

Elisabeth looked past Amanda to Kaylee. “What are you doing back here? I thought you were playing with Grandma.”

“Lina has to give someone a back rub, so Grandma and I are going to have lunch with those kids. I wanted my crayons. Where’s Justin?”

“Out doing his job.” Elisabeth angled her chin, gesturing toward the window and the snowy expanse beyond. “He saved this woman’s daughter.”

Kaylee didn’t seem as impressed as Elisabeth expected. Or maybe she just assumed that her hero was constantly saving people and therefore wasn’t surprised by the news. “Can I go see him?”

“No, you take your crayons and get back to Grandma. I’ll be watching you cross the lobby to the restaurant, so no detours,” she warned.

Kaylee glared. “I want to see Justin!”

“Maybe later. He’s busy right now. Adults have responsibilities. And so do children,” she added. “Your responsibility is to do what you’re told.”

Glaring, Kaylee snatched up her crayons and stomped out of the room.

Amanda gave a watery laugh. “Guess it’s not just sixteen-year-olds who throw fits when you try to keep them from the men they admire. But my kid disobeyed me for a smug nineteen-year-old who doesn’t think the rules apply to him, whereas your daughter seems smitten with a bona fide hero. At least she has discerning taste.”

Chapter Nine

People who paid money to visit ski lodges sometimes felt cheated when they didn’t actually get to ski—even though their hosts couldn’t do a thing to control weather conditions. Elisabeth was exceedingly grateful for the guests who were in good spirits and even the ones who were disappointed but understood the logic of not skiing in a snowstorm. Why didn’t more people exhibit common sense? And why call it “common” if so many lacked it?

As Monday afternoon wore on, and it became clear skiing was probably going to be impossible for the rest of the day, she found herself dealing with an increasing number of grumbling guests. Some seemed to be getting stir-crazy even though they’d only been stuck in the lodge for a few hours. She had to step in when a woman in the gift shop became verbally abusive with the cashier.

As Elisabeth crossed the lobby to return to her office, someone tapped her on the shoulder. Another complainant? She smoothed her features into a calm, accommodating expression, even as she fantasized about that move in kung-fu films, where a small protagonist was able to grab the hand of the burly cretin behind her and flip him to the ground.

She spun around. “How may I— Oh.” Seeing Justin in his red patrol coat, his eyes brighter than ever in a face abraded by the elements, was like drinking hot chocolate. Liquid heat coursed through her body, sweet and addictive. “Hi.”

“Hey.” His blue-green eyes crinkled at the corners as he smiled down at her. “Thought I’d stop by and ask how Meredith’s doing.”

“Better, thanks to you. She could’ve been seriously injured.”

“She could’ve been killed,” he corrected somberly. “That boy was in bad shape when we found him.”

She shivered at the thought of the kid’s narrow escape. “Dad drove down to the hospital to check on him. The doctors say no long-term damage was done.”

“He or either of those other two frat yahoos have any family in the area?” Justin asked.

“Not local, but his mom and stepdad are about an hour and a half away. I called them earlier.”

No doubt the vitriol the boy’s stepfather had spewed at her stemmed from a sense of helplessness and fear, but that hadn’t made it any more pleasant to endure. It flabbergasted her that the man had threatened to sue instead of praising the rescue efforts of those who’d saved his son’s life after he chose to ignore the posted warnings and sneak into an area he knew was off-limits. To say nothing of his taking a minor with him, thereby putting her in harm’s way.

She met Justin’s gaze. “I am so sick of people yelling at me today.”

“That bad, huh?”

“Worse.” She squeezed her eyes briefly shut, as if she could ward off her headache through sheer force of will. “Even Kaylee got in on the action. By the way, she doesn’t want to live with me anymore. She informed me she wants to move in with you. To tell you the truth, if her attitude doesn’t improve, I may let her.”

He looked genuinely distraught by this news. “I am so sorry. You warned me at the tree place that this was supposed to be a time for her and Steven to do some father-daughter bonding. I didn’t mean to get in the way of that. Running into you at the mall was an accident, but I guess it wasn’t very sensitive of me to offer babysitting on Saturday.”

She was touched by the contrition in his voice. “Amanda Lamb told me today that drama between mothers and daughters is normal and that I should expect plenty more of these blowups over the next decade. So I guess from that perspective, I’m doing something right,” she said wanly.

Justin cupped the side of her neck, idly rubbing a knot of tension with his thumb. “You’re doing a ton right,” he said, continuing the massage in slow, deep circles. She fought the urge to press into his touch and purr. Before, he’d worked here during the summer season as a hiking guide and first-aid administrator. If he ever wanted to come back, he should talk to Lina about hiring him to give massages. Women would be lined up around the mountain.

“Do you want me to say hi to Kaylee while I’m here,” he asked, “or would it make your life easier if I left quietly, without encouraging her?”

“She had a rough night last night with no decent sleep and everyone around here’s been pretty frazzled today. A quick hello from you may help turn the tide. I think she’s upstairs with Lina getting her nails painted right now, though.”

He pointed to some vending machines outside the game room. “Lina’s over there getting a soda.”

“Oh, then Kaylee’s probably back in the office.” Elisabeth led him behind the reception desk and into the office. Which was empty. She poked her head out of the room and called to her sister across the lobby.

“What’s up?” Lina asked.

“Is Kaylee still getting her nails done?” Elisabeth asked.

Her sister frowned. “No. I haven’t seen her since lunch.”

“What? I dialed your extension for her earlier, right before I had to deal with an accusation against housekeeping.” A man had said his was wallet was stolen, but it turned out that his wife had simply moved it. “I told Kaylee she could ask if you were ready for her and if not, she could keep coloring. When I got back to the office, she wasn’t there, so I assumed...”

No one could enter the office without going behind the enclosed reception counter and the lodge was full of Kaylee’s extended and honorary family, so Elisabeth had felt safe leaving the little girl alone for a minute. Now she battled gruesome images of worst-case situations.

“Breathe,” Justin reminded her softly as if he felt her rising panic. “We’ll find her.”

Elisabeth wanted to believe him, but knew she wouldn’t feel calm again until she could see Kaylee with her own two eyes. “She didn’t talk to you?” she asked Lina.

“We talked. She asked me about coming up like you instructed, but since no one can ski right now, our appointment book filled right up. I couldn’t squeeze her in yet.”

So first Elisabeth had disappointed her by telling her she couldn’t see Justin, then Lina had reneged on the mani-pedi offer? Elisabeth tried to put herself in Kaylee’s shoes, thinking like a miffed kindergartener. “Maybe she slipped into the kitchen to visit Chef Bates.” The little girl would’ve wanted a sympathetic ear and some comfort food.

Lina nodded. “She worships him.”

Elisabeth lifted the receiver from the phone on her dad’s desk and punched the button for the restaurant. “Javier, have you seen Kaylee over there? Would you mind checking with the chef?” He put her on hold and as she waited, her palms grew clammy.

She was probably overreacting because of the day’s earlier events—too much leftover adrenaline in her system looking for an outlet. Just because there was some superstitious saying about bad things happening in threes didn’t mean there was any truth to it.

Breaking up with Steven, those kids on the closed trail, Kaylee...

“
Ella no está aquí.”
Javier’s accent was thick with apprehension.
“I am sorry, Senorita. The chef, he has not seen her since lunchtime.”

Her fingers shook.
“Thanks, Javier. I’m going to look around the first floor. If you see her, buzz my cell phone?” The back of her throat burned. So did her eyes. She raced toward the doorway. “Kaylee? Kaylee!”

A few guests stopped what they were doing and glanced in her direction, but no Kaylee emerged from the game room or sat up from one of the comfy sofas in the lobby. Meanwhile, Lina rang the salon upstairs to see if Kaylee had decided to plead her case in person. “Maybe she was on the elevator going up at the same time I was taking the stairs down. For that matter, have we checked the elevators? You know she loves punching the buttons.”

But no one had seen her on the third floor. Lina checked in the women’s restroom, and Justin talked to some guests exiting the elevator banks.

Lina’s voice was beginning to quiver. “Should we check with Javier again?”

“He knows to call me the second he sees her,” Elisabeth pointed out.

“Right.” Lina nodded, her eyes unfocused. “I just really expected that she’d be with Chef. He’s her favorite person on the planet next to you.”

Oh, God. “No. No, he isn’t—at least not for the past few days,” Elisabeth said, hoping against hope that she was wrong. She recalled Kaylee’s tearful declaration that she wanted to go live with Justin and the girl’s excitement when she’d thought he was here earlier.

Justin flinched, his eyes darkening with realization. “It’s me, isn’t it? I’m the person you think she went to see.”

“She was asking for you.” Elisabeth stared in horror out the window, where wind was whipping the snow against the glass. “And I told her you were out there.”

* * *

“Y
OU
SHOULDN
’
T
BE
HERE
.”
Justin didn’t know why he wasted his breath on the words. They were nothing he hadn’t already said a dozen times. When he’d tried to warn Elisabeth about the biting winds and rapidly diminishing visibility, it had only redoubled her determination.

“That is my daughter out there,” she’d told him. “You can go without me, but you can’t stop me from looking for her on my own, so what’s it gonna be?”

As Justin and Elisabeth set out, he’d radioed Trey Grainger to see if he could bring a couple of more guys to help sweep the area surrounding the lodge. Back at the lodge, Lina and Patti were turning the place inside out in case Kaylee was holed up in some corner playing cards with one of the guests’ kids. Justin prayed she was. Part of the area surrounding the lodge was road, and visibility was already lethally low. The odds of a driver seeing a small child and being able to stop quickly in icy conditions—

He flashed back to the day he’d learned his sister-in-law and young nephew had been killed. Justin was trained for rescue. He should be cool and detached out here, his actions dictated by hours of training and experience. Instead, he felt almost paralyzed with fear.

Stop thinking about the car accident. Don’t think about the roads
. On the positive side, not many people would brave driving in these conditions. On the negative? It was getting dark. His gut clenched as he imagine a six-year-old runaway with no gloves or flashlight out in this blizzard. Even
he
felt frozen through, and this was the office where he reported for work every day.

He squinted through the fading light, studying a distant structure. “Remind me—what’s that cabin? Would it be unlocked?” If he were a scared kid out in the freezing cold, possibly too turned around to retrace the path to the lodge, wouldn’t the logical course of action be seeking any convenient shelter?

“When my grandparents first opened the lodge, that was where they lived.” Elisabeth led the way. “We rent it out to families who are willing to pay extra for separate bedrooms and their own kitchen facilities, sometimes we use it for special events, but it’s empty right now. It should be locked, though. I have a key, but Kaylee wouldn’t be—” She sucked in her voice, then swore with feeling. “
Damn it
. Justin? I dropped the key ring.”

He knelt beside her, both of them digging with their gloved hands. At first, they were too intent on their task to hear the muffled sound of the cell phone ringing inside her jacket.

Elisabeth yanked off one of her gloves, letting it fall heedlessly into the snow while she put Lina on speaker phone. “What is it? Did you find her? Is she okay?”

Justin’s heart stopped. If anything had happened to Kaylee, happened to her because of
him
—

“You’re not going to believe this.” Lina’s voice was a strangled combination of laughter and tears. “She was asleep the whole time. In the Cupboard of Doom.”

Cupboard of what?

Elisabeth rocked back on her heels, looking dazed, as if she couldn’t process the good news. “That can’t be right. Small as she is, she still wouldn’t fit. And we would’ve noticed immediately if she’d opened that door. A landslide of stuff would’ve cascaded out.”

“I was as surprised as you. Dad called to say he’s at the diner in town, waiting for the worst of the weather to pass. I told him about Kaylee disappearing from the office, and he suggested I check the cupboard. Turns out, he’s been coming in late at night and slowly clearing it out. Getting it organized after all these years was going to be his Christmas present to you. She’s fine. Want to talk to her?”

It had obviously been a rhetorical question since Lina wasted no time handing over the phone. Then they both heard Kaylee’s small voice. “Elisabeth? I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hide and scare you and make you leave.”

Thank God
. Justin didn’t think he’d truly accepted that the girl was okay until they heard her. When they’d left the lodge, he’d been so afraid that he’d caused this. He’d been choking on the irony—that a kid with a chance at a stable home with two parents might risk her own safety over a loser like him. Listening with half an ear to Elisabeth and Kaylee, he continued pawing through the snow until he came up with the keychain.

Holding it up for her to see, he cocked his head toward the cabin door. “How about we finish this conversation inside where it’s warm?”

* * *

E
LISABETH
STOOD
BENEATH
the steamy spray of water and evaluated the situation. She was snowbound for the night in a quaint cabin with the only man who’d ever broken her heart. It had been a very unsettling day. No, it had been a horrible day, the worst in memory since Kaylee had come to live with her.

When she and Justin had stepped inside the cabin, he’d suggested they wait out the blizzard here instead of trying to track back to the lodge in the dark. Now that they knew Kaylee was safe, it seemed unnecessarily reckless to court pneumonia or frostbite. Here, they had electricity, food, plumbing and two beds. And luxurious hooded bathrobes with a velour finish and the lodge’s logo on the pocket.

Her pulse had stuttered when Justin had assessed her from head to toe and declared, “We should get out of these clothes.”

For safety reasons
, she’d repeated to herself over and over. Not sexual ones. They’d both been wearing quality protective gear, of course, but the kind of wet, bitter cold they’d slogged through was pervasive. Besides, she couldn’t help feeling as though the clothes she’d worn all day were contaminated with fear and anguish and guilt over not paying better attention to Kaylee, or speaking to her too sharply.