Are you awake?”
“Mmmph,” she mumbled. Even that hurt.
“Come on. Get up. It snowed so much last night! You have to see!”
Maddie bounced on the bed in her enthusiasm, unleashing a whole host of new aches and pains. Eliza swallowed her groan and opened her eyes fully. Maddie beamed and bounced on the bed again.
Her delight in the world around her, how she embraced each day with excitement and joy, filled Eliza’s heart with a little burst of joy, even when the rest of her hurt.
“Good morning, Miss Maddie.”
“It snowed so much!” she repeated eagerly. “You have to see. Hurry, Mama, before it all melts!”
Eliza had a feeling she wasn’t going to be hurrying anywhere for quite some time. She drew in a deep breath and pushed away the blanket then swung her legs to the floor.
Maddie waited eagerly while she wrapped the throw over her shoulders again and dutifully padded over to the window. When she looked out, a small laugh escaped her. Wow. Maddie wanted her to see the snow before it melted. Judging by the scene outside the window, that happy event wouldn’t be until April, at the earliest.
Maybe not even until May.
The snow covered everything in heavy, deep mounds. Even the pines wore thick white coats, with hardly a bit of green showing through.
As she expected in the night, the view from the house was spectacular. The vast lake—her research before deciding on the move to the area had taught her the lake was seven miles across and fifteen miles long—gleamed a bright, vivid blue in contrast to the blinding white snow everywhere else. The raw, dramatic mountains rose up almost from the water’s edge.
“Isn’t it pretty, Mama? Don’t you just love it? I want to build a snowman right now! Can we?”
Yeah, that wasn’t happening at the moment, when she could barely walk. “Why don’t we go look for breakfast first and then we’ll see how things go?”
“Okay. I am hungry.”
“We need to get dressed first. Can you find some clothes in your suitcase?”
Maddie nodded and unzipped her case. “Can Bob and me visit the horses today?” she asked as she was pulling out her favorite sweater which, not surprisingly, had a horse appliqué sewn on the front. “Mr. Aidan said I could if you let me.”
“That would be fun. You have to do some homework first before we do anything else right? While I’m in the shower, finish changing out of your pajamas and try to finish a worksheet or two.”
Maddie, predictably, made a face at that but agreed.
Eliza had decided not to enroll her into a new kindergarten class until after Christmas so her daughter didn’t have so many transitions at once, especially since school would be breaking for the holidays only a week after she moved to Haven Point.
She had worried a new apartment, new schedule and new school all at the same time might be too difficult for Maddie. In this whole mess, that, at least, was one of her own decisions she didn’t doubt.
While Eliza showered—oh, the wonder of those jets—and finished dressing and fixing her hair and makeup, Maddie quickly finished several of the worksheets her teacher in Boise had given Eliza to carry Maddie through the end of the year.
When she was done, Maddie entertained herself by playing her favorite game on Eliza’s tablet and watching the snow steadily falling outside.
Eliza considered it nothing short of a blessing that her daughter entertained herself so well. Maddie hardly ever complained she was bored. Give her a few art supplies or a couple of favorite toys and she could amuse herself for hours, something Eliza definitely appreciated for long waits in the doctor’s office or during lengthy hospital stays.
After she was dressed—finally conceding she had done the best she could with her limited makeup tools and skills to conceal the bruises from the accident—she pulled Maddie’s hair back in a ponytail and the two of them set off to try finding the kitchen again.
They walked hand in hand through the gorgeous house, with those honey-colored logs that glowed glossy and warm in the shafts of sunlight streaming through the windows everywhere.
A gas fire flickered cheerfully in the great room fireplace but no one seemed to be in sight. That huge tree looked even more barren and forlorn in the daylight.
From somewhere close by they heard someone singing “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus” in an off-key twang. Sue. Eliza followed the sound to a big, well-appointed kitchen with gorgeous professional-grade appliances, granite countertops and a work island in the middle as big as a decent-sized children’s swimming pool.
“Good morning,” Eliza said.
Sue whirled around from the sink. “Hello! I wondered when you two might show your faces this morning.”
“Sorry we slept so long.”
“No need to apologize, darlin’. You had quite a day yesterday. It’s barely nine o’clock, anyway.”
On a normal day, Eliza was usually up by six so she could work out, get in a load of laundry or take care of bills before Maddie awoke.
“How are you feeling this morning?” Sue asked.
She forced a smile. “Much better,” she said. It wasn’t a complete lie.
“Aidan told me to let the two of you sleep as long as you need.”
“Did he?” She wondered where he might be, but she didn’t want to ask—nor did she want to think about the heated dream she had about him.
Sue answered her unspoken thought, anyway. “He and Jim are out trying to clear the driveway. They’ve got the plow on the pickup truck and the tractor going, too.”
She tried to picture sexy brainiac Aidan Caine driving a tractor and couldn’t quite make the image jell.
“He mentioned last night that more snow was expected throughout the day.” Right now the sun was shining but she knew that could change in a blink.
“Oh, yes,” Sue said cheerfully. “We’re supposed to have loads and loads of it, at least for another day or two. Guess you’re stuck with us.”
“Yay!” Maddie said. “I like it here.”
“And we like having you, Miss Maddie,” Sue said. “I’ve got some breakfast waiting for you. I’ve just been keeping it warm.”
She pulled a couple of plates out of a warming oven, layered high with scrambled eggs and sausages. “Have a seat, my dears. It won’t take me five minutes to add some pancakes to these.”
As they wouldn’t be able to eat half of what she had already prepared for them, Eliza started to tell her that pancakes weren’t necessary but Maddie spoke up before she could.
“Oh, I love pancakes!” Maddie declared.
