Sanders flicked a glance in the rearview mirror as she drove along the winding road up Crimson Mountain.
Her gaze landed on the sullen twelve-year-old girl biting down on her bottom lip as she stared out the SUV’s side window.
“It’s pretty, right?” April asked hopefully. “Peaceful?” She’d come to love the mountains in winter, especially on days without the sunny skies that made Colorado famous. The muted colors brought a stillness to the forest that seemed to calm something inside of her.
“It’s white,” Ranie Evans repeated. “White is boring.”
“I like snow,” Ranie’s sister, Shay, offered from her high perch in the booster seat. Shay was almost five, her personality as sunny as Ranie’s was sullen.
April didn’t blame Ranie for her anger. In the past month, the girls had been at their mother’s side as she’d lost her fight with cancer, then spent a week on their aunt’s pullout couch before they’d landed in Colorado with April.
Even this wasn’t permanent. At least that’s what April told herself. The idea of raising these two girls, as their mother’s will had stipulated, scared her more than anything she’d faced in life. More than her own battle with breast cancer. More than a humiliating divorce from her famous Hollywood director husband. More than rebuilding a shell of a life in the small mountain town of Crimson, Colorado. More than—
“Can we make a snowman at the cabin?” Shay asked, cutting through April’s brooding thoughts.
“You don’t want to go outside,” Ranie cautioned her sister. “Your fingers will freeze off.”
“No one’s fingers are freezing off,” April said quickly, hearing Shay’s tiny gasp of alarm. “You’ve both got winter gear now, with parkas and mittens.” The first stop after picking up the girls at Denver International Airport had been to a nearby sporting-goods store. April had purchased everything they’d need for the next two weeks in the mountains. “Of course we can build a snowman. We can build a whole snow family if you want.”
“What we want is to go back to California.”
April didn’t need another check in the rearview mirror. She could feel Ranie glaring at her from the backseat, every ounce of the girl’s ill temper focused on April.
“Mom took us to the beach every Christmas. Why wouldn’t Aunt Tracy take us to Hawaii with her? Why couldn’t you come to Santa Barbara? You used to live in LA. I remember you from when I was little and Mom first got sick.”
April tightened her grip on the steering wheel as memories of her friend Jill rushed over her. Taking the turn around one of the two-lane road’s steep switchbacks, she punched the accelerator too hard and felt the tires begin to spin as they lost traction.
Ignoring the panicked shrieks from the backseat, she eased off the gas pedal and corrected the steering, relieved to feel the SUV under her control again.
“It’s okay,” she assured the girls with a forced smile. April was still adjusting to driving during Colorado winters. “The road is icy up here, but we’re close to the turnoff for the cabin.” She risked another brief look and saw that Ranie had reached across the empty middle seat to take Shay’s hand, both girls holding on like the lifeline they were to each other.
It broke April’s heart.
She pulled off onto the shoulder after turning up the recently plowed gravel drive that led to Cloud Cabin. The quasi “remote wilderness experience” was an offshoot of Crimson Ranch, the popular guest ranch in the valley, and had opened earlier in the fall. The owners happened to be April’s best friend, movie actress Sara Travers, and her husband, Josh. April had first come to Crimson with Sara three years ago, both women burned out and broken down by their lives in Hollywood.
April knew this town could heal someone when they let it. Crimson—and Josh’s love—had done that for Sara. April also recognized that she’d held herself back from the community and hadn’t truly become a part of it.
Throwing the SUV into Park, she turned to the backseat and met the wary gazes of each of her late friend’s precious girls. “I’m sorry your aunt couldn’t change her plans for the holidays.” She took a deep breath as frustration over Tracy’s callous attitude toward her nieces threatened to overtake her. “I’m sorry I couldn’t come to California for these weeks. I have a work commitment here that can’t be changed.”
“I thought you were a yoga teacher.” Ranie snatched her fingers away from Shay’s grasp. “Who does yoga in the snow?”
“No one I know.” April wanted to unstrap her seat belt, crawl into the backseat and gather the surly girl into her arms and try to hug away some of the pain pouring off her. “There’s a guest coming to stay at the cabin for Christmas. I need to get there and make sure everything is in order before he arrives. He’s a writer and needs to finish a book. He wants the privacy of the mountains to concentrate.”
She was already behind, the detour to the airport in Denver pushing back her arrival at Cloud Cabin a few hours. “My job is to cook for him, manage the housekeeping and—”
Ranie offered her best preteen sneer. “Like you’re a maid?”
“Like I take care of people,” April corrected.
“Like you’re taking care of us because Mommy died.” Shay’s voice was sad but still sweet.
“I am, honey,” April whispered around the ball of emotion clogging her throat. She smiled at Ranie, but the girl’s eyes narrowed, as if she knew being with April was anything but a sure bet for their future.
April turned up the brightness of her smile as she looked at Shay. “Only about a quarter mile more.” She turned to the front and flipped on the radio, tuning it to a satellite station that got reception even in this remote area. “How about some holiday music? Do either of you have a favorite Christmas song?”
“‘Rudolph,’” Shay shouted, clapping her hands.
April pulled the SUV back onto the snow-packed road. “How about you, Ranie?”
“I hate Christmas music,” the girl muttered, then added, “but not as much as I hate you.”
Despite the jab to her heart, April ignored the rude words. She turned up the volume and sang along until the cabin came into view. A driver was bringing Connor Pierce, who was flying into the Aspen airport, to the cabin. The fact that the windows were dark gave her hope that she’d caught at least one break today, and he hadn’t arrived before her.
April needed every advantage she could get if she was going to successfully manage these next two weeks.
* * *
“No kids.”
Connor Pierce growled those two words as soon as the willowy redhead walked into the kitchen.
Maybe he should have waited to speak until she’d spotted him standing in front of the window. Unprepared, she’d jumped into the air, dropping the bag of groceries as she clutched one hand to her chest.
Her wide brown eyes met his across the room, a mix of shock and fear in her gaze. Scaring a woman half
