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Chapter 1

In real life, snoas not nearly as delightful as it appeared incar finally ca up the side of theany sudden h she wasn’t exactly sure what the it was There’d been a swoosh and a swerve and then the world twirling around her There ht have been a screa to admit to that

She glanced around, noticing how the nose of her car was firood neas she was pretty close to her destination The bad neas she was going to have to figure out a way to get down the mountain when it was time to leave

That was for later, she told herself as she turned off the engine then unfastened her seat belt First she had a puppy to let out

Noelle opened the door and started to stand, only to discover why her car had gone whirling around Snow, it seeo out frorab the door fra

“This is so wrong,” shethe car door She started walking very tentatively toward the house at the end of the long driveway

Snow had come early to Fool’s Gold There had been several inches in late October, then it had all gone away More had fallen in early Nove week But it was different in town, she thought as she felt her left foot slowly sliding out from under her

She waved her arain In town, roads were plowed and sidewalks scraped Soical stuff down so it wasn’t slippery She never had any trouble in town

Growing up in Florida, followed by a career eles, had not prepared her for a real winter, she thought as she ain She lunged for the railing andon as her lower body slipped and stretched until she was nearly parallel to the ground

She dug her toes into the snow and ice, hoping to find sos back under her and straighten It was like being a cartoon character, she thought gri bones

“This is so not what I expected,” she said aloud, thinking that Felicia’s request had see around, Webster, her friend’s eight-o and let him out?

Felicia had been a good friend to Noelle When Noelle had opened her own store—The Christht there, helping stock the place and offering suggestions When Noelle wanted to participate in town advertising with the other local retailers, Felicia had helped her navigate the ulations When Noelle worried that she would never find a man forwell, you know, let alone love, Felicia had reassured her that it would happen So helping with the family puppy seemed the least she could do to pay back her friend

“I am capable,” Noelle told herself as she ly not slippery Whatever that ht

She walked to planters on the railing and felt around for the spare key Only there wasn’t one She checked all the planters, sure that here Felicia had told her to look

Nothing

Unsure what to do next, she walked to the front door and heard a soft snuffling sound

“Hey, Webster,” she called

The puppy yipped excitedly

Noelle reached for the door handle and found it turned easily She pushed it open

Two things happened at once A very excited fifty-pound German shepherd puppy bounded out toward her and she saw a duffel bag in the foyer

Noelle auto He licked her hands and wiggled before dashing down the stairs and heading for the trees on the side to take care of business

“It’s slippery,” she called after hiical feet because he returned at the same hyperspeed hich he’d left and never skidded once

“Good boy,” she said, hugging him

Probleht Which only left the mysterious duffel and the open front door

The bag could be Carter’s, she thought, picturing Gideon’s thirteen-year-old son Or it could be the proof that some evildoer had broken into the house and was, even as she stood there, ransacking the place Either way, she had to find out

She stepped cautiously inside, the eager dog at her side By the front door was an u umbrella she saw and held it in her hands like a club She was tough, she told herself After all, she’d taken a self-defense class earlier that fall Of course her instructor had warned the toward trouble

“If you’re in here to steal stuff, I’ve called the police and I’h the open area of the e kitchen She knew there were bedroo space downstairs

Webster enjoyed the gaainst the wall at regular intervals

“Just walk out with your hands up and no one will get hurt,” she continued

She paused, listening There was a sound from the hallway She turned, uuy, then run She was pretty sure Webster would run with her, thinking this was just more happy puppy fun

The bathroo nothing but jeans He had a towel in one hand and was using it to rub his just washed hair In fact, staring at the tall, well-uess he’d just washed the rest of himself, too

She paused in the h her brain First, few burglars bothered to shohile on the job She didn’t have actual working knowledge of that as fact, but illing to assume it was true Second, while she knew she’d never seen theabout hiht brown hair and dark blue eyes And had she already ood, too

They stared at each other and she reaze dropped and she sed He had a nasty-looking cut on his left hand—complete with raw flesh, black thread from stitches and—

“Oh, no,” she whispered as the edges of her consciousness see but blood”

For soh what she had, it was pretty funny that the sight of blood made her woozy, but there it was Life with a sense of huot clahth of a second fro to her knees If that happened, she didn’t think Webster was up to saving her

She bent down to shorten the distance to the floor and hopefully save herself fro brain injury

Gabriel Boylan stared at the half-collapsed blonde “This is why I hate the suburbs,” he told her as he dropped his towel and moved toward her

“Can you hearloudly

She waved toward his hand “Keep that away from me”

Her voice eak and she see even as she started to go down that she was still brandishing that ridiculous umbrella in his direction Great His brother had fallen for someone insane

He grabbed the urip, then lowered her the rest of the way to the floor She groaned He took in her paleness and rapid breathing and figured she was close to fainting

The annoyed, I-really-don’t-like-people side of him wanted to let it happen At least unconscious she would be less trouble But the doctor in hiht decision He shifted her so she was on her knees, then pushed her head down

“Head lower than the heart,” he told her “Slow your breathing You’re fine”

“You can’t know that,” she ed to say

“Want to bet?”

When it see to stay conscious, he returned to the bathroom and quickly wrapped his left hand The deep cut was still tender and oozing He was lucky—he’d been stupid to get injured in the first place, but while it was ugly, no per he needed his hands to