Authors: Kathi Daley
“Did he take him?”
“No. He said that a friend was staying at the mansion and he was going to leave Lambda behind to keep his friend company.”
“Makes sense,” Ellie concluded. “So why the doom and gloom?”
“He’s been really secretive and has gone out of his way not to mention
who
it is that’s staying with him. He even uses gender-neutral tags when speaking of this individual, so I figure it must be a female guest. The last time someone stayed at his house, it was his beautiful business partner, Belinda.”
“Did you ask him who was staying with him?”
Ellie quite reasonably asked.
“No.
Not directly,” I admitted. “I didn’t want to seem needy.”
“But you
are
needy.”
“I know
.” I sighed. I’ve really been working on holstering Zoe the Jealous, but after years of nurturing her, it’s been a hard transition. “I was sort of hoping he’d tell me who his guest was on his own. I gave him plenty of opportunity to do so, but he was purposely vague, and when I offered to stop by to check on things while he was away, he told me that his guest really wanted solitude and privacy in order to work through some personal issues.”
Ellie smiled. “Look
on the bright side. If Belinda is staying at his house, she isn’t on the East Coast with him.”
“Good point.” Suddenly I felt a lot better
“Maybe I’ll see if Levi wants to hang out tonight. Zak’s only been gone a few days, and I’ve been making myself nuts trying to figure out why he’s been so secretive. I could use a distraction.”
“I
’m sure he’d love to hang out with you if you can tear him away from his plastic girlfriend.”
“Meow.
Apparently, I’m not the only one with relationship issues.”
Levi Denton is the other member of the Zoe, Levi,
and Ellie trio. The three of us have been best friends since kindergarten, when our teacher sat the class at round tables of three by last name. Levi has been dating a woman by the name of Barbie, who has a figure resembling her doll counterpart, for the past few months, and Ellie has made no secret about the fact that she doesn’t approve of that relationship.
“
Levi and I don’t have relationship issues,” Ellie insisted. “It’s just that . . .” Ellie paused, a concerned look crossing her face. “Do you think they’re really going to move in together?”
“I don’t know
. Levi
did
go with her to visit her family over Christmas, and she
has
been pushing the idea, so maybe.”
“Maybe what?” Levi asked as he walked into the kitchen through the back door
of Rosie’s Café. Talk about perfect timing. Levi works at the local high school. An athletic jack-of-all-trades, he coaches football in the fall, basketball in the winter, and baseball in the spring. Levi is a handsome man: six foot two, with thick brown hair, sun-kissed skin from the hours he spends outdoors, and muscles that prove he walks his talk and pays a visit to the gym almost every day.
“
Maybe
you’d want to hang out with me tonight,” I answered.
“I’d love to
.” Levi smiled. “You in as well?” He looked at Ellie.
Ellie hesitated. Although she’s never admitted it to Levi
, Ellie’s feelings toward the man who had been like a brother to her for most of her life have changed over the past few months. Ellie has tried to keep her feelings to herself, but as her best friend, I knew that what were once friendly affections had grown into something more.
“Are you brin
ging Barbie?” Ellie asked.
“No. I think I
could use a break from the fabulous B. A night with my two best friends sounds just about perfect. When was the last time we hung out, just the three of us?”
“I’m supposed to go bowling with Rob
and the group,” Ellie said.
“So reschedule.
Come on, El, it won’t be the same without you.”
“Okay. I’ll call Rob and tell him something came up
.”
“Fantastic.” I smiled. What started off as a perfectly horrible day had just gotten a whole lot
better. “Dinner at the boathouse?” I suggested.
“I’ll bring the tequila,” Levi offered.
“I’ll bring the dinner,” Ellie added.
“And I’ll make a dessert
.”
After I left Rosie’s, I decided I’d need a quick trip to the market if I was going to have ingredients for the dessert I’d promised. The day had started off sunny and bright, but during my time at the café, dark clouds had blown in over the summit and snow flurries were beginning to appear in the crisp air. I glanced at the large alpine lake that bordered the south side of Main Street. The clouds, which had appeared as if by magic, hung low over the water, completely concealing the landmass on the south shore. I loved days like this, when the lake looked more like an ocean and the isolation of my mountain home brought a feeling of oneness with the natural landscape.
The mom
-and-pop shops that lined the north side of the main drag of Ashton Falls were decked out with white lights and red accents, in an effort to persuade casual shoppers to spend their hard-earned money on chocolate and roses. Valentine’s Day was just around the corner, and while the annual holiday in Ashton Falls is pretty tame, local merchants decorate to entice visitors from the valley to buy tickets to the Chamber-sponsored Sweetheart Dance. In spite of the snow flurries, Charlie and I decided to make the short walk between Rosie’s and the general store. There’s something magical about walking along a snow-covered sidewalk illuminated with thousands of white twinkle lights hung in every tree and surrounding every window. The lights first appear in the fall and are left to bring warmth to the small town until the first sign of spring transitions the walkway with baskets of bright flowers.
As
Charlie and I arrived at the store, we stopped to consider the boxed chocolates on display near the register. I have to admit I’m a sucker for anything with nuts or caramel. The candy was wrapped in large heart-shaped boxes, and while they
did
look tempting, I decided that making something would show more effort on my part, so I headed toward the aisle featuring baking supplies.
“Aftern
oon, Zoe, Charlie,” grocery-store owner Ernie Young greeted me. “Looks like we’re in for a spot of weather.”
“Looks like.”
“Heard talk that we might be looking at a full-on blizzard by the end of the week. Best stock up on canned goods just in case. Special on soup this week: ten cans for ten dollars.”
Soup did sound good
, and my cupboards were getting pretty bare, but the fact that Charlie and I had left our truck down the street caused me to reconsider.
“I really just need something for dessert tonight,” I answered.
“I’ve got brownie mix on special.”
“Brownies sound good.”
After picking up a box of the double-nut variety of the chocolaty dessert, Charlie and I headed over to a display featuring pastries that were baked daily at Veronica’s Bakery. I have to admit I have a sweet tooth, and it seemed quite reasonable to me that a chocolate treat would be the perfect thing to snack on while I baked the brownies for that evening.
“I picked up some of those éclair’s last week
,” Hazel Hampton, our local librarian, commented as I contemplated a box of Veronica’s delicious buttercreams. “They were the best I’d ever had.”
“I’m making brownies for dessert tonight
, but maybe one for the road.” I picked up a package with a single pastry.
“So are you ready for your opening on Thursday?”
Hazel asked about the long-awaited opening of Zoe’s Zoo.
“More than ready.”
“Remember to keep an eye out for a kitten for me.”
“You’ll be the first one we call if one is brought in.”
“I like what you’ve done with the place,” Hazel said, referring to the remodel we’d been working on since Zak had purchased the property from the county.
“You’ve seen it?”
“I stopped by the other day when Jeremy was there with Kevin Michaels and his new assistant. Those new cages you built in the back are going to be a godsend once our wildlife becomes active in the spring.”
My assistant
, Jeremy Fisher, had been putting in a lot of hours to ensure that Kevin got everything done in time for the opening. I had to agree with Hazel that the place looked awesome. Now if we could just get our final approval to occupy the space in time for the opening. It seemed like for every step forward we made in the process, something happened to cause us to take a step back. The community had been without a shelter since the county closed us down the previous November, and I knew I wasn’t the only one anxious to get open for business.
“The new cages are going to allow us to house twice the number of large animals we used to,” I confirmed. In addition to serving as a shelter
for domestic animals such as dogs and cats, Zoe’s Zoo planned to specialize in the care and rehabilitation of wild animals such as bears and coyotes as well. “I’ve already had a discussion with fish and game about taking over the care of those two cubs that were wounded in the Anderson fire. It seems the facility where they’re currently being housed doesn’t really have the infrastructure to provide long-term care.”
“
Excellent. It’s always fun to have a bear on the property. Well, I guess I should get going. I’m taking a late lunch today, but I really need to get back. That new mystery novel you’ve been waiting for finally came in. I can hold it for you, if you want to stop by in the next day or two.”
“Thanks. I’d appreciate that.”
After we finished our shopping
, Charlie and I headed home. We live in a converted boathouse that, along with the fifty acres of lakefront property that goes with it, is owned by my maternal grandfather, who originally used it to house his boat. I love my home. It’s weathered and unconventional, with a large living area, a small loft bedroom, and a modern yet cozy kitchen. The entire wall facing the lake has been replaced with glass to give the space an open, airy feel. Off the front of the boathouse is a large deck, where I love to while away a summer afternoon or entertain guests. The little cove on which the boathouse was built is isolated from the main residential section of the lake, so when you’re sitting on the deck, it feels like you have the entire lake to yourself.
I checked on my cats, Marlow and Spade, bef
ore building a fire in the river-rock fireplace and mixing together the brownies I’d bought and planned to serve with ice cream for dessert. While I considered my home to be primarily
my
space, I had made some concessions to the fact that Zak was spending the night more often, as evidenced by his shaving kit in the bathroom, his coffee mug on the rack, and extra clothes in the drawer I’d cleared for him in my dresser. Unlike my dad and Blythe and Levi and Barbie, who seemed ready to merge households after only a few dates, Zak and I have decided to take things slowly.
It had been snowing
steadily the past few hours, so I put on knee-high boots and a heavy jacket and went out to shovel off the back deck, which had been added to the boathouse during the conversion and is separated from the lake by a good twenty feet of beach. When my grandfather originally built the boathouse, the water level of the lake was quite a bit higher, but nine years ago a group of farmers in the valley got together and challenged the legality of the Ashton Falls Dam. At the time the dam was built, water had been plentiful and everyone was happy, but after seven years of drought, the farm community at the foot of the mountain had been looking for a way to force the transfer of a greater amount of the runoff from the mountains directly to their crops. After winning an extremely messy lawsuit, the farmers had forced the opening of the dam, and the water level had decreased dramatically, effectively relocating the boathouse twenty feet from the natural waterline. Several years ago, I asked my mom if it would be possible for me to convert the abandoned structure and, surprisingly, my grandfather not only agreed but offered to pay for the renovation as well. Charlie and I have been living there ever since.
The high temperature for the day
had been a blistering twenty-four degrees, causing my breath to condense as I worked to remove the four inches of fresh powder from the wooden surface. I paused after a few minutes to look out over the glassy water and take in the wonderful sound of absolute silence that can be found on a cold winter day. Once the deck was cleared, I headed back inside to check on the brownies, which had filled my little home with the most wonderful aroma. I turned some music on the stereo and tossed another log on the fire. If there was one thing that could be said for my cabin, it was that it provided cozy comfort when it was chilly outside. I was about to take off my boots when I heard a car pull up the front drive.
“Is there more?” I asked El
lie as she stomped the snow off her boots on the front deck.
“A couple more bags
, but Levi pulled up behind me, so he’s getting them.”