Chapter One
Dani Reed’s lungs threatened to burst, but she continued to hold her breath despite the building pressure. Even the slightest movement
might lose her the opportunity she’d been chasing all morning. The branch of a single ponderosa pine tree bent down right in front of her
camera lens, overladen with pristine white snow. The temperature had climbed above freezing by early afternoon, giving the surface of the
snow a glassy, wet shine. The conditions were perfect, but snow this soft could drop from the branch all at once, and the picture she wanted would vanish with it.
Peering through the lens of her camera, she waited for the perfect shimmer, for the instant the thick, fluffy white clouds in the pale blue sky would pull back just enough to reveal a beam of sunshine. She
intended to capture the moment that beam struck the snow and lit it up like a field of tiny prisms, the shot she wanted for the home page of the
Woodwind Lodge’s new website.
A soft breeze nudged the clouds, but before the sunlight could break through, the branch gave in to the weight of the melting snow and bent, sending the entire load sliding toward the ground.
Before she could even groan in frustration, she sucked in a sharp breath, then burst into laughter at the sight of the snow landing right on top of her Irish setter’s head.
Maggie’s eyes widened, and her long muzzle dropped open with confusion and offense, while the snow melted in rivulets along her chestnut-red face and down the wavy fur of her ears.
Dani’s fingertip instinctively pressed the shutter button to capture the moment as she finally drew a full breath. It might not have been the
picture she’d been hunting for, but it felt like a treasure just the same.
“Oh, Maggie, you poor thing.” Dani laughed as she brushed the
snow from her faithful companion’s fur.
Maggie, nine years old now, had been with Dani since she was a
puppy. She’d sat by her quietly through the whole tense wait for the
perfect shot, the way she always did when Dani got wound up.
Maggie nuzzled her hand, then suddenly jerked her head up as Jim,
a young black and tan German shepherd, bounded toward them with no
thought to emotion or the destruction of fresh snow that he kicked up in
his wake.
“There you are, Jim!” Dani caught him by the collar before he could
plow into Maggie. Though he was over a year old, his momentum
tended to outrun his still clumsy puppy paws, especially in the slippery
snow.
Maggie licked his cheek, then sauntered off to sniff at a nearby bush,
unbothered by his rambunctious ways, but also uninterested in
participating.
“I hope you left me some snow to get pictures of.” Dani peered
between the garden and the lodge in search of another great shot to
include on the website. She’d already snapped photographs of both dogs
playing in the snow, the intricate wooden archways that led into the
garden, and the uniquely crafted stone benches that peeked out from
under the snow. Even in the cold months, the garden felt like stepping
into a storybook.
This job was particularly special to her. It was close to her new
home, and the lodge itself was a nature lover’s haven with a long
history on the mountain.
Juniper Valley was the place where she’d spent her summers as a
child, exploring with her grandfather, who at the time worked as a
forest ranger. It also excited her that the Woodwind Lodge would be
one of the few places in the area where guests could stay with their
dogs.
She spotted a stretch of snow that Jim had yet to obliterate with his
enthusiasm and zeroed in on it with her camera. The snow had stopped
falling early the evening before, leaving an undisturbed blanket of white
that spread out toward the towering aspen trees in the distance. She
captured the smooth surface in a photograph and let the stillness and
the cold settle over her. Through the lens, the world always made a
little more sense to her, even when her own life had fallen apart. Now
she had the opportunity for a fresh start, and she couldn’t be happier to
take it in the place that had always felt like paradise to her.
As she swung the camera toward the garden, she found that the
untouched snow had been broken by a clear footprint. Not a paw print,
but a boot print, and not just one. Several of them headed in the same
direction, from the thick bushes at the edge of the garden toward the
lodge.
She followed the prints around the side of the sprawling building. As
she drew closer, she saw that they led toward a window of one of the
rooms. The Woodwind Lodge had yet to reopen to the public after its
renovations, and its only guests were a small film crew, along with the
producer and host of a popular travel television show that had decided
to feature it in one of their episodes.
Juniper Valley was buzzing over having a celebrity in town, and the
star of the show, Hailey Mitchell, had grown up here, which only made
it a bigger deal. Even Dani was curious to meet Hailey, as they’d never
crossed paths during Dani’s summer visits. She only knew of her
because of a local scandal, not her fame, but she wasn’t one to let
rumors and gossip sway her opinion of a person.
She studied the prints in the snow, and curiosity got the better of
her. She snapped a few pictures of the tracks and the window they led
up to.
As she focused on the windowsill, a man’s voice called out to her
from a few feet away.
“What exactly are you doing?”
The exasperation in his tone startled her, and she turned to face him.
She’d only met Justin the day before when she started taking pictures
for the lodge’s new website and promotional materials for its reopening.
She guessed he was only about a year or two older than her, which
made him around thirty, and already he appeared to carry quite a large
chip on his shoulder. His role as an assistant to Hailey gave him some
importance, but his ego seemed to have rounded that up considerably.
“I’m just taking a few pictures.” Dani brushed her long, wavy blonde
hair back over her shoulder, exposing her neck briefly to the icy but still
air. She’d forgotten her scarf again, a rookie mistake after not spending
much time on the mountain in the winter. “That’s what I’m here to do.”
“Pictures of nature, not windows!” Justin huffed as he swung one
hand through the air in a dramatic flourish of exasperation. “Trees, sky,
rocks, I don’t care what, but not windows!”
Dani clenched her jaw as his tone grew more animated by the
second. Clearly, something had him wound up before he’d ever spotted
her. “You’re absolutely right.” She kept her voice as pleasant as she
could manage. “I got a little distracted by some footprints I saw. But I’ll
get right back to work.” Before she could say anything else, a huge
spray of snow sailed up into the air between them, courtesy of Jim
running in Justin’s direction, so eager for a friendly pet that he lost his
footing and slid toward the two of them.
“Hey! Stop!” Justin gasped and coughed as if he might drown in the
snow that blew up into his face.
“Sorry about that.” Dani caught Jim by the collar again and laughed.
“He’s just excited.”
“Excited? Do you know how expensive this suit is?” Justin brushed
off the snow and shook his head. “You really shouldn’t have pets here
with you.”
“But the lodge is being advertised as a dog-friendly place to stay.”
Dani gave Jim the command to sit, which he obeyed. His months in a
police dog puppy program had stuck with him, but his eager and
friendly personality had caused him to flunk out of the program. That
worked out to her benefit, as her father had insisted that she needed
more than an easygoing Irish setter to keep her company in the cabin
where she now lived alone.
“Yes, it is. But that doesn’t mean that you can have them at work.
Clearly, they’re a distraction. After today, please don’t bring them back.
Now hurry up. If you need shots of the lobby, get them before we start
filming in there.”
“Sure, I’ll be right in.” Dani held back the urge to point out that she had permission to bring her dogs to work with her. She knew there was
no point in arguing with some people.
As she, Maggie, and Jim made their way back toward the front of the lodge, she snapped a few pictures of the snow-covered garden and
its Christmas decorations. She couldn’t wait to see it all lit up after dark.
That was, if Justin didn’t get her fired before then. ...
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