one
Natalie Shepherd gripped the steering wheel of the rental car she had picked up at the Boise airport. As she drove slowly through the darkness, the sky spit more snow at her windshield than her wipers could beat away.
She had forgotten how much she really, really, really disliked driving in wintry weather.
She was going well below the speed limit on this stretch of road approaching her hometown of Shelter Springs, Idaho, but it still felt far too fast for conditions.
In the middle of what she could only term a blizzard, Natalie would have preferred to be driving a big honking pickup truck with four-wheel drive and steel-belted snow tires.
She wasn’t.
The only available rental vehicle was this small, lightweight sedan better suited to driving to the beach on a sunny day in Florida.
It didn’t help that she truly didn’t want to be here. For years, Nat tried to avoid spending the holidays at home. She preferred to time her brief visits to see her family in summer, when the mountains were green and lush and the lake gleamed in the long, glorious stretched-out evenings.
She disliked the holidays anyway and she especially disliked being here, filled with memories and ghosts and regret.
Then there was the snow.
Oh, sure, during the holidays it could seem festive and charming, especially when it covered everything with a pristine blanket and sometimes fluttered down like glitter in a snow globe.
Snow lost much of that cheerful appeal when she could feel the tires of her rental spin and felt that dizzying churn in her stomach every time they lost purchase with the pavement.
No. She wasn’t a fan.
Though she did not want to be here, she also knew she had no choice. When McKenna reached out to her three days earlier with a single-word text—Help!—Natalie had known exactly what she had to do. She quickly reached out to the agency she worked through so they could find another person to fill her job, packed up her luggage and caught the next flight out from the small Spanish island of Tenerife, off the coast of West Africa, where she had expected to spend the next few months.
McKenna needed her. For her independent, self-contained baby sister to reach out with that single plea, Nat knew things had to be bad.
Worry pressed her foot a little harder on the accelerator. She was driving as fast as she dared. When the lights of Shelter Springs began to appear in the distance through the thick evergreens, Nat let out a sigh of relief. Almost there. Soon this particular driving nightmare would be over and she would be safe and sound, tucked into the guest bedroom at the Shelter Inn.
She could do this. Her mother always used to tell her and her brother and sister they could do hard things. That mantra had been tested severely over the years. Compared to other things Nat had endured, driving a mountain road on a snowy December evening should have been a piece of cake.
Disaster burst out of the trees in an instant in the form of a mule deer, which leaped directly in front of her car. Too close for her to stop.
She screamed and hit the brakes out of instinct, turning the wheel in a frantic attempt to avoid the inevitable collision.
She managed to miss the deer, barely, but her evasive efforts proved disastrous. She hadn’t been traveling at a high rate of speed, but her abrupt, instinctive jerk of the wheel to avoid hitting the animal was enough to send the sedan spinning, any notion that she was in control disappearing out the window into the night.
She tried desperately to regain control, pumping the brake and remembering to turn into the slide as panic washed over her like icy waves.
She was going to end up in the lake.
It was her greatest nightmare, being swallowed up by water, trapped and helpless inside a sinking vehicle.
Her sister didn’t need one more loss. Poor McKenna.
That was her last random thought before the front passenger fender struck a small fir tree, the airbags deploying. The car spun a little more, then came to rest in a snowbank, only a few feet away from the water.
Natalie pushed away the airbag and fought to draw oxygen into her lungs, adrenaline pumping through her.
She was alive. She didn’t know how, but she was alive.
She gave a small laugh, shaking her head. Now she only had to figure out how to get out of here.
Easier said than done. The car was high-centered on a rock or a log or something. She put it in gear and tried to reverse. The engine revved and the tires spewed snow and dirt, but nothing happened.
Okay. Great. Did she have a cell signal to call for a lift? Did Shelter Springs even have a taxi service these days?
Making a mighty effort to collect her scattered thoughts, she scooped up her tote from the floor where it had fallen off the seat and started to dig for her cell phone.
She was so focused on looking for it, she didn’t hear the knock on her window. She glanced over in surprise and saw a man in dark clothing leaning down to peer in.
To her dismay, a small shriek escaped.
All the true crime podcasts she listened to seemed to flash a warning to her brain in neon lights. Don’t. Open. The. Door.
She checked to make sure the locks were all engaged. When the man knocked again, obviously not going anywhere, she rolled down the window a crack, enough that she could hear over the howling wind.
“Is everyone okay? I saw you spin out. I’ve called the highway patrol. I’m a doctor. Can I help?”
The voice seemed to strike a memory chord, but she couldn’t identify his features in the dark.
“No. I don’t think so. I’m the only one inside the vehicle, and I’m fine. Except I seem to be stuck.”
“What happened?” he asked. “Was it black ice? It’s slicker than spit out here, and the wind isn’t helping anything.”
“Mostly a deer with a death wish that jumped out right in front of me. I think I missed him, but I probably still have hoof marks on the hood.”
His teeth flashed in the darkness, and she found herself wishing she could see his features. There was something about that voice that seemed so familiar.
“I’ve got a truck back there, a three-quarter ton, and a tow rope. I can have you out in a jiffy.”
Again, those podcast warnings rattled through her head. She almost told him thanks but no thanks, then discarded the idea. It might be hours before she could get help, and the alternative was walking two miles into town through the blizzard and with poor visibility.
She had learned in her travels the past five years that sometimes she had to reach outside of her comfort zone.
Anyway, this was small-town Idaho, where she knew most of the people who lived here. Or at least someone who was related to them.
“Thank you. I appreciate that.”
He seemed to peer in
at her, probably trying to figure out if he knew her. She had the impression of strength, somehow. Though she knew that made no sense, it helped calm her nerves as he left her again. A moment later, headlights cut through the darkness as he pulled up behind her.
She heard rather than saw when he attached a tow rope to her bumper, then walked around to her driver’s side again.
“Okay. Just put it in Neutral, if you would,” he said to her.
She complied, remembering with stark clarity the month after she received her driving license when Jake took it upon himself to give her a few adulting lessons. How to fix a flat tire. How to jump-start a car battery. How to tow and be towed.
The reminder of her older brother was a sharp, twisting ache in her chest. He was one of the ghosts who stirred around her whenever she came back to town.
As much as she tried, Natalie found it impossible not to think about him here. Jake was the one who had taught her how to drive in snow, who had instructed her to carry a bag of rock salt for both weight and possible traction in the back of the little pickup she drove in high school.
Her rescuer backed slowly toward the road. With a loud grating noise, her car came free of whatever had been trapping it.
No other cars were in sight, probably because anybody with a shred of common sense was tucked up at home enjoying the lights of their Christmas tree and having some hot cocoa.
Her rescuer returned to her window. This time she lowered it a little more.
“That should do it,” he said. “Your front bumper has a little crinkle in it, but shouldn’t be too hard to fix. I know a guy, if you need someone. He won’t overcharge you, and he does good work.”
“I’m good. It’s a rental and I took the insurance plan. I’ll let them deal with it. Thank you for stopping. I wasn’t sure my cell would have service here, and I really wasn’t looking forward to walking into town.”
“Where are you heading?”
She nodded toward that rim of lights in the distance. “Shelter Springs.”
“Do you have family there?”
A serial killer might ask that very question to find out where he could find her later, so he could come slaughter her in her bed.
But so could a perfectly nice man trying to make sure she had somewhere to go out of the storm.
“Yes,” she answered. “My sister.”
While she had extended family in the area, her immediate family had been reduced to only that. Her mother. Her father. Her brother. All gone.
That familiar pain twisted again as the memories crowded back.
“I hope you have a good visit.” He smiled in the darkness, and she had the impression he wanted to hold out his hand to shake hers through the crack in her window.
“I hope I bump into you under better circumstances. My name is Griffin Taylor,” he said.
She drew in a sharp breath. Of course! She should have known. No wonder his voice had
seemed familiar, though it had been years since she last heard it.
Griffin Taylor. How odd that he should be the first person she bumped into after coming back to town. What was he even doing there? Last she knew, he was living in the Los Angeles area, finishing his residency.
“Griffin. Hi. I hadn’t heard you were back in town.”
He frowned, and the moon came out from behind the clouds long enough for her to see snowflakes catching in his dark hair. “Sorry. Do I know you?”
“You used to.”
He peered through the window. She finally opened her door and stepped out, giving him a rather shaky smile.
Recognition flared in eyes she remembered could be the very same blue as Lake Haven.
“Natalie? Nat! It’s great to see you.”
After an awkward pause, he reached to hug her. Taken by surprise, she waited a few beats before she hugged him back.
He had always been athletic, just like his best friend, her brother, Jake. But life and the years since she had last seen him had honed those teenage muscles to hard strength.
“How great that you could be home for the holidays to help McKenna. I understand she’s having a tough time right now.”
Surely McKenna didn’t see Dr. Taylor on a professional basis. That would be just about the weirdest thing ever, to have the gorgeous Griffin Taylor looking at your girlie parts with a clinical eye.
No, thank you.
“It’s been a tough pregnancy, from what she tells me.”
“I heard she’s been put on strict bed rest.”
If he didn’t know that personally, then he probably wasn’t her sister’s doctor. He was a family medicine doctor, she knew, but she was also aware that in a community as small as Shelter Springs, sometimes general practitioners did a little of everything.
“Yes. That’s why I’m here.”
“She does have her hands full, with those busy girls of hers.”
Nerves jittered through her, anxiety that had nothing to do with winter driving conditions or almost hitting a deer. While she adored her two nieces from afar, she had no idea how she would manage for the next month to keep a five-year-old and three-year-old entertained.
“It’s good you’re here,” he said. “I’m sure I’ll see you around.”
She nodded. “Thanks again for towing me out.”
“Do you want to start it up so I can make sure everything’s okay for you to drive the rest of the way to the Shelter Inn?”
“Good idea.”
She slid behind the wheel again and turned the key. The car sputtered and hissed, and
smoke began curling out from under the hood.
Great.
Griffin leaned in. “Looks like things are worse than we thought,” he said, his tone apologetic.
“Doesn’t look good, does it?”
“I’m afraid you won’t be going anywhere else in this tonight.”
Wasn’t that just perfect? As if she needed another reason to question the wisdom of returning to Shelter Springs. She fought the urge to pound on the steering wheel a few times.
“What are my chances of finding a rideshare driver around here?”
“About on par with your chances of finding a gluten-free bakery on every corner. Hop in my truck where it’s warm while we call a tow truck, and then I can give you a ride to the Shelter Inn.”
She instinctively wanted to argue that she could take care of herself, as she had been doing that since she was about sixteen years old. But it seemed silly to refuse his help on principle when she could be much more comfortable waiting in his warm truck, especially when she might not have a phone signal to call anyone else for help.
“Grab anything you want to take to McKenna’s place,” he said.
She grabbed her big tote that held her laptop, then opened the back door for her rolling duffel bag, which held all the essentials she traveled with.
“Is that it?”
“I travel light.”
“Must be nice not to have too much baggage.”
Oh, she had plenty of baggage. Lucky for her, the ghosts didn’t take up all that much room in her luggage.
“I’ve got this,” he said, lifting the duffel from her and making his way to his big extended cab pickup. He opened the rear door and slid in her bag, then opened the passenger door for her and held a hand out to help her inside.
The vehicle was deliciously warm and smelled like cedar and fir and leather.
“I can crank the heat. It’s nasty out there. You picked a lousy night to be stranded.”
“Sorry. Next time I’ll try to put more forethought into it.”
He smiled. “Do you care what tow company we call?”
“Not in the slightest.”
He scrolled through his phone and made a call and she listened while he arranged for a tow, explaining their location and the make and model of the vehicle.
With those particulars out of the way, he ended the call and finally turned to her.
“So. How have you been, Nat?”
“Oh, you know. Living the dream.”
“That’s what your sister says. You’re a digital nomad, right? Last McKenna told me, you were in Croatia or something.”
Her sister had talked about her to him? Natalie didn’t quite know what to think about that. She wouldn’t have thought Griffin cared about what she was doing. She was surprised he even remembered her. She had simply been his best friend’s kid sister, who might or might not have followed Griffin around with stars in her eyes.
“I was in Croatia six months ago. The Dalmatian Coast. It was really lovely. I was staying at a beautiful house on a small island on the shores of the Adriatic."
“Sounds like paradise.”
“Close to it. I’ve been a few other places since then. Ireland, northern England, Portugal.”
“You get around. McKenna told me you stay at various places house-sitting and taking care of people’s pets.”
“When I can. It saves on rent. I pay the bills with freelance writing and editing, though.”
Somehow, without quite planning it, she had carved out a life that fit her perfectly. She got the fun of taking care of animals, which she loved, without the long-term commitment. Plus she had the opportunity to explore places she once hadn’t even known existed.
Natalie had caught the travel bug early, probably in those early days she spent living at the Shelter Inn when it used to be a hotel, watching their guests come for a few days and then move on to somewhere else undoubtedly more exciting than this sleepy Idaho town near Lake Haven.
She used to wonder where they had come from, where they were going and what sorts of things they would see on their journey. The answers were likely much more exciting than the life she lived here.
“Sounds interesting, always on the go.”
“It works for me.” She turned the conversation to him. “What about you? You could practice anywhere. What brings you back to Shelter Springs, of all places?”
He smiled, though she could swear it wasn’t completely genuine. “I always planned to come back and open a practice here. The area has a shortage of good family medicine physicians, despite the new hospital between here and Haven Point.”
He gestured out the window. “Anyway, what’s not to love about living here? Quiet lifestyle, good people, gorgeous surroundings. What more could I want?”
She started to ask whether he had a wife and children, but flashing yellow lights announced the arrival of the tow truck.
“That was fast,” Griffin said. “If you want to stay here, out of the weather, I can make arrangements with my buddy for the tow and then give you all the particulars.”
She should assert her hard-fought feminist credentials, but after her very long twenty-six hours of travel, she had to admit it was nice to let someone else handle things for now.
“Thank you,” she said, settling deeper into the heated seat while he went outside into the blowing snow.
She watched the tow truck driver hook up the rental car. He and Griffin exchanged a few words, obviously shouting over the wind. She couldn’t hear what they said, but decided it didn’t matter.
She would call the rental company in the morning to see how they wanted to proceed. For now, she had done her part by making sure the car was
safely off the road.
After another shouted exchange she couldn’t hear, the tow truck driver gave Natalie a nod and returned to his vehicle. Griffin climbed into the pickup truck as soon as the tow truck driver started back on the road, lights blinking in the blowing snow.
“I gave him my phone number and contact info since I didn’t have yours. He’s going to tow it to the garage and wait until he hears from you before he does anything.”
“I hope it’s not too complicated a repair.”
“Sorry you’ll be without a vehicle for a few days.”
“I’m not worried about that. I can always drive McKenna’s car while I’m here. I wouldn’t have rented a car at all, but I didn’t really have another good way to get here from the airport. Face it, Griffin. Shelter Springs is in the middle of nowhere.”
He smiled. “And that’s exactly why we like it.
After the tow truck’s lights disappeared around the bend in the road, Griffin put his truck in gear and pulled back onto the road too. “Come on,” he said with a smile. “Let’s get you to the inn.”
Right. The anxiety returned. Her sister needed her.
Natalie only hoped she would be up to the task.
two
This wasn’t exactly how he planned to spend his Friday night.
If someone had told him an hour ago that he would be giving a ride to a stranded Natalie Shepherd, Griffin would never have believed it.
As he drove through the whiteout conditions on his way to her family’s property, Griffin pondered the odd turn of events.
The last time he saw Natalie, she had been a teenager, at her brother’s funeral.
He felt again the familiar weight of guilt and grief he had carried since that December day. More than a dozen years later, the pain was as fresh.
Seeing her again seemed to bring back all those emotions he had worked so hard to manage over the years. Natalie seemed to reach through the years to dredge up everything he thought he had dealt with long ago.
Her sister didn’t spark the same reaction. While he always felt a little pang whenever he talked to McKenna, it was nothing like this—as if Natalie held the only key that opened the lockbox holding his memories.
He let out a breath, frustrated with himself. He carried enough on his shoulders right now, trying to establish his practice here in Shelter Springs, where his family’s reputation sometimes seemed damaged beyond repair.
“You probably had somewhere to go tonight. I’m sorry if I’m keeping you from something. Or someone.”
She must have misinterpreted his sigh, he realized.
“You are,” he said with a half smile. “I’m late for dinner with a beautiful woman.”
“Really? Anyone I might know?”
“I think so. My grandmother.”
Her short laugh went a long way toward helping him shove down all those raw emotions again.
“How is Birdie these days?”
“As feisty as ever. She’s pushing eighty this year and decided to take up pickleball during the summer. She’s kind of obsessed with it, which is funny because she has AMD, age-related macular degeneration, and can hardly see the ball.”
“Oh dear. I’m sorry. I hadn’t heard. ...
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