I lock my phone.
I pull the cashmere blanket up to my chin and stare at the snow-globe mountains through the glass.
Madison is probably wrong.
Probably.
I fall asleep smiling and I'm not telling anyone.
CHAPTER 3
Iwake up to eighteen notifications, a mountain view that still doesn't look real, and a voice memo from Emily that is just forty-five seconds of her laughing.
I delete the voice memo. I keep the mountain view.
The resort's morning preview schedule starts at ten, which gives me two hours to drink the in-room coffee, which is, inexplicably, excellent and write up my first impressions from yesterday, post two photos from the entrance archway, and have a long, serious conversation with myself about the fact that I've thought about Anthony Rossi approximately eleven times since waking up and it has been fourteen minutes.
Fourteen minutes. That's a problem.
Holly's itinerary for the day includes a media demonstration of the reindeer for the small group of travel writers and bloggers who are also here for the preview week. Anthony is leading it, because of course he is.
I put on the olive-green sweater that Madison would call a cute barn outfit and tell myself it's just warm.
MADISON: Good morning from someone who slept great because she's not hanging out with her potential Daddy…
MAYA: Good morning from someone who is not thinking about anyone.
EMILY: That's not a denial.
LILY: She woke up thinking about him, didn't she?
MAYA: The coffee here is exceptional. I'm focused on that.
HOLLY: Maya, he's already down at the reindeer enclosure. I saw him when I ran this morning.
HOLLY: He was wearing a flannel.
MAYA: Holly, I'm going to need you to stop.
CHLOE: Flannel. On a tall man. In the mountains. Who loves animals.
MAYA: I am going to a professional media preview event and I will report back with content.
EMILY: Content sure
MADISON: The flannel is content.
MAYA: GOODBYE
There are six of us in the preview group. Me, two travel writers from publications I respect, a lifestyle photographer who is already making me feel underdressed with her fancy camera equipment, and two social media managers from boutique travel brands who keep talking to each other in a shorthand I can't quite decode.
Anthony is waiting at the reindeer enclosure when we arrive.
Holly was not wrong about the flannel. It looks incredible on him. It fits perfectly across his broad shoulders. He doesn’t look like a lumber jack exactly, more like a clothing model for middle aged men.
I am not thinking about the flannel or how good Anthony looks wearing it.
He gives the group a brief, authoritative overview of the animals; including basic reindeer biology delivered in the same matter-of-fact way he explained calf fractures on the side of a mountain road to me, and the lifestyle photographer is already shooting. I have my phone out. It’s an expensive phone with a high-end camera, I tell myself. The two brand managers are filming vertical video.
