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What was going on? Was this about the security cameras I’d mentioned during the drive, or was something else on his mind?
A flicker of nerves made me clumsy, and my fingers tripped over each other as I fumbled with Tess’s skis. Had he seen my love for him in my eyes earlier? It was always harder to suppress when I watched him with Tess. He was so good with her, teasing her and encouraging her to come out of her shell while giving her enough space that she didn’t feel pressured.
“Can we get hot chocolate?” Tess asked as we returned the rented equipment.
Nate glanced at me. “What do you think? I could do with a hot drink to warm me up.”
“Sure.”
We headed past the shop and to the main lodge, where a sign directed us down one of the corridors to the restaurant. The owner, Tabitha, had hired an incredible chef a few years ago, and people came from miles away to eat here. We were lucky there was a separate cafe section that couldn’t be booked, or we’d never have found a seat. A waiter came and took our orders. Nate got a cappuccino, Tess got her hot chocolate, and I asked for a trim latte.
While we enjoyed our drinks, I studiously avoided meeting Nate’s gaze. I felt exposed. As though I’d let myself—once again—start thinking of us as a family, and he’d somehow seen it in my face. In my heart, Tess was partly mine. Not in a way that lessened her connection to Maddy or Nate, but in a way that added to it. She had them, but she also had me. I might not be her mother—by name or anything else—but I loved her all the same.
Sometimes, I let myself dream.
I knew better, but I couldn’t seem to stop.
I was relieved when we finally made the journey home and Nate parked outside Kennedy and Liam’s house where we’d met up, since Kennedy had volunteered to babysit Duke.
“Are you sure you can’t come over for a while?” Tess asked.
“I’m sure.” I ignored my own disappointment. “I have some work to catch up on, and Duke needs a walk.”
I caught Nate side-eyeing me, and I wondered what was going on inside his head. It must be obvious to him that I was looking for excuses, but he didn’t call me on it, and for that, I was grateful. I needed to remember my role and what it wasn’t. Fast.
23
NATE
The call came latein the afternoon on Sunday. A nineteen-year-old girl was missing from the ski resort, and her friends had grown worried enough to report her disappearance. The resort had called Connor, who headed up the local search-and-rescue team, and Connor reached out to the other team members, including me.
“She was last seen on one of the black runs around ten this morning.” Connor’s voice was gruff, his summary to the point. “Her friends lost sight of her, but apparently she wasn’t as skilled on the slopes as most of them, so they assumed she’d had enough and returned to their room. When they finished and realized she wasn’t there, they asked reception and were told nobody on staff had seen her since she left with them in the morning.”
“Why did they wait so long to report it?” I asked, frustrated. If she’d veered off course on the side of the mountain, every minute counted. She could have hypothermia by now. Especially with the snowstorm that had descended around lunchtime.
“They thought she might have gone into town and gotten stuck.” Connor sounded as annoyed as me. “Unfortunately, that means it’s going to be hard to find her with a fresh layer of snowfall.”
“Have we checked that she’s not somewhere in town like her friends thought?” I asked.
“None of the shop owners have seen her,” Connor replied. “She could be in someone’s home, but surely she’d have called her friends to let them know if that was the case.”
“Probably,” I acknowledged.
“I’ve got the GPS coordinates for the last run she was seen on, so we’ll start there,” Connor said. “We’re lucky the storm has settled.”
I glanced out the window, noticing that snow was now gently drifting down—a stark contrast to the situation a few hours ago.
“Can you meet us at the resort? We’ll have a briefing in the parking lot and go from there.”
I nodded. “You got it.”
“Thanks.”
He hung up.
I glanced at Tess, who was curled on the couch, her feet tucked beneath her, reading a book with swirling purple mist on the cover.
“Tess?”
