When the Snow Falls Read online

  She would definitely have to think about that word, but not now. Later. When she had time to truly contemplate what was going on in her head. It had to be altitude-related, didn’t it?

  “We hire dozens of people. Almost daily. Most of them are seasonal, here to work and ski for free. It’s the skiers’ way. They come from all over the world. We do a basic background check, drug testing, but that’s it. People come and go so often, I sometimes wonder why I even bother,” Patrick said.

  “Because you’re the general manager and it’s part of your job. And you’re damned good at it, so don’t start blaming yourself,” Max insisted. “This could happen to any business, especially one the size of this one.”

  “How much do you take in daily? Just at The Snow Zone,” Hannah asked.

  Patrick looked at Max. “You really want me to give her the figures?”

  “Of course I do. We can trust Hannah and Liam, and it’s not like I’m cheating the IRS, for crying out loud!” Max seemed a bit ticked that Patrick wouldn’t want to give them the financial figures.

  Patrick removed a pen from his pocket, scribbled something on his cocktail napkin, then slid it across the table for both Hannah and Liam to see.

  “Okay, so we are talking big, big bucks. Whoever is doing this knows that, compared to this”—Hannah tapped her index finger on the cocktail napkin—“twenty-five thousand dollars is pocket change. To the resort. To them, most likely, it’s a small fortune.”

  “So what can we do to catch whoever is doing this?” Max asked.

  Liam spoke first. “I’ll need to get into your system, which should be pretty simple since we’re not talking about an entire floor of servers or anything like it. It shouldn’t be hard to track. I’ll want to set up in The Snow Zone, if possible, since that’s where the shop’s main computer is located. If not, I can access it by other means.”

  “I can work as extra holiday help,” Hannah said. “The sad part is, I know absolutely nothing about ski equipment, or skiing, for that matter.”

  “We could send you in as a live model,” Liam suggested. “You’ve certainly got the looks and build for it. You could wear a new ski suit every day, entice the customers to purchase whatever you’re wearing.”

  Hannah was glad the lighting in the room was dim because she could feel the heat rising to her face. A model? And he thought she had the looks and the body for such a job? She didn’t know whether to laugh or call him a sexist for eyeing her up. Though she’d certainly had her eyes on him.

  “Hannah?” Max asked, “would you be willing to do that? I agree with Liam. It’s actually a fantastic marketing idea. If sales increase, I’ll make sure to do this again. So, what do you say?”

  “That’s fine, but I have one favor to ask.” She knew she was about to come off as silly, but what the hell, she was about to become a model, and she was a blonde. “If anyone, and I mean anyone, lays a hand on me, I want your permission to knock the shit out of him.”

  All three men looked at her as though she’d lost her mind, then they all started laughing. Softly at first, then it got a bit louder, and a bit louder still. So loud, in fact, that Cowboy returned to the table with another man whom Hannah guessed to be the manager.

  “I take it that means yes,” Hannah said, then stood up, letting them know she was truly ready to leave.

  They all nodded and watched her as she stormed out of the room.

  Liam was the first to get up and follow her. “Hannah,” he called out when he saw her enter the ladies’ room. “Wait.”

  She stood at the sink and splashed her face with cold water. The door creaked open slowly. She didn’t look to see who it was because she was too pissed to care. She tossed another handful of cold water on her face. What the hell had she gotten herself into? Was she supposed to prance around in some stupid ski costume and let the customers cop a feel just because they could?

  “Hannah?” Liam came up behind her, and she practically jumped out of her skin.

  “This is the ladies’ room, you idiot! Get out!”

  “Calm down, Hannah. You’ve mistaken the guys’ reaction. Trust me, I know what I’m talking about.”

  She grabbed several paper towels and rubbed them against her face. “Then fill me in. I have never felt so degraded in my life! I am a professional, a freaking attorney, not some, some . . . hot-looking chick who needs perverts pawing all over her.”

  “And we all agree with you. You’re not that kind of woman; I mean, you’re hot, but not in that way.” He stopped, as though trying to piece together what he really wanted to say, and it wasn’t coming out right. “Look, no one meant to offend you. And I certainly didn’t mean to imply anything . . . bimbo-ish.” He raised his eyes to meet hers. “God knows you’re anything but that, Hannah. Trust me, you’re . . .” He couldn’t say what he really wanted to say. Not now. Way, way too soon to be having the kind of thoughts he was having.

  “I’m what? Go on, I can take it.”

  “Okay, but remember this is coming from me as a man, and not a professional. You are gorgeous, Hannah Ray, you’re built better than most models, and, yes, I looked, and, no, I am not sorry.”

  Well, she didn’t have a snappy comeback for any of that, so she said what came naturally. “Thank you. I think,” she said. “I’d better get back to the table. I am so hungry I could eat a bear.”

  “Me, too,” Liam said, and opened the door for her. He stood beside the door. “Ladies first.”

  Chapter 10

  Hannah wanted to open the box, but she was too tired. As soon as William escorted her back to the condo, all she could think about was sleep. Tomorrow. The box would keep another few hours. She was on Florida time still, and even though there was only a two-hour time difference, she felt it in seconds. She tossed her wool skirt and sweater on the floor, grabbed a pair of Miss Piggy pajamas from the luggage she’d yet to unpack, then found the closest bedroom and practically fell on top of the bed. After pulling the heavy covers over her, it was only minutes before she drifted off into a deep, heavy sleep.

  The xylophone tone of her cell phone woke her. She opened her eyes and tried to familiarize herself with her surroundings. Then she remembered she was in Colorado, and why she was here. And then she remembered last night.

  Her cell phone continued to ring in that annoying tone. “Okay, okay,” she muttered as she threw the covers aside. Her cell phone was lying on the bathroom counter, where she’d left it last night. She slid her finger across the phone to answer the call. “Hello,” she said in a dry voice.

  “I take it you just woke up,” Liam said in his sexy, slightly accented voice.

  “You’d be right. What do you want?” she asked, none too kindly.

  “Did you forget we start our new jobs today?”

  Dang! She’d overslept. “Uh, no. I just overslept. Tell me what the plans are.” She needed William right now. She’d bet anything he could make a mean pot of coffee. She saw his card and was tempted to pick it up and call, but since she was already on the phone, it would make no sense whatsoever to have Liam hold on while she called William over to make her coffee. Instead, she went to the kitchen and proceeded to prepare a pot for herself. As soon as she hit the BREW button, she wandered into the great room, saw that the fire was still slightly ablaze, tossed a log on top of the red embers, then plopped on the sofa to admire the view. She was still waiting for Liam to tell her the plans when she heard a knock on the door. “I’ll call you back,” she said, then hit the END button and tossed the phone on the chair.

  Another knock. “Be right there,” she said, wondering if anyone had any patience this morning. Or manners.

  She yanked the door open without bothering to look through the peephole.

  “Good morning to you,” came Liam McConnell’s cheerful voice.

  She instantly became wide-awake. She instantly looked down at her Miss Piggy pajamas. “Oh shit. Come on in.”

  He roared with laughter. “There is nothing preten
tious about you, is there?” he asked as he followed her into the kitchen.

  “If there was, it’s gone now,” she muttered as she filled two mugs with coffee. “Sit. And don’t speak until I finish my coffee.”

  He did as instructed, but he didn’t let her command distract him from gazing at her. His blue eyes were the color of the sky at night, his smile as white and clear as a perfect pearl. Hannah quickly finished her coffee and got up to pour herself a second cup. “You want more?” she asked.

  “No, I’m fine. I had a pot of coffee at the restaurant this morning.”

  “What time is it, anyway?” she asked.

  “Ten after twelve,” he said, looking at his watch.

  “What? I never sleep this late!” Embarrassed, Hannah tried to come up with a possible reason why she’d slept so long. It had to be the altitude. “Do I look sick to you?” she asked him.

  “No. Do you feel bad?”

  Did she? She wasn’t sure. “I don’t know.”

  “Why don’t you take a hot shower? I’ll whip up something to eat and then we can get down to business.”

  She nodded. “Sure, I’ll be just a few minutes.” She warmed her coffee and took it with her. She glanced at the clock on the opposite side of the table. Unless it was wrong . . . no, Liam had said it was after twelve. She ran back into the great room to get her cell phone. She knew the time automatically changed when she entered a different time zone. She found it lying in the chair she’d vacated earlier. She looked at the clear white numbers. It was ten after seven. Seven in the morning.

  “Liam McConnell, you ass!” she shouted before heading back to her room. She was going to give him a piece of her mind as soon as she showered and dressed. Noon, my ass, she thought as she turned on the water and took a scalding-hot shower.

  Ten minutes later, she returned to the kitchen, where Liam had made himself at home. Not that she cared. The smell of frying bacon and toast made her realize just how hungry she was. She’d ordered a bowl of soup for dinner last night, and it hadn’t been enough, but at the time she hadn’t wanted to linger at Eagles Nest any longer than she had to. She’d been too tired to think straight. Now, she was clearheaded and starving.

  “So you can cook, too,” she said as she poured herself a third cup of coffee.

  “I can do many things,” he assured her, keeping his back to her.

  “And I can only imagine what they are,” she tossed back.

  He filled a plate with a dollop of scrambled eggs and two slices of thick bacon and gave it to her.

  “Toast and jam are on the table. And you don’t have to imagine anything if you’d rather not.”

  “Thanks, but imagination is good. Seriously, though, you didn’t have to do this. But then again, you didn’t have to call me and wake me up this early. So maybe you did have to do this. If I remember correctly, The Snow Zone doesn’t open until nine.”

  “And you were going to sleep until what, eight thirty?”

  “You’re here, I’m awake, it doesn’t matter now. So”—she forked up a bit of egg—“how are we going to work this today?”

  “Max wanted you to wear the ski suit that’s in the box you probably still haven’t opened. Said it’s the spiffiest—his words not mine—ski suit on the market. You’ll be representing the manufacturer. Max will give you a new suit each day, and you’ll just walk around. Kind of like the casino girls do out in Vegas.”

  He laughed and held up his hand. “I’m teasing. Seriously, I would ask Candy Lee. Max said she knows what the customers want, so let’s wait until we’re there before we get all bent out of shape.”

  “I’m not ‘all bent out of shape,’ Liam, trust me. I just don’t like being lied to, that’s all.”

  “I’m sorry. I don’t require much sleep. I assume the rest of the world doesn’t either. I promise not to wake you again.”

  Hannah nodded and chewed her food. “Apology accepted. What about you? Are you going to be able to work at The Snow Zone or not?”

  “Max wants me to set up in his office. I can connect from there. This isn’t a complicated system, so there shouldn’t be a problem.”

  As ticked as she was that he’d awakened her and seen her at her worst, she felt a tiny bit sad at the thought that they weren’t going to be working together. In the same building. Lovestruck, isn’t that what she’d thought last night before she’d responded to the guys’ reaction to her when she’d asked if it was okay if she kicked butt if she were touched in a way she wasn’t comfortable with? Yes, it was, and she was not going to go there. Not now.

  “Good. I’ll want to take a look at the applications for the past three months to start.”

  “Done. Though they’re electronic. You’ve a computer with you?”

  “Yes.” She went to the bedroom and grabbed her laptop and cord, bringing both to the kitchen table. “I guess this will work as an office,” she said, indicating the kitchen with a bob of her head. She booted up her laptop, then hit a few keys. “Send me the applications to this address.” She turned the computer around so he could read the e-mail address. He touched the iPad screen a few times, then Hannah heard the familiar ring letting her know she had mail. She opened the files and started reading through them. Nothing stood out, nothing unusual, but she knew that finding something unusual was the exception, not the rule. It was the things that didn’t stand out that were often overlooked.

  “I sent you the ones I haven’t looked at, just so we’re not doing double the work,” Liam explained as he continued to read the applicants’ information.

  Hannah finished her toast, rinsed her plate, and placed it in the dishwasher. “You want more coffee? I can make another pot,” she said, just to be nice. He had made her breakfast.

  “No, I’m good.”

  Hannah quickly cleaned up the breakfast dishes, then headed back to her room, where she’d left the box. Knowing what was inside kind of ruined the excitement for her. She and her father rarely exchanged gifts at Christmas, so the only time she really had had presents as a child was on her birthday, and since that was on Christmas Eve, they were always wrapped in Christmas wrap. She didn’t know why, but as a child, it had always made her sad to have her gifts wrapped that way. It was as though her birthday was just too close to the holidays to bother with anything extra. Maybe this was behind her reason for not bothering with the holidays? Her father had tried to be both a mother and a father to her, but there were some things a child needed. Specially wrapped birthday gifts were one of those things. If she ever had children, she would make such a big deal over their birthdays that they would remember them forever as being the best days of their lives.

  Crap! She was going off track again. It had to be this altitude. She was going to down about ten gallons of water. Isn’t that what Pierce had told her to do? Without another thought, she removed the bows and carefully unwrapped the pretty paper.

  She removed a shiny red jacket with matching ski pants from the box. “Nice.” A matching hat, gloves, and scarf followed. A pair of red UGGs. “Nice again,” she said out loud. How did Max know that red was her favorite color, or was it just a coincidence? No matter, she liked what she saw. She read the size, and it was also correct. Grace must’ve taken a good guess. Women were talented at that sort of thing. There were no tags to remove, and she wasn’t sure what she should put on first, then she saw the handwritten list.

  The red-hot chilis and the matching top. The red wool ski socks, the ski pants, the red-and-gray shirt, then the jacket. The handwriting looked to be that of a young girl. She’d bet this came from Candy Lee, the young college student who was managing the ski shop while Stephanie was away on an indeterminate maternity leave.

  She needed to look the part, so she went into the bathroom, braided her long hair in a French braid, then proceeded to apply her makeup as though she truly were a fashion model. She had good skin, so she added a bit of tinted moisturizer. She needed to look like an outdoorsy type. She was, but in a beachy way. S
he applied bronzer, then a dusting of rose-tinted blush across her cheeks. Using black liquid eyeliner, she lined both eyes, flicking the edge up to give her a bit of a cat’s-eye look. Two coats of mascara and a swipe of Dr Pepper–flavored lip balm. She checked her reflection in the mirror. Not bad for thirty-three, she thought. The beginnings of crow’s-feet were starting to form around her eyes. She’d have to be much more diligent with the sunscreen. She was a Floridian, and Floridians used sunscreen as if it were hand lotion. She certainly did, and so had her father, which was probably one of the reasons he had aged so well. She grabbed her purse and her ski jacket. She felt a swirl of excitement as she headed back to the kitchen. Hannah couldn’t wait to see Liam’s reaction when he saw her.

  She found him still seated at the kitchen table. When he realized she was standing there, he looked away from his iPad.

  He simply stared at her. There were no words needed. Hannah could tell he thought she was hot. Very hot.

  She gave him a sexy grin, then twirled around. “So, think I’ll pass as a model?”

  “I’d hire you in a heartbeat,” he said, then stood. “Let’s get this show on the road.”

  Chapter 11

  They rode to The Snow Zone together in the yellow Hummer. “I take it this thing isn’t going to leave us stranded,” she quipped as they wound over the winding road that led to the main area of Maximum Glide and The Snow Zone.

  “There wasn’t anything wrong with it last night. Patrick said it didn’t move because I left the emergency brake on.”

  Hannah laughed. “That’s a good thing, then.”

  “Well, I felt pretty stupid.”

  “You’re not stupid, just in an unfamiliar car. I always mess something up when I’m in a rental. Give me my little red Thunderbird any day.”

  “You look like you’d own a red car,” Liam said.

  “Red’s my favorite color. Isn’t it odd that these ski clothes just so happen to be red? Don’t you find that the least little bit strange?” She needed to know if someone had checked up on her. Maybe Max had contacted Camden, or maybe Grace had. For some silly reason, it mattered to her that whoever put this outfit together knew it would be perfect for her. Had it come from anyone else other than Max, she would have thought the coincidence a bit on the creepy side.