Free Fall Read online

  Then there’d been a problem with the plumbing in the ski shop’s employee bathroom, and after that, a computer crash. Since their computer guy was a high school techno-head in town—also the baby brother of their cafeteria chef—who’d gotten himself arrested for joyriding in his aunt’s car just last week and no longer had access to a vehicle, Lily had to go get him.

  By the time all the fires were put out, it was past midnight. The bar was still hopping, but Logan wasn’t in it. Nor was he in the cafeteria or the open lodge area or the hot tub. She couldn’t blame him—it’d been hours since he’d said he’d see her.

  But disappointment flooded her. Once again, the lodge had taken over her life, keeping her from something she’d wanted. Someone she’d wanted.

  With a sigh for what might have been, and then another for her easy, carefree life of old, she dragged herself off to bed.

  6

  THE NEXT DAY DAWNED BRILLIANT, with a sky so bright and blue that Lily needed sunglasses just to look at it. She loved mornings like this, with the air lung-searingly crisp and clean. She stood on the outside deck of the cafeteria, overlooking the mountain. Unfortunately the news she was getting from her chef was seriously compromising her enjoyment of the morning.

  Carl stood there hovering while she looked over the menus for the week, his skinny arms wrapped around his skinnier body. “I don’t know what happened,” he said. “I’m telling you, I always get the breads delivered like clockwork. But they swear you called them and told them no deliveries this week. Why did you do that?”

  Aunt Debbie was kicking back against the railing of the deck, looking smug at not having any responsibilities. She sipped her coffee and eyed Carl speculatively.

  “I didn’t cancel a delivery.” Lily was baffled, but also irritated. People weren’t going to be happy eating hamburgers without buns, chili without bread bowls, breakfast without toast….

  “And why the hell do we always have to have our morning meeting outside?” he grumbled, shivering.

  “Because she’s got ice in her veins,” Debbie said cheerfully.

  “Do you mind?” Lily asked. “We’re having a meeting here.”

  “Sorry.” She didn’t look it.

  Carl shivered again. Though he hated the winters, he’d been working at Bay Moon for ten years, ever since he’d graduated high school. He’d started out cleaning tables and had talked his way into cooking. Tall, dark-haired and scrawny, he’d turned out to be a god in the kitchen, a miraculous find who could whip up anything under the sun, and often did, just for fun. His genius with food made her overlook his complaints about the winter, the snow and the general misery that this season caused him.

  It boggled Lily’s mind that anyone would willingly go into a kitchen and cook and call it fun, but over and over again their guests wrote entire fan letters devoted to the talents of this one man. As for the outdoor meetings, Carl and her grandmother had always had their meetings outside, and Lily wasn’t going to break with tradition. She’d once taken pity on him and had an indoor meeting only to have him mope around for the entire shift, talking about how “some people” didn’t respect the past.

  “It’s so cold, my parts are frozen,” he complained.

  Lily’s grandma had loved him, and so did she. Every long, scrawny, grumpy inch of him. “Chefs don’t whine,” she said absently, looking over his menu.

  “They do when it’s twenty-five degrees outside. Jeez, Lil, have a heart.”

  Debbie looked amused.

  “Stand in the sun.” Lily whipped out her cell and called the distributor. Damn if they didn’t swear she’d canceled. Irate but relatively calm, she spoke to the supervisor. And got nowhere. She disconnected. “You’re going to have to get creative without bread until tomorrow.”

  Lips blue, he shrugged. “Fine. Just make sure no one screws with tomorrow’s delivery.”

  “Oh, I plan to.”

  He glanced longingly inside. “Look, I have the heater on in the kitchen, all nice and toasty-like. You come in and I’ll make you up my egg special. With the ham in it, just how you like it. No toast though. My boss, see, she screwed up my order.”

  “Stop it, I didn’t screw up anything.” But someone had, and she’d find out who, too.

  She lifted her gaze and scanned the horizon. From this strategic spot, guests could take in the rocky, craggy Sierras, dipped in white and lined with ribbons of frosted pines as far as the eye could see. For once, however, she felt too disgruntled to enjoy the great view. Who would pull such a stupid, disruptive stunt?

  “I’d love the special, but you’ll have to send it to my office.” With a sigh, she passed back the menu with an approving nod. “I’ll be with your brother, who right now is dealing with our computers and Sara.”

  “Oy.”

  “Yeah. Make that a double.”

  “I’ll come to the kitchen for the special,” Debbie said.

  Lily followed them, scanning the busy tables as she walked through the cafeteria. She told herself she was checking to make sure everyone looked happy, but she was really looking for a dark, wavy mane of hair and matching eyes, a smile that never failed to render her stupid and a body that she could happily look at for the rest of his stay.

  But Logan White wasn’t there. Probably wasn’t a morning person, or maybe he’d already hit the slopes. She didn’t know, and it shouldn’t matter, but as she moved through the cafeteria into the rest of the lodge, she kept a vigil, finally having to admit defeat.

  The computer issue took the entire morning, hours made slightly more livable because Carl kept his word and sent her food. After that, she had a shift to cover in the ski shop because someone had called in sick. Sick. Even she knew better than that. The day after a snowfall, with fresh powder on the hills, she always lost twenty percent of her employees to the “powder flu.” She couldn’t really blame them, she’d have done the same thing.

  If she hadn’t owned the place, damn it. She wanted to be out there, too! Every time she passed a window, she slowed down, mentally pressing her nose to the glass, pathetic and yearning.

  Unfortunately the rest of the day went by without a single chance to get out. That really ate at her because in no time at all, the season would be over and she’d be forced to get her adrenaline fix in other ways, such as on her mountain bike, which, while fun, wasn’t the same.

  By evening, she still sat at her desk, staring sightlessly at the stacks of work yet to be done, always to be done, and rubbed her temples. For so much of this past year she’d worked night and day like this. It was killing her, absolutely killing her. She needed some time, needed to rejuvenate her spirit. True, she got outside a lot, and on the slopes she loved so much. But much of that time was spent with one ear cocked on the radio, patrolling or fielding calls from her sisters. No just-Lily time.

  Her sisters didn’t seem to need that.

  Yet another example of how she must be an alien baby that her parents had found on their porch one morning twenty-five years ago.

  When her stomach growled, it was a reason to wander through the cafeteria. Again, she wondered what Logan was doing. Was he wandering the unique shops and galleries in town? Out with someone he’d met today on the slopes? He’d have had no trouble meeting a woman interested in him. Hell, any woman with a pulse would be interested in him. That gorgeous face and even more magnificent body, topped with an intriguingly sharp mind and wit, not to mention the way he kissed—

  Her walkie-talkie rang out and she wished it could be Danny with an emergency on the slopes that she could go help with. Pitiful, wishing for an emergency just to get out, but since the slopes were closed for the day, the odds weren’t good.

  “I’m going to be thirty minutes late for my shift,” Matt said in a rush.

  “But your shift starts—” she glanced down at her watch “—now.”

  “I know. Sorry. Can you cover me?”

  “Yeah, yeah.” She clicked off and headed toward the bar. She knew Matt was