A Snow Covered Nightmare: Refuge Series Book Two by Debbie Zello (17)

Chapter Seventeen

Briah loved her job. How Brice found it, or how she got it, was a mystery. She felt that Tom didn’t know her circumstances. Clearly, Cindy or Ryan didn’t either. The whole thing was anonymity personified.

Briah’s organizational skills, combined with her desire to succeed, allowed her to have the ski shop and rental side of her job up and running smoothly, in only a few weeks. She had all of the old, worn and damaged equipment repaired or removed within the first month.

She learned the mountain’s secrets, with her weekend walks over and around it. How a sudden change in the direction of the wind might cause a peaceful snowfall to turn ugly. Briah was now part of the original and oldest ski patrol in the United States. With a tradition of excellence and bravery that other ski areas modeled their own patrols after.

As the summer ended and the fall changed the colors around her from green to wonderful, Briah’s love for the area and its people deepened. She had become friendly with some of the storeowners in Stowe. She was an avid reader and one of her first pleasures was the Bear Pond Book Store in the center of town. Jen, the owner, was a sweet woman very knowledgeable about the town and the books she sold. Briah spent many hours combing her shelves for a good romance to plunge into.

Pottery, woolens, and of course maple syrup, were sold in the Mercantile on Main Street. Small coffee shops, ice cream parlors, and restaurants dotted the landscape to her delight. As the time passed, she felt less and less like a banished woman with a scarlet letter. Not as much like the one that had done something wrong. Maybe it was just that her regularly scheduled programming had been interrupted and now her show was back on.

Briah had plastic cling pumpkins, witches, and black cats stuck on the windows of her house. The real pumpkins on her porch had long ago frozen in the cold fall nights or were eaten by the squirrels and had to be thrown out. She had her bowl of candy by the door as she turned on her porch light, a direct invitation for the zombies and other creatures of the night to ring her bell.

Briah loved Halloween. It was her favorite holiday for two reasons. First, it was so much fun to decorate for, and second, it meant the snow was coming soon. She saw her first candy thief approaching her door. A sweet little girl with pink faux fairy wings and a tin foil halo rang her bell. Briah opened the door with a huge grin.

“Trick or treat,” the little angel said.

“You are adorable, sweetie. I love your wings.”

“Thank you.”

“Here you go,” Briah said handing the tiny thing the bowl so she could pick what she wanted. As she dug through the different kinds of candy Briah had in there, Briah looked up at the man at the bottom of the stairs.

“Hi,” he said.

“Hi. Your little girl is beautiful,” Briah said.

“Thank you but she isn’t mine. She is my niece; I’m just taking her around for my sister tonight. My brother-in-law is in Afghanistan,” he explained.

“I’m so sorry he is missing this. Please thank your sister for her husband’s service to our country,” Briah said throwing a few more candy bars in the fairy’s bag.

“I will, thank you. Cindy said you were one of the nicest people she had ever met. She doesn’t exaggerate.”

“You know Cindy?”

“I work with her. I’m Stu Jefferys. I believe that she may have mentioned my name,” he said as he walked up the steps. His hand went out towards Briah but she couldn’t take her eyes from the face of the man before her. He had walked into the light cast from her porch. Out of the shadows came this man with cobalt blue eyes. His smile was wide surrounded by soft looking lips and perfect white teeth. His hair was very nearly black and fairly long, touching the collar of his jacket.

A few seconds passed, as she stood there stunned by him. She swallowed hard and then placed her hand in his. “Yes, Cindy mentioned you to me. I’m pleased to meet you, Mr. Jefferys.”

“Stu, please. If you say Mr. Jefferys, I look around for my father,” he said flashing that blinding smile. He held her hand way past an acceptable length of time, not wanting to end the contact. Regretfully, he had to let her go or risk scaring her with his attention.

The tiny fairy tugged on his pant leg. “Uncle Stu, can we go?”

“Sure sweetie, I was just introducing myself to the nice lady. You can go to the next house. I’ll be right behind you,” Stu said without looking away from Briah.

“Bye darling, I hope you get lots of candy tonight,” Briah said staring straight at Stu.

“If I asked you to dinner, would you go?” Stu asked.

“I might, if you asked.”

“Would you please go to dinner with me, Saturday night?”

“I’d love to, thank you.”

“I’ll pick you up around seven. Is that good?”

“Yes, that’s fine, thank you.”

“I’ll see you Saturday night, then. Thank you for the candy,” he said smiling.

“You’re very welcome,” Briah said returning his smile. She watched as he walked back down her steps and sidewalk. He got out to the street and turned right following the path his niece had taken. He disappeared into the darkness, as Briah turned and went back inside. She shivered slightly. Why hadn’t she noticed the cold when she was talking to Stu? She closed the door and leaned against it trying to remember the exact words Cindy had used to describe Stu Jefferys. She thought she might have said he was “a great guy.” Cindy didn’t say with eyes that would pierce your mind with thoughts of lust.

Briah shook her head quickly. “Get a grip, girl. Blue eyes are trouble. The one thing you don’t need right now is any trouble. Things are just settling down. Let’s do calm for a while and see how we like it,” she said aloud.

The rest of the week passed with a few inches of snow falling. The mountain still hadn’t begun to make snow yet. The days were still a little too warm for it to sustain any appreciable length of time. People had called for weeks now inquiring about the conditions. Snow bunnies were ready for the season to begin.

Briah was ready too. Her skis were sharpened and waxed. Her jacket, hats, and goggles were hanging on the hooks near the front door. All she needed was the snow.

Saturday morning after she had cleaned the house, Briah sat and did her nails. She loved her nails painted, feeling it was a very girly thing to do. She checked in with the ski shop to make sure there were no problems brewing. It was quite busy there as people had been dropping off their personal equipment to have it checked and repaired and were now picking it up.

In the late afternoon, she took a shower and shaved, deciding to wear a dress for dinner. It might be the last time she wore one for a while. With the cold and wind, bare legs froze quickly.

At six forty-five, she was dressed and ready to go. She thought she would catch the last part of the national evening news. The correspondent was talking about Ebola being a worldwide problem and not just an African disease. The story finished and they were going to a commercial when the anchor said the upcoming story was, “Woman found dead in Florida home confirmed as ex-wife of convicted mafia mobster David Slater.”

All of the color drained from Briah’s beautiful face. Her blood ran cold and she began to shake. Her vision narrowed on the television and everything else in the room disappeared. The commercials went on forever, droning on about everything from unclogging your drain to growing hair on your bald head.

“Will you please get back to Jeanette for God’s sake!” she yelled at the TV.

“The body of the woman found yesterday in a quiet neighborhood in Port Charlotte, Florida, has now been identified as the ex-wife of convicted murderer David Slater.

“Jeanette Slater had testified in her ex-husband’s murder trial for the prosecution. Her testimony, along with the eyewitness account of another woman, sent the mobster to prison.

“The cause of death was a gun shot to her head and has been ruled a homicide even though it was made to look like a suicide. her remains are being flown to Colorado for burial.

“If anyone has any information on this case they are encouraged to call 911 or their local F.B.I. office.”

“She is dead and he killed her. How the hell did he find her? Now, he’s going to find me,” Briah said to the television. She stared unfocused at the screen as the news continued, just like life went on in spite of the fact that she was now in danger of losing hers. It amazed her that a handful of words could stem the tide of her new life.

Her doorbell rang, snapping her out of her dead stare. Going out for dinner now seemed like a stupid thing to do and yet since it might be her last, she stood up and answered the door. Attempting to smile she opened the door.

“Hi, am I early or something?” Stu asked.

“No, I think you’re right on time. I was just listening to the news and a story bothered me. That’s all,” Briah said, trying to center her mind on the man at her door.

“Are you all right? You look frightened. What was the story?” he asked walking in the door and placing his hand on her arm. He took a quick look around her kitchen and living room as if he was looking for some perceived threat.

“It was about the Ebola virus being a world-wide problem,” she said thinking quickly.

“And you are worried that it might show up here in Vermont?” he said as his features softened from concern to mild amusement.

“You never know where it will go. That is what they were saying. It could be anywhere,” she continued.

“I don’t think we get too many visitors from Africa here. It’s more like Canadians and New Englanders, that’s as exotic as we normally get. I can’t promise, but I’m relatively sure you’re safe here,” he said with a chuckle.

“I guess so,” she said absentmindedly as she took her coat from the hook. Stu took the coat from her and held it up so she could put it on.

“You look lovely tonight. I should have said that by now.”

“Thank you. I’m sure that you would have if I hadn’t thrown you off your game,” she said giving him a genuine smile.

“So you know up front, I don’t play games. I’ll be direct with you and I hope you’re direct with me,” he said as his eyes flashed. Briah was staggered by his honesty, knowing she could never be with him or anyone else. Her life depended on her ability to lie convincingly.

“I like the direct approach. What do you say to getting to know each other over dinner?”

“I say let’s go.”