“She’s okay. They found her,” Cassie said a little harshly when Erika was silent.

“Right...that’s great. A relief,” her voice trailed off. This reunion wasn’t going well. How she’d expected them to just pick up where they’d left off, she didn’t know. Why had she come here by train? She should have driven so she wouldn’t be stuck here, at the mercy of the train schedule.

Though that was precisely why she’d done it.

Noticing Cassie’s wrist tattoo—the word Best visible beneath the sleeve of her coat—she decided to try again. Their tattoos had been more than just words at one time and their shared history had to mean something. “So...your company—how many employees work for you?”

“I have a team of six tour guides during the busier seasons and four during the winter.”

“Do you have an office?”

“Yes, on Main Street.”

“What’s the name of the business?”

“Snow Trek Tours.”

“Right. The logo on the door...” Opening the search engine on her phone, Erika typed in the name.

“Don’t believe me?” Cassie asked, glancing at the phone as the company’s professional-looking website appeared.

Erika closed it down and shook her head. “Sorry. Research is a habit of mine, that’s all.” Though maybe she should have researched her friend’s Facebook page a little more. Or reached out to her before now. But she was genuinely interested. “Other than snowshoeing and snowmobiling, what else does the company offer?” Snow Trek Tours couldn’t possibly survive on those activities alone and Cassie said summer was a busy time.

“Winter camping is popular this time of year, before the temperature drops in the negative... Also corporate events—we host a lot of executive team-building trips.”

Erika nodded. “I can imagine there’s a lot of liability insurance needed...” Her body jerked forward as Cassie stopped the truck abruptly at a stoplight.

“This is starting to feel a little like an interview,” she said.

“Sorry.” Socially awkward was a term that readily came to mind when she described herself. She’d always struggled to fit in with other kids, and based on her lack of friends now, that trend had continued into her adult life. Despite her professional success, or maybe because of it, Erika had a hard time relating to people and having a conversation that wasn’t work related.

Much of her identity was wrapped up in her career, and outside the comfort of the operating room, she wasn’t quite sure who she was.

But this was Cassie—her best friend...or at least she had been. She could relax. She could be herself...or at least the closest version of a normal person she could muster.

But Erika couldn’t think of anything else to say and a moment later, Cassie reached forward and turned up the volume on the holiday music station playing “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree.”

Right.

Erika glanced out the window as they drove along Main Street, the late afternoon sky casting a beautiful glow over the town, already decorated for the upcoming season. Lights and garlands were wrapped around the streetlight poles and the storefront window displays competed to be the most elaborate. They held a contest every year and visitors could vote on their favorites. When Erika was a kid, her mother would bring her to Main Street for a shopping trip the week before Christmas and they always agreed that the secondhand bookstore—Wrinkled Pages—had the best display. They’d drink hot chocolate and shop for a new train set for her father at the Hobby Shop—he’d collected miniature sets back then—and she’d looked forward to his fake surprise when he’d opened the gift every year. Christmas when her mom was alive had been something to celebrate, and the traditional shopping trip was etched in her memory.