She drove up the winding road that led to home, noticing it had been sanded since she left and realizing Colton had probably done that with her in mind. In the driveway, she parked next to Max’s Subaru. He’d started back to work today, part time for now, until he got Caden on a more reliable schedule. As Lucy approached the front porch of the cabin, Max emerged from the retail building.

“Hey,” she called to him. “Have you seen Colton?”

“He’s up on the hill. I’m heading up myself. Want me to deliver a message?”

“Just tell him I’m back. I’ll see him later.”

“Will do.”

Lucy went into the retail building where they’d set up an office space for her and went straight to the woodstove to add more logs. Sarah and Elmer were asleep on their dog beds. She gave each of them a scratch behind the ears before she sat down to get some work done.

An hour later, she heard Colton’s distinctive footsteps on the wooden stairs. In addition to Max, Colton had several other helpers who worked with him on the mountain, but after nearly a year with him, she could distinguish his footsteps from everyone else’s.

And no one came crashing into a room the way Colton Abbott did.

Sarah and Elmer were jolted from a sound sleep and got up to greet him. Amused, Lucy spun around in her chair. “Hi, honey, you’re home.”

“Hey, babe. How’d the send-off go? You told them I had to work, right?”

“It went fine, and I did. They said they’ll see you soon.”

He unzipped the heavy coveralls he wore to work outside in the winter and removed the first of two insulated hats. “You okay?”

“Why wouldn’t I be?”

“I know it’s hard for you to see them go home.”

“I’ll see them when I go down for Simone’s birthday.”

“That’s true. So what’s going to happen with Emma and Grayson now?”

“I don’t know, but she was pretty sad to be leaving him. They really hit it off.”

Now down to jeans and a flannel shirt with another layer of thermal beneath it, Colton came over to press his cold lips against her neck. “We know how that can happen, don’t we?”

Lucy jolted from the chill. “We certainly do.” There, she thought. He’s given you an opening. Take it. “Colton…”

“Hmm?” He wrapped his arms around her shoulders and leaned into her, surrounding her with the now-familiar scents of fresh air and wood smoke.

“Can we talk?”

“Any time you want.”

“About something we never talk about but probably should?”

He looked down at her, hands resting on the arms of her chair. “What’s on your mind, Luce?”

She looked up at the face she loved so much and swallowed hard. “Our wedding.”

“What about it?”