That day at park headquarters, she’d been too angry to tell Xavier their big news, and she still hadn’t told him. She wanted to. And she would. Soon. But every time she reached for the phone, anger would rise and steal her ability to speak. This was joyful news. For the rest of her life, she would remember telling the father of her child about her pregnancy. Did she really want that memory tainted by anger?

She imagined telling him dozens of different ways, but they always ended up tinged with bitterness. “Hey, funny thing, remember how you tried to get me fired two weeks before Christmas? Yeah, well, I’m pregnant with your child. Good thing I kept my job and didn’t lose my health insurance.”

Or sometimes she went a different route. “Guess what? I’m having your baby, so you might want to recant what you said so I don’t lose my job and the maternity leave I’ve accrued.”

She didn’t want to be bitter. She wanted to share the joy in her heart. But she didn’t know how to get into that mental space with Xavier.

Now she stopped in the circular drive that fronted the lodge and stared at the façade as memories of that night flooded her. His touch. His smile. His warm laugh and deep, husky voice as he told her exactly what he wanted to do to her. The heat in his gaze during the intense stare down before that first incredible kiss.

Facing the lodge, she realized this was the first time she’d been able to think of Xavier without anger since mid-December. Maybe she should call him right now. She shook her head, irritated with the distraction of it all. She had work to do. She needed to check on the site. Check on George. Then head home before the storm hit.

She parked in the spot next to the blue-painted accessible spaces at the far end of the loop. Even in the middle of winter when the lodge was closed, she couldn’t bring herself to park in a blue spot. She hit the lock button on the SUV as she walked away, knowing that too was unnecessary. Some habits were too ingrained.

Before hiking to the site, she would check the fuse boxes to see if the outbuildings had power. This might not be about looting. A surge could have caused an outage at the blacksmith shop. She’d braced herself for the worst-case scenario, but there was a whole continuum of possibilities. This could be nothing.

She rounded the lodge, heading for the exterior basement door on the lake side of the building. Wind swept along the roof, whipping water from the gutter and dropping it straight down the back of her neck.