Great, Alix thought. Even in this wild, snowy wilderness, the man had street cred. She was the one who felt out of her depth, but that was mostly because of Holly.

Zac didn’t seem to share her anxieties. “This place is spectacular. Almost no light pollution. You must be inside the auroral oval here.”

“Yes. All we need is clear skies, and you will see the aurora.” Erik glanced at Robyn. “It’s cold. We should get indoors.”

Robyn seemed to pull herself together. “I thought you’d want to settle yourselves in as soon as possible. If you drive two minutes along the track, you’ll see Wolf.” She gestured to a snowy track that wound its way deep into the forest.

Alix felt a flicker of alarm. “Wolf?”

Robyn smiled. “Your cabin. You can park right outside. The door is open. I’ll follow, and we can talk inside where it’s warm. Erik will take Suka back to the lodge. I don’t want to start my relationship by scaring Holly.”

Alix didn’t think for one moment that Holly would be afraid of the dog, but she could see the logic of not introducing too many new elements at once, so she simply nodded and slid back into the warmth of the car.

Zac drove slowly along the bumpy, snowy track that led into the forest.

“She seemed nice,” Alix said. “Not scary.” And it was good to know she wasn’t the only one who was uncertain about how to handle a child.

He shot her a look. “Scary?”

Should she confess that as children she and Christy had made up a dozen different stories to explain why Aunt Robyn’s name was not to be mentioned?

She’d smoked inside the house: a sin for which Elizabeth would definitely ban someone.

She’d been repeatedly late for dinner: another offense that would have struck deep at the heart of Elizabeth’s values.

She’d stolen something precious: they’d argued over what this could be. Christy had bet on a piece of jewelry. Alix had thought it was more likely to be clothing.

And then as they’d grown older, the guesses had grown darker.

Obviously she’d had sex with someone she shouldn’t. Or maybe even murdered someone. Had sex with someone and then murdered them? The possibilities were endless.

Now, with the benefit of age, Alix understood that a rift could result from something much less dramatic. A tear in the fabric of a relationship that had never been mended. A misunderstanding. A comment, made with the best of intentions, that created a wound that festered.

She felt a moment of helplessness as she thought about her own situation. She’d convinced herself that she had been doing the right thing by expressing her misgivings to her friend. But her conversation with Zac had made her wonder if the anxiety she’d felt had been based on her own childhood experiences rather than any particular action on Seb’s part.

She hadn’t known for sure that Seb was a bad choice for Christy, had she?