“Yes.” Robyn sat back in the sled. “But also with this place. And with the life. I was never good at playing the games that are expected of a person in today’s world. I’m no good at politics or people-pleasing. Always said the wrong thing. Did the wrong thing. Was never interested in promotion or climbing corporate ladders. Always been bad on ladders. Couldn’t find a route that worked for me. My life was full of mistakes and missteps. You probably already know this.”

Why would they know it? Was Robyn aware that she’d been a banned topic of conversation? She was one of the things that hadn’t been permitted in Christy’s life when she was growing up, along with alcohol, drugs, staying out late and bad language.

At the time Alix had thought of Elizabeth’s approach as firm parenting, something she’d never observed before, but over time she’d understood it had been more complicated than that.

“I don’t know anything.” Alix wasn’t about to confess all the guesses she and Christy had made over the years. Hey, we wondered if you’d killed someone.

“I made some bad decisions. Wrong choices. Got sucked in with the wrong people.” She glanced briefly at Holly, reluctant to say more, but the child’s attention was focused on Suka. “Barely survived, to be honest, but out here, survival means something different. Nature makes the rules, but they’re rules that are easy to understand. The landscape demands certain knowledge and skills, and I felt at home here right from the start.”

What wrong choices? What bad decisions? Alix wanted to know what had brought Robyn here. Not that it was hard to understand the attraction.

She breathed in the freezing air and the scent of the forest. She’d always thought of herself as a city person. Certainly she had no desire to swap places with Christy and live in a cottage in the country, but this—this was something different. There was a wildness to it that was fascinating. Or maybe it was Zac’s stories about the place that had made it fascinating.

And now she was thinking about him again. No matter how hard she tried, her mind kept circling back.

After Holly had disturbed them the night before, he hadn’t kissed her again, but the intimacy had hovered between them, heating the atmosphere as effectively as the log fire that flickered in the corner of the cabin. She’d been doing her best to ignore what had happened at the wedding, but he’d put an end to that pretense, and now it was out there and impossible to ignore.

No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t shut it down.

She’d had a sleepless night, going over and over it in her head.

“This is the place.” Robyn sat forward as the sled stopped moving. Without the noise from the snowmobile, the only sounds were the creak of snow, heavy on the trees, and Suka panting as she leaped from the sled.

It was idyllic.