“Is that so terrible?” she whispered, her body trembling.
He ran his thumb across her bottom lip and tilted her chin up. “It’s excruciating.”
His lips grazed the corner of her mouth. But before they lost themselves, a little voice cut through the lust-charged haze.
“Uncle Scooter?”
In the space of a breath, she and Soren pulled apart.
“What is it, Carly? Did you have a bad dream?” he asked, doing his best to recover, but the slight shake to his voice gave away that he was just as stunned by their overpowering attraction as she was.
The little girl rubbed her eyes. “No, Cole’s gone.”
“Could he have gone to the bathroom?” Soren asked, his voice still a tight rasp.
“No, he’s not there, Uncle Scooter. I think he went to look for a Christmas fairy.”
A Christmas fairy?
Bridget stiffened as an ominous chill prickled down her spine.
“Now?” she asked, her voice going up an octave.
The temperature had to be well below freezing, and a blustery wind blew swirling pellets of snow against the window.
“His coat and boots are gone, Birdie,” Carly replied.
She met Soren’s eye and saw the same alarm she was sure was mirrored in her eyes.
“Hello? Are you in here?” Delores called from outside the kitchen.
Bridget ran into the main room with Soren on her heels.
“The back door was open, and I wanted to make sure everyone was okay,” the caretaker said, concern marring her features.
Bridget’s heart hammered in her chest. Panic flooded her system. She didn’t want to frighten the little girl, but there was no time to waste. She grabbed her boots and threw on her coat.
“Would you mind helping Carly back to bed, Delores? I think Cole wandered outside. I have to find him,” she said, working to keep her voice even.
Delores frowned, then glanced out the window. “In this weather?”
Bridget’s stomach twisted into a sickening knot.
“Don’t worry, I’ll find him,” she said over her shoulder as she hurried toward the door that led out to the cabins dotting the rugged mountain terrain.
The icy air stung her cheeks the moment she left the warmth of the mountain house, but she pressed on, glancing wildly between the dark towering evergreens that seemed to be closing in at every angle.
“Bridget! Wait!”
She glanced back as a light bobbed in the darkness.
“Delores is calling Dan to let Denise and Nancy know what’s going on,” Soren said, coming to her side.
“We have to find him, Soren. It’s so cold, and he won’t last long on his own. It’s my fault he’s out there. I’m the one who filled his head with all those Christmas fairy stories,” she said, her nerves getting the best of her as she trekked into the darkness.
He took her hand. “We’ll find him. He couldn’t have gotten far.”
She gathered her wits. She had to be smart and keep her cool.
Step one: figure out which way Cole had ventured.
“Shine the light and check for tracks. The snow couldn’t have covered them yet,” she instructed.
Soren panned the golden beam across the dark expanse of snow, revealing pint-sized boot prints. They ran, following the tracks until Soren stopped.
“Bridget, look!”
“Do you see him?” Relief washed over her until a fleck of red caught her eye, dashing her hopes.
Soren plucked the item from the snow. “It’s Cole’s glasses. He can barely see without them.”
She glanced around wildly, shielding her eyes from the biting wind whirling with frigid snow.
What chance did a five-year-old have out here on his own? And how could she ever forgive herself if anything happened to the little boy?
14
Soren
Soren stared at the tiny red spectacles, and his heart leaped into his throat.
“Oh my God!” Bridget said, her gaze trained on the child-sized frames.
On the one hand, finding Cole’s glasses was a sure sign they were on the right track.
On the other, between the snow and the darkness, it was confirmation that the boy was unquestionably lost in the wilderness.
They didn’t have a moment to lose.
“Cole, where are you? Call out to us!” he cried as he and Bridget dodged tree branches and trudged through drifts of snow.
“Cole, let us know where you are!” Bridget yelled.
They stopped to listen. The wind howled. It whipped their cheeks with unrelenting icy lashes.
“Cole, sweetheart, where are you?” Bridget tried again, her voice straining against the wind.
They needed a plan. Every minute that ticked by was another minute the young boy wandered farther away from the mountain house. And even worse, the snow, that had once revealed the boy’s boot prints, now covered the ground in a pristine