Snowed In at Silver Lake - Stephanie Fowers
CHAPTER ONE
Swoosh. Swoosh.
The blades did little to clear the storm from the windshield. The treacherous road looped into a forest caked in white. Gracie could barely see with the wet sludge of slippery snow crunching under the wheels and flying up over her view. Worse, the storm made her phone break up so that she had to repeat herself every so often. “Dad, I’m fine! I’m fine. Stop worrying.”
She knew how to drive in the snow. Gracie had moved to Raven Sky, Wyoming with her father when he first took the job as sheriff during her high school days. She had plenty of practice driving her beat up pickup through storms back then, though perhaps an old Honda Accord was different. Her father hadn’t been impressed with her purchase during his last visit and ended up installing a satellite receiver on the roof of her car and loaning her his police-issued phone for this trip. Totally against the rules, but her father always bent those, especially for Gracie. His gruff voice penetrated through her receiver. “If you’re not here in five hours, I’ll sic the whole force on you.”
She laughed. He would, too. Gracie’s mother had passed away when Gracie was twelve, and he was fiercely protective. The joke at Raven Sky High was that anyone taking out the sheriff’s daughter would meet up with a speeding ticket on their dates. Only a slight exaggeration. He’d missed her terribly when she’d decided to go back to school in her late twenties to study business, but he’d understood opening up a bakery had always been her dream so he’d let her go on the condition that she visit during every break. She wasn’t about to go back on her word when it was Christmas, no matter if things at home had turned a little... dicey. “No, no, you don’t have time for a Rescue Gracie mission,” she said. “I heard Raven Sky PD is pretty busy.”
“Nothing we can’t handle.” The guarded tone in his voice made her realize he was keeping something big from her. Being the sheriff’s daughter should’ve given her an “in” on the latest criminal activity in their small town, but usually she was the last to know anything. Being located an hour away from Yellowstone made them a target for drifters and troublemakers, and her father always made short work of them... he just refused to talk about it. He abruptly changed the subject. “Speaking of rescue missions, I think I might’ve ruined your Christmas tree. I tried to surprise you by putting up your decorations, but...”
Her lips curved up when she heard his heavy breaths like he was struggling—he was confessing while he was making a wreck of her tree! “Put the lights down, Dad.” Christmas break would be a whole month. Gracie had plenty of time to decorate. “I’ve got it.” Strangely, without her mother around, Gracie had still inherited her legendary holiday decorating and baking skills. The feast Gracie planned for Christmas would be the only thing that would make her father forget about the bad news she had for him. Hopefully. She made a face he couldn’t see.
Her father had pretended to be annoyed when Gracie had hit it off with his attractive new detective, Chris Hall, but she knew he thought of Chris as a son, even after such short acquaintance. Her dad was actually overjoyed, but what a mistake that tumultuous relationship had turned out to be. She’d broken off her engagement, but didn’t have the heart to come clean to her father, especially since it appeared Chris hadn’t, either. Some things were better said face to face.
“If you don’t want me to make a bigger mess of things, you’d better get here quick,” he said after another loud thud. Then, as if reading her mind that she didn’t want to discuss Chris, he immediately brought him up. “I’m not the only one who misses you around here.”
Her spirits went as dark as this stormy night. She and her dad were quite the pair, keeping things from each other. She listened to her father’s beloved Doberman bark in the background and found the perfect distraction. “Well, of course Ralphie misses me,” she said. “How’s my good dog?”
Her father was silent a moment, before reading her refusal to talk. “Look Gracie, is this about Chris not coming up to see you when I came to visit last month? It’s the nature of the job. He’s been pretty busy lately, but he’s a good