Chapter 10
“Everything all right, Kira? You look a little stressed.”
Kira glanced up at Sylvie Taylor, her friendly local dispenser of baked goods, with a wry smile. “It’s that obvious, is it?”
Sylvie laughed lightly as she packaged up the lunch she’d prepared – a salad roll, tuna on the side, an apple, and a chocolate cupcake – all baked right here in her very own bakery, using ingredients she’d grown herself. Kira wasn’t sure what it was, but anything Sylvie grew and baked just tasted that much more delicious than anything else she’d ever eaten in her life. But then, Sylvie’s husband Gale was a gardener and nurseryman, who ran the garden center down the road. So maybe he had some secret method of growing food that the rest of the world didn’t know about yet. But then, that would be like implying Sylvie’s baking wasn’t amazing by itself, which it definitely was.
All Kira knew was that whatever they were doing, it worked: Sylvie’s bakery was always overflowing with customers trying to get a bite of her famous sweets and pies, and all the plants in Gale’s nursery were always lush and verdant.
“Just a little,” Sylvie said, as she passed Kira her lunch. Kira always got her packed lunches here – it was a bit of an indulgence, but working as a park ranger was a tiring job, and knowing she’d have a delicious lunch she didn’t have to shop for and make herself was worth its weight in gold. Especially recently.
Kira grimaced. “I don’t know where that development company – Tongle Heit, or whatever it is they call themselves – get the nerve. They’re already tramping through the forest like they own it, even though they don’t. Well. Not yet, anyway.”
Depression welled up inside her, and Kira forced herself to swallow it back down. I have to remember it’s true, and they don’t own it just yet. There’s still hope.
But she knew with every passing day that that hope was getting dimmer and dimmer. The protective trust on the pristine mountains and unspoiled forest around Girdwood Springs was up at the end of the month, after having been in place for so many years. And when it was over, the land would be up for grabs, to whoever could pay the highest price for it – and right now, that whoever was Tongle Heit Property Developments, who had designs of building a massive ski lodge and hotel complex on it. It’d mean clearing acres of forest, and turning the sleepy town of Girdwood Springs into a massive tourist hub.
Girdwood Springs already got its fair share of tourists, but they were mainly passing through on their way to the skiing cabins farther up the mountain. Everyone in town knew that changing the town so much would have huge repercussions for the people who lived here, worked here, and loved the town just the way it was. A massive hotel and everything that entailed… well. It’d change things, that was for sure, and not everyone was agreed it would be for the better.
Sylvie sighed, nodding. “Yeah. I get it – honestly, it kind of has me worried too. I rely on tourists coming through, just like all the businesses around here. But if the new place has everything it says it’s going to have – its own mini-mall, restaurants, all the bells and whistles… well, I don’t know how many customers I’ll be seeing. That’s what all of us who run local shops are worried about. And that’s even before we start thinking about all the trees that’ll need to be cleared, all the animals that’ll have no home…”
“I know, and believe me, if I had any way of stopping this, I’d be doing it,” Kira said grimly. “But without proof that the trust was supposed to continue in perpetuity, the county ruled that it would end this month. And no one knows where old Mason Girdwood’s will, gifting the land to the people of Girdwood Springs, is now. The clerks at the office say it burned up in a fire at one of their storage buildings, and no one’s ever seen a copy. And without that, we have to accept the ruling.”
“That’s… a little suspicious, isn’t it?” Sylvie said, arching an eyebrow. “I don’t like to be cynical, but…”
Kira threw her hands up in the air in frustration. “No, be as cynical as you like – it’s just sooooo convenient, don’t you think? Acres and acres of valuable land, and now – whoops! – the county has just magically lost the paperwork that designates no one’s allowed to make a profit off it? Oh no, it burned in a fire! No, we’re not going to look for a copy! Actually, I’d say that’s a little more than convenient.”
“Well, despite all that, I just can’t believe all hope is lost just yet,” Sylvie said, sighing. “I don’t want to let go of the idea that we can still hold on to the place we live.”
“I wish I had your faith, Sylvie,” Kira said, shaking her head. She’d always been a bit of a pessimist – she had to own up to that. She just didn’t believe in things like luck. Luck didn’t exist – it was just a matter of who had the most power. “I just don’t see any way out of this, though. Unless we can magically find that will before the end of the month, the trust is going to lapse, and then it’s anyone’s game. And by anyone, I guess I mean fat cat property developers. Since I can’t see anyone beating them for deep pockets.”
“Well, I’m going to try to keep my chin up,” Sylvie said. “Stranger things have happened – I promise you, I know what I’m talking about!”
As Kira left the bakery to get into her Range Rover to drive out to her office – which was actually more like a cabin in the woods – Kira couldn’t help but admire Sylvie’s spirit, and the twinkle in her eye when she’d talked about stranger things happening.
Despite her pessimistic nature, it made Kira want to be just a little more hopeful that things weren’t as bleak as they seemed.
She wasn’t sure just at this exact second how that was possible, but… well, maybe Sylvie was right, and stranger things had happened.
Stranger than a will that had been missing for years and was last seen in an office building that had burned down some time ago magically turning up out of thin air.
Stranger than Tongle Heit Developments suddenly losing interest in their absolute goldmine of a site.
Stranger than –
Oh, stop it!Kira told herself, giving herself a mental shake. This wasn’t helping anything! All it was doing was making her depressed before her workday had even begun – and Kira had to admit that, despite everything, she absolutely loved her job.
Spending her days out and about in nature had always been her wildest ambition, ever since she was a little kid. She’d never been a fan of large crowds of people, and hadn’t been able to stand the thought of working in an office or leaving Girdwood Springs for the big city, like so many of the people she’d grown up with had. Maybe there were better jobs and more money to be made in other places, but there was nowhere else that Kira would rather be than out in the woods she’d spent her childhood exploring, the fresh mountain air all around her, the leaves under her feet, the branches of the trees creaking overhead.
And the forests around Girdwood Springs were just especially magical. Kira couldn’t explain it – she just felt it in her bones. There was something special about the land here.
But I can’t really put that in a submission to the county about why the land shouldn’t be sold,she thought as she bit her lip, guiding her Range Rover through the curving mountain roads, before turning down the dirt track that led to her office. Unfortunately, special feelings in my bones don’t count for much, and cold hard cash does.
Pulling up in her parking spot, Kira cut the engine and got out of the car, making sure to grab the packed lunch Sylvie had made. She shivered a little as she got out of the car – it always got chilly early up here on the mountain, and she could already tell this fall was going to be a cold one. Not that she minded – she liked the snow!
Her office/cabin wasn’t much to look at – a rustic little two-room log cabin with a heater that banged as it warmed up, a map of the area on the wall, an electric kettle, a rotary phone and a computer that took about twenty minutes to boot up on a good day – but Kira loved it. There was literally no other place she’d rather be than here. It might’ve been nice if they’d had the funding for more bells and whistles, but it just wasn’t going to happen.
Switching on the computer and leaving it to do its thing, Kira made herself a cup of tea and sipped it while gazing out of the window at the fall leaves trickling through the air, the movement of the branches, and the unspoiled beauty of everything around her.
She let out a peaceful sigh.
Despite everything, Kira felt calm here. She really did love her job.
Sometimes in the mornings she’d have a group of schoolchildren here on a field trip, taking them around the safe tracks near her cabin to educate them about the kinds of birds, plants, and animals they might see in a forest like this, but they mainly came in summer and spring, when it was warmer. Sometimes hikers came through looking for information and maps, though she didn’t have to be there for that – if she had to be out, she’d leave the maps in a box by the door with her work phone number in case they needed to get in touch with her.
Most mornings she had a few emails to deal with, but rarely anything urgent. She glanced at her inbox after her computer had finally warmed up, but there was nothing new, and so, after she’d finished her cup of tea, Kira stood up, stretched, and decided she’d go check on a few trails that had needed fixing up the last time she’d looked at them.
Locking the door behind her, Kira started out down the trail that ran through the woods from directly behind her cabin. Despite the early chill, the morning was warming up nicely: blue sky was visible through the branches of the trees, and it seemed like the rain that had been forecast for overnight had come and gone.
That was all the more reason to check the trails – if there’d been any movement of mud or debris, then Kira would have to clear it up, or arrange for some workmen to come and sort it out.
She whistled a tune as she walked, happy to be out here in her element. Her parents had used to joke that maybe she was a forest sprite or something that had been left with them – Kira loved being out of doors so much even as a child that she’d sometimes insisted on sleeping in the yard in a tent, instead of in her bedroom.
And there’d always been silly stories about the Girdwood Springs Forest – sightings of mysterious creatures, feelings of magic in the air, people insisting that there were animals who lived there with human-like intelligence… but personally, Kira didn’t believe a word of it. People who thought the woods felt magical in a supernatural sense just spent too much time behind a desk, in her opinion. She would have been able to tell them that the woods always felt magical, and it had nothing to do with… well, actual magic.
But what I wouldn’t give for some magic right now,Kira sighed as she lifted the gate with ‘NO ENTRY’ written across it from across the damaged trail, replacing it behind her. She shook her head, scolding herself for her gloomy thoughts. She might have been a natural pessimist, but she knew that brooding wouldn’t do anything. She’d just have to do her best to keep her mind off the mess with Tongle Heit Developments for now.
They were half the reason this trail had been made so unstable, however – it hadn’t just been the recent rain, but also the fact they’d had seemingly half their land surveyors out here crawling over every inch of it, subjecting the trails to more boots in a couple of days than they’d usually see in a whole year.
Kira had managed, finally, to force them to leave, but it’d meant calling the local cops, making a huge fuss, and threatening to go to the press – until finally, Tongle Heit’s head honcho, a sleazy-looking guy wearing a suit, for some reason, in the middle of a hiking trail had told her All right, fine – we’ll leave for now, Ms. Dearborn. It’s not like we’ll have long to wait until this land will be ours, anyway.
Just remembering his words and picturing his smirk, Kira had to shudder. Who even talked like that?! Only villains from cheesy ’80s movies said stuff like that! But maybe fact and fiction weren’t so far apart as she’d thought.
Shaking her head again, Kira continued on her way. Don’t think about it! Didn’t we just say we weren’t going to think abou—
“HEY!” she called out, breaking off her thoughts with her own outraged yell.
She’d called out before she could think – because there, standing in the middle of the trail that had clearly been marked ‘NO ENTRY’, was a man for whom those words apparently meant nothing at all.
“Hey, what do you think you’re doing?!” Kira yelled again, as the guy turned. She hurried as quickly as she could down the slippery, muddy trail. She could feel her anger growing inside her – not only did this guy risk being injured, she also suspected he might be from Tongle Heit, up to their old tricks after saying they’d leave, even if they’d said it in the most obnoxious, ’80s movie villain way. “These trails are closed! And if you’re thinking you can just wander all around here after you’ve been told a hundred times –”
As Kira hurried down the track toward him, she finally got a good look at the guy’s face and –
Okay, wow,Kira thought, her brain taking a totally different route to her mouth, which was still blasting the guy for wandering around somewhere he clearly shouldn’t have been. He’s… uh… a little bit hot…
Well, upgrade that to a lot hot, Kira thought, as the sun broke through the branches, illuminating the incredibly stunning blue of his eyes. They were almost as blue as the sky itself, and surrounded by thick, dark eyelashes. His skin was slightly tanned, and his hair was black as jet. And he was tall. Almost too tall. Kira found herself having to lift her chin to look up into his – handsome, square-jawed, manly – face.
Okay, but none of that matters! He’s still trespassing! And I still think he might be from Tongle Heit, when they told me and the cops they’d leave!
“Didn’t you see the sig—” Kira started to say, before, of course, she felt one of her feet shoot out from under her in the slippery, muddy ground of the ruined trail.
And of course, there was nothing nearby for her to grab on to, so she couldn’t really do anything but resign herself to her flailing descent.
So of course, she was going to fall flat on her ass.
Right?
Oh – okay. Wrong. Apparently.
Just as she was bracing herself to land square on her tailbone on the muddy ground, Kira felt a pair of strong, strong arms wrap themselves around her shoulders, holding her up and preventing her fall.
Strong – and warm.
It took Kira a moment to realize what was going on: she was being held gently by the man she’d just been yelling her head off at, his arms cradling her gently against his chest. Looking up, Kira found herself gazing wordlessly into his blue, blue eyes.
Uh. Okay, she thought, feeling kind of breathless and dazed. And she knew she couldn’t put it down just to almost having had a very nasty – or at least somewhat undignified – fall.
For a long moment – or maybe it was an hour, Kira honestly wasn’t sure she was an accurate judge of time at the moment – they stared into each other’s eyes.
“Oh.” The man finally seemed to shake himself awake, blinking. “I – uh –”
“You can put me down now!” Kira forced herself to squeak out, knowing she sounded a little more like an indignant field mouse than the park ranger who was supposed to be the one enforcing the rules around here. “And then you can tell me just what the hell you’re up to!”