Chapter 12

Unaware he was being followed, Trey reached the airport without incident and boarded on time with an empty suitcase. He was taking it so he could bring it home packed with more of his clothing and sending the rest back with the movers.

Less than two hours later, he landed at Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix. The sky was clear. The temperature high was sixty-three degrees.

The ride home in his cab was uneventful, but for the first time, Trey was looking at the city as if he’d never been there before and realized he missed the mountains and the trees. He was not going to be sad to leave this behind.

Once inside his house, he adjusted the thermostat, dumped his things, then sat down at the table with his laptop and phone.

The first person he contacted was Rudy Allen, his leasing agent. The phone rang twice, and then Rudy answered.

“Trey! Hello. What can I do for you?” he asked.

“I’m home. Bring the paperwork. Like all the others, yearly lease and so on, only this house will be furnished.”

“Interesting. I don’t have even one furnished listing. We’ll see how that goes.”

“If it’s a deterrent, then let me know and I’ll have the furniture removed and donated to Habitat for Humanity,” Trey said.

“Sure. I’ll need to take some pictures, get the square footage. When would be convenient for you?”

“Today. I’m only here for a couple of days, so it all has to be done before I leave,” Trey said.

“Then Billie and I will be along shortly. She takes the good pictures we upload to the website,” he said.

“Thank you. I’ll see you soon,” Trey said, and disconnected. Then he called the movers, set up a time for tomorrow morning for them to come pack his things, and then sent Marley a text.

I’m at my house in Phoenix. The leasing agent is on the way. Movers are coming tomorrow to pack up my office. I already miss you. No little hummingbird flitting around this house. I love you. So much.

***

Trey hadn’t even been gone for more than a few hours, and Marley was already missing him. When Jack drove up, she was pleased to hear him banging andirons and stirring embers and hauling in wood.

When he wandered into the kitchen later looking for coffee and the possibility of something to snack on, she knew he was mostly there for her company.

“Missing him, aren’t you, Bug?”

Marley sighed. “Terribly. But he’ll be back soon. It’s just that he made such a big shift in my life that I forgot how to be alone. I’m fine. I just miss him.”

Jack hugged her. “I know, sugar. If you feel the need to get out of the lodge for a bit, just say the word and I’ll take you for a ride on my snowmobile.”

She laughed. “So, you’re offering to replace my lonesomeness for a chance to break my neck?”

He frowned. “I don’t go that fast.”

Marley shook her head. “That’s not what Wanda says.”

“Dang woman. It’s not that bad,” he muttered.

Marley slid a cookie across the island and blew him a kiss. “I love you anyway. I’m fine. If you’re finished for the day, go home and bother Wanda.”

“I’ll need two cookies, for sure,” he said.

She pushed the cookie bin across the island, laughing. “Help yourself, Jack Wallis.”

He grinned. “Don’t mind if I do,” and left with a handful. “Call if you need me.”

“I will,” she said, then followed him to the back door and locked it after him.

As soon as he was gone, she took a cold drink and a cookie to the great room, sat down in her favorite chair, and reached for her new Chapel Hill mystery. She was beginning Chapter Two and already hooked on the mystery, trying to figure out “whodunit” when her phone dinged an incoming text. She grabbed it, saw it was Trey and read the message, then quickly replied.

It quit snowing. Jack has come and gone with a half-dozen cookies. Wanda didn’t come with him. I’m reading my new Chapel Hill book. It’s riveting. You are amazing. I love you more.

***

Trey was smiling from ear to ear as he read her text, then opened his laptop and began contacting people in Phoenix who needed to know he was leaving, basically tying up loose ends. The sooner he got this done, the sooner he could get back to Marley. This was the first day back. As soon as Rudy left, he had an errand to run, then home to do some packing. The movers were on for tomorrow, and then Trey would be on a plane back to Colorado Springs.

He had skipped eating at the lodge before he left Colorado, so he went to see if the milk was still good in the refrigerator, and it was. He started coffee, made himself a bowl of cereal, and ate it standing up while he glanced around at the place he called home for the past eight years.

Oddly, he could already feel the separation between what had been and what was waiting. The house didn’t feel like home anymore. Nothing was home without Marley.

About an hour later, the doorbell rang.

It was Rudy Allen on the doorstep with his bag of tricks, which was what he called the briefcase he carried with all the necessary paperwork, and his photographer, Billie, was packing her camera.

“Come in,” Trey said. “Thanks for doing this on such short notice.”

Billie smirked. “You fell for your Cinderella, didn’t you? You’re going back to Colorado Springs to be with her.”

Trey grinned. “Just go take your pictures, sassy face. And I may have left an empty suitcase on the bedroom floor. Toss it out of the way and do your thing.”

She winked. “I already got the shots I needed of the front of the house. You two go stand in the foyer for a minute and let me get some here, and then I’ll be out of your way while you do business.”

They complied, and as soon as she’d moved into a different area of the house, Rudy pulled out a chair at the dining table and sat, then opened his briefcase.

“So, what do you think about leaving this furnished?” Trey asked.

Rudy had already eyed the furnishings as they came in. “You have very high-end stuff here. I think this might really appeal to the right people. Some up-and-coming young professionals with little to no furniture of their own, who still want to present an impressive front when the need arises. Let’s begin with leaving it furnished, and I’ll let you know if we need to revise the decision. Now to add another property to your listing with us.”

It didn’t take long for them to get the photos taken and the paperwork signed. Rudy had been instructed to check with TLC Cleaning services to make sure they’d cleaned one more time after he cleared out his things, and then the property would be listed.

But now they were gone. Trey was here without a vehicle, and he needed to go downtown, so he called an Uber, checked to make sure he still had Marley’s ring in his pocket, then began scrolling through his phone, checking out jewelry stores while he waited.

By the time the Uber arrived, he had a list of jewelry stores he wanted to visit and a specific ring design he had in mind. What he needed was to find one that fit without having to have it resized, because when he left Phoenix, he wasn’t coming back.

The driver let him out. Trey approached buying jewelry the same way he bought a car. Looks. Fit. Availability. And when he walked into the first store, he went straight to a saleswoman and told her exactly what he wanted, then pulled out the ring he’d brought with him.

“I won’t waste your time. If you don’t have the style in this size, then we can’t do business. I’m leaving town within the next day or so and don’t have time to wait on it being resized.”

“Understood,” she said. “If you’ll follow me, I’ll show you what we have in oval cut, and then we’ll discuss the rest.”

“Rest being?” he asked as she slipped behind a counter and began pulling out trays of rings.

She smiled. “Like, what’s your budget? How many carats?”

“Money is no object, but don’t show me anything cheap.” He pulled out Marley’s ring.

She sized it.

He put it back in his pocket, and the search began.

To the saleslady’s dismay, they didn’t have a ring in stock that size.

“I’m so sorry. That’s a very small ring size,” she said. “We just don’t keep many in stock.”

“No problem,” Trey said. “Thank you for your help,” and out the door he went.

Her boss sidled up beside her. “No sale, huh?”

“We didn’t have the right size. He’s in a rush. And he looks familiar. Like I should have known who he was.”

“I recognized him the moment he came in,” her boss said. “He’s Trey Austin. The man who was looking for Cinderella.”

She groaned. “Oh wow… I heard he found her. I wonder if the ring is for her?”

Unaware he was the topic of a conversation, Trey went three blocks down and turned south. The next store on his list was in the middle of the block, and when he entered, he gave them the same speech.

The salesclerk this time was a man and, like Trey, wasted no time chitchatting. He pulled out trays of engagement rings with oval cuts, sized the ring Trey brought, then sorted through the stock. There were two. The first was an oval cut, one-carat diamond. The other was the same cut in a three-carat diamond.

“That one,” Trey said, pointing to the three-carat.

The clerk showed him the price. Trey nodded. The clerk nodded, put all of the trays back into the display case. A short while later, Trey was out the door with the engagement ring in its box and safely in his pocket.

He paused on the street long enough to call an Uber, then waited in the coffee shop next door for it to arrive.

***

By nightfall, Trey was ready for the movers. He had everything unhooked and unplugged in his office, and all of his files and research books in stacks waiting to be boxed up. His clothes were all in one place in his walk-in closet, ready for the movers, and he’d packed a suitcase full to take back with him.

The movers were due here by 8:00 a.m. tomorrow, and with what little he was taking with him, it was unlikely it would take more than two or three hours to pack and load everything. He’d already asked TLC to clean out his refrigerator and pantry on their last trip to the house and realized he would just be killing time for no reason staying over another night.

Curious about later flights tomorrow, he got online and checked. When he realized there was a flight leaving at 1:45 tomorrow afternoon, he switched his ticket to an earlier flight and breathed a sigh of relief.

For some reason, he kept feeling uneasy about Marley, and the thought of her being alone at night in the lodge was unnerving.

***

Marley made it through the day without incident, and when night came, she set the security alarm, locked up everything, and left the Christmas lights still twinkling. The tree would stay up until after Boxing Day, which meant the little treetop angel was still on guard.

It was a fanciful thought that gave her comfort as she went back to the family area and locked herself in. She showered, then dressed in pink flannel pajamas and slippers, and meandered through the little kitchen for snacks while she watched TV.

She opted for popcorn, and while it was popping, sent Trey a text.

I’m locked in for the night. You have spoiled me for sleeping alone again. However, I have pink flannel pj’s to keep me warm instead of being wrapped in your arms, so I will survive.

Love you,

Me

Then she took her popcorn to the sofa, turned on the TV, and settled in to watch a movie from the 1940s called It’s a Wonderful Life . Another holiday tradition she didn’t want to let pass.

“‘Every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings,’” Marley said, and snuggled down to watch.

***

Trey found the text after he got out of the shower. He read it with a mixture of humor and regret. He would so love to replace those pink pj’s.

I will happily remove those pj’s for you when I get back. Things are moving faster than I expected, so as soon as the movers leave tomorrow morning, I’ll be on a flight back to you. It takes off at 1:45 p.m. You’ll be in my arms tomorrow night. I promise.

Love you so much.

T.

Marley was right in the middle of a sad part of the movie when she got a text back. She beamed when she read it, and quickly replied.

The best news ever! Safe travels.

She was getting ready to hit Send when she heard a voice.

Tell him not to linger. It will matter.

A shiver ran up the back of her neck as she read it. What did that mean? But she knew better than to ignore it, and added it to the text.

Also, my angels just told me to tell you, “Don’t linger. It will matter.” I have no idea what that means, but it’s your message, not mine. Love you forever. See you soon.

Then she finished her movie, put the popcorn bowl in the sink, and went to bed, thinking of his homecoming.

***

When Trey read her response, he got goose bumps. Maybe this had to do with his uneasiness about her being there alone? Or… Then he stopped himself. Don’t create trouble when there’s none to be had.

***

Jared Bedford had just slipped a couple of twenties out of the till while his boss was locking up. But when he went to clock out, his boss gave him a pink slip instead.

“What the hell?” Jared asked.

“I’ve got you on video with your hand in the till. Hand over the forty bucks you took, or I’m calling the cops.”

Jared’s heart skipped. He pulled out the two twenties without an ounce of guilt, just angry at being caught.

“Damn it, boss. You kept telling me you were gonna give me a raise. A man’s got a right to live.”

“I never said you were getting a raise. You just kept asking for one, and I’ve been coming up short in that till for months. You come in late for work at least once a week. You are undependable, and you are a thief. Get out, and don’t show your face here again.”

Jared hunched his shoulders and strode out of the garage, but instead of going home, he went straight to a bar and got drunk. It was just after two in the morning when he finally staggered back to his car.

He slid into the driver’s seat, leaned over the steering wheel until his head stopped spinning, then started the engine and drove out of the parking lot. He wanted payback. He wanted retribution. But he was afraid of his boss.

The only person he could think of who was too little to fight back was Marley Corbett.

He made a U-turn at a street corner, drove out of the city and up the mountain. When he got to the turnoff for the lodge, he slowed down to a crawl to keep it quiet. But he was drunk enough that he forgot about the security cameras and motion detectors until he drove into the parking area and was blinded by the lights.

“Damn it,” Jared mumbled, then made another U-turn and drove back out the same way he’d come in. He paused at her mailbox and got out to pee, but he didn’t go back to the city. Instead, he drove up to the lay-by again, then parked and fell asleep.

He woke just before daylight needing to pee, and with the hangover from hell. He got out to relieve himself and then thought of Marley Corbett again and took off walking into the woods, using the trees to hide his presence. He didn’t have a plan. He was just trolling for trouble to see what he could see.

He knew the general direction of the lodge, but he didn’t have a flashlight and kept walking into tree limbs and brush. Again, it was the security lights that led him to her property, but when he saw the lodge looming in the distance, short of breaking in a door and alerting the police when the security alarm went off, he didn’t know how he was going to get in.

It was so damn cold, and he was freezing. He huddled down next to the side of the lodge out of the wind and waited for daylight—and dozed off.

***

Trey’s sleep was restless. He woke up before his alarm. Then, when the movers arrived early, it felt like a sign that he must not miss that flight.

They came inside the house carrying box flats and quickly taped up the bottoms and started packing in his office, filling the boxes with research books and then carefully packing more fragile things. They had heavy boxes for computers and the printer and the television. They wrapped his office chair and file cabinets and, as soon as they’d finished with the office, headed to his bedroom.

“The furniture is staying,” Trey said. “But everything inside every drawer needs to be packed, and all of the clothes in my closet and the things in the drawers in my bathroom.”

“Any other personal effects going? Pictures on the wall? Any art in the house you want to take?” one of them asked.

“No,” Trey said.

“The cookware and dishes stay, too?” the mover asked.

“Yes. The house will be leased as furnished property.”

“All right, then. We’ll finish up here in a bit.”

“Awesome,” Trey said.

They’d come early and were working quicker than he’d expected. He was going to have all kinds of time to make that flight.

***

Marley slept without dreaming and woke just before 7:00 a.m., excited that Trey was coming home today. It dawned on her as she was dressing that neither she nor Jack had checked the mailbox yesterday, so she started the coffee, traded her shoes for snow boots, then grabbed her coat and gloves and headed out the front door.

It was bitterly cold, but the sky was clear, the sun was up, and the snow was crunching beneath her boots as she started down the driveway to the mailbox at the main road.

***

Jared Bedford had been awake for a while, certain he was on the verge of frostbite, when he heard a door slam.

He scrambled to his feet just as Marley Corbett walked out the front entrance. As soon as she walked out of sight, he celebrated his stroke of good luck by making a mad dash for the front door, taking care not to get caught on camera.

But the moment he started to walk inside, he realized he was covered in snow. And she’d know the moment she came back and saw all the drips and tracks on the floor, that someone had come inside.

He needed the element of surprise to make sure she didn’t have time to go for that shotgun she said she had. So, he took off his shoes, stripped down to his underwear on the porch, and the moment he got inside, made a run for the attic door at the end of the long hallway.

The door was unlocked, so he flipped the light switch on and took off up the stairs on the run, exiting into the attic. The warmth from the chimney that ran up the east wall was a godsend. He dumped his clothes, made another mad dash down to the kitchen, and grabbed a loaf of bread, a package of cold cuts, and two cans of pop from the fridge, and ran back to the attic.

He shook the snow from his clothes and got dressed. He was leaning against the warm bricks and eating his second sandwich when he heard a door slam.

She was back!

But he knew better than to jump the gun. He had a good hiding place, and Jack Wallis was likely to show up unannounced again, so he would bide his time until he knew for certain Marley was alone. In the meantime, he indulged his own fantasies, imagining what they would do, and how she would succumb to his charms after he showed her what a real man was all about.

***

Marley felt good to be out and was taking in the scenery and the tiny footprints of animals left behind in the snow as she went. She could hear a few cars coming down the mountain—likely people who worked in the city already on their way to work, but by the time she reached the road, it was clear both ways. She gathered the mail from the box and started back up the driveway, but the sun was behind her now, and she was seeing other tracks in the snow that she hadn’t seen before. Human tracks with treads from running shoes, not the boot tracks Jack would have left.

It put her on alert, and then she told herself to calm down. It could be anything from a driver having car trouble to someone stopping to change a flat tire. It didn’t have to mean anything, although now that she was a bit wary, she hastened her steps as she headed back to the lodge. She didn’t rest easy until she was safely inside, but the moment she locked the door behind her, she realized it had been unlocked the entire time she’d been gone.

She turned around to face the lobby, looking past the Christmas tree to the great room, and then stared down at the floors, looking for wet footprints, but there were none. She sighed, chiding herself for being silly, and carried the mail into the kitchen and sorted it as she was having coffee and cereal.

Unaware of the danger that had invaded her home, Marley laid aside the bills to pay and trashed the junk mail. She wanted to make something special for Trey’s homecoming and decided on cinnamon apple hand pies.

She headed for the basement to get a couple of quarts of canned apples and, as she did, thought she heard a floor creak from somewhere up above, but then Jack came in the back, and she chalked it up to him and his noise and forgot about it.

“Bug! I’m here. Where are you?” he shouted.

“Just about to go down to the basement,” she said.

He came down the hall at a trot. “What do you need? I’ll get it.”

“Two quarts of canned apples.”

“On it,” he said, and gave her a quick hug before heading to the elevator.

Grateful for the help, she returned to the kitchen, finished the pie crust, and put it in the refrigerator to be rolled out later.

Jack came back and set the jars of apples on the counter. “What are we making?”

The interest in his voice was a sign he was hoping for a sample. “Cinnamon apple hand pies. Trey is coming home a day early. He’s catching an early afternoon flight today.”

“Good news! Might there be a hand pie done before I leave?” he asked.

She laughed. “There might be, if you drag out your jobs and I hurry with mine.”

“I think we can make that happen. Oh…Wanda will be along later. She’s in town right now, but said she would stop by before heading home. I’m going to do the fireplace first, then carry in more wood. It’s also time to change the filters in the central heating system, so I’ll be banging around a bit in the basement again.” Then he stood long enough to watch her emptying the apples into a pan and adding cinnamon, cloves, and sugar before he left her on her own.

An hour passed before Marley had the filling cool enough to use and got the crust out and began rolling it out. She was cutting out circles of crust when she heard the lodge phone ringing and grabbed a towel to wipe her hands, then answered the extension on the kitchen wall.

“Corbett Lodge.”

“This is Quinn Jones. I’m a journalist with USA Today . May I speak to Marley Corbett?”

“This is Marley.”

“Miss Corbett, it is a pleasure to speak with you. The reason I’m calling is that we would like to do a story about your role in saving the heir to Austin Enterprises. We can do the interview over the phone or via Zoom. And we’d like—”

“I’m sorry, but we’ve given out the only interview we are going to give on the subject. Thank you for calling,” she said, and hung up, even as he was still trying to convince her. “Lord…what a way to denigrate an existence! Just skin it all down to the importance of social standing, instead of a life. Saved the heir, my ass. Wait until Trey hears that,” she mumbled, and went back to the pie crust.

It was just before eleven when Marley finally got all of the hand pies in the oven, and Jack was still moving wood from the big woodpile to the back porch. The tractor had been stubborn about starting, mostly because of the cold, and he’d had to jump the battery before he could use it, so he was already behind his work schedule.

A short while later, Wanda arrived, drove around to the back of the lodge, and went inside to wait for Jack.

“He’s just now hauling wood,” Wanda said as she entered the kitchen.

Marley was cleaning up after the baking as Wanda hung her coat on the back of a kitchen chair. “Tractor wouldn’t start. He said it was because of the cold.”

“Then I’ll get the dust mop after that flour on the floor. What yummy thing did you just make?” Wanda asked.

“I made apple hand pies. Trey is coming back this afternoon, and Jack is dithering, hoping they get done before he leaves.”

“Of course he is,” Wanda said, and went to get the cleaning equipment.

A short while later, everything had been swept up, cleaned up, and put away. Wanda and Marley were sitting at the table, going over canapé recipes to make for the New Year’s Eve party, when Jack came into the kitchen. He headed straight for Wanda and gave her a hug and a kiss.

“Did you miss me?” he asked.

“Always,” she said. “What’s next on your list? I can help.”

“Changing the filters in the HVAC system. It’s cold in the basement. You don’t need to be down there.”

“I don’t mind. The sooner you get done, the sooner we can go home.”

He sputtered. “I was hoping to get a hand pie before I leave.”

Wanda giggled. “I know. I was just teasing you. You go do your thing. I’m going to go home. The pies won’t be done for a while, and Marley doesn’t need me to watch them bake.”

***

Jared Bedford was leaning against the brick chimney and finishing off the last of the lunch meat he’d filched, curiously eyeing the items stored all around him while listening to the little he could hear of what was going on downstairs.

He knew Jack Wallis was still on the premises because he’d heard the tractor making trips back and forth to the lodge. And when he heard another car arriving, he cursed.

“Freaking family reunion,” he muttered. He lay back down on a mattress that had been leaning up against a wall, rolled up in the quilt that had been covering it, and fell asleep. It was a long time until dark. Plenty of time to get a little rest before the party he had planned for her.

He was sound asleep when Marley’s pies came out of the oven and when Jack Wallis finally left the premises.

And Marley was downstairs by the fire, back to reading her book with one eye on the clock. When she heard the clock in the hall strike twice, she knew Trey was already in the air and headed her way.

She was getting sleepy, but didn’t want to fall asleep, so she went to the office and worked on the books for a while. The next time she looked up, it was a quarter to four. Her heart skipped. Trey should have landed by now! Maybe he was already on his way to the lodge.

She got up, made a quick trip to wash up and brush her hair, then left the family area. As she did, she glanced down the hall and noticed the light switch by the attic door was in the on position. Jack and Trey must have left it on when they moved the bedroom stuff up before he left.

She jogged down to flip it off, and the moment she did, she heard a curse and then a resounding number of thumps, bumps, and curses—like someone had fallen down the stairs.

Horrified that Jack must have come back and she didn’t know it, she quickly flipped the switch on, opened the door, and saw a man crumped at the foot of the stairs.

But it wasn’t Jack. It was Jared Bedford! And he was already crawling to his feet and spewing filth about what he was going to do to her.

She slammed the door in his face, turned the lock and flipped the light back off, and turned and ran—back up the hall, past the great room, through the lobby, and out into the cold.

Jared was still cursing the ground she walked on when he finally found the doorknob in the dark, only to realize she’d locked the door and there was no way to unlock it from inside. He kicked the door with all the force in him, screaming from the pain as he did. The door swung open and he burst out into the light, just in time to see Marley going out the front door on the run.

He took off after her, in so much pain he could hardly breathe. He was pretty sure his nose was broken. It was bleeding, and so was his lip. His ankle was throbbing, and his left shoulder felt like it was out of place, but he couldn’t let her get away.