An Early Spring Read online

  ANN LISTER

  An Early Spring

  COPYRIGHT INFORMATION

  The characters, locations and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons, places and situations are purely coincidental.

  AN EARLY SPRING

  Copyright © 2008, Ann Lister, All rights reserved.

  Cover artwork by Elizabeth Whelan

  Elizabeth's website is elizabethwhelanillustrator

  Author photograph by Kathy Eckert

  a SleighFarm Publishing Group book

  Other books by Ann Lister

  SHEET MUSIC: A ROCK 'N' ROLL LOVE STORY

  FOR ALL THE RIGHT REASONS

  WITHOUT A DOUBT

  Dedication

  I wrote this story a few years back and I'm thrilled to finally be able to share it with you. I thank you all for staying in touch, posting such wonderful reviews for my work, and expressing your excitement over each new title I release. You continue to keep me inspired to create and I am eternally grateful for your presence in my life.

  I would also like to offer a heartfelt 'thanks' to Elizabeth Whelan. Your eagerness and willingness to sign on to illustrate the cover art for this book overwhelmed me. You give proof that serendipity and goodhearted people do still exist and I am forever grateful for meeting you.

  As always, I'd like to thank my husband, Bob, and the long list of family and friends that find new ways to keep me motivated and pointed in the right direction with their gentle nudges forward. When my writer's angst hits, I know I can count on each and everyone of you to lift me up and get me going once again.

  An extra special 'thanks' goes out to Rob'n Mussell for helping me create the new website for annlisterpublications. You made the long, tedious hours fun!

  For Frank.

  You continue to be the angel in my life. I am thankful everyday for the enormous role you play in all of this and feel so blessed to be able to call you 'friend'. I hope we have many more writing years ahead and projects to share together.

  From the bottom of my heart, I thank you.

  Chapter One

  It was before dawn when Nick Gaffney’s pager woke him from a sound sleep; alerting him of an emergency coming into the search and rescue unit where he worked at the Sun Ridge Ski Resort in Colorado. He wasn’t scheduled to work until the following day, but weather emergencies always took priority over days off from work, and the storm bearing down on the mountain today was expected to be massive.

  Meteorologists were describing this storm as being one for the record books; with a cold front dropping down from the north and warmer air riding the jet stream bubbling up from the south. Both fronts were converging right over Nick’s mountain and would create the perfect air mass to dump several feet of fresh snow in a relatively short amount of time. For the seasoned skiers, this would be nirvana, but for unconditioned and ill-prepared tourists, this was a set-up for disaster.

  Nick slipped out of bed and into his insulated black ski pants. The pants fit him like a second skin and were as essential to his survival in cold temperatures as turnout pants were important to a firefighter's protection against flames. He pulled a thermal sweater over his head then grabbed his medical bags and a thick red ski patrol jacket before leaving his mountainside cabin for the twenty minute snowmobile ride down to the triage building beside the base lodge.

  He looked forward to the commute each day. Sometimes it was the highlight of his day, when he was lucky enough to see some of the local wildlife population like the deer. Other times, the ride gave him time to think but the ride was never less than majestic; especially after a fresh snow dusts the mountain and twinkles in the early morning sun like diamonds.

  He had been a part of the search and rescue team at the ski resort for over a decade. He was highly trained in survival skills and emergency medical techniques and had participated in every type of rescue imaginable, from twisted ankles to searching for avalanche victims buried beneath tons of snow.

  He loved his job but it hadn’t been his first career choice. In college, he had pursued graphic design and advertising. After graduating from an East Coast college, he immediately accepted a job at an advertising firm in the bustling heart of Manhattan’s business district. He realized very quickly that he hated everything about the job. The tight deadlines he was constantly fighting and the daily job stresses gave him debilitating migraines. But, most of all, he hated being stuck inside an office building all day long. He knew after three years this was not how he wanted to live his life.

  While on a winter ski vacation in Vail, Colorado with friends, Nick noticed an employment opportunity advertised in a local news paper for a position in the ski patrol unit at the resort. Skiing had been a passion for him since he was seven years old and he loved the outdoors. It seemed to be exactly what he was looking for and he quickly filled out the application before someone tried to change his mind.

  A few months later, and at the displeasure of all his friends and family, Nick quit his job and packed up everything he owned in life and moved to Colorado to accept the position at the ski resort. It took a year to complete all the training necessary to do the job, but he had never been happier. He loved the job and the lifestyle that came with it and living in a cabin on the side of a mountain was peaceful. He enjoyed the people he worked with and the money was good. It seemed to be a win-win proposition.

  At thirty-five, Nick had everything he wanted, except for a committed relationship with a woman he loved. It wasn’t difficult for Nick to find women to date. Working at a ski resort gave him access to a constant flow of beautiful women from all over the world. It was finding the right woman that was proving to be difficult. Always the eternal optimist, he hoped somewhere in the endless pool of gorgeous females that paraded through the ski lodge each day, he would find the one woman to whom he could commit and finally settle down.

  Nick’s rugged good looks and friendly nature made women follow him wherever he went. He had walnut colored hair, light brown eyes the color of hot coffee, and naturally dark skin from working year-round outside. The physical demands of his job had kept his six foot frame in top athletic condition and the women were never shy about showing their appreciation for it.

  He had come close to marriage once; thought he had done everything right, and was more than ready to take the plunge. Nick and Sarah were friends first before dating, dated for a long stretch of time before he asked her to move into his cabin with him, and they seemed to share all the same plans for the future, too - a future Nick was certain would include a few kids.

  However, two months before their planned wedding date, Sarah changed her mind about all of it, and sadly Nick was the last to know. The rumors of her cheating started pelting Nick like the hail that came before a thunder storm. A confrontation followed and Sarah made the situation worse by lying. At that point, it became more about Nick saving what was left of his pride and dignity. Even still, breaking off the relationship was the hardest thing he'd ever had to do.

  Nearly four years later, he was still struggling to come to terms with what happened and fully trust another woman with his heart. Sharing a bed for a night or two was one thing. Opening up his heart to someone new was an entirely different thing and something he wasn’t sure he’d ever be willing to do again.

  A four day work-related retreat brought Colby Hansen to the winter playgrounds of Colorado, which was last on her list of places she ever wanted to vacation. She with eight of her co-workers and one supervisor would be sharing two cabins located directly on the side of the mountain. To a ski enthusiast, this would be heaven, but to Colby, it sounded more like hell. She preferred warmer climates, where she could lay on a sandy beach and read a book, not a place that required she wear
several layers of clothing just to prevent frostbite.

  Going to a ski resort was probably the most unlikely place she could ever be, but this trip wasn’t optional and she certainly didn’t consider it a vacation. Her attendance at the Sun Ridge Ski resort was a work obligation and Colby went out of her way to let every one of her co-workers know how unhappy she was with the destination choice.

  Colby was thirty-three years old, with long blond hair and deep blue eyes. Living in California also came with the added perk of having skin tanned year-round to a soft shade of brown. Her physique was athletic from miles of roller-blading on the weekends and racquetball twice during the week. Her feminine curves were in all the right places, slender waist that flared to a perfectly shaped bottom and long lean legs.

  She originally hailed from the southern shores of California but was now living and working in downtown Los Angeles at a computer software company translating software into foreign languages. Highly intelligent, she held several master’s degrees and fluently spoke five different languages.

  Her parents and two older brothers lit the flame early on for Colby, setting her up to be competitive and independent in life. Although her natural beauty may have opened up a few doors for her, once inside, she felt the constant need to work twice as hard to prove her achievements were won using her brain and not her body. This all-business attitude earned her success and accolades in her chosen profession, but didn’t allow much time for a personal life.

  Looking at Colby, one might have assumed she had everything she wanted, and for the most part, she did. She was every man’s ideal of a woman; with beauty and brains, but, as intelligent as she was, she continually failed at finding men that were right for her.

  Ten years earlier, Colby thought she had found her life-mate in a man she had met while attending graduate school. They fell for each other quickly and shortly thereafter moved-in together, sharing an apartment for three years. Although they often talked about getting married, nothing was ever made official. Then, one night in the cool, crisp hours of dusk, a car accident took his life and Colby’s dreams were shattered. In the blink of an eye, her life path was changed forever.

  It took her almost two years before she started being social again. Her mistake was focusing on the white-collar types, which, in the end, all seemed to have more interest in furthering their careers than a relationship. All too often, Colby found herself being second on their lists of priorities, or nothing more than arm-candy for their egos, which left her feeling empty and used inside.

  Her last mistake was also her worst - getting involved with her married supervisor at work. Colby secretly dated him for six months, then demanded he leave his wife or their relationship would have to end. Several months later, she discovered he not only hadn’t left his wife, but the woman was pregnant with their second child. Colby immediately ended her relationship with him.

  She was reliving that hell all over again, she thought, pushing past two co-workers as she hurried to the living room of the cabin. She grabbed her coat hanging on the wall rack and slammed the front door of the cabin behind her. She stood on the porch for a moment, zipping up her coat. Images of what she had just witnessed inside the cabin flashed in her head: her boss, naked in bed with his new secretary beneath him, in one of the back bedrooms of the cabin.

  She stepped off the porch, the continuous slur of derogatory terms she had called them both still ringing in her ears. Was she the only one in their department that hadn’t known her boss had moved on? Certainly everyone knew now, she thought - everyone within a mile radius of the cabin would know what a rat bastard her boss truly was.

  Damn it all to hell! Men sucked, she thought. All of them were at varying levels of worthlessness and simply put: they were bad for her. Each and every one of them were lying sons of bitches; that is, except for Wayne. He seemed to have been the only good guy on the planet and he was taken from her far too soon.

  She turned up the collar of her winter coat and fought the tears now burning at her eyes. The only way to work off her rage was to hike it off, she thought. And when she got back to the cabin, she’d see about reserving a seat on the next plane departing for Los Angeles.

  With no hiking experience, knowledge of the area, or awareness of how suddenly the weather can change in the higher elevations of the Rocky Mountains, Colby wandered aimlessly down a groomed trail with no particular destination in mind. All she knew was she had to cool her anger before she physically hurt someone.

  Nick met the rest of the rescue team at the medical building and their supervisor briefed them on the circum-stances. The National Weather Service professionals were predicting snow totals with this storm to exceed three feet and measuring as much as six feet in the higher elevations, with high winds creating white-out conditions. They had less than six hours to evacuate dozens of cabins perched around the side of the mountain and bring the resort guests down to the base lodge before the winter storm paralyzed the area and forced them to shut down transport services. Whomever didn’t make it down to the base lodge before the storm started would have to wait for it to pass and that could take days.

  The rescue team split up into several two-man units and went into action, each pair focusing on a different location on the mountain. Nick was paired with his good friend and co-worker, Glen. They had known each other for many years and worked efficiently as a duo, often times, taking the high risk rescues because of their combined skill, physical strength, and a rabid addiction to adrenaline. Sure, they took chances but did so only after methodically calculating the risk factors involved in the rescue and they never worked stupid. Being stupid cost lives.

  Nick and Glen evacuated the first two cabins on their list without incident and loaded the resort guests and their belongings into the back of the rescue vehicle, then proceeded to the next two cabins. Their vehicle had just enough room left to hold the occupants of the these cabins and then they would return everyone to base, hopefully before the first flakes of snow began to fall.

  These two cabins were being rented by a group of ten co-workers from a company headquartered in Los Angeles. The group consisted of four men and six women. The men were using one cabin and the women occupied a second, while they participated in a four day work-related retreat at the resort. The two cabins sat side by side, separated by a few hundred yards of trees and were usually rented to extended families.

  Nick and Glen managed to round-up nine out of the ten guests and their gear. It was after doing a head-count of the group, the designated group leader informed Nick that one member from their party was missing, a woman that had left the cabin an hour earlier after a heated argument with another woman in the group. Nick glanced at Glen and tried to consider their options. The clock was ticking for the storm's arrival and every minute mattered. The sun had already disappeared behind a thick, milky gray cloud cover, giving the day a foreboding feel and the temperature was dropping. A subtle change in wind direction also gave fair warning and being an outdoors man, Nick knew what it all meant with no need for weather reports. He could feel it in his bones.

  “What’s this woman’s name?” Nick asked the group leader.

  “Her name is Colby Hansen,” Tom, the boss, said.

  Nick nodded in acknowledgment and turned to Glen. “I’ll stay behind and go find Ms. Hansen. You can take the others down to the base lodge and then come back for us.”

  Glen agreed and proceeded to finish tossing the luggage for the guests into the back of the transport bus.

  Before the boss boarded the bus, he approached Nick. “Listen, I’m feeling the need to warn you about Colby.”

  “How so?” Nick asked with reluctance.

  Tom chuckled and rubbed at his forehead. “She was really mad when she tore out of here. I’d compare her mood to an angry Africanized bee. She hates the cold. She hates the snow, and generally speaking, isn’t too fond of people. In other words, it’s doubtful she’ll be happy to see you.”

  Nick smiled at G
len and sighed to himself. “If what Tom is telling me is correct, Glen, you’re going to owe me for this one,” Nick joked, slipping his medical bag over his shoulders and began hiking in the direction Tom said Colby was heading.

  “Colby Hansen,” Nick called repeatedly as he trudged along the groomed, snow-covered ski trail. He continued to follow the boot tracks in the snow, wondering how far the woman could have made it in an hours time. If her co-workers were correct about Colby and her distaste for the outdoors, she wouldn’t have made it very far. Then again, if Colby was as angry as they said she was when she set off on her hike, she could have made it much further than expected. It was amazing what a little bit of adrenaline could do for a person’s endurance as it pumped through one’s body.

  “Colby Hansen,” Nick yelled again.

  Snow was starting to fall from the gray, winter sky. He knew from experience how quickly Colby’s boot tracks would be covered, making her rescue even more difficult. In a few hours, Nick knew his visibility would be reduced to zero, which made the next thirty minutes critical for him to find Colby.

  “Gaffney to base,” Nick said into his walkie-talkie.

  “Go ahead, Nick. Did you find the woman yet?” the triage team leader asked.

  “Not yet. I’ve been following a set of footprints on the trail, but its snowing now and those will be gone soon,” Nick said.

  “Keep on it and let me know when you find her,” Nick’s supervisor said.

  Nick slid his walkie-talkie back into its holster on his hip and continued on the trail. A quarter of a mile further he spotted a black glove at the edge of the trail.