Page 19 of The Christmas Lodge
“Men! Have you met any hot lumberjacks?”
Lacy rolled her eyes, but she couldn’t help but smile. “First of all, men arenotthe most important thing, and we both know that. Secondly… yes. But he’s a dogsledder, not a lumberjack.”
“Do tell,” Madeline cooed, entirely ignoring Lacy’s barb about men not being important. She and Lacy were both career women, but Lacy knew Madeline was just trying to cheer her up and she appreciated the gesture. Besides, talking about handsome men made her feel like a teenager again, even though she’d had little to no time for dating back then either.
“Well, his name is Derek.”
“And…”
“And that’s all.”
“Is he cute?”
Lacy laughed in spite of herself. “Very,” she groaned, still smiling. “But it’s not like it matters—I won’t be here for long.”
“Hey, just because you’re not moving there doesn’t mean you can’t have some eye candy while you deal with the mansion.”
“I’m not sure he would appreciate being called ‘eye candy,’” Lacy pointed out with a laugh, “but he certainly does make this town more interesting…”
CHAPTERTEN
Lacy dipped her scrub brush into the bucket of cleaning solution and warm water before attacking the dirty grout once more. She had been on her hands and knees in the main floor bathroom of the mansion for a good two hours already that morning, scrubbing at the grout inch by hard-earned inch. The process was a painful and tedious one—her arms had been on fire since the first hour—but the original penny tile on the bathroom floors was too beautiful to rip out. And so, here she found herself, doing the unglamorous work of a scrub maid.
I need a break from ripping down wallpaper, she thought as she dipped the brush into the cleaning solution again.I’m not sure this qualifies as a ‘break’ though…
Another ten minutes passed in this way, but the end was in sight. By her estimate, she only had about a third of the floor left.
Which is still at least an hour of work, she realized with a groan.
The grout was so dirty that each spot of it required vigorous scrubbing multiple times before it came back to life. Tossing her scrub brush into the bucket of solution, she braced her hands against her aching lower back and stretched, wincing a little from her soreness.
I’m going to be cursing myself in the morning when I can’t move my back.
Just as she was about to resign herself to her fate and pick up her brush once more, Lacy heard a faint whining sound. She froze, listening hard and, a few seconds later, the whimpering sound continued. It didn’t sound human or like a fluke of the wind, but she couldn’t tell what it was. Her heart hammering in her chest, she rose slowly to her feet and tiptoed out of the bathroom and down the hall, pausing every so often to listen for the sound again. Silently, she picked up a broom leaning against the wall, ready to use it as a weapon if need be.
Peeking into each room as she passed it, she quickly became convinced that the sound was coming from outside the house. For a brief moment, she considered not investigating it, telling herself that she was acting like all the idiot people in horror movies that go hunting down strange noises instead of running for their lives.
But this is real life,she reminded herself sternly.Besides, it’s broad daylight. Stop being a chicken already!
By now, Lacy had carefully pushed open the front door, thankful that she had oiled the hinges the week before so that now it glided open silently, and padded across the porch. Her back to the house, she peered around the corner of the house where the wraparound porch continued, and almost dropped to the ground in relief. The breath she’d been holding unconsciously now whooshed out of her as she sagged against the house for support. There, in a protected nook of the front porch, cowered a sweet little puppy.
“Oh, you poor baby,” Lacy whispered, setting the broom aside and approaching it with caution so that it wouldn’t flee. “How did you get here?”
The puppy whined some more. It was a husky with startlingly blue eyes that watched her with a deep sadness that nearly broke Lacy’s heart. It let her approach, even pushing its head against her hand when she reached out to pet it. Lacy shivered, realizing she had forgotten her coat inside. Carefully, she reached down and scooped the puppy up, cuddling it close.
“You must be freezing,” she murmured, already trying to figure out what to do with it. She wasn’t set up to take care of a dog at the mansion.
And I don’t even live here,she reminded herself.
She hurried back into the house, trying to think of what to do with the dog. It would need a good home. But where could she take it?
The answer hit her like a lightning bolt and she was surprised she hadn’t thought of it right away. The perfect person to rescue this puppy was Derek.
“Come on, sweetheart,” she said, shrugging into her coat and then cuddling the puppy close inside the coat. “Let’s get you to Winter Run Racing. I have a feeling your new family is there.”
* * *
Derek buffed the new varnish onto the wood of the sled he was repairing, losing himself in the familiar rhythm of the task. He didn’t love every aspect of his job, but he always enjoyed maintaining his sleds and keeping them in tiptop condition. Dogsledding could be a rough sport, and it took quite a bit of work on the side to keep his stock of sleds in good working order. He had just begun singing along quietly with the classic rock station on the radio—“Open Arms” by Journey—when a movement outside the huge window in his shop caught his attention.
