Snowbound - Harlequin.com

JANICE KAY JOHNSON
17
spotted the tracks, vanishing fast under fresh snowfall.
She kept losing sight of them in the white blur.
The kids in back were talking excitedly now that salvation
was at hand. Dieter started telling them about this
great old lodge, the ancient trees and the river just
below.
“There’s this huge fireplace,” he was saying, when
the van lurched and the front end seemed to drop.
One of the girls screamed. Fiona braked, out of
instinct—they had already come to a dead stop. Dieter
jumped out again, coming back to shake his head.
“I don’t know if we can get it out.”
“Can you still see the tire tracks?”
He looked. “Yeah.”
“It can’t be that far. We’ll walk.” She turned.
“Everyone, bring your stuff, especially if you have any
food left over from lunch or dinner.” They had stopped
at a hamburger joint on the way out of Redmond. “Put
on all the clothes you brought.”
She took her purse, but left the tote that held only the
schedule for the day, competition rules and her notes on
questions she would drill students on in the expectation
they’d be asked the same ones again someday. Once
everybody was out, she made them line up single file
behind Dieter, bringing up the end herself. Then, feeling
silly, she locked the van.
“Lead on,” she called.
Her face felt the cold first, then her feet. Was this the
right decision? she worried, as they stumbled through
the dark and falling snow led by—God help them—a
sixteen-year-old boy’s memory of a winter vacation.