Snowbound - Harlequin.com

68 SNOWBOUND
As, she supposed, it was. He couldn’t want a crowd
of teenagers trashing Thunder Mountain Lodge, even
though he seemed less than enthusiastic as an innkeeper.
“What are they up to now?” she asked.
“I offered some games. Most of them are in front of
the fireplace playing them. I think a few are upstairs.”
Not one boy and one girl, she hoped.
“Amy?”
“Last I looked, sulking because someone else
already took Boardwalk.”
“Oh, dear.”
He frowned. “Quit worrying about them.”
“But they’re…”
“Your responsibility. I know. But they’re not toddlers.”
“No, they’re teenagers, which is almost worse.”
Why did he look irritated? Was he tired of her fussing?
He picked up the piled towels before she could. “I’ll
put these away.”
“I can…”
He ignored her, of course. Frustrated, she watched
him limp out of the laundry room, leaving her to the
sound of running water in the washer and the spinning
dryer. Why did the wretched man have to be so hard to
read? And why couldn’t he be, oh, fifty years old,
balding and potbellied? Or the wizened old man Dieter
had said used to own the lodge?
Fiona sighed and went to see what the kids were up
to.
She found them sprawled in chairs and on the floor
around a couple of different gameboards. Dieter,
Hopper, Tabitha and Amy played Monopoly, Kelli and