CHAPTER 1
Penny Quinn eyed the beat-up metal bucket with concern. A new and extremely unwelcome addition to her attic office, the bucket was positioned on the floor beneath the attic’s sloping ceiling for a simple, unhappy reason: Sometime the previous night, her roof had decided to spring a leak.
The amount of water dripping into the bucket was minimal —the drops were falling with a slow, regular beat — but even a small leak meant big trouble. With trepidation, she watched water emerge through the drywall, form itself into a drop, and land with a sharppingin the bucket below.
Congratulations,the water was telling her.You’ve got a problem —an expensive problem.
Stepping over to the attic’s sole window, she peered anxiously at the roof’s eaves, heavy with snow and ice. Across the street, the town square glistened under a blanket of fresh snow. Most of the time, the sight of the happy snow-people and snow-animals populating the square —Heartsprings Valley was famous for its love of snow-everythings at Christmas —would give her a lift. But today was not one of those days.
From behind her came the clomp of boots. She whirled around, relief surging through her as her friend Luke, a local contractor, poked his head into the attic.
“Luke,” she said, “thank goodness you’re here.”
“Hey, Penny,” he said, giving her a smile as he made his way up the winding staircase from the bookstore below.
“I really appreciate you heading over so quickly. Watch your head.”
With a hand raised to avoid the sloped ceiling, he stepped into the attic. A few years younger than her, he was a good-looking guy with an easy smile, dressed in his usual flannel shirt, jeans, and work boots.
His gaze landed on the bucket. “I’m glad you called right away. Leaks wait for no one.”
“Haven’t seen you in a while. How are you?”
“Good. Busy.”
“How’s Clara?” she asked, referring to Luke’s wife, who was six months pregnant with their second child.
“Doing great. Just had a checkup yesterday and all is good.”
“Excellent. And Logan?”
“Starting to run. Kid’s a speed-demon.”
Penny smiled. Luke’s son was twenty months old and got cuter every time she saw him.
Luke stepped closer, his attention firmly fixed on the leaky spot. “So let’s have a look. When did you put the bucket here?”
“About an hour ago, as soon as I noticed the leak.”
“Not a lot of water in the bucket, which is good.” He ran a hand over the surrounding drywall. “The leak wasn’t here yesterday?”
“Pretty sure not. I was up here a bunch yesterday and didn’t notice anything.”
“That’s good. A new leak’s easier to deal with than an old one.” He pulled a flashlight from his back pocket and aimed itwhere the drywall met the hardwood floor. “When was the attic renovated?”
“Four years ago, when my mom and dad first started talking about retiring.”
“What was up here before you renovated?”
“Unfinished attic space that we used for storage. We added the metal staircase and electrical when we turned the attic into an office.”
“You bring a water line up here?”
“No, nothing like that.”
He dropped to his knees, ran the flashlight beam over the edge of the floor where it met the drywall, and sniffed cautiously. “I’m not smelling mold.”
“That’s good, right?”
