“Go on. Take it. You’re always so good with Jackson, and he’s crazy about you. In fact, could you come again next Friday night? I have to go out again.”
“Of course.” She was still staring at the money, afraid to look at his damaged face again.
“Now go on,” he said. “I’ll be fine.” He moved past her, and she stared at his back, still frozen in place. At the bottom of the steps, he turned toward her once more. “No need to tell anyone about this,” he said. “It would be too embarrassing.”
“Of course not,” she said. The last thing she wanted was to embarrass this man who had been so nice to her.
“Go home now, Lily,” he said, and even smiled, though at the cost of a fresh trickle of blood from his swollen lip. “I’ll be fine. I’ll wait and set the alarm as soon as you’re out.”
She pocketed the money, collected her things, and let herself and Shelby out. In the six years she had known Denny Endicott, he had never been anything but perfectly polished and calm. She had never seen him even tipsy. Had never smelled alcohol on him. She had looked up to him, as a kind of father figure even.
But he was only human, and humans did drink too much. They fell down. But who got a black eye and a busted lip from a fall? And why hadn’t the clients he had been entertaining made sure his injuries were treated?
But it was none of her business. Though she thought of Denny Endicott as her friend, he operated in a world far removed from her own. His problems involved billions of dollars and how to raise his son as a single father.
All she had to worry about was training her dog, doing her job as a ski patroller and dealing with an exacting boss. It was enough for any one person—right?
“WE’LL DOSHELBY’SLevel B certification tomorrow before the lifts open,” Scott informed Lily after morning meeting the next Thursday. “Be at the back bowl off of Lift 12 at seven a.m.”
Lily wanted to protest this was a waste of everyone’s time, but she knew that wouldn’t get her anywhere. “All right,” she said.
Shelby had aced her first Level B test, less than eight months ago. There was no reason to think she wouldn’t do well this time, either, unless Scott had done something to make the test harder. Did he resent Lily’s presence on the team so much he would engineer her failure? She shook her head. Even if Scotthad been reluctant to have her as part of his group, he hadn’t done anything to make her think he was that vindictive.
So Friday morning found her and Shelby at the appointed location a few minutes before 7:00 a.m. The sun had barely risen over the ridge, casting long shadows over the pristine snow. Lily’s teeth chattered, and she swung her arms and stamped her feet, trying to generate warmth.
A tall figure skied up beside her and skid to a stop, snow flying. Fellow patroller Nina Rose grinned at Lily as she stepped out of her skis. “Are you ready for this?” she asked.
“We’re ready.” Lily tried not to feel self-conscious around Nina, but she, along with everyone else she knew, had been glued to their televisions the last winter Olympic games. They had all seen Nina claim a silver medal in the giant slalom. A few months later she had graced the cover ofVanity Fair, wearing a whisper of a gown that showed off her athletic figure.
Nina looked past Lily. “Here comes everyone else.”
Lily turned, expecting to see Scott and maybe one other person he had recruited to serve as a judge for this test. Instead, she was startled to see all of the other dog handlers—Brian, Anders and Connor skied up just ahead of Scott. “I didn’t expect to see you all here so early,” she said.
“We came to cheer you and Shelby on,” Connor said.
Scott skied up with a tall man dressed all in black, a full ginger beard obscuring most of his face. “Hello, Lily,” Adam Derocher said. “How are you?”
“I’m good,” she said. “It’s good to see you.” She meant the words—Adam had been one of her trainers with C-RAD.
“We’re all here. Let’s get started,” Scott said, without preliminaries. “Adam will be the judge. Lily, are you and Shelby ready?”
“We’re ready.” She ignored the flutter in her stomach. Shelby had performed well at every trial so far, but she was still ayoung dog. If she wasn’t in the mood to work this morning, they could end up embarrassed in front of friends and people she respected. Not to mention they would probably be kicked off the avy dog team.
Adam stepped forward. “Who are our volunteers?”
A man and a woman held up their hands. “This is Marion and Pete,” Scott said. “They live here in town and volunteered to be our victims this morning.”
“Great,” Adam said. “We’ll get a couple of people to show you what to do.”
Connor and Nina left with the couple. After the lifts closed yesterday they had dug snow caves where the volunteers would wait for Shelby to find them. Despite the cold and discomfort involved, there was no shortage of other resort employees and townspeople who were willing to volunteer to be buried in the snow for training exercises or certification tests like this one.
“We’ll run the obedience test while we wait,” Adam said.
“Sure.” Lily called Shelby to her side. The dog sat, eyes bright, ears up, the picture of attentiveness.
Lily ran through all the basic obedience commands—sit, stay, lie down, heel and come. “She can fetch, shake hands and bow, if you want to see those,” she volunteered.
“Nah, that’s good.” Adam marked the paper on his clipboard. “Let’s go see if the others are ready.”
