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I nodded. “No problem. You’ll find me there. I’ll quickly put this in the fridge.”

I quickly ran into the warehouse and put the salad in an empty cold storage room. I wanted to find out what had happened to our snowboarders. If that meant seeing Davey, I was willing to accept that.

I hurried back to the forecourt, where the luggage was now piled up.

I walked determinedly toward Matt. “You’re already here?”

He nodded wearily. “Yep. The candidates here were pretty exhausted from the tour.”

My gaze drifted around nervously. “And Shane . . . ?”

“Oh, no. They’re off again. His snowboarding student couldn’t bear to part with him. When he heard that most people were already planning to head back, he made quite a fuss because he wanted to go to the last lodge on the program. With a view of the lake and the mountains.” He leaned toward me and whispered, “If you ask me, he saw his last chance to seduce Shane, since he wasn’t taking the bait.”

I grimaced as if I had bitten into a lemon.

In front of me, Matt stumbled into my arms. “Ouch!” he cried.

Chloe punched him again. “Nonsense. Don’t worry, Ruben. The two of them will finish the tour as planned. While we’ve already taken the wimps home.”

She gave Matt a meaningful look.

He grimaced. “What? It’s true. Dave didn’t miss a chance to hit on Shane.”

“Goodness, Matt, your manners!” Chloe put her hands on her hips in exasperation.

He threw his arms in the air. “I don’t know what you want from me.”

She pointed her chin meaningfully in my direction.

“What?” Matt asked again, and I rubbed my face in frustration.

“Leave it alone, Chloe!” I said. “They’re not coming home today?”

“No,” she said calmly. “But you don’t have to worry.”

“Why should Ruben worry?” Matt wanted to know.

I relieved Chloe of the task of tactful rephrasing and answered him myself. “Because Shane and I are together.”

“Oh!” Matt stared at me with wide eyes. “I didn’t know that.”

“Sometimes I wonder if you live under a rock,” Chloe muttered to herself.

I waved it off. “I’m not worried. Shane wrote that it would probably take longer.”

Chloe nodded. “We were supposed to leave tonight as planned. But the others insisted on cutting it short. Dave wanted to make the most of the whole day there, though. And he had booked Shane privately. So . . . ”

“It’s okay.” I shrugged. “I was just confused for a moment.”

Sighing, I turned away. I had a new salad creation to make.

Later, after Connie had enthusiastically sampled my salad and I had cleared away the staff’s food, I checked my phone again. My last message hadn’t gone through. That could mean about anything. From a dead battery to a stashed phone to no signal.

Chloe helped me put everything in the dishwasher. “No message yet?”

I shook my head. “It’s ten o’clock now. They should have arrived over an hour ago.”

She nodded. “Adriel is trying to reach the driver. No luck either. They must be stuck somewhere without reception.”

“I’m afraid so.” I shook my head in annoyance. “Hopefully nothing has happened to them.”

Chloe put a hand on my forearm. “I’m sure they’re fine. It snowed a lot in that area last week, but the roads were clear when we were traveling.”

I sighed.

“You don’t think . . . ?” She glimpsed at me with furrowed eyebrows.

Now I laughed. “No. I don’t think that. I trust Shane. Besides, we talked about it.”

“Okay. Sorry.” Chloe raised her hands defensively. “I was trying to reassure you. The guy he’s with is a model.”

I raised an eyebrow mockingly. “You’re not very good at reassuring me, Chloe. And I know Davey is a model. A hair model.” After all, he hadn’t missed an opportunity to tell me that over and over again. Until I couldn’t hear it anymore. “But he’s not Shane’s type.” And he would never do that to me.

“Oh. Okay.” She didn’t look convinced, but I was done talking about it. “I’m going to go to the cabin and hope Shane arrives soon.”

She nodded with a tentative smile and hugged me again.

But all my hopes were in vain. When I was awakened at six o’clock the next day by a hammering on the door, I was lying alone in our room.