Christmas In Snowflake Canyon. RaeAnne Thayne

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      She didn’t recognize the young woman and couldn’t see any evidence Chelsea knew her—or of her—either.

      “I don’t suppose you know anything about computers, do you?” the woman asked hopefully.

      Gen gave a short laugh. “On a good day, I can usually figure out how to turn them on but that’s the extent of my technical abilities. And sometimes I can’t even do that.”

      Chelsea gave her a friendly smile. She was quite pretty, though she wore a particularly unattractive shade of yellow. She could also use a little more subtlety in her makeup.

      Gen certainly wasn’t going to tell her that. Instead, she would relish the promise of that friendly smile. Around Hope’s Crossing, she found it refreshing when people didn’t know who she was. Here, many saw her as snobbish and cold. She had no idea how to thaw those perceptions.

      She had loved that about living in Paris, where her friends didn’t care about her family, her connections, her past.

      “Thanks anyway,” Chelsea said. “I’ll figure something out. My ex-boyfriend works in IT up at the resort. He agreed to come take a look at things.”

      “Even though he’s an ex?” She hadn’t spoken with Sawyer since the day she threw his ring back at him.

      “I know, right? But we left things on pretty good terms. He’s not a bad guy.... He was only a little more interested in his video games than me, you know? I decided that wasn’t for me.”

      “Understandable.”

      Chelsea’s gaze shifted over Gen’s shoulder and her face lit up. “Hey, Dylan! Eden said you would be stopping in this morning.”

      “And here I am. Hi. Chelsea, right?”

      “One two-second conversation in line at the grocery store and you remembered my name.”

      Gen didn’t like the way all her warm feelings toward the other woman trickled away. Friends weren’t that easy to come by here in Hope’s Crossing. She certainly couldn’t throw one away because she was feeling unreasonably territorial toward Dylan, even if she had been the one shackled to the man.

      She didn’t blame Chelsea for that little moment of flirtatiousness. Dylan still needed a haircut. Regardless, he looked quite delicious. Even the black eye patch only made him more attractive somehow, probably because the eye not concealed behind it looked strikingly blue in contrast.

      She thought of that moment when she had nearly fallen on the ice a few days earlier, when he had caught her and held her against his chest for a heartbeat.

      And then the humiliation of his words, basically accusing her of being so shallow she recoiled in disgust when he touched her, which was so not true.

      “Genevieve.” He again said her name as her Parisian friends did and for some strange reason she found the musical syllables incredibly sexy spoken in that gruff voice.

      “Is that how you say your name?” Chelsea asked in surprise. “I though it was Gen-e-vieve.”

      She managed to tamp down the inappropriate reaction to the man. “Either way works,” she said to Chelsea. “Or you could simply call me Gen.”

      “Thanks. I’ll do that.”

      The young woman turned her attention back to Dylan. She tucked her hair behind her ear—her pointy ear, Gen thought, before she chided herself for her childishness in noticing. She was a horrid person, as superficial as everyone thought.

      “We’re all so excited you’re finally coming to help us,” Chelsea said. “Eden has been over the moon since she heard about your, er, little brush with the law.”

      “Good to know I could make everybody’s day,” he said dryly, but Chelsea didn’t appear to notice.

      “It’s going to be perfect,” she exclaimed. “You’re going to be great! Exactly what we need.”

      She had said nothing of the sort to Genevieve, yet another piece of evidence in what she was beginning to suspect—that her presence was superfluous here, an unnecessary addendum. The organizers of the program wanted Dylan to help out at A Warrior’s Hope because of his own perspective and experience. She, on the other hand, was little more than collateral damage.

      “Where is Eden?” she finally interjected.

      “She’s at the pool with Spence and our new program coordinator, Mac Scanlan.”

      “I thought Eden was in charge,” Genevieve said.

      “Technically, she is. She’s the executive director, in charge of fundraising, planning, coordinating events etc. We just hired a new person to actually run the activities. He’s spending the day familiarizing himself with the facilities. She told me to send you to the pool the minute you both arrive.”

      Which had been several minutes earlier, but who was counting?

      “Thanks,” Genevieve said.

      “I’m supposed to make you ID badges first, but we’ll have to do that later, when my system is back in action. You know where to go, right? Through the main doors there and down the first hall.”

      Dylan seemed reluctant to move. Apparently Genevieve would have to take the lead. She followed Chelsea’s directions, aware of him coming up behind her.

      “You made it,” she said to Dylan as they entered the hallway.

      “You didn’t think I’d show?”

      “Given your general reluctance to this whole idea, I guess I wouldn’t have been surprised if you had decided you’d rather go to jail.”

      “I’m still not discounting that possibility.”

      She smiled a little. “I don’t even know what I’m doing here. Chelsea’s right. You are in a far better position than anybody else, especially me.”

      “So everybody says. I’m not seeing it.”

      “You know what it’s like to be injured in battle, to have to rebuild your life.”

      “Right. I’m doing a hell of a job, aren’t I?”

      Genevieve flashed him a quick look. “Better than I would in your situation,” she answered truthfully.

      “You would probably start designing a fashion line for one-armed pirate wannabes and go on to make millions of dollars.”

      She laughed. “The only one-armed pirate wannabe I know doesn’t seem particularly interested in fashion.”

      He gave her a mock offended look. “What do you mean? I wore a bolo, didn’t I? I thought I was going for the hipster look.”

      “Or something,” she answered.

      He snorted but said nothing as they moved toward the door at the end of the hall where she could see the flickering blue of water.

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