CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER

1

J

enna Murphy had one goal for this holiday season: to enjoy ten days of a completely Christmas-free existence. No busy malls, no Christmas carols on an endless loop, no product reviews to write, and no month-long calorie fest of taste-testing new recipes.

Just pure, unadulterated wilderness.

She’d found the place online. The website wasn’t great, but so far the Vancouver Island scenery was living up to the promise of the few photos that she’d been able to view. There were trees everywhere, drooping with the weight of the snow. Every now and then a branch would let go of its load with a quiet plop, then bounce back up in relief.

Jenna knew just how that branch felt. It had been a heck of a year, and she was ready to shed her load and move on. Jenna trudged through the snow, the crunch, crunch, crunch of her footsteps comforting in the stillness.

She headed towards the cabin marked #3. It was going to be her home for the next ten days, while she basked in the freedom to do absolutely nothing but read the bag full of books she’d brought and soak in the hot tub promised on the website.

She had until the first of January to be out of her apartment, and she’d put all of her stuff in storage already. She wanted this time to be free of obligations and deadlines of any kind. After five years of never-ending hard work, she’d earned herself a vacation.

A Christmas-free vacation.

Jenna stomped the snow off her boots at the door, put the key in the lock, and turned.

When the door opened, she couldn’t believe her eyes.

It was

like Santa’s workshop had exploded in the cabin. There were garlands, paper chains, even a giant tree in the corner. Jenna shuddered. It was her worst nightmare come to life.

After being fully immersed in Christmas for the past 1,825 days—not that she was counting—she was

so

done with the holiday. She had declared the next ten days Christmas-free so she could work out what her future might look like without her blog as the central project of her life. Without Christmas being the focus of every single day of the year.

Jenna could feel herself start to panic at this very direct threat to her un-holiday mission. Instant action was required. She dropped her bag in the middle of the floor and took down everything she could get her hands on, as fast as she possibly could.

When she had a giant pile of red and silver and green in the middle of the floor, she went hunting for somewhere to put it. She didn’t want to be tripping over stuff the entire time she was here. She found a closet upstairs in the bedroom. It took a few trips, but she crammed in all the decorations, and then shut the door tight.

The view

from the balcony hot tub was absolutely amazing. Jenna thought again it was a pity the website didn’t do the place justice. Soaring above the tree line was a snow-capped mountain peak, visible—for the moment, anyway—through a break in the cloud cover. There was even a convenient little ledge at the side of the hot tub that held the thermos of warm cocoa she had been sipping away on since she got in.

Whoever had stocked the kitchen knew what they were doing. A quick look through the cupboards had revealed some high-quality snack foods, plenty of hot beverage options, and the thermos. There was even a fruit bowl filled with red and green apples on the counter. She’d taken a moment to add the oranges she’d brought so it looked a little less Christmassy.

Jenna luxuriated in the bubbles from the jets as streams of water massaged her neck and shoulders. Computer work for twelve hours a day had taken a toll on her body. She wished briefly for a hunk with massage skills to appear beside her in the tub … but when that didn’t work she added

find a local massage therapist

to her mental list for the next day.

Her plan had been to come straight to the cabin and check in, but she’d loved the storybook feel of Rivers End as she drove through it, and couldn’t resist checking out a couple of the local stores. She had stopped and picked up some fresh stuff and a selection of specialty chocolate from the grocery store, as well as a few bottles of good wine from a shop down the street. With what was already in the fridge, she could eat well for days without having to leave the cabin. The people had seemed friendly, but the windows were decorated for the holidays and the town was dressed up in lights and tinsel. Jumping into the midst of that would not help her plan of avoidance.

And besides, she was

really

looking forward to doing nothing but reading, hot tubbing and enjoying every last bite of chocolate.

The past few weeks had been a merry-go-round of rushing. Writing, researching, creating product reviews, and prepping everything for the final handoff had been exhausting. Part of the deal had been to complete enough articles to keep the site going until the transition was finalized and the new staff took over. She hadn’t worked that many hours in such a short period of time since the summer she worked two jobs to pay for her first semester of college.

Jenna grinned. She’d come a long way since then.

Now, she didn’t have to worry about every penny she spent. She loved that when she went grocery shopping she could just get what she wanted without tallying up her purchases first. For the first time in her life, she was in a position to do whatever she wanted.

And what she wanted was to buy her own place. The realtor had found her the perfect apartment. She had enough in the bank from her website sale to pay straight out for it, and as soon as her vacation was over, she was heading back to the city.

It was time for a more normal life. The kind the people who visited her website had. A life with a home. A neighbourhood. Friends. A man. Maybe even, someday, a family. And she was pretty sure there were holidays that people celebrated besides Christmas. It would be nice to enjoy those.

But for now, she’d settle for a man. He didn’t even need to be

the

man. Just someone fun to spend the holidays with.

It had been over a year since Tyler had hit the road. At the time, she was hurt that he didn’t understand her need to put so much time and effort into her work. But now, she was grateful. He clearly wasn’t

the one

, and not having to deal with any romantic entanglements meant she was free to dedicate herself to building up her business.

Which had been great—until the moment she sold it. Now, she had absolutely no demands on her time.

And no social life to speak of.

If she were a witch, she would conjure up a hot guy at her door. And then manifest enough snowfall to trap them in the cabin together. For the next week or so. And then she would send him back to fantasyland while she went off to start her new life.

She grinned at the imaginary hunk she’d imagined to share the hot tub with her. And then alternated the view of the mountains with the view of her man.

Yep. That was just what the doctor ordered to cure the stress of the past few weeks.

Jenna stayed

in the hot tub until her fingers and toes threatened to remain pruney forever. She got out of the hot tub warm and cozy, making use of the lush robe she had found hanging on the closet door.

When the light dimmed outside, she faced down the giant tree in the living room. She considered hauling it outside and dumping it in the snow, but that seemed pretty harsh. It had been cut down to fulfill its life purpose as a Christmas tree. She wasn’t much into the random slaughter of trees.

Throwing it out would be just wrong. Not to mention that no matter how much she wanted to avoid Christmas this year, a tree with twinkling white lights was possibly Jenna’s favourite thing in the whole world. Without the decorations, it was just pretty.

Maybe it could stay after all.

Jenna plugged in the un–Christmas tree lights and lay down on the couch to enjoy the sparkle and flash with a glass of champagne from the bottle that had been thoughtfully left to chill in the fridge.

Then she promptly passed out.

The pounding

on the door brought Jenna out of a deep sleep much sooner than she would have liked. Her fuzzy brain processed the light outside. Morning already?

The banging started up again. “Okay, okay. I’m coming.” She ran a quick hand through her mop of curls and staggered over to the door.

Whoa.

Maybe she was still dreaming. Because the guy standing on the other side of the door looked like he was a model hired to play “sexy outdoors guy.” In

her

fantasy. She’d always been a sucker for the dark hair and blue eyes combo, especially in a face as handsome as his. Her eyes dropped to his chest, and she had to resist the urge to bury her face in the thick, cozy-looking navy sweater and down-filled black vest that covered his chest. His jeans fit themselves to his well-muscled thighs and—

“Are you Jenna?”

The gleam in his eye told her that her once-over hadn’t exactly gone unnoticed.

Oops.

Totally busted.

It took a minute for Jenna to unwind her tongue and get her hormones in check before she could respond. “Yep, that’s me!”

Okay, too much pep. Dial it back a little, sister.

He was balancing two plates covered in foil. “Brought you some breakfast to welcome you to the Big River Lodge. Sorry I wasn’t here yesterday when you arrived. I had some things to take care of in town.”

She was lost in his grin. She had never been able to resist a guy with a dimple. “Thanks.” He was smiling at her.

That was a good sign, right?

And his eyes were twinkling in a way that indicated his thoughts might have gone down a road similar to hers.

It was when she reached out to take the plate that she caught sight of her flannel-covered arm.

Oh crud.

She had totally forgotten about her decision to go straight to PJs after her bath last night. Yes, they were warm and cozy and still had that glorious new fuzziness to them. Not so glorious was the fact that they were a joke gift from one of her vendors, and featured X-rated elves doing very naughty things to each other.

Jenna could feel her face go bright red, and she forced herself to look up and make eye contact with him again. Yep, there was the gleam. It was definitely too much to hope that he hadn’t noticed.

Hmm.

Bright side?

Maybe it would give him some ideas.

“Do you have everything you need?”

Everything except a rugged creature such as yourself to star in my sexy cabin fantasy.

“Everything’s great, thanks,” she said, trying to stop the blushing. And trying to casually glance at his ring finger. But the cuffs of his sweater came down a bit too far and it would be too obvious if she tried to get the right angle to see it. Oh well, even if he wasn’t married he was probably with someone. After all, what are the odds of actually manifesting an available man out in the middle of the woods who just happens to fill your idea of Mr. Right? Yeah, not too good.

“Well, I hope you enjoy your stay. And just let me know if you or your boyfriend needs anything else. It looks like a storm’s on its way, but as long as you’ve got plenty of food and you’re warm enough, you should be fine. The cabin is solid and it’s used to snow.”

Wow.

He had such a nice smile.

Wait.

Boyfriend?

“Actually, it’s just me. I don’t have a boyfriend.”

Well, that was as subtle as a ton of bricks, Jenna. Smooth. Now he knows you’re pathetically spending the holidays by yourself.

She was so busy berating herself that she barely registered what he was saying about the storm. “Just come on up to the main house if you need anything—anything at all.”

Had he emphasized that last part? She scanned his face for clues, but besides that dimple that kept showing up, she couldn’t tell if it was anything more than politeness.

“The phone on the desk over there has my phone number taped to it, just in case.”

Her brain was already running away with a million and one reasons why she would need to use that number—barely dressed, and in need of rescue.

Calm. Down. Jenna. Brain, back to reality.

“Okay, thanks for everything. I’ll let you know if I need anything.”

And then she closed the door in his face, before she could make things worse by opening her mouth again.