Snow Place Like Home

Chapter One

Shonna

Shonna drove down the one-lane highway away from the Anchorage airport to a town called Blackstone, one she had never heard of before her grandmother moved there. She slowed the car down as she approached a rickety blue truck traveling at a leisurely pace. Exhausted from the long journey to this icy corner of the universe, she was eager to get to her destination so she could take a hot shower and defrost her insides.

As she pulled into the oncoming lane, a big rig made a beeline in her direction. She hit the accelerator, passing the truck before narrowly drifting into the right lane as the semi whizzed by. Her car skidded on the icy road and landed on the bank along the shoulder. The truck pulled over in front of her, and the slowpoke exited his vehicle.

Shonna froze.

Not from the cold but from the look of this man. The massive beast stomped toward her and tapped on the window.

"I'm fine," she said, rolling it down, the stiff wind whipping her as she did.

His face was as mythical as the rest of him — a perfect work of art chiseled from stone.

"You really shouldn't pass people like that. You could've gotten yourself killed," his deep voice thundered.

She retorted, "And you should learn to drive the speed limit. Not your shoe size."

"Good one," he said drolly. "You from out of town?"

"That obvious?"

"You're dressed like it's summer, plus you have luggage in your backseat. Where you headed?"

"Are you a detective?"

"No, just being neighborly."

"Seems like you're just being nosy." He stared at her blankly, awaiting her response. "Some town called Blackstone. You heard of it?"

"I live there." When he smiled, his entire face lit up, and Shonna was no longer cold. In fact, she was quite toasty.

"You can follow me if you want," he suggested.

"If I followed you, we wouldn't get there until tomorrow."

He chuckled at that. "Well, I guess I'll see you around then. Drive safe."

Shonna pulled onto the highway just as the hunky stranger was climbing back into his truck. She followed the navigator's directions down a narrow road to a pocket-sized town and searched for the address of her grandmother's home among the toy houses tucked beneath ivory blankets. Gazing out the window, she barely had enough time to hit the brake to avoid striking the moose that had casually strolled onto the road, blocking her path.

A goddamn moose.

"This is ridiculous," Shonna huffed.

Honking wildly, she yelled, "Hey! Get out of the road, you wannabe reindeer!"

The animal didn't budge. She backed up the car, allowing herself enough room to drive around, but it stepped further into the road, blocking her exit.

"What the hell?" Shonna groaned.

"Go on now. Get out of here, Rocky," a voice called from the side of the road.

Shonna hadn't noticed the petite woman with long, dark hair approach the scene.

The bull-headed moose turned its head in the woman's direction and grunted out its defiance, the noise resembling the word "no."

The plucky woman fished some food out of her pocket and extended a hand, and the grateful creature let out a joyous grunt as it unapologetically gobbled up the snack. She patted its head and whispered, "good boy," before the moose stalked off into the wilderness.