Page 28 of Christmas at the Guest House

With long, confident strides, Zach made his way down the driveway, following in the same direction that Colette had gone. But when he stepped out onto the sidewalk, she was nowhere to be found. He stopped for a moment and pursed his lips, debating whether it would be too much to go all the way into town to search for her. But now that he had the idea in his head, he couldn’t seem to let go of it.

“It’s not like there are many places she could have gone,” he said to himself as he started walking toward town, hoping that he’d find her along his way.

Zach hadn’t been walking long when he turned the corner to head into downtown Snowy Pine Ridge and caught sight of her. It wasn’t much, just a flash of her bright red coat disappearing to the side of a building, but it was enough to spur him on.

As he walked toward the large, industrial metal building, he caught sight of a small sign hanging in the window and stepped closer to peer at it. The sign read: DOG SLED RIDES. CALL FOR AN APPOINTMENT OR INQUIRE INSIDE.

There was a phone number at the bottom, but that was it. There was something about the minimalism of it all that struck something in Zach. He liked the fact that this place didn’t have a bright, neon sign begging for just anyone to come in. Establishments like this kept their business going by word of mouth and by being the best, and that was something that he couldn’t help but respect.

And as he recalled the fact that Colette had told him to try out the dog sledding in town, he figured now was just as good of a time as any. Plus, it would give him the perfect excuse to bump into her.

Zach spotted Colette immediately as he made his way around the corner of the building. There were row after row of large dog kennels behind the structure, and then a huge middle section that was also fenced in and attached to the building, where a massive doggy door led to the inside. Colette was in the middle of the fenced in space, five or six large huskies hopping and yipping excitedly around her feet.

She was laughing, a smile dancing across her lips that made her look radiant. Zach’s heart beat a little faster at the sight of her looking so happy and carefree, but he shook thoughts of why it affected him so much from his mind as he strode forward.

He thought of clearing his throat or making some kind of noise so that she’d hear him approach, but he wasn’t sure what noise he could make that she’d hear over the racket of the huskies.

Thankfully, it ended up being unnecessary when she must have caught sight of his movements in her periphery. Colette’s gaze flicked to him quickly, and her eyebrows shot up toward her hairline.

“Hey!” she said, giving him a quizzical look even as her cheeks turned a bit more pink.

“Hey, yourself.” Zach smiled as he tucked his hands into his pockets. “I needed a break from painting, and I figured maybe I’d check out the dog sledding you told me so much about. And,” he admitted, flushing a little, “I saw you come this way, and I wanted to talk to you. Do you work here or something?”

“No. Lacy and Derek are just nice enough to let me come and get puppy therapy whenever I want.”

She bent over, ruffling the ears of a gorgeous, fluffy husky and laughing when its wet tongue lapped at her face. Zach suppressed a grin, amused by both Colette and the husky. He had never seen her so at ease, and he found that he liked this side of her quite a bit.

Colette looked up at that moment, and Zach realized with a start that he had been staring at her in silence. The warmth in his cheeks dialed up several notches, and he cleared his throat, looking down at the snow-covered ground.

Fortunately, she didn’t seem upset about their earlier encounter at the house, and when Zach lifted his gaze back to hers, she was smiling.

“You really want to go dog sledding?” she asked.

“Well, I’m not sure I’m up for a sled ride just yet,” he said, a flicker of nerves lighting in his belly. “This was more just a visit to check the place out.”

“Ah, I see.” She raised her arms, gesturing with a wide grin to the dogs gamboling and barking all around her. “So what do you think?”

“I think they’re loud.” Zach had to all but yell to be heard over the din.

He’d seen videos of the stereotypical husky howl before, and they’d always made him chuckle. But in real life, without a volume button, and with six of them doing it at once, he could barely hear Colette over the noise.

She laughed and started making her way toward the gate, the dogs dancing around her feet and hindering her progress. When she finally made it out of the kennel, the dogs turned toward each other and began racing back and forth before darting through the doggy door and disappearing from sight.

“There,” Colette said with another flash of a smile. “Much better. You want me to call Derek and Lacy? They aren’t here right now, but I can let them know you’re interested.”

Zach shook his head. “No, that’s okay. I don’t think I’m ready yet.”

“Suit yourself.” Colette shrugged.

Silence fell between the two of them for a moment, and Zach shifted his weight nervously from foot to foot. He hadn’t just come here to check out the dog sledding—in fact, that had been a distant second to the main reason he’d come. But now that he was face-to-face with Colette, he wasn’t quite sure how to say what he wanted to tell her.

Finally, when the silence began to stretch on for too long, he blew out a quick breath and raked his fingers through his hair.

“Look,” he said. “About earlier today. I didn’t mean to come off as rude.”

Colette’s eyebrows pinched together, and she tilted her head to the side in question. “What do you mean?”

“When you came to the house to tell me about the exterminator. I was just caught up with painting.”

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