1 Chapter 1

Bill stood at the top of the hill on a bright September morning, looking down at the town spread out before him. He knew it like the back of his hand, every building, every person. Well, every person who lives here. I don’t know the tourists, unless they decide to stay at the B&B. And then it’s only knowing them as guests, except when they’re regulars.

Named for the river running through Middleton, the White River Bed-and-Breakfast was in what had once been a large, two-story home on the south side of town. It had been in his family since his grandfather had bought it in the early nineteen-forties, soon after moving to the town nestled deep in the Colorado Rockies. When Grandpa William died, Bill’s parents had inherited the B&B and had run it until two years ago, when they’d turned it over to Bill, making him the sole owner.

Bill loved the B&B, and the town. He had no intention of ever moving away. But sometimes he found himself getting bored. I need a life, beyond running the business. I need someone inmy life.

He smiled when he saw his mother bustle across the street to the side door of the B&B. She was coming from the house she and Bill’s father had lived in since they were married, twenty-nine years ago. He had been born a year later, and his sister Susan had arrived two years after that. Unlike the rest of the family, she had no desire to spend her life in Middleton. She’d applied to several colleges, been accepted by one in Ohio, and was presently working on her master’s degree in library science. Bill had gone to college, too, for hospitality management and returned home feeling as if it had been a waste of time and money. But it did reinforce the fact I want to be here and nowhere else.

After Bill had taken over from his parents when he was twenty-six—because they wanted to semi-retire so that they could do some traveling, now that they were older—he had decided he didn’t want to live cheek-by-jowl to the B&B the way they had. When a local family had packed up and moved away from Middleton, he’d bought their house on the north side of the town.

“I bet she was looking for me. I guess I’d better go see what she wants,” he said under his breath as he hurried down the hill.

“There you are.” Carol Hawkins smiled, giving Bill a hug as soon as he came through the mud room into the kitchen. “Since Mattie’s got a doctor’s appointment in half an hour, I’m taking over for her this morning.”

“You don’t have to, Mom. I can man the front desk. Go—” he flicked his fingers, “—do whatever you and Dad had planned for today.”

“He’s going fishing.” She shuddered, eliciting a laugh from Bill. “I’d rather…do the laundry here than go with him.”

“That’s saying something. Okay, you handle the desk, I’ll bumble around making sure everyone’s doing what they’re supposed to.”

“Bumble my fine Irish ass. That’s the last thing you’d do.”

“She’s right,” Norene, the B&B’s cook, said. “You handle everything with aplomb, no matter what the crisis. Right now, though, get out of my kitchen, both of you. I have eggs to scramble, and bacon and sausage to cook, if our guests are going to eat before they go exploring the town, and the mountains.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Bill replied, giving her a salute. When he and his mother got to the foyer, she took her place behind the front desk, telling Mattie to scoot or she’d be late—which she did after thanking Carol for stepping in.

Bill headed down the hallway to his office, situated just past the stairs to the second floor. Glancing out the widow, he saw the couple who were staying in the Horace Tabor Room crossing the back patio, obviously on their way into town. He was tempted to tell them they’d get a better breakfast at the B&B than in either Ollie’s Diner or the Dusty Rose—and it came with the price of the room. He didn’t, of course. It wasn’t up to him to dictate to his guests. Not if he wanted them to come back at some future date.

Settling at his desk, he began going over the reservations for the next week, and then the list of groceries Norene had given him for Pete, the handyman, to pick up when he went to town later in the morning. Things she’d need for breakfasts, and the afternoon tea which had become one of the amenities soon after she’d started working for the B&B during his parents’ tenure. When he’d finished with that, he moved on to the other paperwork which went hand-in-hand with running his business.