It started snowing again mid-afternoon. By then the entire house was full of movement, conversation, and the glorious aroma of baking sugar. The ‘extra staff’ showed up during the day for snacks or lunch—there was Sarah, who had an inky pixie cut and an engaging smile, big blond Gessel with sleepy blue eyes and a lumberjack’s plaid shirt, Lev’s sleek brunet cousin Josef carrying in a load of firewood and being scolded into pausing for a bite, and at least half a dozen others Zoe barely heard the names of as they passed through.
Jack ambled in while Zoe was arranging cookies on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, peering over her shoulder. “Let me have a little.”
“Amelia says not to,” she whispered back, but couldn’t help smiling. The relief of his presence was deep, instant—and fr
