“That sounds like a plan to me.” Maddie retrieved her purse from the bed. “Do you really think we have to ride a chairlift up the mountain? That seems weird without snow, right?”
Nick shrugged. Honestly, the notation — however tiny — mentioning the lift in the brochure had intrigued him, too. “I guess we’ll find out.”
“Yeah.” Maddie took one final look around the hotel room and shook her head. “This is so disappointing.”
He laughed as he linked his fingers with hers and gave her a tug toward the door. “You’re my favorite person in the world, Mad. Don’t ever change.”
“Right back at you.”
HANNAH WAS FOCUSED ON THE ITINERARY for the upcoming event when Tyler James, Casper Creek’s animal wrangler, strode through the door of the saloon. He had Hannah’s goofy black lab Jinx with him, and the dog was covered in mud.
“Oh, geez.” Hannah made a face when she felt something weird brush against her leg, giving Jinx an incredulous look when the dog rested his head on her knee. “What happened to you?”
Cooper, amused despite himself, chuckled as he walked to the coffee pot. “The water trough in the animal paddock sprung a leak. I was buried in mud before I realized what was happening.”
“And I take it Jinx found the mud,” Hannah said dryly, shaking her head as the dog’s tongue lolled out of his mouth. He was the one thing she’d brought with her from her former life and he was never unhappy.
“Jinx isn’t the only one.” Tyler’s smile was rueful. “The goats found it, too.”
“What are you going to do?” Hannah was legitimately curious. “I mean ... will the mud eventually disappear on the goats without intervention?”
“It will, but with guests coming in, I think I’m going to need to give them baths.”
To Hannah, that sounded like a thankless task. “How are you going to manage that?”
“I have a hose. I’m going to hook up a sprinkler and then lather them up with soap and let them rinse themselves. Arnie is over there fixing the trough so that shouldn’t be a problem, but I wanted to know if it was okay if I washed Jinx the same way I’m washing the goats.”
Since she’d been envisioning trying to drag the dog upstairs and into the bathtub — and all the horrors that would entail — Hannah perked up at the suggestion. “Absolutely.”
Tyler snickered. “I thought you would feel that way.” He shifted his attention to the sheet of paper in front of her. “Is that for the psychics and their full day of events planned for tomorrow?”
She nodded. “It is.”
He studied her face for a beat. “You look calmer than you did three weeks ago. I guess that means your lessons with the coven have been going well.”
Hannah swallowed hard and nodded. “Things are ... good.” Even as she said the words, she got a brief flash of Becky’s face. She’d been able to put as much guilt behind her as possible when it came to the former coven member. There were still remnants that she knew she would never shake. “I’m pretty much back to normal.”
Tyler already knew that was true thanks to Cooper, his best friend, but since he had a brotherly attachment to Hannah, it was good to hear her admit it herself. “For the record, I wouldn’t be surprised if a few of these psychics showed up to check the place out before tonight’s mixer. They might want to get the lay of the land.”
Hannah nodded in agreement. “Yeah. I’m prepared for that. In fact, I’m about to head out and do a lap around the grounds.”
“I’ll keep Jinx with me so he doesn’t scare anybody away with his filth.” Tyler shot the dog a fond smile. “Once he’s dry, I’ll bring him back over.”
“Thanks. I really appreciate it.”
MADDIE WAS ALL SMILES AS she and Nick hopped off the chairlift.
“That was fun, huh?” She was exhilarated as she glanced around. “I’ve never done that without a million layers of clothing on so I wasn’t worried about falling because I figured I was padded to within an inch of my life.”
Nick smirked as he grabbed her hand, linking his fingers with hers, and took his first gander at Casper Creek. “Call me crazy, but I happen to prefer it when you wear the least amount of clothes deemed necessary by law.”
Maddie slid him a sidelong look and rolled her eyes. “Somehow I knew you were going to say that.”
“Yes, I’m one of those rare creatures who likes his woman naked. I should be studied for scientific discovery.”
Maddie shot him a warning look — and gently nudged her elbow into his stomach — before he guided her in front of him and wrapped his arm around her waist. They both seemed enamored by what they’d found on top of the mountain.
“Well, this is just neat,” she said finally, shaking her head. “I mean ... really neat. Did you know it was going to be this neat?”
“I don’t know that I’m comfortable with you using that word,” Nick said dryly. “You’re not seventy, Mad. You’re not allowed to use the word ‘neat’ if you’re not wearing control top pantyhose.”
“Um ... I don’t know any hip people who don’t use that word.”
“If you’re hanging out with hip people, we have a whole other problem.” He nuzzled her cheek and pressed a kiss to her soft skin before pulling back. “This place is pretty cool, though.”
“Oh, gross,” she offered up in an exaggerated tone. “Who says the word ‘cool’ now? Only old people. That’s who.”
He tickled her ribs, enjoying the way she squirmed to escape, and took in the setup. “I wonder whose idea it was to set up a town based on the Old West and then base it in Kentucky.”
“That is a
