It occurred to her that this might be an advantage—one of the few—to turning into a hedgehog. Small mammals could get into places that people couldn’t. If she and Peony couldn’t find a caretaker or manager or some sort of official person, she might be able to shift and slip into the lodge through a small gap in a window or wall, and open the doors from the inside.
It was some kind of plan, wasn’t it?
“Okay, Mom,” she said. She burrowed her hands into her pockets and absolutely refused to ask for gloves. “Let’s go try to find the caret—”
She stopped. Someone had just come around the end of the building.
A man.
An incredibly well-built man, with a ladder over his shoulder.
His bare shoulder.
He was stripped to the waist and utterly gorgeous, with snowflakes melting in his curly black hair. He had shoulders to die for, visible pecs, a trim waist, and was strolling along as if he hadn’t even noticed that he was half naked in the middle of a blizzard. He didn’t appear to have seen them yet, and for that first instant, until he turned their way, she thought the cold was making her hallucinate.
“—taker,” she managed faintly.
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