Chapter Two #3
Caprice leaned a little closer to see what I was showing her, then looked up at me. Her lips parted as if she had been about to ask another question and forgotten it somewhere on the way.
The silence lasted only a second.
Then her laptop sounded from the dining table, and she blinked.
“I should get that.”
“Go ahead. I need to pack this up.”
She crossed the room while I returned the driver to my bag. On her screen, a video window sat above several bands of color and a row of numbered markers. Caprice put on one side of the headset, listened, jumped to two different points in the file, and answered without wasting a word.
“Use the newer version. The timing is right there, and the graphic change matches the approved note. Leave the earlier file available until the final review is finished, but don’t route it forward.”
She listened again, confirmed something, and ended the call.
I nodded toward the screen when she removed the headset. “What are all the colored bands?”
“That’s a review timeline. Picture is up here, then dialogue, sound, music, graphics, and the markers show where notes or changes land.
I don’t sit in the editor’s chair and build every piece myself, but I need to understand the structure well enough to know whether a change actually solved the problem. ”
She turned the tablet so I could see another screen beside it.
“Once you know the system, you can tell a lot at a glance. It probably looks like nonsense if you don’t spend your life doing it.”
“It looks like more than nonsense. I just wouldn’t know where to start.”
“That was me with the door fifteen minutes ago.”
Bear chose that moment to settle across both of her boots.
Caprice looked down.
He had positioned seventy-five pounds of golden fur so precisely that she could not move either foot without disturbing him.
“You realize I need those.”
Bear rested his chin across the toes of her boots.
Caprice bent and rubbed both hands through the thick fur behind his ears. “This is coercive affection.”
His tail swept slowly across the floor, bumping the leg of her chair.
“You’re rewarding him,” I said.
“I’m managing the situation I’ve been given.”
She kept petting him.
I decided not to point out the obvious.
Before leaving, I checked the wood supply for the forecast. The cabin already had more than enough seasoned split wood for normal use, but with the weather moving in faster, I wanted a little extra reserve under cover in case the upper road became inconvenient later.
Caprice put her coat on and followed me outside while Bear stayed close to her instead of ranging toward the trees.
“You don’t have to come out for this,” I told her as we crossed the porch.
“I know. I’ve been inside with a laptop since breakfast. I want to see what the mountain is doing before it becomes something I only observe through a weather app.”
I liked that answer.
The air had a heavier feel than the night before.
Wind moved through the tops of the pines now, and the cloud cover had thickened until the whole ridge looked washed in shades of slate, brown, and dark green.
Caprice tucked her hands into the pockets of her camel coat and watched while I brought another armload of wood from the covered service reserve.
One split was too large for the fireplace, so I set it on the chopping block beside the storage area and took the maul from the truck.
The wood separated cleanly on the first strike.
When I straightened, Caprice’s eyes were on me instead of the wood.
She smiled when our eyes met.
“I’m not going to pretend that was entirely educational.”
Heat pulled low through my body, stronger than it had beside the door.
I set the maul safely against the block before answering. “I wasn’t going to make you explain yourself.”
“Another civilized policy.”
Her smile stayed with me while I stacked the two smaller pieces beneath the covered overhang.
I still had half the upper properties to check before lunch, along with weather updates to review and a maintenance list that would not shorten because I was attracted to a guest. Caprice had her own work waiting inside. Neither of us needed to pretend otherwise.
I pulled my gloves back on. “You’re set for now. The resort will send an update if the snow changes delivery or road conditions, but everything up here is ready.”
Caprice nodded, then hesitated before going back inside. When she spoke, the teasing had eased from her voice, but the warmth hadn’t.
“I understand our agreement is for actual problems with the cabin. But if you’re back on this end of the ridge later and nothing has broken, you don’t have to wait for an emergency before you knock.”
I held her gaze.
“I’d like that.”
Her smile came slowly this time. “Good.”
The door worked. The fireplace worked. The cabin had more than enough wood, and nothing else on my list required me to stay.
I headed back toward the truck with Bear following at my side, aware of Caprice still standing on the porch behind us. I had work to finish before the weather turned, and I intended to finish it.
But the next time I came back to her door, neither of us needed something to be broken.