The Eligible Suspect Read Free Page B

stormy evening.
    “You went there on purpose,” her mother said.
    “I live here.”
    “On purpose,” her mother insisted. “Your reclusiveness worries me.”
    Camille Ivy didn’t like it when Savanna went into her hermit modes. She couldn’t surprise her with her celebratory family visits. Tucked deep in the woods just south of Wolf Creek Pass, Savanna’s log home was on seventy-five rugged acres in Colorado’s southeastern San Juan Mountains. In winter, she was frequently snowed in.
    She went down the open stairs and into her living room, passing a white leather sofa, love seat and chairs with nail-head trim on a mosaic rug in dark green and black. A beautiful alder wood buffet and wine cabinet were behind the sofa and against the wall.
    Beside the large gabled window, the black gneiss rock fireplace rose all the way up to an exposed log ceiling. She had a fire going. Soft piano music played from her stereo, stored in a built-in cabinet where a huge television was embedded in the log wall, off for now.
    The sun had set an hour ago. It had been snowing all afternoon and the news had forecast another storm the next night, a much more severe storm. A blizzard, they were saying. Savanna couldn’t wait to spend the day cooking and reading.
    “You need to talk about it, Savanna,” her mother said in her silence.
    “I like living alone, Mom. There’s nothing wrong with me. I’m okay. How many times do I have to tell you that?”
    “You shouldn’t be alone right now.”
    Another man had broken her heart and she was in the grieving process. “Don’t worry about me. I’ve been through this before. It’ll pass.”
    “That’s what worries me.” Then her mother sighed. “You and Autumn. You’re both so independent. At least she’s around other people when she travels, and she found herself a decent man.”
    That came with a sting Savanna had trouble pushing away. Savanna had thought she’d met two decent men, but they’d turned out to be liars.
    After a moment, her mother said, “I’m sorry, honey. I didn’t mean that the way it came out.”
    Savanna wished her mother would stop talking. “It just hasn’t worked out for me yet. It is what it is.”
    “You bought that mountain home after the first one.”
    Savanna didn’t argue. Her mother thought she was hiding here, burying her heartache and protecting herself from any more. Maybe she was. She felt better here than anywhere else. That had to count for something. If her mother preferred to think of her remote mountain house as a fortress, then it was a fortress. The only way in was a long and winding dirt road. Either that or on a snowmobile, or a pair of cross-country skis or snowshoes, or horseback. And when it snowed as it did now, no one was getting in and Savanna wasn’t getting out. She needed this time to herself. Being alone and isolated rejuvenated her.
    “You need to get out more. Be with other people. Socialize. It’s not good for you to be pent up in your house with nothing else to do than think.”
    “I have plenty to do here. And I’ll come see you in spring.”
    “Don’t be a smart-mouth, Savanna Ivy.”
    “I’m not. The way it looks outside, it
will
be spring by the time I get out of here.
    In her mother’s long silence, Savanna added, “Do you really think all I’m doing here is obsessing over my ex-boyfriend?”
    With that her mother breathed a laugh. “No. Your hobbies are keeping you busy, I’m sure. And you always were a solitary girl. I just hate to see you hurt.”
    “I’ll get over that. And I will come and see you this spring.”
    “Okay, honey. You’ve managed to somewhat calm me.” And then she asked, “Did you plow your road?”
    So her mother could come to visit? Savanna could hear her thinking it.
    “No.”
    “Are you going to have it plowed?”
    “Sometime. When I need to get out of here, I’ll have it plowed.” Until she was ready for visitors, she was grateful for the snow.
    “Oh,