Snow Way Out: A Mystic Snow Globe Romantic Mystery (The Mystic Snow Globe Mystery Series Book 2)

by M. Z. Andrews

  Lane was sure he heard the gray cat respond to her with a series of meows, but it was almost too unbelievable to think that her cat actually understood her. They put both cats down on the ground and watched as Prim chased Esmerelda around Lane’s front yard.

  “That fella cat really seems to like the girl one,” he remarked.

  “Prim’s not a fella cat,” said Evanee with a bit of a sigh. “She’s a girl. They’re just playing. They really like each other, like sisters, you know?”

  Lane watched as Prim made attempt after attempt at catching Esmerelda. “Evanee, I don’t think those two love each other like sisters. I’m pretty sure the one loves the other one in a more romantical kind of way.”

  Evanee giggled. “No, no. I’ve had a talk with Prim. It’s really not like that. I swear. Okay, now. What are we going to do tonight?”

  Lane couldn’t help but smile. “The first place I wanna take you is over to meet my best friend. I think you’re really gonna like her.”

  “Your best friend is female?” asked Evanee, her brows lifted in surprise.

  Lane nodded. “She sure is.” He led her towards the chicken coop that he’d built on the opposite side of the driveway. It was a fairly lavish three-story coop with a big outdoor pen. He knew his chickens were spoiled, but he didn’t care. Raising them was a break from the monotony of vegetable and fruit farming, and they gave him someone to talk to besides his dad.

  Opening the gate, Lane let out a cackle from the back of his throat. A zebra-striped bird with a red face came shooting out of the coop and nearly bulldozed Lane. He laughed and hurried to shut the gate before any other birds could escape. The bird pecked at him and flapped its wings to get his attention. “Well, hey there, Henny Penny,” he said. He looked up at Evanee. “Evanee, I’d like you to meet my best gal, Henny Penny. Henny, this is Evanee.”

  Evanee squatted down and patted Henny Penny’s feathers. “She’s a beautiful bird. I’ve never seen a chicken this color.”

  “She’s a Dominique,” said Lane. “They’re real cold-hardy birds. She’s my best laying hen. I’ve had her for years.” Lane watched as Evanee and Henny got to know one another. He was surprised at how easily Evanee seemed to take to the bird.

  “It’s very nice to meet you, Henny,” said Evanee as Prim and Esmerelda slowly approached the chicken coop. “It’s alright, Prim. Henny’s nice.”

  Lane watched as the cats sniffed Henny. Henny didn’t seem to mind. In fact, she was a bold bird. She strutted closer to the two felines. Esmerelda shot a hand out and hissed at Henny as if to say, Watch it, bird. Lane chuckled. “Maybe we oughta put Henny Penny back into her coop before your cats get any big ideas.”

  Evanee nodded. “I think that’s a good idea.”

  As Lane put the bird back inside, he could hear Evanee speaking to her animals. “Alright, you guys stay around here. No running off.”

  “You really think those cats are going to listen to you?”

  “Did Henny Penny really come running to you when you called for her?”

  Lane chuckled. “Touché.” He locked the gate and then took hold of Evanee’s hand again. He pulled her towards the barn near the back of the cleared yard. “Come on.”

  She laughed as he tugged on her. “You’ve got me so curious! I’m dying to know what we’re going to do.”

  “Well, you’re about to find out.” He led her around his tractor and to the back side of the barn, where a tarp covered a pair of four-wheelers. With a big ta-da, he pulled the tarp off. “We’re going four-wheelin’,” he announced with a wide grin.

  Evanee tipped her head sideways, her eyes wide. “Four-wheeling?”

  He nodded. “You ever been on one of these?”

  She shook her head. “Can’t say that I have. Are they safe?”

  “As safe as riding in a truck. But if you’d feel more comfortable, you can ride with me on the back of mine.”

  “Or I get to drive my own?” she asked.

  Lane nodded. “That’s the choice.”

  Without saying a word, Evanee shot forward and mounted one of the all-terrain vehicles. “I’m driving my own!”

  Lane shook his head, a chuckle on his lips. “Why does that not surprise me?”

  28

  It took less than ten minutes of riding around the gravel driveway and up and down the ditches for Lane to teach Evanee the basics of four-wheel riding. By the end of the lesson, she’d squealed to him. “This is so fun! When can we start?”

  Lane laughed. Her enthusiasm was infectious. “Anytime you’re ready.”

  “I’m ready!” she declared.

  He nodded. “I realize after your ten-minute lesson, you think you’re a pro, but I think you better let me go first so we can keep your speed under control. You don’t know the trails like I do.”

  Evanee’s hand shot out, sweeping the air in front of her as if shooing him along. “After you, then.”

  Lane smiled and readjusted his helmet. “Careful around the corners,” he hollered back at her.

  “Don’t worry about me!” she shouted back.

  Lane took off towards the trails behind his house. When they’d begun to pick up speed, he heard Evanee behind him squealing with excitement.

  “Wooo-hoooo!”

  Knowing she was enjoying herself buoyed his heart. He drove the familiar paths slower than usual, careful to make wide turns that he thought Evanee could handle. Up and down the trails they went, through the dense forest, beneath the colorful trees, and over a wooden bridge. Several times throughout the ride, he turned around to check on Evanee. Eagerly, she kept up with him, skirting corners and making it up hills like a champ.

  Feeling devious, he departed from the dirt path and took them through the foliage, down the side of a creek bed and across the shallow water. His ATV tires blew up mud and water around him as he exited the opposite side, and he looked back at Evanee, who had paused on the other side.

  “Lane!” she shouted. “I don’t think I can do it!”

  “You can do it,” he hollered back. “Back it up and give it a good running start. You’ll be fine.”

  He watched as she considered what he wanted her to do. Then, sucking in a deep breath, she backed the four-wheeler up and hit the gas. She flew through the creek, sending water and mud spraying all over her, covering Lane’s overalls and boots and making Evanee giggle wildly.

  “Wooo-hoooo!” she squealed. Pulling up beside him and taking her helmet off, she had an ear-to-ear smile on her face. “I did it!”

  “Yeah, you did. You were great!”

  “Thanks,” she said breathlessly.

  Lane looked up at the sky. Darkness was starting to fall. He didn’t want to get stuck out on the trails in the dark with Evanee. “It’s starting to get late. I think it’s time to bring ’em in.”

  She pouted out her bottom lip. “Aww, already?”

  “You can come out and see me anytime and I’ll take you for a ride. How about that?” He reached a fist out for her to fist bump.

  Evanee nodded and bumped him back. “Deal.”

  “Alright, let’s go.”

  When she’d readjusted her helmet, Lane took off, leading her up the hill and back around to the trail. They flew through the woods and back to his place, where he pulled his ATV into the barn, and seconds later Evanee was pulling in beside him. He climbed off first. Pulling his helmet off, he went over to help her, but she’d already leapt off.

  “That was awesome!” she cheered after pulling her helmet off.

  Taking the helmet from her, he laughed. “You liked it?”

  “No, I loved it! It was so exhilarating, and the trails were breathtaking!”

  Lane couldn’t stop himself from smiling. She was like a bright star that had entered his life and lit it up like a hundred-watt lightbulb. “Good, I’m glad you did. We totally needed to blow off some steam.”

  “That sure did the trick!” said Evanee. She pressed her hands against her rosy cheeks. “I can’t
stop smiling.”

  “Neither can I,” agreed Lane, though he was sure it wasn’t for the same reason that Evanee couldn’t stop smiling. “I’m really glad you enjoyed it.”

  “I more than enjoyed it. I just don’t understand how you get anything done all day. I’d be skipping out early to play!”

  Lane laughed. “Oh, I definitely find time to play, but work always comes first.”

  Together they slowly walked across the gravel driveway towards the chicken coop. The moon was big and bright and the temperature was perfect. Crickets chirped in the distance, and the light breeze made the leaves in the trees rustle. The light was on in his childhood home. He was sure his father was probably napping on the recliner already.

  At the chicken coop, Lane leaned against the side of the red-painted structure.

  Evanee sighed and leaned next to him. “And it’s such a beautiful evening,” she said, looking up at the moon.

  Lane nodded. He felt strange. He was pretty sure he’d never felt how he was feeling before. He was really starting to like the woman leaning against the chicken coop next to him. But never in a million years had he thought that the woman who had been grossed out by his chewing habit would grow on him.

  “Yeah, it really is. The moon’s so clear,” he said softly.

  From where they leaned, they could see Evanee’s two cats playing in the tall grass just beside the chicken coop. “Your cats stayed put.”

  Evanee smiled. “I knew they would. They’re good cats. They listen.”

  “I had no idea you could train cats to listen,” said Lane, shaking his head. “It’s pretty impressive.”

  She giggled. “Thanks. Henny Penny is pretty impressive too.”

  When he felt nerves bubbling up in his belly, Lane reached into his back pocket to pull out his tobacco. But he could feel Evanee’s eyes quietly trained on him.

  “You’re really going to have more of that stuff?”

  Lane froze and looked up at her. “It’s good for relaxing.”

  She smiled and tucked a bit of stray hair behind her ear. “That ride was pretty good for relaxing.”

  Lane sighed as he looked down at the short round can in his hand. “Yeah, I guess it was.” But what she didn’t realize was how feeling her elbow brush up against his arm had instantly lit the nerves in his stomach. “You really don’t like tobacco, do you?”

  “No, honestly, I don’t. I think it’s gross. I wonder if there are any women that actually like men using that stuff. Think you’ll ever quit?”

  Lane turned to look at her. The moonlight illuminated her face, making her eyes sparkle. “Maybe.”

  Only inches apart from one another, Evanee whispered back. “Yeah?”

  Leaned against the side of the barn on his shoulder, he lifted his brows as he stared into her eyes. “Maybe for the right woman I’d quit.”

  Seemingly frozen in her place, Evanee stared back at him. “How do you know when you’ve found the right woman?”

  “I don’t know,” he said in a low murmur. “I guess I’ll just know.” He returned the can of tobacco to his back pocket. Then, acting on an impulse, he reached his hand out to touch her cheek. It was soft and smooth. His fingers traced the outline of her cheekbone, they slid down to her jaw and then up to her lips. He couldn’t take his eyes off of her lips as his fingers outlined them. They were pillowy and soft, and he instantly felt the need to taste them.

  Evanee swallowed hard. Her big green eyes looked almost afraid of his touch.

  His hand slid down to cup the back of her neck and he pulled her in closer to him, now determined to feel her mouth against his.

  And then a wild screeching followed by hissing noises and feathers beating against the wall jolted Lane and Evanee out of their little trance.

  “What the…” said Lane, spinning around to peer into the chicken coop. He could see Evanee’s fat orange tomcat chasing Henny Penny around in the coop. “How in the world did he get in there?”

  “Who?”

  Lane pointed to the window before dashing off to the gate.

  “Prim!” squealed Evanee.

  Lane spent the next couple of minutes rounding up his chickens, trying like crazy to get her cat out of the chicken coup. When he’d finished, he handed Evanee her cat.

  She looked uncomfortable. “Maybe it’s time for us to go home now.”

  “You don’t have to run off,” he said, breathing heavily.

  “No, I think I should really get the girls back. We’ll talk tomorrow?”

  Lane nodded and let out a sigh. “Yes. We’ll definitely talk tomorrow.”

  29

  Sitting at her kitchen table next to Whitley, Evanee made quick work of her supper. She’d worked all day and was trying to get ready for Lane to pick her up. They’d decided to go pay Priscilla Pankhurst another visit. Lane thought they needed to nail down a more specific timeline of events so they could pin down Calvin Lancaster’s movements the day of the fire.

  But all Evanee could think about was the near kiss they’d almost shared the night before. It had come out of nowhere and shocked her. Throughout all their time together, she’d thought Lane was only tolerating her. That he was just being friendly to her because she was helping him with his mother’s case. That near kiss had rattled her.

  “Why are you eating so fast?” asked Whitley before taking another bite of the beef stew Evanee had made them for supper.

  “I don’t know,” sighed Evanee. “I’m just feeling kind of weird.”

  “Weird about what?” asked Esmerelda, curled up in a ball on the bed.

  Whitley smiled softly. “Oh, I think I know what it is.”

  “You do?” asked Evanee.

  “Yes. You’re feeling weird because you have a crush on Lane. And now you know that he has a crush on you—”

  Esmerelda rolled onto her back and pawed the air. “No way she has a crush on the farmer. Ev, please tell my sister you’re not feeling that guy.”

  Evanee let her head fall into her hands. “I don’t have a crush on Lane,” she said. “He’s not my type.”

  “Not your type!” said Whitley. “He’s the nicest guy ever. And that was such a fun date last night.”

  “Whit, that wasn’t a date.”

  Whitley tossed her long dark hair back over her shoulder. “I don’t know how it wasn’t a date, you guys got along so well.”

  Evanee lifted her shoulder. It was true, they’d gotten along well. He’d taken her four-wheeling and she’d had possibly one of the best times of her life, flying over the hills and through the trees. And she’d definitely felt the spark when he’d almost kissed her. But Evanee had somehow managed to convince herself that Lane wasn’t her specific definition of a prince.

  “I know we did,” she said weakly. “But he’s… he… he chews tobacco. That’s just so gross.”

  “You did hear him say he’d give it up for the right woman?” asked Whitley, furrowing her brow in confusion.

  “I mean, yeah, I heard him say that, but who’s to say I’m the right woman?” Evanee stood up and put her bowl in the sink. She couldn’t eat any more; her stomach was twisted too tightly.

  “He all but said he’d give it up for you, Ev. You’re being silly. Lane’s a great guy. I think you should go for it.”

  “You don’t understand. I never pictured myself with a guy like Lane. I always pictured myself with some sophisticated guy that wears a suit to work every day. And we’d live in a big house that I make homey for us…” She sighed. “Like Bluebell Adams. She’s got the perfect life. She’s got the sophisticated husband with the good job. The big house. The nice cars.”

  “Big houses and nice cars do not make a happy marriage, Ev.”

  “Huh, speak for yourself,” snapped Esmerelda. “I can completely understand what Evanee is saying. It’s important to find a wealthy husband so he can take care of her.”

  Evanee frowned. “It’s not about finding a rich husband, Esmerelda. That’s not what I’
m trying to say. I just… I’ve always seen myself marrying a prince. Someone that just sweeps me off my feet. I guess the kind of man I always pictured would do something like that.”

  “But Lane gave you one of the best dates of your life last night! How is that not sweeping you off your feet?”

  “I told you, Whit. It wasn’t a date. It was just two friends blowing off some steam together.”

  “Even better!” said Whitley with a wide grin. “He didn’t even put any effort into it and it was the best evening of your life! Imagine if he actually tried! That man could definitely sweep you off your feet. I think you need to change your definition of a prince.”

  Evanee’s heart raced. Was Whitley right? Was she being overly critical of Lane? As much as she wasn’t sure that she wanted to admit it, she was beginning to have feelings for the man. So why was she fighting it? “Yeah, I don’t know. I just always pictured my life a certain way, and it’s hard to think of it any other way.”

  Esmerelda stood up and hopped down off the bed and strode over to the kitchen. “Leave the girl alone, Whit. You might be willing to marry some guy who wears dirty jeans, work boots, and… and… flannel, but Evanee’s got standards. And I completely respect that. Personally, I think every girl should have standards.”

  Evanee shook her head. She didn’t know what to think anymore.

  “So, with that being said, you’re welcome,” said Esmerelda, hopping up on the little wooden stool in Evanee’s kitchen and swirling her paw in the air.

  “You’re welcome? For what?” Evanee wrinkled her nose.

  “Yeah,” agreed Whitley. “For what? What did you do?”

  “Duh, I let Prim into the chicken coop! If it wasn’t for me, Mr. Dirty Jeans might have actually put his mouth on you. Ew.”

  Evanee’s eyes widened. “Wait. You did that?”

  Whitley shook her head. “I can’t believe you did that to them, Es. That was so rude!”

  “Of course I did, and it wasn’t rude,” she snapped. “I killed two birds with one swipe of the paw. Not only did I save you from that kiss, but I taught that overzealous ball of testosterone a lesson he’s not gonna forget anytime soon.”