Chapter One

      Now what? Defeated and drained, Chelsea Bell tugged on her four-year-old son’s hand and led them toward the battered, almost-out-of-gas Chevy Malibu that had brought them the 260-plus miles from Pueblo to Steamboat Springs, Colorado.

      Henry didn’t ask why they were returning to the car, just shuffled alongside her, his spare body bowed against the chilly wind. Surprising, really, when just minutes ago she’d promised that they were done driving for a while, and that this beautiful A-frame house with its amazing mountain views was their new—albeit, temporary—home.

      The house-sitting job had been exactly what she needed for a fresh start. A roof over their heads and decent pay for close to five months meant she’d have plenty of time to locate permanent employment and a small, affordable place to live when the seasonal gig ended in September. Unfortunately, seconds after knocking on the front door, she’d learned that they’d come all this way for nothing. The job was gone, given to someone else.

      A solid portion of bad luck, timing and her own poor judgment were to blame.

      First, her car had malfunctioned, requiring last-minute repairs the mechanic had deemed nothing more than Band-Aids. He’d strongly suggested she junk the car and put her money toward something newer. Of course, she couldn’t afford newer, so she’d gone with the short-term fix and used a chunk of her not-so-healthy savings in the process.

      Then Henry had awakened with the flu on the day they were supposed to leave, delaying them further. She’d called her would-be employers twice before her pay-as-you-go phone had run out of minutes, had left messages but hadn’t actually spoken with them. And seeing how she’d spent so much to fix her car and didn’t trust it wouldn’t break down again, she’d decided to conserve her drastically dwindling funds rather than adding more minutes.

      She