Lily glanced at her, all decked out in her usual expensive finery. The only thing missing was her mocking smile. "Sorry. I'm exhausted and not up for any witty repartee."

"You put your life on the line to save Matt. You did it without even blinking."

Lily lifted a shoulder. "I blinked plenty."

"You do that every day," Debbie said softly in an awed voice that had Lily taking another look at her.

Wow. Aunt Debbie was really impressed by her. Stop the presses. "Have you somehow missed the meaning of ski patrol, and the fact that I've been on it for years?"

"Yes," Debbie said honestly. "I have. And I want to tell you in advance that I'm sorry though I don't deserve for you to accept my apology."

"What are you talking about?"

"When Mom left you this place, I was green with envy."

"You were not. You said good riddance and moved to New York."

"No, I believe my exact words to you were that I wished I believed in voodoo so I could curse you with pins and needles and watch you die a slow, torturous death."

Lily laughed.

Debbie's lips quirked. "Yeah, you did that then, too. And since most of what I wanted to do to you is frowned on in today's society, I settled for talking bad about you every chance I could." Her smile faded. "And playing silly little pranks on you to amuse myself."

A chill took hold of Lily that had nothing to do with the storm outside. "What?"

"Like removing a few out-of-bounds signs, screwing with your food deliveries, putting up party posters, messing with your computers. Even tossing random files from your desk into the trash."

Lily stared at her. "And then today with Matt…?"

"No! God, no, I didn't get him hurt on purpose." Debbie's eyes filled. "That was just stupid, dumb, bad luck."

Lily saw the tortured honesty in her aunt's eyes, and swearing lavishly, she paced the deck. This was unbelievable. She'd been racking her brain, trying to figure out if one of her staff members, or even a guest, could have been the one causing trouble, and all along it had been the one person she'd never even considered. Sure, Aunt Debbie had been a pain in the ass, with her demands and her the-world-owes-me-service attitude, but this…this betrayal was way over the top.

"You did hear the I'm sorry part, right?" Debbie asked her when she came close again.

"Why the hell would you do any of this?"

"I told you. I was jealous. Here we were, two peas in a wild pod, and yet somehow you still managed to make my mother believe you could handle all this."

"I didn't ask for it."

"No, that only made it worse." Debbie's smile was sad now. "Because you pulled it off in spite of not wanting to. I wanted to hate you for that, and instead I only love you more. Damn it. Now if you want to kick me out, I get it. But I'm telling you I'm done making trouble for you."

Lily could only let out a baffled laugh. "Do you want me to thank you? Do you know how many times you sicced Gwyneth and Sara on me, making my life a living hell?"

"Yeah." Debbie sighed in remembered pleasure. "And that was always fun to watch. I wish my sister and I were as close as you three."

"You are insane. We're not close."

"Aren't you?"

Lily looked out into the storm as her thoughts raced. Gwyneth was a sanctimonious pain in her ass, but she always had Lily's back, always, whether Lily wanted her to or not. And so did Sara.

And she had theirs.

"I'll leave as soon as I can get out," Debbie said. "I think I might have overstayed my welcome this time."

"What, you think you can just create havoc all over the lodge, and then disappear to leave someone else to clean up your mess?"

"I can't believe you'd want me to stay."

"I don't want you to stay. I don't want you anywhere near me right now. But you're going to face the consequences of your selfishness, and you're going to do it here. When this crisis is all over, when Mart's safely in the hospital and the guests are home, you're going to sit down with Gwyneth and Sara and you're going to explain exactly what you did to me, to the lodge, and why. It will be up to us as a family to decide where we go from there. Until then, you are going to stay in the lodge and you are going to work your ass off. Cleaning rooms, bussing tables in the cafeteria, shoveling snow- Whatever this lodge needs, you're going to do it."

There was a split second when she thought Debbie was going to argue, was going to come back with a smart-ass comment, but then she straightened her shoulders and met Lily's gaze. "If you're willing to have me here, then fine. I suppose it's the least I can do."

"Damn right it is," Lily said, trying to stop her hands from shaking in the aftermath of way too much adrenaline flooding through her system. She'd take a mountain cliff in a storm any day over this kind of crap. "You can start now, by washing down the tables in the cafeteria."

Debbie simply nodded. And then she was gone, leaving Lily alone, watching the snow fall in eerie silence, wondering why everything seemed… wrong.


***

Lily had never known the snow to fall so relentlessly. It continued to come down at the rate of a foot an hour, choking the life right out of the entire Tahoe basin and seeming to put her entire world into a weird time freeze, where everything that was wrong stood in ultraclear focus.

"At least we have food," Matt muttered, half delirious, half wasted with pain meds. "We're not going to have to turn into the Donner party." He forced his eyes open. "Promise me we're not going to turn into the Donner party. The weak got eaten first, and I'm feeling pretty damn weak at the moment."

Sara stroked his hair. "I promise to eat Gwyneth and Lily first."

"Okay, then." He smiled faintly, and Sara just sat there staring at him as if she could heal him if she wished for it hard enough. Lily could hardly bear to watch her sister's anguish.

As dark fell and more hours passed, Gwyneth pulled Lily aside in the first-aid room. Lily tried to hold on to what was left of her patience

She had her hands full worrying about Matt, the trapped guests and a distraught Sara, who kept throwing her arms around Lily, saying she was the most incredible sister ever. That was just new enough to have Lily liking it. "What?"

"I wanted to talk to you," Gwyneth whispered.

"I know things are all messed up, but you can yell at me later."

Gwyneth's mouth dropped open. "You think I want to yell at you for all that's gone wrong today?"

"Don't you?" Lily looked over Gwyneth's shoulder to Logan, who was bending over Matt, talking to him, trying to keep his spirits up, though Matt's leg and ribs were costing him considerable pain. Lily worried about how badly he needed surgery, about the possibility of internal injuries that they couldn't diagnose without an E.R. Her heart squeezed, hard.

"The radio says that the snow will be letting up in a few more hours. When it does, we'll kick everything into gear. We'll get Matt to a hospital, the guests in and out…and Logan to the airport." The reference to Logan seemed to slip out accidentally, reminding her of his words.

Come to my world, he'd said, probably never dreaming she'd actually consider it. And then, as if he felt her eyes on him, he straightened and looked right at her, with everything he'd claimed to feel for her in his eyes.

To take or leave.

"Oh, Lily." Gwyneth, queen bee, tyrant and a half, ruler of both her universe and Lily's, stood there as her eyes filled. "You feel for him," she whispered. "It's beautiful."

"No, it's not. It's…messy."

Gwyneth laughed even as a tear fell.

Unease filled Lily's belly. "What are you doing?"

"Trying to tell you something."

"What? And why are you crying?"

"What you do around here couldn't be done by anyone else, including me. I think I'm finally getting that. You have strength and commitment in spades and I'm sorry I ever let you feel like you didn't. Lily, I think you're incredible." Gwyneth hugged her hard. "Incredible," she repeated softly, and walked away.

Lily could only stare after her. Both her sisters thought she was the best thing since sliced bread today, which felt odd for a couple of reasons. One, she was the same person she'd been yesterday, last week. Even last year. Nothing had changed, so to be so suddenly accepted made her feel…off balance.

She'd finally proven herself to them, and yet the strangest thing was that she'd discovered she no longer needed their approval. She was okay with herself, she liked herself, and though it was lovely to have her family on board with her, their acceptance didn't change anything. "Gwyneth?"

Her sister stopped and turned. "Yeah?"

"If Grandma had died this week instead of last year, and left you the resort now, what would you do?"

Gwyneth smiled. "Do you trust me, Lily? I mean really trust me?"

"1 haven't," she said honestly.

"I know. But now?"

Lily cocked her head, surprised by all she saw in her sister's eyes. "I think maybe I do."

Gwyneth just smiled and walked away.

What did that mean? She looked over at Matt in bed. Logan sat at his side, reading from a joke book someone had hunted up. Sara sat on his other side. Every minute or so, Matt patted her arm, reassuring her he was alive. Lily watched the wordless glances they shared, glances that expressed everything they felt with such ease.

Because it unnerved her, made her feel things she wasn't ready to feel, she left the room and tried to bury herself in work. There was certainly enough to do, but everywhere she turned, what had to be done was being done. Logan had Matt's care covered, Gwyneth had managed any business stuff, the cafeteria was still up and running and Chris was handling snow-removal crews.