Snowstorm of Our Past novel · Chapter 6 of 32

Chapter 6: The Forecast

I was nursing Tilly in my grandfather's chair while my lawyer read it.

I made myself keep my voice low so I wouldn't scare her.

"He lied for nine months, and I'm the danger?"

"In his version, you're the woman who ran into a storm." She folded the papers. "Judges like a steady job and a steady address. He has both. Right now you don't."

"I had a job. I gave it up for him."

"Then get it back," she said. "Before the hearing, if you can."

When she left, Gran came in with two mugs of tea and sat on the end of my bed.

"Well?"

"He wants her," I said. "He wants Tilly, and he's going to use the job to get her."

Gran blew on her tea.

"Then call your old boss."

"It's been three years."

"So it's been three years. Call him."

I called him the next morning.

He ran the state avalanche center's office over in Frisco. He had hired me at twenty-three, when I still thought a slope angle was something you guessed.

He picked up on the second ring.

"Brooks? I heard you went and had a baby in a truck."

"Everybody's heard that."

"The whole county's heard that. Gabe Haynes won't shut up about it." He paused. "What do you need?"

I drove over Fremont Pass on Friday with Tilly in the car seat Gabe had built twice.

The office smelled exactly the same. Burnt coffee and wet wool.

My old boss held Tilly while I took my coat off.

He was sixty-two and had six grandchildren, and he held her like a pro.

"The central zone forecaster is retiring at the end of January," he said. "It's yours if you want it. Full-time, benefits, the whole thing."

I had to sit down.

"But," he said.

"There's a but."

"There's a field recert. You've been out three years. The board won't sign off on a forecaster who can't dig a pit and run a beacon search in real weather." He bounced Tilly gently. "Next one's January sixteenth."

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