Читать книгу Shaped by Snow. Defending the Future of Winter онлайн

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“Oh, they did?” Bud chuckles, scratching Tru behind an ear. “Ah, it broke my heart when we had to sell the Cliff. We were trying to avoid bankruptcy. We did avoid bankruptcy, but letting go of that place was hard. Now, I know who your father is, but who is your mother? Is she from Provo, too?”

“No, my mother’s family is from a town near Palo Alto in California,” I say. “Her maiden name is Culley. You may have known my maternal grandparents as well—they were some of the original investors in Snowbird.”

“Not Grant and Suzanne Culley?” Bud asks, lifting his eyebrows. “We used to have a set of rooms right next to their rooms at the Lodge.”

“That’s them!”

Bud looks at me over his cinnamon roll, a scrutinizing expression in his watery eyes.

“Does your family still own those rooms?”

I smile. “We still celebrate Christmas there every year.”

He nods, his gaze slipping from my face to something behind me, something in the past.

“We used to spend Christmas there, too.”

He continues to stare so intently at a memory that I imagine I can smell the scent of cinnamon and pine, hear the music and bells of a holiday long gone.