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and—”
    “I really don’t want to have this discussion,” she said, picking up her mug and moving over to the window. The world was covered in cold white drifts this morning. The sun had come out, turning the fresh snow to a blinding carpet of diamonds.
    “Sis, I love you and I hate to see you like this.”
    Lily spun back around, almost spilling her coffee. She couldn’t help being annoyed with the older brother she’d idolized all her life. But this was a subject they had never agreed on.
    “You hate to see me like this? ” she demanded. “Ace, I’m happy. I have a great life, a rewarding career. I’m...content.”
    He mugged a face. “Sis, you live like a nun except for the few times a year that I drag you out to help me with the bar.”
    “We really should not have this conversation,” she warned him, wondering now if he had actually needed her help at the bar or if his asking her to work the holidays with him was part of some scheme to find her a man. If it was the latter... She said as much. “Ace, so help me—”
    He held up his hands in surrender. “You know how much I need your help. And I didn’t mean to set you off this morning.”
    But he had. “You should be more concerned about your other employees. If you had seen Mia’s condo...”
    “I am concerned. I put in a call to the marshal’s office first thing this morning, but no one has called me back yet. I called the condo number Mia gave me, but not surprisingly, there was no answer there. I figure once she discovered the break-in, she probably stayed with a friend last night.”
    Lily wasn’t so sure about that since she didn’t think Mia had made any friends in the weeks she’d been working at the Canyon. The only person Mia had spoken to at the bar was Teresa. Which had seemed odd because of the age difference.
    Mia was in her late thirties, while Teresa was barely twenty-one. Neither was outgoing, so that could be why they’d become somewhat friends, at least from Lily’s observation.
    So this morning, she’d placed a call to Teresa’s cell, only to reach her boyfriend, Ethan. “Mia isn’t the only one who’s missing this morning,” she told her brother. “That’s why I came by so early. Teresa didn’t come home last night.”
    Ace seemed only a little surprised, but then he’d been running a bar longer than Lily had been helping out. “Maybe Mia and Teresa are together. I’m sure they’ll turn up. Teresa and Ethan probably had a fight. I noticed she was acting oddly last night.” He frowned. “But then again, so was Mia, now that I think about it. I saw her get into it with one of the customers. Teresa came to her rescue, but Mia handled it fine.”
    “Why didn’t you tell me about that last night?” Lily demanded.
    “Because it blew over quickly. You and Reggie didn’t even notice.”
    “Who was the customer?”
    Ace shrugged. “Some guy. I didn’t recognize him. Lily, people act up in bars. It happens. A good server knows how to handle it. Mia was great. I’m telling you, I wouldn’t be surprised if they both show up for work tonight.”
    Lily hoped he was right. “Did you ask Mia why she left early night before last?”
    “She apologized, said she’d suddenly gotten a migraine and hadn’t been able to get my attention, but since it hadn’t been that busy...”
    Lily nodded. Had Mia been drinking the night before last as well as last night? If so, Lily really hadn’t seen that coming.
    But what did she really know about the woman? Other servers she’d worked with often talked about their lives—in detail—while they were setting up before opening and cleaning up after closing. She’d learned more than she’d ever wanted to know about them.
    Mia, though, was another story. She seldom offered anything about herself other than where she was from—Billings, Montana, the largest city in the state and a good three hours away. It wasn’t unusual for people from Billings to have condos at Big Sky.