“That’s it.”
I breathed a huge sigh of relief. That had gone a lot easier than I’d expected.
“I’ll add your rules to ours, then we can all sign—”
“Kate, we don’t have to sign anything. We’ve agreed to the rules. Now move away from the TV. The Pats are back in scoring position.”
“You’re from Texas. You’re supposed to like the Cowboys or the Texans.”
“I like anyone who’s good. And the rule is you don’t talk when we’re watching football, so”—he made a zipping motion across his mouth—“go.”
“I still think we should sign—”
“We’re not signing. It’s non-negotiable.”
“If he doesn’t follow a rule, I’ll kick his butt,” Joe said, still smiling warmly.
I couldn’t figure out what color his eyes were. Were they brown or green? A light blue?
“Yeah, Mr. Law and Order over here will make sure all the rules are followed,” Sam said. “Now, Kate, please get out of the way before I haul you to the deck and toss you into the snow.”
“I’d like to see you try,” was what I heard inside my head, but since Brad was sitting there, I didn’t give actual voice to the words. That, too, was a disadvantage to having Sam around. I’d have to fight my natural inclination to constantly argue with him. Who wanted a shrew for a girlfriend? Plus I didn’t want to appear childish again. I took a deep breath. “Only because you said please.”
With my shoulders squared, I walked away from the TV with Allie and Leah following behind me.
We’d won. Sorta.
“Did you see the way Brad looked at you?” Leah asked. “Too cool!”
We’d retreated to my bedroom. As soon as the door was closed, I’d done the happy dance around the room before plopping on the quilt-covered king-size sleigh bed. This room was totally romantic, and I was feeling very romanced—in a subtle kind of way.
“Did you see Brad wink?” I asked. “He actually winked at me. Have you ever seen anything so sexy?”
“It was definitely hot,” Allie said. “And directed entirely at you. It was like Leah and I weren’t even there. He wants you around, Kate. That’s so great, especially since it’s incredibly obvious that Sam doesn’t want us around.”
“My brother can be such a jerk. Is it any wonder that he can’t get a girlfriend?”
“He’s not that bad,” Leah said. “You should try living with my brothers sometime.”
“No thanks.”
“Honestly, guys, I don’t think it’s that Sam doesn’t want us around,” Leah said. “It’s like Joe said. We weren’t expecting them; they might not have been expecting us. So we make the best of the situation.”
“You’re right,” Allie said. “And the best of the situation is that Brad has a definite interest in Kate.”
“The best is that the guys will clean the kitchen,” Leah said, grinning. “I hate cleaning the kitchen.”
“Who doesn’t?” I asked. Maybe my mom. Nah, I was pretty sure she hated it, too.
“Speaking of the guys,” Leah said, “I gotta confess, Joe is to die for. The way he looked at you, Kate, while you were reading off our demands—so intense. Like he was really listening, really cared. And the way he took our side was totally awesome. My brothers would walk barefoot over glass before they’d side with me on anything.”
“He surprised me, jumping to our defense the way he did,” I admitted. “You’re welcome to him.” Grimacing, I looked over at Allie. “But if we pair up, me with Brad, Leah with Joe, that would leave you with Sam. I wouldn’t foist my brother off on my worst enemy. I guess we better not try to pair up.”
“No, way!” Leah said. “Operation Get-Brad-Together-With-Kate is officially underway. Allie and I can take turns with the other two, so there’s no obvious pairing, except for you and Brad.”
“But if you’re interested in Joe…” Allie’s voice trailed off.
“I’m not interested in him as a potential winter break boyfriend or anything,” Leah said. “I just think he’s cute. Our real goal here is to get Brad with Kate. And if Allie and I have to play guy-tag for that to happen, so be it. No hardship.”
I nibbled on my bottom lip, trying not to get too excited about the prospect that I might actually end my winter break with the boyfriend of my dreams.
“Are you guys sure you don’t mind?”
“We’re sure,” Allie and Leah said at the same time.
“You guys are the absolute best.”
“Of course we are,” Leah said. “So what are we gonna cook for supper tonight?”
I groaned. “Right. I know Aunt Sue loaded the fridge and pantry for us, so there is bound to be something we can whip together. There’s also a crock pot. We could fill it with something before we leave for the slopes in the morning. Let it simmer all day so it’s ready when we get home.”
“You mean like a stew?” Allie asked.
“Yeah. Or chili. We don’t have to get fancy. Just so there’s plenty of it and it’s hot.”
My cell phone began to chirp. I hopped off the bed, grabbed the backpack I’d left by the dresser earlier after I’d settled in, dug out my cell phone, and immediately recognized the number.
“Hey, Aunt Sue. Were you calling to make sure we still had survivors over here?”
She laughed. “This could be a reality show. A brother and sister snowed in together. How long can they survive?”
“No, thanks.”
“But you did get everything worked out?”
“Pretty much, yeah.”
“Good. Since you’re all still alive and friends—”
“I wouldn’t go that far.”
She laughed again. My aunt had a really fun laugh. Boisterous, like she enjoyed life. Which she did.
“How about we all get together for dinner tonight? My treat,” she said.
Saved from cooking! “That would be great. Where did you have in mind?”
Chapter 4
Pile It On Pizza was where we all ended up. Like every other restaurant and shop in Snow Angel Valley, it was quaint with its own unique atmosphere. Very rustic, it looked like the inside of a log cabin. We picked the size crust that we wanted, then we walked down the long length of the counter pointing to the ingredients we wanted piled on.
We ended up ordering two pizzas because the guys made a big production of groaning when Allie pointed to the green olives. My brother had always been a meat-and-potatoes-only kind of guy. I guess the others were as well.
They went with pepperoni, sausage, hamburger, and Canadian bacon. Aunt Sue, Allie, Leah, and I chose mushrooms, green olives, black olives, and more mushrooms. Pile It On honored its name. The guy at the counter piled it on until we told him to stop. Then into the oven they went.
We took two pitchers of root beer to a long wooden table. Allie, Leah, and even Aunt Sue, jockeyed for chairs at the table until miraculously, somehow, Brad ended up sitting beside me. Aunt Sue was at the head of the table, with Joe beside her, then Leah and Sam. Allie sat across from Sam, Brad was between Allie and me, and I was beside Aunt Sue. It couldn’t have worked out better, except of course, for poor Allie who was stuck at the far end of the table across from my brother. I was afraid if she spent too much time with him she might re-evaluate her friendship with me. Was it worth putting up with Sam?
I glanced down there and saw that Sam was actually being polite, smiling, and talking with her. That was something that I didn’t see very often—Sam being pleasant. Of course, I also didn’t see him with my friends too often. He tended to avoid us like the plague.
“It’s supposed to snow again tonight,” Aunt Sue said. “Fresh powder will make your ski experience so much better.”
“Do you ski?” Joe asked.
Aunt Sue smiled. “Not as much as I used to. I fancy ski boarding these days and snowmobiling.”
“A lot of people think snowmobiles are bad for the environment,” I said. “The exhaust pollutes the wilder
ness and the noise disturbs the wildlife.”
“That’s true,” Aunt Sue said. “But how else can one appreciate the undisturbed wilderness except by disturbing it a little bit? And once you get deep into the woods, away from town, turn off the engines…it is so humbling.”
“Humbling?” Brad asked.
I loved the deep rumble of his voice. It just sorta went through me and I couldn’t help but think about how heavenly it would be to have him whispering in my ear.
“It’s incredibly quiet,” Aunt Sue said. “A snow-hushed world. You can almost hear the snowflakes fall.”
Brad drew his heavy dark brows together. “Snowflakes make noise?”
“She’s being poetic,” Joe said. “Not literal.”
Brad shrugged, reached for the pitcher, and poured himself some more root beer. He nudged his shoulder against mine. “Want some?”
“Yeah.” I held out my mug, smiled when he smiled at me. We were, like, so totally bonding.
When he finished pouring, he set the pitcher down, took a sip of his root beer, and focused his intense gaze on me. “What do you do for fun?” he asked.
And suddenly we weren’t at a table with a large group of people anymore. It was just Brad and me. We’d moved from a wink to a nudge to a discussion, but his interest was going to disappear if I didn’t think of something exciting to share.
“I like to read mysteries.”
“Read.”
He repeated the word like I’d just told him that I enjoyed stepping in dog poop.
I nodded, trying not to reveal that I was rattled that we didn’t share an interest in reading and that he might be ranking me pretty high on the boring-ometer scale.
“I also meditate,” I offered.
“What? Like yoga?”
“Yeah. Focusing on my breathing, the center of my being. I can teach you how.”
He gave me this really wicked grin that set my heart to racing. “I know how to breathe.” He leaned closer and I could smell whatever cologne he used. It was sharp and tangy. “And I know the center of my being.”
“Of course you do.” Think, Kate, think. Now is the time to be witty and clever.
Our number was called. Aunt Sue pointed to the guys. “You guys go grab the pizzas and two more pitchers of root beer.”
As soon as they were far enough away not to notice, I tapped the heel of my hands against my forehead. “I am so lame!”
Reaching out, Aunt Sue rubbed my shoulder. “Katie, sweetie, relax.”
“I can’t think of anything interesting to say—after y’all went to so much trouble to make sure I was sitting beside him.”
“It wasn’t any trouble, Kate,” Leah said. “Besides, Sam’s entertaining us.”
Great. My brother was an entertainer and I was a sleeping pill.
“Just be yourself, Kate,” Aunt Sue said.
“Right. Right.” I could do that.
The guys returned with the pizzas and root beer. As soon as Brad sat down, I said, “I love pizza.”
Laughing loudly, he reached for a piece loaded with so much meat that I couldn’t see the cheese. “Me, too.”
I cheered up considerably. I’d made him laugh, and he was still looking at me as he munched his pizza.
“What do you like to do for fun?” I asked.
He chewed, swallowed. “Drive fast, kiss babes, ski.”
Okay, I so didn’t want to get into a discussion about him kissing babes, even though I hoped before winter break was over that I would end up being one that he’d kissed. So I went for something safe.
“You know how to ski?”
“Yeah, don’t you?”
“Oh, yeah. I just thought maybe you were like Allie and Leah. They’ve never even seen snow. That’s why we were building—well, actually they were building, I was just watching—the snowman.” I really didn’t want him to see me as a kid, the way Sam did.
“I’ve done some skiing,” he reassured me. “I’m not planning to spend much time on the bunny slope.”
The bunny slope was for beginners. Pretty much a simple short incline where you learned to keep your balance and bring yourself to a stop.
“I haven’t hung out at the bunny slope in ages,” I said.
“Cool. Maybe we can—”
“Excuse me. Sue? I thought that was you.”
The woman interrupted our conversation, not so much because of her loud voice, but because Brad was suddenly staring past me like he’d just seen a Dallas Cowboys’ cheerleader waving her pom-poms in his face. I desperately wanted to know what he was going to suggest that he and I do together. But other than clapping my hands in front of his nose, I didn’t know how to get his attention, so I turned toward the voice, and realized my assessment of the person that went with it was right on.
The woman was tall, wearing stretch leggings and a big red bulky sweater. Even though it was thick, it left no doubt that she filled it out a lot better than I filled out mine. Dolly Parton to my…well, let’s just say that the greatly endowed wagon had passed me by. Her blonde hair was cascading in glorious waves around her shoulders instead of hanging in tight curls like mine. She no doubt knew her way around a curling iron.
She was resting a hand on Aunt Sue’s shoulder like they were the very best of friends. I couldn’t explain it, but I took an immediate dislike to her. Probably because Brad couldn’t take his eyes off her and was starting to drool.
“Hey, everyone, this is Cynthia,” Aunt Sue announced, like we all should care when I definitely did not. “She’s staying at the condo next to yours. This is my niece, Kate, my nephew, Sam, and their friends.”
“It’s great to meet you all,” Cynthia said a little too breathlessly, her voice having a little squeal to it, like she was trying really hard to sound sexy but she just came across sounding like a cat whose tail had been stepped on.
She leaned down closer to Aunt Sue. “I’m sorry to bother you, Sue, but when I saw you sitting over here I thought I might as well take advantage of the opportunity to speak to you. I’m having trouble getting my garbage disposal to work. I was hoping you could send a maintenance guy over first thing tomorrow.”
Before Aunt Sue could even open her mouth, Brad piped in with, “I can look at it tonight. I’m good with my hands.”
Cynthia smiled. “I’ll just bet you are. Are you sure you wouldn’t mind?”
“Hell, no.”
“I hate to disturb your evening.”
“No problem.”
He came out of his chair with so much force that I was surprised he didn’t start an avalanche. Cynthia wound her arm around his and snuggled up against him.
“Lead the way, Cynthia,” Brad said, this really goofy, stupid smile on his face.
As they were walking away, I heard Cynthia say, “My friends call me Cyn. I have a feeling you’re about to become one of my friends.”
“I wonder if she spells that S-I-N,” I muttered.
I wanted to stick my finger down my throat and gag. Disappointment, hard and heavy, slammed into me as I watched them disappear out the door. Brad had been talking to me, had been on the verge of asking me to do something with him. It wasn’t fair that someone else had come along and lured him away so effortlessly.
I think that’s what hurt the most. All she’d had to do was show up at our table.
I turned my attention back to the pizza, my appetite gone. To make the situation more unbearable, I discovered Joe watching me. He had a funny look on his face. Sympathy maybe, like he knew I had a serious crush on Brad. And worse, he recognized that the guy had just stomped on my heart.
Chapter 5
I couldn’t sleep. My mind kept replaying my stupid banter—or lack thereof—during dinner and the quickness with which Brad had forgotten that I existed. The reality hurt.
And what made it even worse was that he hadn’t come home by the time everyone had trudged off to bed at eleven, after watching another football game. It was now midnight. And I was starting
to worry about him. I’d be able to get a good clear view of Cynthia’s house from the deck. If the lights were still on, that meant they were still up. I really, really wanted them to be awake. I didn’t want to contemplate that he was sleeping over there, sleeping with her. He’d just met her. I couldn’t lose him completely, that quickly. There had to be other reasons that he hadn’t come home.
For all I knew Brad was out there somewhere, freezing to death, stretched out in the snow between the condos. Unnoticed.
Unlikely, but it could happen. What if he’d been knocking and no one heard him? Joe could be a sound sleeper or a loud snorer. I should have let Joe have the bed tonight, and I should have taken the couch so I could keep a vigil for Brad.
After all, how long could it take to fix a garbage disposal? He could have built her a freaking new one by now. With his teeth.
I got out of bed, grabbed my thick blue fleece robe that I always brought with me to Snow Angel Valley, drew it tightly around me, tied the sash, and slipped into my fuzzy slippers. Gingerly, as quietly as possible, I opened my door and peered out.
All the lights were off, but the TV was on and a fire was blazing in the gas fireplace. Gas wasn’t as romantic as the real log fireplace that Aunt Sue had in her store, but it wasn’t as much work either. Flip a switch, and we had a fire. No messing with kindling and setting logs up just right.
I walked out of my bedroom and down the four steps into the sunken part of the living room.
Wearing sweat pants and a T-shirt, his arms folded across his chest, Joe was sitting on the couch, his bare feet resting on the coffee table. My first thought was that they had to be cold. My next thought was that he had large feet. But then most guys did.
He must have heard me approach because he looked over his shoulder. “Sorry. Is the TV too loud?”
“No, I just…” I pulled hard on my sash and looked toward the front door, hoping Brad would walk through it at any second. I was at a loss for words, wondering what excuse I could give Joe to explain why I wanted to step out onto the deck at midnight.
“He’s not back yet,” Joe said.