Chapter 6

I f the night before had been a dream, the morning came like a magic show.

Alex was gone from the bed. He’d opened the window to let in the fresh air and sunshine that now glinted on the white drifts of snow.

I was distracted from this by the fact that he marched into the bedroom fully dressed and smelling oh-so-good. He carried a tray that he placed on the nightstand, shoving the clock and odd glass figurine aside.

“Sit up,” he said, helping me arrange all the pillows behind me.

When I was ready, he handed me a mug of coffee, freshly brewed, sweet with sugar, white with half-and-half. Another way to my heart: coffee in bed. I guess I’d not realized it until that moment.

It was even better when Alex took the other mug and sat on the edge of the bed, watching me over the rim of that mug, his eyes dancing and pleased.

Maybe he was happy I was naked and he was not. Or maybe he was glad that the sun had come out, because that surely meant the roads would be cleared in time for us to drive the rest of the way to Steamboat before they iced up again and it got dark.

“There’s breakfast in the restaurant,” he said. “I called. Used your phone. They said it’s like a buffet. It goes on till 9:30.”

One thing I didn’t like was keeping to someone else’s timetable, but it was obvious to me that Alex was an early morning riser kind of guy. And for that smile, and the smoothness of his face from where he shaved, the waft of amazing cologne, and the way he looked at me, I guessed I could get up and go with him.

“And it stopped snowing,” I said helpfully. Mr. Helpful, that’s me. “Any report on the roads?”

“Again, I used your phone,” he said, but I shrugged and drank some more coffee. I had secrets, but they weren’t on that phone. “CDOT report says we can head out around three or so.”

“Sounds good,” I said, though it really didn’t. I would rather stay with Alex in this little cabin on a mountain hillside than head into Steamboat, with all its Christmas hustle and bustle. Maybe my face said that, because he patted my knee beneath the blanket.

“It’ll be fine, promise,” he said.

He didn’t say anything about the fact that he wouldn’t sleep with me again, but I kind of saw it in his face. I was a rebound guy, worth sleeping with one night at best.

He was soon going to be with his family on Christmas Eve, and meanwhile, I’d be in the hot tub for my one scheduled hour, drinking a G&T while the stars shone brightly in the icy cold sky overhead. Would I even be able to see stars amidst the bright lights of Steamboat?

We lingered a good long while until we’d drunk our coffee and my stomach had decided it needed to be fed. Alex laughed as my stomach growled, and he patted my stomach much the way he’d patted my leg. Good natured and not flirting.

“Get dressed,” he said. “Let’s go eat.”

I got dressed in my black t-shirt, and ripped black jeans, tying up the laces on my Doc Martens with quick fingers. As I pulled on my blue fleece jacket, I could see that Alex was struggling with his crumpled woolen socks and his thin city shoes that had dried into stiff husks. There was nothing for it, so he put those on, and dragged on his thin coat and together we stepped into the icy cold air of morning and made our way back to the main lodge.

There, we found a clump of people standing in the doorway waiting to get in who’d all done the same as we had. Lingered until the last minute. It was quarter to nine, and I worried that we wouldn’t get a place and that we wouldn’t have enough time to eat a decent meal.

But I worried for no reason. Somehow, a lady, Barb, a manager, by her nameplate, knew Alex and ushered the two of us past the line and to a cozy table near the coffee urns.

“Thanks, Barb,” he said in a jovial way.

“Give my regards to your dad,” she said. She made sure we had two sets of silverware rolled into napkins and empty white china mugs, ready for coffee. “Help yourself to anything. It’s on the house.”

“No, it’s not on the house, Barb,” he said sternly, but she was already walking away, busy with other customers, not lingering to be scolded by Alex.

“Who the fuck are you?” I asked.

“Just someone who knows the hotel business,” he said, looking away. Then he stood up, distracted by the buffet, and the good smells coming our way amidst the bustle of that little restaurant. “Let’s eat.”

We ate. I can be obedient when I want to, it’s true. Breakfast was hurried, but I got another cup of coffee out of it, and a sticky bun, which left a great deal of caramel lines on my fleece jacket. But that’s what washing machines were for.

After breakfast (Who paid? Wasn’t me.), we trundled back to Cabin 7 to pack, and for Alex to call his family. This time he called each one in turn (were they in their own rooms at some hotel?), and I tried to give him his privacy while he sat on the edge of the bed in the bedroom, while I lingered in the living room. I poked at the ashes in the fireplace, wishing it were last night all over again, and did my best not to listen.

Impossible in a cabin as small as Cabin 7.

“Yeah, I’ll be there in time for dinner, so save me a spot, will you, Mom?”

A pause.

“Give Baby Ginny a kiss for me and can you take a picture of her and send it to this phone?”

I listened while he cooed over the picture and realized that I now had a picture of a baby on my phone.

“How was the skiing? Did you do any Black Diamonds? Oh, you went night skiing? How was it?”

That had to be the brother.

“Thanks, dad. I’ll fill out the rest of the paperwork when I get there.” A pause. “I love you too, dad.”

Gah. I wasn’t jealous or anything, but maybe I was. Jonah and Royce were so wrapped up in each other that as a third wheel, I was often on my own. Hence the reason I did not go on the cruise with them.

I figured once we got up to Steamboat, Alex would go his way and I would go mine, and I could pretend that we’d never met.

That was really the easiest way, forgetting.

Rather than me pining after a dreamboat of a guy who smelled nice and who had the softest skin I’d ever licked.

Rather than having naughty thoughts about climbing him like a tree and having my wicked way with him.

Rather than having any feelings about a guy who was out of my league.

I waited, and he just kept talking, so I wandered outside into the crisp, cold, high altitude air. The sky overhead was a diamond-hard blue without a single cloud anywhere. The sun reflected off the snow drifts and glittered on huge icicles that were already starting to drip. I cupped my hands and blew on them and thought I heard my name.

“Beck!”

Looking up, I saw that Alex was standing in the open doorway of Cabin 7. I couldn’t imagine what he wanted, but he was waving me close so, being totally responsive to that casual wave and smiling face, I trotted over. He held out my phone to me and I thought he was just giving it back, so I was going to shove it in my pocket. But he stopped me.

“It’s Mom. She wants to talk to you.”

I was never the boy anybody brought home to meet their mother. Never the boy anyone wanted even talking to their mother. But Alex was insistent, and his smile was pretty wide (such perfect teeth!), so I figured it wasn’t anything bad and took the phone.

It felt warm in my hand from Alex’s grasp.

“Hello?” I asked, not feeling inclined to be any kind of welcoming chatterbox.

“Is this Beck?” a woman’s voice asked. Before I could answer, she went on in a tone that was bright and well-fed and incredibly rich. “This is Jasmine Westmore, Alex’s mom, and I wanted to thank you for saving my son’s life yesterday.”

“I didn’t—” I started, because the last thing I wanted was for some rich dame to feel any obligation to me. I just wanted to get on with my mountain vacation without it getting awkward.

“You did ,” she said. “Alex told me everything about what happened. I told him he should have taken the jet last weekend, but there were meetings and delays, and our pilot said it wasn’t safe when there was a blizzard over the Continental Divide.”

“The roads were plenty safe until Rabbit Ears Pass,” I said, thinking I’d imagined she’d said the words jet and our pilot. “It was just a freak accident, is all.”

“It was, and he would have gone into that lake if not for you.” Her voice was quite firm and had a ring of authority that probably came from having more than one house and more than one set of adoring staff to manage.

I didn’t really want to know anything about Jasmine-I-Am-Rich-Westmore. I just wanted the conversation to end. Then I’d plow through gathering my things and wiping and scraping snow from the Volvo, and drive Alex to wherever he needed to be dropped off at in Steamboat.

“You’re welcome,” I said, because new me could at least pretend to know how to be polite.

“We’ll want you to join us for dinner tonight,” she said, and I felt my whole body twitched. “Unless you have other plans for your first night in Steamboat?”

“I got the soak and stars package, or whatever it’s called,” I said, hoping that would be enough to put her off. “Got an hour reserved to have a drink in an open air hot tub.”

“Oh that,” she said, totally dismissive about what sounded to me to be a really good time. “You can do that any time during your stay. Tonight is Christmas Eve, and you shouldn’t be alone.”

“Um.”

I’d already said no, but now she wanted me to say yes. Saying yes would put me in a situation where I could at least look at Alex and his handsome face, but it would be torture, too. So I tried again.

“I think I can only get the soak for the time that I scheduled,” I said. Back when I made the reservation, I’d picked Christmas Eve for that soak because I figured everybody else would be with their families and I’d have that rooftop, open-to-the air hot tub all to myself in perfect peace and quiet.

“They’ll reschedule it for you,” she said, sounding absolutely like she knew all about it. “I’ll take care of it personally. That way, you won’t miss out.”

“Um.”

I clasped my phone in both hands and looked at Alex, totally confused. He was smiling at me like he knew there was no way I could say no to his mother. And I guess he was right. The Westmores probably had an in with the staff at The Anchorage and could change reservations willy nilly as it suited them.

“We’ll eat early,” she said. “Dinner’s at six, but Alex said the roads will be clear around three or so? Plenty of time for you to get here before dark.”

“Yes, ma’am,” I said, giving up completely.

Alex looked really happy at that moment, so I was glad I had said yes. I’d get a bit more Alex time, for one thing, though I did worry. If the Westmores were at one hotel and I was at another, I’d have to be careful driving on roads that would turn to ice come sunset.

With a shrug, I hung up and put my phone in my back pocket. I’d be ready to go inside of five minutes, and maybe we’d get to Steamboat quick enough so that I could go to my hotel room and simply be alone for a bit before joining the Westmores. Surely there’d be enough time for that.