Chapter 4

CHAPTER 4

CODY

“ I don’t understand why I can’t go down that trail,” a middle-aged female guest points higher up in the mountains. She looks at me like I’m an idiot, and I have the fleeting thought that she has a horribly unlovable face.

“Well, Ma’am , since it didn’t seem to sink in the first three times I told you, that’s a Black Diamond trail, and you can’t go on it because you’ll die,” I reply.

Her beady little eyes narrow, and her hands find their way to her hips. “Excuse me? I paid for this trip. Your salary comes out of my pockets?—”

“I’m sure that’s fascinating,” I interject, “but you still can’t go up there. I’d have to fill out so much paperwork if you died, and that’s quite a bit of trouble for me. You understand, don’t you?”

Her face turns beet red, and I think I can see steam starting to flow from her ears.

Uh, oh.

She points a shaky finger at me. “How dare you?—”

“Cody!” a distant yell cuts her off. I know that voice. That’s the voice that’s been yelling at me for twenty-three years.

My angry student seems to notice she’s lost my already limited attention because she huffs and clears her throat. I ignore her and turn around, and sure enough, there Maya is. I have never in my life been so glad to hear my baby sister screaming at me.

Maya clumsily tramps through the snow to get to me faster, and behind her, Darcy trails leisurely along, still several yards back.

“Hey!” I call out to them, going to meet my sister halfway—it’s painful watching her struggle through the deep snow.

As soon as she’s within reach, Maya throws herself into my arms, and I effortlessly catch her. The funny thing about Maya and me; we were never very affectionate as kids. But now, I don’t think I ever want to let go of her.

She’s the one to pull back after several moments, and I’m finally able to get a good look at her. Her hair has grown quite a bit since I last saw her. It falls just above her waist now, and it’s a bit darker than I remember—likely due to the bitter winter season. Her cheeks are bright pink from the biting cold, and her lips are chapped as can be, but she’s grinning ear-to-ear.

“Welcome to the snow, Sis!” I exclaim through laughter. She doesn’t fit in with the cold at all, like a sunflower in a field of ice.

“It’s colder than I thought,” she admits, her teeth audibly chattering. “It’s beautiful, though! Wow…” She spins around slowly, taking in every detail of the place, and then her eyes return to me. “I can’t believe you live here.”

“It’s a long way from Ohio,” I acknowledge thoughtfully, clasping her shoulder. My chest tightens. She’s actually here. “I missed you, kid.”

Maya’s eyes gleam with mischief as she nudges me. “Don’t tell me you turned into a sentimental sap trapped out here in all this snow.”

My mouth twitches up, but I manage to keep a straight face. “Never.” I start to say something else, but I’m distracted by Darcy finally catching up with us. She stands next to Maya and looks up at me with what could only be described as ‘barely contained disdain.’

“Cody,” she greets monotonously.

I smile cordially. “Darcy.”

She looks beautiful, I have to admit, though it’s no surprise. She has always been beautiful. However, she has changed since I last saw her, but just barely. She looks older, but not necessarily old . She’s grown into herself. Her hair, once red, long, and curly, now falls in loose waves to her shoulders, still as fiery as ever. Her skin is fair and smooth, just like I remember, with splatters of freckles across her nose and cheeks. The major noticeable difference lies in her eyes. They used to be big and round, as green as springtime grass and filled with constant love. Now, they are narrowed, darkened, and hardened. My throat tightens when I remember what Maya said happened with her fiancé, but that quickly disappears when her scowl deepens.

I don’t know what I was expecting, but I’m caught off guard by her. It has been so long since I saw her; it’s almost like she had become nothing but a figment of my imagination. Now, though, with her eyes drilling into mine, she is entirely too real.

When I realize I’m staring, I readjust my attention to my sister.

“Sorry I couldn’t be there to pick you up at the airport. My boss is already pissed at me. There’s no way he would’ve let me off today.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Maya assures me. “We had fun flirting with the cab driver.”

“Well, that’s a comfort.” I grimace at the thought and start to go big brother mode and comment on stranger danger, but the older lady with the death wish clears her throat and taps my shoulder.

“Excuse me? Would you perhaps like to do your job before I report you?”

I turn back just long enough to glare at her. “I am reuniting with my sister. I have told you everything you need to know, and you are insistent on ignoring me. I’m afraid I can’t offer you anymore help apart from the advice that the world doesn’t revolve around you .”

Maya stifles a giggle and Darcy rolls her eyes.

“You can’t talk to me like that!” the woman objects, wagging her finger in my face again like I’m a misbehaving dog. “I will be talking to your boss about this.”

“Be my guest.” I fake a smile. “Now, do you mind? I’m trying to have a conversation here.”

The woman huffs and walks away.

Maya breaks out into a fit of laughter, but Darcy’s expression is unreadable.

“How have you not gotten fired?” Maya asks.

I shrug. “Must be my God-given charm.”

Darcy snorts. “Oh, please. What charm?”

I narrow my eyes at her, and she squares her shoulders. It’s like high school all over again. “I have charm. You know I have charm. Don’t lie to yourself, Darcypops.”

Darcy barks out a laugh, her eyes flashing with fire. “You cannot be serious,” she says with a scowl. “Charm? You just treated a paying customer like they were an inconvenience to you. That’s not charm, it’s just being an utter asshole.”

I scoff. “Oh, is that right? Well, guess what? Takes one to know one.”

“Wow,” Darcy mocks. “That was a good one, slugger. You sure got me.”

I won’t yell at a girl, I won’t yell at a girl, I won’t yell at a girl.

I step toward her. “You know what? You are still as bratty, selfish?—”

“Guys!” Maya steps between us and gives us each a look of warning. “Seriously? We haven’t even been here five minutes, and you’re already bickering. Do I have to remind you that you both promised to be on your best behavior? For me?”

My sister is very lucky that I respect her enough to back down, because if she was anyone else, I’d have left Darcy in the middle of the mountains to freeze.

“Sorry,” I murmur.

“Yeah, sorry,” Darcy echoes, but the way she’s glaring at me out of the corner of her eye doesn’t exactly sell the sentiment.

Someone behind me clears their throat, and for a moment, I think the rude old lady is back to taunt me some more, but then it suddenly occurs to me that my class has just witnessed my little catfight.

Turning back to my students, I scratch the back of my neck, feeling my skin heat up from embarrassment, and offer them a sheepish smile. “Let’s call it a day, guys. We’ll pick back up in the same place tomorrow.”

There are several grumbles of annoyance, and a certain woman with a knack for complaining shouts out a few choice words that I personally think are a bit excessive for the situation. But hey, what do I know? Apparently, I’m immature and an utter asshole.

I take a deep breath to compose myself and look at my sister, pointedly avoiding making any sort of eye contact with Darcy. “Still want a private lesson? We have a few hours before the sun goes down.”

Maya’s eyes light up, which brings me a kind of pride I can’t get from anyone else. “Definitely! We’re probably gonna suck, though. Neither of us have ever been skiing.”

I chuckle and throw my arm around her shoulders, ruffling her hair with my other hand. “Luckily for you, I specialize in teaching dummies how to ski.”

“Clearly,” Darcy mumbles under her breath, which I decide to ignore—at least for the time being. If she wants to pick a fight, that’s fine. I’ll fight right back. But not in front of my sister. Maya deserves a fun week without Darcy and me letting our disdain for one another get in the way. I’d hoped to be cordial with her—get her to like me, even—but if this is how she wants to play it, then so be it. A war is a war.

I take the girls to a nice private area that the employees typically use. It’s low-key, and there normally aren’t any guests around. I set us up on a simple path, no trees, no rocks. Just a lot of soft, fluffy snow. I anticipate quite a few accidents. My sister has good balance on roller-skates, but this isn’t roller skating.

“So, what you’re gonna do is—” I start to explain, but I stop when I hear Darcy’s nearly incomprehensible mutter.

“Here we go…”

I turn around so fast that I feel a sharp pain in my neck. My eyes narrow into slits without meaning to. “Do you have a problem?” I ask her, my tone severe.

Nobody can get under my skin like Darcy Gray. We were really close as kids, not that anybody who could see us now would believe it. I’ve never fully understood what made her start being a total bitch to me out of the blue. I swear, one minute we were kissing during Spin the Bottle, and all these weird confusing feelings for her started forming, and the next, she hated my guts.

Darcy’s eyes dart to Maya before snapping to mine, and she smiles easily. “Nope. No problem. Please, continue.”

I want to say more, but I bite my tongue and continue with my explanation.

I don’t even make it through three sentences before I hear her again, this time sighing dramatically.

“Do you mind , Darcy?” I scold.

And there it is again—that sickeningly sweet smile drenched in venom. “No. No, I don’t mind at all.”

I’m about two seconds away from going absolutely insane.

I turn my attention to Maya. “Maya, could you please control your friend? I can’t really do my job when she’s over there muttering under her breath and distracting me.”

Darcy rolls her eyes. “You weren’t teaching us. You were talking about a super cool trick you just learned. How is that supposed to help us?”

Maya heaves a deep sigh. “Darcy, come on. We talked about this. You said?—”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” Darcy holds up her hands in surrender, but I can see the smile still twisting her mouth. “I’ll be nice.”

I manage to deliver my brief speech about the basics, and as we begin our descent down the mountain, Maya skis alongside me while Darcy keeps a slightly more distant pace. Frankly, I can’t help but feel this distance is for the best. If she were to creep any closer, I might struggle to resist the temptation to nudge her toward a nearby tree.

“This is so fun!” Maya exclaims happily, her voice nearly getting lost in the wind. She looks around for Darcy, and her eyes light up when she spots her. “Isn’t this fun, D?!”

If I didn’t know any better, I’d think that Darcy was smiling. A genuine smile, like she used to. But that would be insane, because I don’t think this Darcy is capable of smiling.

She catches me watching, and any visible enjoyment disappears from her face. “Yeah. So much fun.”

I can’t help but take the bait. “Well, if it’s so terrible, why don’t you go and entertain yourself elsewhere? I’m sure your cauldron needs stirring.”

Darcy’s jaw goes slack, and she looks at me like I’m the craziest person she has ever set her eyes on. “Excuse me?”

“Darcy!” Maya cries in exasperation. “Just stop!”

Darcy gawks at her. “You’re taking his side?”

“I’m not taking anyone’s side! I just want the fighting to stop!” Maya doesn’t look nearly as happy as she did moments ago. In fact, she looks completely miserable.

The guilt gnaws at me like a parasite. I had thought that I’d matured so much since I left home. I thought I was an adult now—a man. But it’s clear as day that I’m as childish as ever. I’m bickering with Darcy like we’re a couple of toddlers.

“We won’t fight anymore, M, I promise,” I tell my sister. I give Darcy a look of warning that not even she would dare to oppose. “Right, Darcy?”

I can see her jaw clench even from a distance. I think she might deny me, but she gives a strained smile and nods. “Right, Cody.”

Maya nods, satisfied. “Good. That’s what I—” She cuts herself off with a strangled cry, and I don’t have time to process what’s happening before she topples over and rolls a little way down the hill.

“Maya!” Darcy and I call out. We slide to a stop, and I remove the skis from my feet and run up to my sister, breathing a sigh of relief when I see that she’s sitting up without any visible injuries. We hadn’t been going anywhere near fast, but things can still happen, and it would be just my luck to get Maya killed on her trip.

“Are you alright?” I ask her, panting slightly.

She touches her ankle and winces. “My ankle hurts. Bad. I-I think it’s broken.”

“Shit,” I hiss. I can see on her face that she’s scared, and I hate it. I shouldn’t have let her get hurt. “I have to take your skis off, okay? It might hurt a little.”

Maya screws her face up in preparation and nods. “Do it!”

I ease the skis from her feet and try to ignore the sounds of the pained whimpers she makes, even when I’m moving as gently as I possibly can.

Darcy sits next to Maya, and our eyes meet. For once, hers aren’t filled with hatred. They’re filled with worry. I have a sneaking suspicion that I might just look the same.

I give a brief examination of Maya’s ankle. I can’t see anything noticeably wrong, but she flinches every time I so much as brush against it, which is never a good sign.

“Come on.” I hoist her up and wrap her arm around my shoulders. “Let’s get you back to the hotel.”

As we make our way slowly down the mountain, Maya leans heavily on me, wincing with each step. Despite her pain, she manages to catch my eye.

"You know," she says, her voice strained but determined, "Mom asked about you again before we left."

I feel my jaw tighten. It's not that I don't want to talk to them, it's just... complicated. "Maya, is this really the time?"

She shrugs, then grimaces at the movement. "When is it ever the time with you? You should give them a call sometime, you know. They miss you."

I sigh, focusing on navigating the snowy path. "I've been busy, Maya. You know how it is here."

"I know," she says softly. "But it wouldn't kill you to pick up the phone once in a while. Just... think about it, okay?"

I nod, more to end the conversation than anything else. "Okay. I'll think about it. Let's just focus on getting you back safely for now."

I catch Darcy watching us curiously, and I wonder how much she's overheard.

I push thoughts of home to the back of my mind. It's easier to focus on work, on the present. The past is too messy, too painful. And the last thing I need right now, with Darcy here stirring up old feelings, is to add more complications to my life.