Chapter 1

The rental car shuttle bus was not the place to begin second-guessing myself, but there I was. The bus lurched and belched smoke as it pulled out of the Denver airport terminal. I’d snagged seats, but the portly guy in the rumpled suit standing in the adjacent aisle was crowding in way too close. He swayed so much, I wondered if he was going to end up in my lap. I would’ve glared at him, but he had his face buried in his phone. Meanwhile, my cheeks were starting to finally feel like flesh instead of icicles. I could’ve sworn we hadn’t been standing on the curb long enough for them to freeze, but tell that to my screaming skin. Maybe I should’ve grown a beard.

As the bus rumbled along, I looked out across the plains at the distant mountains. Why the hell did they put the airport so far away? I still had several hours of driving ahead of me. I was not looking forward to that. Especially if it started snowing earlier than had been forecast. Not that I’d admit it to Natalie, but I sucked at driving on snow.

Speaking of my big sister...

She sat next to me, far more relaxed than I felt. Of course, she’d spent two hours hanging out in the airport bar between her flight’s arrival and mine. She stared out the frost-covered window, which didn’t give her much better of a view than mine. A few strands of dark chestnut hair had escaped from her knit stocking cap, which made her look exceedingly cute. Extremely cute. Not that I’d admit that either.

She sensed my gaze and turned.

“What?”

“Nothing.” I dramatically sighed. “I thought I saw a booger on your cheek, but I was wrong.”

“Brandon!” She playfully slapped me.

“Hey! I’m just looking out for you!”

“Uh-huh.”

“I am!” I grinned broadly. “How are you gonna pick up guys with a booger on your cheek?”

She rolled her eyes. “You’re a dork.”

“But I’m your dork.”

She snorted and turned back to the window.

I cracked a silly smile. If you couldn’t tease your sister, who could you tease?

But still ... I couldn’t wait to get off this crowded bus and get on the road.

Maybe I’d made a mistake by agreeing to this trip. Honestly, I wouldn’t’ve, if it hadn’t been for Natalie. She was, well...

My feelings were jumbled, sitting next to her.

But it was too late. We were in Colorado.

Steamboat Springs, here we come.

Natalie made me drive, which I found mildly annoying. We had one of those nondescript compacts with barely any room and horrid maneuverability, but she’d paid for it so she said I could drive. As much as I hated it, I couldn’t fault her logic on that one.

I don’t think I would’ve minded so much if we’d had a bigger car. At 6’4”, I’d pushed the driver’s seat all the way back and I was still cramped. Not badly, but enough to make me already thinking about the first rest break. At 5’7”, Natalie would’ve been just fine.

We maneuvered out of the airport lot and Natalie asked the smart lady in her phone with the Scandinavian name to give us directions to Steamboat. I winced when I realized it would be over three hours. Having never been to Colorado, I’d underestimated the distances. So had Natalie, apparently. We’d definitely have to stop somewhere along the way.

Once we were on the highway Siri fell quiet. I briefly considered turning on the radio, but ... well, it’d been a while since I’d seen my sister in person. Not that I was going to admit I missed her or anything. And it wasn’t like we lived that far apart. Driving to see her in Philadelphia would’ve taken less time than it’d take us to get to Steamboat. But ... I never did it. And she never came down to DC.

“So...,” I finally said. “Looking forward to it?”

She snorted. “The trip?”

“Yeah.”

“No.”

“Brenda?”

“More Dad.”

I shrugged. I’d long given up on intervening when they decided to butt heads. “You like skiing.”

“I like having skied.”

I chuckled. “You like the guys at the après ski after.”

She scoffed. “Please.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Geez, Brandon. It’s the party, not the guys.”

I smirked but kept my mouth shut.

“I like hanging out, you know? Some good music, some drinks...”

“Some dancing, some flirting...”

“Ugh! You are impossible!”

I smiled sweetly. “But you love me anyway.”

“Yeah. Lucky you.” She smiled, genuinely, which warmed me.

We fell silent for a while. We hit a big curve in the highway which made me wonder exactly where we were going. What sort of east-west highway turns hard south?

“So, Dork,” Natalie asked, “how’d your Valentine’s Day go?”

“Oh, God. Nightmare City.”

“Really?”

I sighed. “Apparently I wasn’t the only one she was, um, dating.”

“Ouch.”

I shrugged. “I’m not sure I would’ve minded if she’d been honest. I wasn’t that serious about her.”

“That’s not the impression I got at Christmas.”

“Well, I, uh ... may have exaggerated for Mom’s sake.”

“Ah.”

“Yeah.”

“So...,” Natalie asked, “why were you dating her then?”

“Why do you think?”

She snorted with amusement.

“Yeah. Like I said, I would’ve been fine with it if she’d been honest.”

“So ... what’d she do?”

“Do you really want to know?”

“Yeah. Now I’m curious.”

I grinned. That was Natalie. Just like a cat, always poking into things.

“Well...,” I said, “let’s just say she played Engineer.”

“Huh?”

“You know, choo-choo?”

“What?!” Natalie laughed.

“Yeah.”

“She pulled a train?”

“Mmm hmm. Six guys.”

“Wow!” Natalie continued to chuckle in disbelief.

“Yeah. Like I said, I wouldn’t have minded if, you know, she’d talked to me about it first. Or, you know, let me be a part of it.”

“Really? You would’ve been okay with your girlfriend getting gangbanged?”

“I’m freakier than you think, Nat.”

“Ha!” She rolled her eyes but still smiled.

We pulled into Idaho Springs for a late lunch. Natalie had read about this pizza place that was supposed to make “Mountain Pies” that were really good. I was dubious. We’d been raised on Chicago Deep Dish and I hadn’t found anything out East that came even close. We found parking not too far away from the rustic building, but the wind had picked up and the temperature had dropped. Natalie shivered as we walked from the car.

“You okay?” I put an arm around her shoulder.

“Yeah.” She snuggled in as we speeded up our pace. “Just cold.”

“Do we need to get you a thicker coat?”

“No ... this’ll be fine on the slopes. You know, when I’m moving.”

“Then let’s walk faster.”

She nodded. Still pressed together, we made it to the restaurant and breathed a sigh of relief when we entered the warmth. Reluctantly, I let me arm drop. Once again, my emotions were a swirling mess. Thankfully, we didn’t have to stand in the foyer by the open door long before they got us a table.

We talked mostly about our jobs as we looked over the menu. Natalie was having challenges with another insurance broker who kept making snide comments about Natalie under her breath. Never in front of their boss, though.