Chapter 15: Lake Tahoe

My very short vignette “OSL: Nick” is not required reading, but familiarity with it will enhance your experience reading this chapter.

-- FRIDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2007 --

Almost lazily, I guided my super-macho, super-cool navy blue with beige interior Toyota Sienna XLE minivan (with Sport rims!) around the winding mountain roads. I let my gaze drift out to the rows upon rows of verdant redwoods that lined my path to either side of the two-lane road as far as the eye could see, their bases buried beneath thick sheets of white snow. The sun was setting and the sky darkening fast, but the road itself was clear, a wide band of black asphalt well-illuminated by my headlights. So I drove without fear and roughly followed the tail lights of the Honda Pilot SUV in front of me as we wound our way down Route 267.

Presently, Route 267 dead-ended at Lake Boulevard, the road that circumnavigated Lake Tahoe itself. Turning left, I smiled knowing that our destination was only a few minutes ahead, and I sat up a little straighter in my seat, relieved that our nearly four-hour drive was nearing its end.

At the next stoplight, I flicked on my map light and consulted my Mapquest printouts to double-check how to get to our rented cabin, which really didn’t fit the term “cabin”. Adrienne had spared no expense in getting us a luxury 4-bedroom house overlooking Crystal Bay in North Lake Tahoe. Officially, the place could sleep twelve people and must’ve cost a thousand bucks a night, but we didn’t have anywhere near twelve people coming with us on this trip. In fact, we were down to only seven.

Although this pre-Christmas Lake Tahoe excursion had originally been Adrienne’s idea, and she’d even gone so far as to book and pay for the rental house itself, she and Sasha weren’t coming. Too many emotions, too many complications, and with everything going on in our relationships, it was easier for them to bow out and take an impromptu vacation somewhere else alone. In fact, the two of them had flown out to Hawaii yesterday, swapping snow and ice for sandy beaches. Even more depressing was Adrienne’s decision to STAY in Hawaii for Christmas itself instead of coming home. Personally, I think she simply didn’t want to face my parents at Christmastime so soon after ending our engagement. It seemed a fairly typical Adrienne move: avoiding the situation and kicking the can further down the road. But I wanted to believe that when she was ready to deal with it, she’d come home and we’d work things out.

Without them, the rest of us had all crammed into my minivan rather than drive two cars. I missed glancing to my right to see Adrienne snoozing beside me in the shotgun seat, but Dawn was a more than adequate replacement. Dayna and Brandi took the two bucket seats behind us, and DJ, Brooke, and Brooke’s boyfriend, Andrew, squeezed into the back row. Kim and BJ were spending the entire week at her father’s house. And Eden and Emma had already planned to spend these first few days of their Winter Break with college friends.

Dawn helped me navigate to the house, and we arrived to find the lights on and waiting for us. I pulled into the driveway and announced, “We’re here!”

“Thank GAWD,” DJ groaned. “I need to get out and stretch.”

Everyone chuckled at that, and the seven of us quickly evacuated the vehicle. Cold Sierra winter air quickly chilled our bodies; this late at night and at this elevation, every breath created visible clouds in front of our faces. I glanced back across the hood and asked, “Sure you wouldn’t rather stay inside the van?”

“Shut up and open the front door,” Dawn growled at me, hugging herself and shivering already.

I’d already started walking up the sidewalk to the front door with everyone else in tow. Having memorized the lockbox combination, I quickly punched it in to retrieve the door keys. And a minute later, we all walked inside to find the entire house heated to a very pleasant 72 degrees.

“Ooh, this place is gorgeous,” Brooke breathed as she snuggled herself against Andrew’s side. Her boyfriend wrapped his arm around her and patted her shoulder.

Dayna sighed as she glanced around. “Makes me wish Adrienne and Sasha had still come.”

I nodded, wishing that myself, but first things first. “You all get settled in. I’m going to open the garage and pull the van inside. And Andrew, I’ll need your help unloading all the girls’ luggage.”

“Right.” Andrew pecked his girlfriend on the crown of her head and followed me down the hallway and into the garage.

A minute later, I drove the Sienna in, Andrew lowered the garage door, and he joined me at the back of the van. Neither of us said anything as I held down the trunk button on my remote to let the automatic liftgate raise up on its own, nor did I initially feel the need to; guys are perfectly comfortable working to unload a van without needing to talk. But I realized that Andrew and I hadn’t really spoken much over the past few months, and here was an opportunity to at least strike up a conversation. Most Friday evenings he and Brooke went out while I played basketball with the others. I’d spent a lot of my time in the Berkeley house having sex, and I usually went back home by Saturday lunchtime. Our only real opportunities to interact had been a few Saturday mornings over breakfast, but I’d been rather too preoccupied with the girls to really spend much time asking Andrew about his history.

Mentally, I flipped through what little I knew about the guy: Barb Hemingway’s little brother; Brooke’s annual boyfriend for the summer at Morris Camp, in a way not so different from Dawn and me; worked as a programmer in Emeryville; originally hailed from Oregon.

“So,” I began conversationally, “Have you done a lot of skiing and snowboarding where you’re from?”

Andrew chuckled and replied, “Of course. Skiing, snowboarding, camping, hiking, fishing. My family is big on experiencing the Great Outdoors. It’s why my parents made a point of spending all those summers at Morris Camp.”

I nodded. “Mine, too.”

“Lucky for me.” He smiled broadly. “I got to keep seeing your sister year after year.”

I thought about me and Dawn again, and how much I looked forward to seeing her year after year, and I nodded my agreement. “I know the feeling. The excitement, the anticipation... ‘Are we there yet?’”

Andrew laughed. “To a little kid, those three hours felt like an eternity.”

“Three hours?” I glanced over at him while stepping underneath the raised liftgate. “Try an eleven hour car ride.”

He raised his hands up. “Granted, my drive was nothing compared to what your family went through. But for me at least, it wasn’t the hours themselves so much as the yearlong wait to see her again that felt like ... well ... an ‘eternity’ doesn’t even cover it.”

Smiling, I said again, “I know the feeling.”

Andrew grinned at me. “I’m sure. You and Dawn were certainly the ‘it’ couple of Morris Camp, at least for everyone around my age range. We all looked up to you two, saw the relationship you two had, and dreamed of one day finding a special love like that for ourselves.”

I arched an eyebrow. “You DO realize Dawn and I aren’t currently IN a relationship, right?”

“Well, not officially. But she still rode shotgun in the van, didn’t she? And it’s not like I don’t know whose bedroom you sleep in when you stay overnight on Fridays.”

“Touché.” I waved him off and finally reached into the trunk to grab the first suitcase. After hoisting it up, I turned and handed it off to Andrew.

“Anyway,” he continued while pulling up the telescoping handle on the suitcase and setting it off to the side, “whatever your ‘official’ relationship now, back then you two were the gold standard for teenage summer romances: inseparable, affectionate, so obviously in love ... and sneaking off to your own private hideaway every morning. Much as I might have wanted it, I never imagined I could feel that kind of love for myself. Not until...”

I shot him a smirk and finished for him, “Not until Brooke.” And then I handed him the second suitcase.

He took the suitcase, set it down, and pulled the telescoping handle. “At first, I thought she was just messing around with me, having a casual summer fling soon forgotten. But then a year later, she seemed just as excited to see me as I was to see her. And then a year after that ... and the year after that...”

“You didn’t get forgotten.” Third suitcase out.

“Nope. Lucky me.”

“You even had a long-distance thing for a while there, didn’t you?”

Andrew nodded. “We were ‘officially’ together starting from camp before my sophomore year at U.O. until winter break. But yeah ... the long-distance thing for the semester didn’t really work out.”

“But you met up again.”

“Well she had a summer internship that kept her from coming back to camp that year. But then the summer of last year...” Andrew’s voice trailed off as he got a faraway look in his eye.

He didn’t have his hands ready, so I set fourth suitcase back down in the trunk instead of dropping it on his feet. Even though we would only be here for four days and three nights (the longest trip we could fit between the end of Cal Berkeley finals and Christmas back home with our parents), it seemed like every girl had packed a full-size bag. I thought it a minor miracle everything had fit into the trunk, and there was a lot more luggage to go, but I wasn’t in any hurry.

Still staring off into the distance, Andrew murmured almost dreamily, “Best damn weekend of my life.”

I chuckled. “Must’ve been, to get you to move all the way down here just for her.”

“She was all I could think about for the entire following year. My friends told me I was being crazy. They even set me up on a couple of dates, but I couldn’t get Brooke out of my head. My sister ... no my whole family ... used to give me so much crap about it, too.”

“‘Brooke and Andrew, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S... ‘“ I teased. “Brooke used to do that sort of thing to me all the time. Little sisters...”

Andrew chuckled. “Well, nothing like that. Barb is older than me, at least. But yeah, my whole family still teased me. I put up with it in the belief that she’d come back again and we might pick up where we’d left off. But then she didn’t come back. Internship again. I was ... I was crushed. She had been all I could think about for an entire year, and it was like having Christmas cancelled forever. I couldn’t deal with it. That’s when I knew I had to go get her. So I quit the job I’d only just started, told my friends and family I had to at least try, and I packed up and left.”

“Just like that?”

Andrew grinned. “Just like that.”

“How did you even know she was available?”

“Well your parents and the twins were still at camp, even if Brooke herself didn’t come. I went and found your mom to say I was in love with her daughter.”

My eyes popped open wide and I whistled while folding my arms across my chest and leaning back against the frame. “Seriously?”

“You don’t already know the story?”

“Didn’t know you walked up to my mom to more or less ask permission, no.”

Andrew grinned again. “She pulled me into the cabin and grilled me for almost an hour. Asked me some ... delicate ... questions. Some of them I didn’t really want to answer, but she has this way of just sorta ... staring ... at you ... until you find yourself rambling and telling her things you didn’t plan on saying.”

I laughed and nodded my head. “We called it the Mom-Lie-Detector-3000.”

Andrew shook his head ruefully. “She wasn’t detecting lies so much as extracting information. Even got me to say Brooke got my virginity right here at camp when I was seventeen.”

I held my hands up and waved them. “I’m a big brother. Don’t remind me about that part.”

Andrew chuckled. “Sorry, man.”

“Just kidding. No worries.”

He smiled. “Anyway, I must’ve passed, because in the end she gave me her blessing to move down and start ‘courting’ Brooke, as it was. That’s when the twins showed up.”

I arched an eyebrow. “What do the twins have to do with my mom’s interrogation?”

“Not the interrogation part. Everything that came after. We didn’t even have to explain the situation to them. They saw me talking to your mom and put two and two together right away. Started hopping up and down in excitement about setting us up together. Emma even volunteered to go undercover and do some ‘research’ to confirm whether or not Brooke still had feelings for me.”

“Which she apparently did.”

Andrew nodded. “Eden gave me her cell phone number with instructions to call as soon as I got moved into town.”

“Ohhh ... so that’s how the dinner thing got set up,” I remarked in sudden realization. The rest of this story I knew: After the twins moved into the Berkeley house, they’d insisted on a ‘Sisters Night Out’. The girls got all dolled up in nice dresses and went out to a fancy restaurant to celebrate. But when the hostess escorted the three of them to their table, Andrew had been waiting for them dressed in a nice suit and holding a big bouquet of Brooke’s favorite flowers. To say Brooke had been shocked would be putting it mildly, but she’d been shocked in a good way. The twins giggled and left, quite pleased with themselves, and immediately started calling Brandi and DJ to let them know how things had turned out. I, of course, wouldn’t find out for two more DAYS.

Andrew grinned. “Matchmaker twins. I have to admit: having Brooke’s little sisters in my corner definitely made the whole thing a little less nerve-wracking.”

“But you still had no idea how Brooke herself would react.”

He nodded. “I only said ‘less’ nerve-wracking.”

“I’ll bet. And it was still quite the big risk, moving after graduation to different city, a different state – all for a girl, not knowing if things might work out.”

“Brooke was well worth the risk. And moving was really the only chance I had. The long-distance thing I already knew wouldn’t work. It was all or nothing. I had to at least try.” Andrew stared off into the distance again, his eyes unfocused, so I let him be for a moment. But then realizing he’d spaced out, he blushed at me and said sincerely, “I mean it. Brooke is ... She’s...”

“She’s special,” I finished for him before standing up straight and waggling a finger at him. “She’s also my little sister. Don’t you ever forget it.”

Andrew held both his hands up and laughed. “I’ll treat her right, I swear.”

“Damn straight you will.” With that, I hefted the fourth suitcase that had never gotten unloaded and thrust it right into Andrew’s chest, perhaps a little more forcefully than necessary.

But Andrew grinned, the message received. Together, we unloaded the van quickly, and three minutes later, everything was in.

Our group of seven separated into each of the four bedrooms to unpack. Dayna and Brandi called dibs on the master bedroom due to their seniority, and also because Adrienne and Sasha weren’t around to take it. Brooke and Andrew got bedroom #2, and Dawn and DJ officially took bedroom #3. I say ‘officially’ they took bedroom #3, because that left me alone in the adjacent bedroom #4, and nobody seriously thought I’d be sleeping alone.

In any case, that was the order in which we unpacked our stuff, and since I didn’t bother to do anything more than place my suitcase, fully-closed, onto the luggage rack in the closet, I was the first one back out in the house’s big living room starting up the fire and checking out the linen cabinet, pantry, and fridge. I discovered that while we were well-stocked with towels, utensils, and cookware, there wasn’t any food or drink in the house, not that I’d expected to find any. We’d packed some breakfast items and nonperishables, but anything that required refrigeration would need to be purchased here. And as the girls started to come back out from their bedrooms, I grabbed my keys and announced that I was heading out for our planned grocery run.

“I’ll come with you,” Dawn volunteered as she grabbed a thick North Face jacket and a pretty blue and green scarf. She also popped on a light blue beanie that brought out the color of her eyes, while leaving her sunny blonde hair loose and flowing out from beneath it, and with a smile she followed me out into the garage.

Once we were buckled in, I started the van, backed out, hit the garage remote, and turned out onto the street. Adrienne had understandably elected to prioritize privacy and an amazing lakefront view over convenience, so our luxury house was a good ten minutes away from the nearest grocery store, and I knew we’d have a little bit of time alone before getting back.

“Did you text Nick yet to let him know we’ve arrived?” I asked without taking my eyes off the road.

“I did, actually,” Dawn replied. “Right before we pulled up to the house.”

“And?”

“He said ‘great’ and that he’d see us in the morning.”

I arched an eyebrow and risked a glance at her before turning back to the road. “In the morning? It’s been forever since you saw him last. You didn’t want to meet up with him tonight?”

“Tonight?”

“Yeah. Why not?”

“We just got here. Everyone needs time to unpack and unwind. It makes no sense to drag them off to someone else’s cabin to visit without letting them settle in. And if you’re thinking about inviting Nick and his friends to our place, we should’ve planned that out ahead of time instead of springing it on them OR us last minute.”

“I didn’t mean trying to get both groups together tonight; you’re right, we would’ve had to plan that out ahead of time. I was thinking you and I could detour to their place for a quick visit. You said they’re staying in Incline Village, right? So we’ll be in the area anyway.”

Dawn glanced over at me right as I glanced over at her. She mused on the idea, but replied, “Everyone’s waiting back at the house for us to return.”

I shook my head. “Nobody’s waiting up for milk and eggs. I’ll bet that by the time we get back, they’ll have already fired up the hot tub and opened the alcohol we brought with us. I’m serious, we can afford a ten/fifteen-minute visit.”

“Why are you so insistent that I see Nick again?”

“I’m not insistent. I just ... well...” My voice trailed off as I heard Dawn shift in her seat, and I glanced over to find her giving me a look of comprehension.

“You want to see Nick tonight for some weird reason,” she stated knowingly, a hint of a smirk on her lips.

I sighed. “I’m curious, alright? This guy was your boyfriend and meant so much to you during a really intense period of your life. You said you broke up with him – broke his heart, really – at the end of your ranch hand program, and yet he kept visiting you off and on for almost a year despite having supposedly moved on with his new girlfriend.”

“He did move on. Those visits were little more than weekend booty calls. And emotionally, he accepted long ago that we weren’t meant to be together.”

“So he says.”

“So he did,” Dawn insisted. “Maybe the first few visits he harbored some spark of hope that we might rekindle our old relationship. But since then we’ve seen each other often enough and talked regularly enough for me to be able to tell he’s moved on.”

“A phone call every few weeks or so, right? That’s how you found out he and his friends were planning their own trip up here to Lake Tahoe, and coordinated things so that you’d get the chance to meet up.”

“Right. We still talk, but that doesn’t mean we haven’t both moved on.”

“Still, I’d like to meet him. I mean, I know we’ve met, when the three of you drove down from your ranch hand program and walked in ten seconds after I proposed to DJ. But that wasn’t exactly a good time for us to get to know each other, you know?”

“So?”

“So I’m curious. I want to meet him for real and find out what he’s like, and I’m sure he’d like to find out, in person, what I’m really like. I’m a little anxious about that part, actually. And it occurred to me that it might be easier to meet him tonight, with just you by my side, instead of tomorrow morning at the ski resort with everyone else around us.”

“Anxious? Why?”

“You told him you were breaking up with him because of me. He’s bound to hate my guts for that.”

“He doesn’t hate you. And I didn’t break up with him because of you.”

“You told me you’d told him that he, quote, ‘wasn’t me’.”

“I didn’t want to string him along like I did to Ryan. I didn’t love him like that.”

“Not like you love me?”

“No.”

“Even though we’re not boyfriend/girlfriend?”

“We don’t need to be.”

“I’m not sure he sees it the same way. It’d be one thing for you to break up with him and become my girlfriend. From a guy’s perspective, I’d at least understand that. But if I were in his shoes right now looking at your relationship with me, thinking that I’m engaged to Adrienne instead of dating you, I’d think that this ‘Ben’ guy wasn’t treating you right.”

“So what are you suggesting? That you and I get back together as boyfriend/girlfriend just so Nick will feel less weird about losing me?”

“Well not JUST for Nick’s sake. Fact is: I AM without a girlfriend at the moment.”

Dawn glared at me in silence, and she kept up the glare long enough for me to look over and see it before returning my attention to the road.

“I didn’t mean it like that,” I muttered. “I wasn’t trying to pick you up as a fallback or rebound or anything like that.”

“We’re better as best friends and you know it. Besides, the world still believes you’re engaged to Adrienne.”

“I know, I know.”

“You don’t seem to be so sure about how much you know it, though.”

“I’m reeling from having all three of my girlfriends dump me and you’re the one who said at Morris Camp that you were still in love with me and still wished you could eventually become my wife. If I hadn’t proposed marriage to Adrienne that day, I wonder where you and I would be right now.”

“We’re not getting into hypotheticals right now. We’re best friends, and we’re leaving it at that.”

“I know, I know.”

“There’s that phrase again.”

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have suggested we get back together at a time like this ... for any reasons.”

“It’s okay. You’re just being you. When you feel lonely and abandoned you tend to say these melodramatically mournful things and latch onto anyone you can.”

“You’re not just ‘anyone’. You’re My Dawn.”

“And you’re My Ben.”

I turned into the Raley’s parking lot, found a spot, and pulled in the van. Taking a deep breath and exhaling slowly, I turned off the engine and looked over at my best friend. “I’d like to meet Nick tonight, but if you have no interest, then of course we don’t have to.”

“No, no. I’d actually love the chance to see him and Deedee again; I was just suspicious of your motives.” Dawn sighed. “If you want, I can text him right now, see if they’re available, and ask for their address.”

I thought about that and shook my head in the negative. “Actually, why don’t you call him? Much less impersonal than a text, and you’re not stuck waiting to find out if he actually received it or not. I’m sure Nick would love to hear your voice; I know I would. Meantime, I’ll head into the store and start collecting food.”

“Um, okay. You sure?”

I held up the grocery list. “I’m sure I can handle it, yes. Just meet me inside when you’re done.”

“Okay.” Her phone was already in her hands.

I smiled and got out of the van.

Dawn actually never met me in the store. I went around collecting all our groceries, paid for them, and returned to the van to find her still chatting on the phone. I hit the button for the automatic sliding door, stashed everything on the floor behind the driver’s seat, and then got in. Getting Dawn’s attention, I asked, “Are we on?”

Grinning ear-to-ear, she smiled at me and nodded in the affirmative.

“Address?” I reached into the door pocket and unfolded the Rand McNally map of the Incline Village area. Dawn switched on the map light for me, and she relayed the address and directions to me until I got a good sense in my head of where to go.

Only two minutes after that, I pulled up outside a cluster of two-story condominiums, each building looking virtually identical to a dozen others just like it nearby. “839?” I asked.

“839,” Dawn confirmed. She tightened her scarf around her neck and opened the passenger door. I followed suit and circled around to join her. Automatically, I found myself slipping my hand into hers as we approached the rental condo; she glanced down at our joined hands with a mirthful smile on her face, but she didn’t let go. She actually gave it a couple of squeezes instead.

The front porch light was on and I rang the doorbell. Moments later, the door opened and a gorgeous blonde with big, round hooters making large, obvious dents in the front of her sweater squealed with delight. “Dawn! So good to see you!” Deedee thrust her arms open and practically jumped through the doorway for a hug.

Dawn let go of my hand to warmly return the hug. A moment later, Deedee stepped back and waved us in. “Come inside, come inside. It’s freezing out there.”

We walked in and Deedee shut the door behind us. Nick stood just inside the doorway. 6’2” and thick, the guy looked like a linebacker and had the muscles in his arms to match – clearly he wasn’t “Fat Nick” anymore. While not as trim or as movie star handsome as Dawn’s ex-boyfriend Ryan, Nick was still a well-built, good-looking guy who fit right into her usual physical “type”.

Of course, Deedee was exactly my physical type as well: 5’8” or so, blonde hair, blue eyes, and really big tits. She reminded me of Dayna, actually, although her cheeks were a bit rounder, her eyes a little narrower, her hair a shade darker and also several inches longer, and her nose different enough that anybody could tell that she wasn’t related to the Evans sisters.

The two of them were the only ones in the condo. I stepped forward to greet them, hand extended. “Hi, Nick. It’s been a long time. Nice to see you again.”

“Ben,” he replied a little stiffly. “Likewise.”

I maintained my smile and released our handshake, not sure what to say after that. In the meantime, Deedee came to shake my hand as well, and then Deedee and I both stepped back to watch Nick and Dawn.

Neither of them moved toward the other. Nick stayed rooted in his spot, breathing deep breaths and staring at Dawn with a look of mingled affection and regret. For her part, Dawn looked guilty, a little unsure of herself. She glanced at me once or twice in the awkward silence, which made me think it wasn’t seeing Nick again that made her nervous, but rather it was my presence (and present observation of them two together) that was doing so.

You sure they’ve emotionally moved on?

Shut up. Not now.

“Oh, you gotta be kidding me,” Deedee finally groaned as she stepped between the two and grabbed each of them by the hand. She physically yanked Nick forward and guided Dawn in as well. And then pressing on both of their lower backs, she shoved the ex-couple into an awkward hug.

Both Nick and Dawn were stiff at first, but a moment later Dawn sighed and turned her head to press her cheek into his broad chest. Nick’s shoulders relaxed, and he tightened his arms around her into a bear hug before picking her up off her feet and gently swaying her side-to-side.

Dawn giggled and looked up at him with a fresh smile. That got Nick to smile as well, and he set her back down on the floor. Blushing, Dawn swept a lock of hair behind her ear and glanced up at him coyly. “I miss those hugs.”

“I miss giving them to you.”

“Just means we all need to visit more often than once every six months!” Deedee chirped while wrapping her arms around both Nick and Dawn and pulling them into a three-person hug.

Nick chuckled, Dawn laughed, and the three of them squeezed each other tight. I began to feel like an outside intruder, but a moment later they let go and Dawn backed up beside me. She glanced around the condo and said, “Nice place. Where’s everyone else?”

“Still down at the bar,” Nick explained. “We left to come back here when you called me.”

“I’m sorry,” I apologized. “We didn’t mean to intrude on your evening.”

“Don’t be,” Deedee replied, wrapping her right arm around Nick’s waist and extending her left to Dawn, who took her hand but stayed next to me. “I can hang out at a bar and get drunk any night, but visits from Miss Dawn Marie Evans are rare and far between.”