“Then why the f**k are you yelling?”
“I don’t know.” Cam turned to the window and eyed the white mountain peaks that had once been his entire life, and were now as well, just in a different way. “I don’t know what the hell I’m doing with myself,” he said, his anger draining. “But I know I feel good here.”
Stone sighed and slung his arm over Cam’s shoulder. “Okay, I’ll take that. So am I going to get lucky tonight or what?”
“I’ll take the damn hike. But as to the lucky part, bro, that’s all on you.”
Katie was working at her desk, trying not to think too hard when Annie came up the stairs with the mail. Her apron read: CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW, with a cartoon chef flipping her middle finger.
Katie looked past the apron to the scowl on Annie’s face. The scowl was in no way unusual, but something else was.
Annie was wearing brand-new jeans that weren’t baggy. Her shirt was a plain Henley, but the long-sleeved cotton material was fitted and unbuttoned to her waist, revealing an even snugger tank top beneath and a lovely figure. Her hair was loose and shiny, and though she wore no mascara, she did have on gloss.
Katie smiled. “I bet Nick’s eyes pop right out of his head when he sees you.”
“We’ll see. The delivery guy stopped by just now and seemed to like what he saw just fine.” She paused. “So have you seen him? Nick?”
“With Cam,” Stone told her, coming out of his office. He was thumbing a text message to someone on his phone while simultaneously flipping through a stack of phone messages. “They’re organizing the gear for tonight’s snowshoe hike.” He took a glance at the two women, then executed a comical double take at Annie.
Annie tugged on the hem of her fitted shirt and shifted on her weight self-consciously. “What?”
“What happened to you?”
“What happened to what?”
Annie’s tone clearly said, “Warning: Dead Nephew Walking,” but Stone didn’t seem to catch it. “You shrink your clothes?” he asked.
Annie slapped the mail against his stomach, hard enough to make him wince. “No, you idiot, I didn’t shrink my clothes. I bought them this way.”
“I think you look pretty,” Katie said, hoping to help avoid Stone’s death.
Stone finally bought a clue and nodded, “You do. You look pretty.”
“I was going for sexy,” Annie said.
“Sexy?”
“Yes, for Nick. I want to look sexy so that your good friend would want to do your aunt. There. Do you wish me to be any clearer?”
Stone winced. “What I wish is that I’d stayed in my office.”
Annie tugged at her shirt again and turned to the window. “This is so ridiculous. I’m so ridiculous.”
“No,” Stone said. “It’s…nice. And you really do look-”
“Ridiculous.”
“Pretty.”
Annie gave him a long look over her shoulder. “You know that would be so sweet if you weren’t completely full of shit.”
“Maybe we should develop a code of some sort,” Stone said to Katie when Annie had stormed back down the stairs. “You know, like hey, crazy aunt alert.”
Katie wasn’t thinking of him, but of Nick. “What are the chances that Nick’s as slow as you?”
Stone considered a moment. “Good to excellent.”
“Well, that’s a shame.” Katie shook her head at all the men in this place. “I really did like that man.”
That night, Cam’s group comprised five coworkers attending a conference near South Lake Tahoe. They’d made the trek up to Wishful in a limo, and from there Nick had retrieved them in the Sno-Cat.
Cam stood in the lodge’s big main room assigning everyone snowshoes when he felt the prickle of awareness at the back of his neck. Turning, he met Katie’s gaze.
“Yeah,” Nick said, standing next to him, doling out the snow poles. “Did I forget to tell you? She’s joining the group for tonight.”
Cam just looked at him.
“Hey, it’s after hours and she signed up.” Nick shrugged. “She wants an adventure. It’s not my fault you went and f**ked everything up, and made it all awkward.”
Cam shook his head. “How do you know these things?”
“When are you going to learn? I know everything.”
Annie came into the room holding a tray filled with sacked snacks. For once she wasn’t wearing clothes two sizes too big, and her aprons were nowhere in sight. She looked softer, even pretty. Cam turned to Nick, who was standing there staring at her, mouth agape, struggling to comprehend.
“Everyone take one and tuck it into your backpacks,” Annie called out. “You’ll all be wanting to kiss me when you get back, I can promise you that.”
This was met with some cheers, and one of the guys shifted closer, flirting with her.
Nick continued to look like his brain had been knocked clear across the room.
“You know everything?” Cam whispered to him. “Really? Do you know how to get her back?”
“Fuck you.” Nick accompanied this with a little shove.
Eyes sharp, Annie looked over. Cam smiled at her while speaking to Nick out of the corner of his mouth. “You might want to remember, I’m her favorite. Pick on me and she’ll kick your ass.”
Nick ignored this and walked up to Annie. “Hey.”