“Uncle Sergio! Look!” Henry shouts, then zooms down the hill before flipping forward to a stop onto his rump. “Did you see?”
“Hell yeah, Henry! I saw!” Sergio picks him up and slaps him a high five. He then places him back onto his feet before bending down to release Henry from his skis.
“You fired your brother?” Holden asks, appearing behind Henry.
Sergio looks up at him and hands him Henry’s skis. “Yeah. Are you surprised?”
“Sort of,” Holden says, looking confused with his lips twisted to the side. “To be honest, I figured he’d quit first.”
“Well, it’s a good thing you didn’t wager on it.” Sergio rises to his feet with Henry in his arms.
Holden looks at his feet.
“Wait,” Sergio says. “Did you make a bet with someone?”
“Well, the thing is, Adrien kind of mentioned it to me that he was unhappy and that he was thinking about quitting, and then I told Rose and really,shewas the one who wagered a bet with me.”
“Huh,” Sergio muses. “So Rose thought I’d fire Adrien?”
Holden cringes. “Not exactly. She guessed Adrien would quit on you today, while I wagered he’d wait until the week was over.”
“Good. So, neither of you wins, then,” Sergio says, feeling smug as he walks away, carrying Henry to the lodge for lunch.
After lunch, where Sergio ate a Cobb salad instead of a turkey burger, everyone is standing outside, saying their goodbyes.
“You need help with him, Jeremy?” Rose asks, eyeing her sleeping son in Jeremy’s arms.
“No.” Jeremy shakes his head, smiling softly and directing Henry’s head to rest on his shoulder. “I got him.”
“Okay, well, we’ll see you later,” Rose says and waves goodbye, prompting everyone else to do the same.
Everyone but Sergio. “Mind if I come back with you?” he asks Jeremy, and everyone stops in their tracks. He can practically hear a record scratch as they all turn to look at him.
Jeremy shrugs as much as he can with a forty-three-pound sleeping child in his arms. “I guess not.”
“Great!” Sergio says, clapping his hands together. He turns to look at the rest of the group, all of whom look stunned. “We’ll see you all later.”
“Yeah … see you later,” Rose says, though her lips purse and a deep furrow wrinkles the space between her eyebrows. She turns to look at Jeremy. “Don’t hesitate to call me if you need help with anything.”
Jeremy laughs and winks at her. “I think I can handle these two boys for a few hours.”
“You could always put Sergio in his kennel up in the house,” Holden says, clapping Sergio on the shoulder. From there, he grabs Rose’s hand and leads her towards where their skis are so they can get on the slopes for the afternoon. She’s looking over her shoulder as they go, glaring at Sergio the entire time.
Sergio gives her one last little wave as they begin to walk away, resisting the urge to grab Jeremy’s hand like Holden grabbed Rose’s. It’s an odd thought for him. He’s never been one to hold someone else’s hand, but something about the way Jeremy’s hand feels in his whenever he helps steady him getting off the ice has Sergio seeing the simple act of affection as desirable. Hecould hold his hand. He could walk him to the car, to the barn, through the throngs of people at the New Year’s Eve party. But right now, Jeremy is far more likely to rip his hand away from Sergio as if he’s been stung than reciprocate the gesture.
“Are you sure you don’t want to stay?” Jeremy asks with skepticism in his voice.
“Nah. I’m done skiing for the day.”
Jeremy shifts Henry to rest against his other shoulder, then glances at Sergio as they walk. He looks as if he’s trying to decipher what angle Sergio might be playing. “I hope you’re not expecting me to entertain you.”
“Nope,” Sergio says, even though that’s exactly what he’s hoping for as he opens up the back door of the car. He stands by, watching over Jeremy’s shoulder as he straps Henry into his car seat. A task presumably made easier by the fact that Henry is currently out cold.
Once in the car and heading toward home, Sergio continues to make what he hopes is a light conversation, knowing full well that Jeremy could turn on him with one wrong word. It’s happened on other versions of this day, and if the history of his never-ending New Year’s Eves has told Sergio anything, it’s that he never gets a new tactic right on the first try. So, it is best to tread lightly. However, Sergio, always the over-confident man that he is, doesn’t let that stop him from forging ahead with something new. After all, there is freedom in knowing that no matter how badly he screws up, there’s always another today.
“It’s really nice of you to help Rose and Holden out like this,” Sergio says from where he sits in the front passenger seat of Rose’s Audi.
“It’s the least I can do,” Jeremy says, his eyes on the road, his hands set at ten and two. “Besides, I love Henry. So, it’s not like it’s hard.”
