The sign he is referencing is a large one, welcoming folks once they had left the interstate, and truly began the winding descent into Bear Valley. We were quietly tucked away and that’s how most everyone who came here liked it.
The sign is an art deco piece, billboard-large in size that had been there as long as anyone’s memory could stretch. The painting had been originally done by a well-known artist out of Lyle, a small town to the north that was now somewhat of an artists’ colony. Over the years, my family had worked hard to see that sign preserved in its glory. Due to our geographical location, it really was a welcome to Bear Valley, because there was nowhere to go past us on the state highway that wasn’t much more easily accessible by another route. So, once you saw the sign, you left the rest of the world behind for a little bit.
What you got in return was a ski town that still had a quaint main street - brick buildings mostly and a walkability factor almost everyone took advantage of. Everything faced the lifts and ski area and was built out from there. From above it was like a theatre where the base area and lifts were the main stage, and everything else curved out in half-circles from that point. It was quirky, and it was home, and I wondered what Perrin would think about it once he was rested and could stroll the streets.
Perrin turned his attention to Piper for a moment, asking her opinions of the various things to do in town, what was her favorite and why. She smiled up at him and politely answered each question with whipped cream balanced on her upper lip.
“Oh, by the way, your ski equipment arrived, so they set you up with a large ski locker downon this floor. They are right past the front desk.” I walked around the desk to get the key, having remembered the note left in the system with his reservation.
I handed him the ski locker key, and his hand brushed mine, so I pretended it was nothing instead of delivering shockwaves. But damn if I could shake the feeling that he did it on purpose.
Perrin
As soon as my hand skimmed Jack’s, the blonde girl beside me said,“You look like a lion.”Piper, I remembered. I was glad I had something to break the connection and attraction I was feeling for this guy I had met only thirty-minutes ago and was lusting after with a rare intensity.
I needed to go to bed.
Alone.
Quickly.
“Yeah?” I asked, grinning at her. I knew I was a bit feline, I had been told that one before, but it was still adorable.
I was finally feeling something close to warm and the thought of a shower and bed started to sound better and better, and I wondered, given the quality of everything else around here, how divine that bed was going to be. I felt like I could sleep for days, and I probably would.
Jack handed me a key card I assumed was for my room and a folder to hold it. It looked like what you would receive at any hotel, but the paper was thick, high-end and embossed. No flimsy printed shit here. He slid it across the table, and I wondered if hewasavoiding touching me again. I had heard the barely audible breath hitch the first time I brushed my hands against his.
He is gorgeous, under the same roof, and interested. That’s all I was going to worry about until my clock reset. I also needed to have a stern talk with myself that things would have to work differently here, where I hoped to stay, than it did when I was hopping around from one hospital to another, never looking back.
“Your key. I’ll take your things up while you finish. There are instructions for the app on the back, if you rather do that than keep up with a key,” he told me. “I had the temperature turned up in your room, so it should be warm by the time you get there.”
I ran my fingers over the rich paper, and he followed that movement with his eyes.
Piper jumped up and ran to Matt as he came back in the room, and Matt gathered her up into his arms. Matt was only an inch short of what I guessed was Jack’s six three or so and both had broad shoulders, tapered, like a swimmer’s build.
Matt was attractive in his own right, and in any other place I would have noticed him right away, but somehow he lacked the buzzy feeling I instantly felt around Jack. Maybe it was that Jack was giving off this natural caretaker vibe, and that was a pretty damned attractive quality to me.
“I got her now, Jack,”Matt said.
My European bachelor life usually meant not eating well, mostly just grabbing what was at the hospital, then skiing and sleeping the rest of the time. I didn’t really like going to restaurants alone and I didn’t really care to cook for myself. So, the smell of food like what was coming from the dining area was a rare and welcome treat, especially after the exhaustion of travel and gettinghere in the middle of a snowstorm.
Sleep, then food, I sorted in my mind, my eyes drifting back down Jack’s body. Then get laid.
Priorities.
“Thanks, Matt,”Jack said. Matt had introduced himself as another Mann, and Jack’s brother, but they looked like cousins at best, as they didn’t exactly seem to share any features.
I heard Matt grunt in reply, but then catch Jack’s arm. “I can hold things down here for a bit, at least until the staff makes it in or begs off, you try and get some sleep.” Matt’s words were low, but I could still make them out, and hear the concern in it.
“Nah,” Jack said, “I’m fine.”
“You aren’t, brother,” I heard Matt forcefully retort.
“Leave it, Matt,” Jack said with a tone that conveyed that when he spoke, he did expect others to listen. It wasn’t hard to guess that a man like Jack didn’t just run the front desk of the Bear Valley Inn and I couldn’t help but wonder what his story was.
Jack grabbed my semi-dried luggage before I could stop him and started down the hallway behind the hotel desk.
I stood to follow Jack, and noted Matt was looking where Jack had gone with concern all over his face. Suddenly, Matt seemed to notice me, and he smiled quietly, shaking my hand again.
