“It’s always a boy,” Carter chuckled.
“I took a few lessons, pretended to fall a lot so he’d have to pick me up. Once I started snowboarding though, that was it. I never looked back.”
They were bitter. That was okay. I’d thrashed more than one past boyfriend on the slopes, so I knew the best ways to handle the delicate male ego.
“I still don’t understand how you beat useveryrun,” muttered Sawyer.
“I’ll rent a snowboard tomorrow,” I said cheerily. “You can beat me then.”
“Aren’t you even better at snowboarding?”
“Oh, shit yes.”
“Then how the hell are we going to—”
“Because skis are faster,” Bodie jumped in. His ice blue eyes lingered on me in an adversarial way. “In general, anyway.”
Ah, so he was the competitive one. I made a mental note of that little piece of information, as Carter produced a key and unlocked the thick pine door. A blast of warmth washed over us, bringing with it the crisp, sweet scent of burning logs. After a long day on the side of a windswept mountain, it felt and smelled absolutely amazing.
“What’d you do to get them to light a fire for us?” I sighed happily.
“We’ve stayed here a couple times already,” explained Sawyer. “The owner grants us some fringe benefits.”
The inside of the cabin was all pine walls and exposed beams, with wide floorboards worn smooth by a thousand feet.Brown leather sofas dominated the living area; so old they were cracked with use. The cushions looked soft as marshmallows, though. The knotted wool rug that sprawled between them, clean and inviting.
“We have television,” Sawyer pointed to a sleek black rectangle, “but no reception. There’s no internet on this side of the mountain either. There is a DVD collection, though.”
I followed his gaze to the corner, where a rotating black turnstile stood sentinel. Up and down, it was pregnant with dozens of plastic DVD cases.
“Shit,” I whistled. “I haven’t seen one of those in ages.”
“Yeah, well the guy who owns the place hasn’t messed with it in a long while either,” said Carter.
“How do you know?”
Strangely, all three of the guys stopped what they were doing and laughed.
“Because every time we come here we swipe one,” explained Bodie. “And we replace it with a… well…”
He looked at a loss for words, but only until the others rolled his eyes at him.
“He means we replace it with a porno,” smirked Sawyer. “The filthier the better.”
My mouth dropped open in half amusement, half shock.
“Holy shit, that’s hysterical.”
“It is,” confirmed Sawyer. “Last year it was The Sperminator. The year before that, On Golden Blonde.”
“And this year?”
Grinning like a maniac, he reached into his duffel bag and pulled out a jewel case. I read the title; and broke out laughing.
“Romancing the Bone?”
“Fuck yeah,” he snorted. “It’s a beautiful love story between a horny woman and, well…”
“She gets it,” Bodie cut him off.
