Page 135 of Let’s Be Real

When we landed in Utah, Nate was filled with questions. As we sat in the back of a luxury SUV, with a driver provided by our resort, I put him out of his misery.

“I thought we could make a goal,” I explained. “The first time I saw you laugh your head off was at the bottom of an alpine slide. So I thought, what if we try out all the alpine slides?”

His head tilted. “What do you mean?”

I took his hand in mine, playing with the tips of his fingers. “I looked it up. There are twenty-three operational alpine slides in the US. That’s where we’ll start.”

He blinked. “Is that what we’re doing here?”

I nodded. “We are. The one at our resort is three thousand feet long.”

“Wow,” he breathed.

“I know, right? It’s huge.”

He chuckled. “I wasn’t wowing over the slide. Though yes, that sounds really big. It’s you, Sammie. The thought you put into this for me…I’m in awe of you. And maybe I’m impressed with myself for landing you. How did I get so damn lucky?”

I scooted across the seat to plaster myself to his side. “We’re both lucky, love. You put so much thought into me, I can’t help but do the same for you.” Leaning in, I kissed the corner of his jaw. “What other man would have let me adopt a cat named Meowzebub?”

“You kissed me, and I forgot what I was agreeing to.” He spread his fingers along my cheek, his thumb stroking my chin. “Are you sure she and Adrian will be okay?”

“He’s all talk. He’ll take care of her.”

He rubbed his nose against mine. “It’s not Meow I’m worried about.”

Later, after we rode the slide until our cheeks hurt from laughing and they kicked us off the mountain, we went back to our room and traded smiles as we made love.

When we were settling down for the night, I reached into my bag for my charger, and my hand hit a hard envelope. I pulled it out, instantly recognizing it as the one Adrian had wanted me to see.

Nate came out of the bathroom wearing his plaid pajama bottoms and nothing else, momentarily distracting me.

“What’s that?”

I looked down at the envelope, turning it over in my hands. It was addressed to Mr. and Mrs. Nathan Wells, and the return address belonged to my parents.

“Adrian must have stuck this in my bag.” I slipped my finger under the envelope’s flap to slide it open. “It’s from my family.”

He sat down beside me, putting his hand on my thigh as I looked at the wedding invitation. Kelly was getting married again.

Denver was a big city, but in a lot of ways, it was a small town. I couldn’t avoid news about my family, and it was possible I listened out for it. I’d heard when Kelly and Josh had gotten married a few months after she’d left my house. I’d also heard when they’d gotten divorced less than six months later.

My mother texted me twice. My father called once. Not a word from Decker, but that wasn’t surprising. I had heard he and Georgia recently had a son, so I bet he was happy.

After she got divorced, Kelly showed up at my house several times. Sometimes crying, sometimes with flowers, asking to talk. It was easy to ignore my parents. Kelly was a little more difficult.

If she were an old friend I’d had a falling-out with, I might have been able to forgive her. It was hard to see her cry and not soften toward her. But I remembered the last time she’d cried in my arms. Once her tears had dried, she’d walked away without looking back.

I had promised myself I wouldn’t go through that again.

And when I wavered, Nate reminded me.

Nate slipped the invitation from me, reading it himself. “Kelly’s getting remarried.” He looked up at me. “Wonder how we made the invite list this time.”

We definitely hadn’t been invited to her second go-round with Josh.

A folded piece of paper fell out of the envelope with Kelly’s bubbly scrawl. Despite my wariness, I couldn’t stop myself from reading it.

Sammie,