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Thank God it’s dark enough in here that she can’t see my face. “I got up to use the bathroom.”
“Well, if you just took a six-hour shit, we should probably take you to the ER.” My sister wiggles around, trying to get comfortable. “I forgot to turn on DND and TJ sent me like, seventeen texts about a guy they went out with. When I looked over, you clearly hadn’t been here.”
“It’s nothing,” I say, grateful she hadn’t gone out in the living room and seen us for herself, even though yesterday was much more damning.
“Right,” she snorts.
“You’re the one who told me to try and get along with him. We were just watching a movie. That’s how our friendship worked back then. You can’t blame me for falling asleep, it’s been a wild few days. Smoothing over things with Mom and Kristine was quite an undertaking. Which you’d know if you’d bothered to come with us.”
I can feel Hannah roll her eyes as she shifts onto her back.
“Fine. It is nice to have you guys not at each other’s throats anymore, I guess,” she mumbles, then promptly passes back out.
I wish I could sleep like she does, but instead, I lie awake, thinking about what might have happened if my bigmouth sister had caught us wrapped up in each other the night before.
* * *
Later that day, still feeling a little spooked, I find myself in the lobby of the main lodge, needing to get some space beyond the walls of the cabin. I find a cozy armchair near the fireplace and sink into it, sliding off my snow-soaked boots so I can pull my knees into my chest.
“Well, if it isn’t Miss Big Apple herself,” I hear.
I look up, and Trevor Hayes stands before me, smiling widely, his long golden hair tied up into a messy bun.
I blink twice. “What are you doing here?”
What is Trevor doing at Great Blue Lodge?
“Oh, we’ve been coming here for years,” he says, crouching down in front of me to chat. “My family has a time-share. You’re here with Henry and your moms, right?”
I nod.
“Oh good, yeah, I’m the one who hooked you guys up, told him all about it.”
That does make sense. The Hayes family would have a time-share here. They seem like the outdoorsy types.
“How did you get here in the storm?” I ask.
“That was pretty brutal, huh? I left right after the reunion and drove through the night. Slept half the next day, but it was worth it. Henry mentioned you guys got caught in it. We were supposed to hang out up here that night you got stuck.”
“How did you…drive?” I trail off, thinking about how drunk I’d been at the reunion.
“Oh, I just had that one shot at the beginning of the night. I was fine. You know, you’re very cute when you’re tipsy,” Trevor chuckles.
I roll my eyes, giving him half a smile.
“There she is,” he says, touching my calf and giving it a little shake. He sits back on the fluffy rug in front of my armchair, relieving his knees of the crouch I can’t believe he held for so long. He folds his hands loosely around his shins. “Well, I don’t have too much to do before I drive back tomorrow morning, so if you’d like company, I’m your guy.”
“You’re driving back tomorrow? On Christmas Day?”
“Yeah, my sister, Bea, I don’t know if you remember her, she’s four years older than us. She had a baby last month, so they obviously weren’t going to come, but we wanted to spend Christmas Day as a whole family. Gotta see that little smush of a niece of mine dressed as an elf. Classic.”
“Are you here by yourself?” I ask slowly.
“Nah, my buddy lives in Minneapolis, so he came and met me so we could do some snowboarding. He’s staying a few extra days. If we don’t use the time-share, it just expires anyway. Though I think he’s been spending some time with one of the locals.”
Trevor nods at the check-in desk, where there’s a man whose back is to us leaning over the desk while Pauline, the same pretty employee who helped me with the wrapping paper yesterday, laughs a little too loudly.
“Wow, he must be hilarious,” I deadpan with a hint of another smile.
