And she wished Mom and Sylvia would stop trying to micromanage Nicola. Brad seemed like a good dad. He clearly cared about Nicola; the little grins he’d give her and the way he sat hip to hip made it clear that he had very sincere feelings for her.
Doris could understand her mother’s worries—she came from a generation that had put security above everything. But Sylvia didn’t have that excuse. She’d been the world’s champion serial dater ever since her messy divorce. Doris couldn’t understand why Sylvia wouldn’t be relieved that her daughter seemed to have found a decent guy, after three duds in a row.
And she should definitely drop trying to pair off Nicola with Isidor. Nicola and Isidor had a beautiful friendship, which would never be anything more.
Like I should have with Joey, Doris thought as she tramped up the south trail. Pure friendship. Nothing messy or scary.
Was every person in their family doomed to be unlucky in love?
Except Mom and Dad. Maybe that was why Mom was so determined to see them all happy and paired off.
She walked on through the falling snow, aware that at some point, though the trees looked the same, she would be crossing onto the next lot. Dad had bought it to keep it undeveloped, the way nature made it. Except for the kid-sized fantasy house, where Doris and Sylvia had played all day during those halcyon summers, when anything seemed possible—even magic.
But as they hit their teen years, Sylvia had blossomed into the family beauty, and began living those princess roles. She was Homecoming Queen in high school, and had had five guys ask her to the prom. Her marriage had seemed a fairy tale—handsome man, go-getter taking over his dad’s business—until it wasn’t.
Ever since the divorce, Sylvia seemed to scorn the possibility of fairytale endings.
“At least you’ve never had to pick up a man’s messes,” she’d said once to Doris, eyes flashing, her auburn curls thrown back, reminding Doris of Bette Davis in forties melodramas. “Date ‘em, dump ‘em, and move on.”
Doris sighed, and looked upward at the falling snow. The hush was so soft and yet intense. The trees, outlined in a thousand shades of white, had transformed to fairyland.
The snow was thickening underfoot—she could not hear her steps. Oh, the quiet!
Then she heard voices. She slowed, worried. Maybe someone had come after her, after all.
But the voices were coming from up ahead. There was an old road cut into the woods, looping around the back of the undeveloped lot, but with the snow coming down like this, it was a terrible idea to try to drive on it. Had some tourist gotten stuck?
It was this concern that made her call out, “Hello?”
The voices hushed suddenly. It seemed like a somehow guilty hush.
Doris shoved her way through a tangle of ferns, sending snow flying in all directions, then stopped short when she peered through the curtain of snow at a set of shockingly familiar faces.
“Vanessa?” Doris said incredulously, recognizing Joey’s pretty blond niece.
That couldn’t be… but the tall figure behind Vanessa was her dark-haired twin, Vic. Next to him stood Xi Yong. And farthest away, his silvery blond hair nearly obscured by the snow that was falling faster and faster . . .
“Joey?” Doris said faintly, her entire body flashing with heat, then a delicious, tingling chill. “What are you doing here?”
“Camping!” Vanessa declared. Her eyes were wide and looked almost yellow in the fast-dimming light. “We wanted to go up by the lake, but . . .” She waved her hands skyward. She didn’t even have mittens on. They were all gathered around a battered old Jeep and appeared to have been in the middle of some kind of argument.
“There’s a storm coming,” Doris said. “Where are you staying?”
“We have tents,” Vic said. “A tent.”
“A tent?” Doris repeated. “With a blizzard coming on?”
“I’m truly sorry that we stumbled what appears to be your family’s land. We did not know that the weather would turn foul,” Joey said, coming forward. “We’ll be gone right away.”
There was no mistaking how surprised, even bewildered the twins were to find Doris in what must to them look like the middle of the woods. Even that quiet foreign exchange student, Xi Yong, gazed at her with wide eyes.
Even if Joey hadn’t been with them, she couldn’t possibly leave them out here. In the back country, you just didn’t do things like that. “Don’t be ridiculous. My family’s house is right here. There’s plenty of room if you don’t mind couch-surfing.”
Joey’s hands flew up, waving away her invitation. He looked desperately embarrassed. “We’ll be fine. Really. It’s not that cold.”
“Are you kidding? None of you even have gloves on! I insist. If you won’t come with me, I’ll have to call the fire department to send out search and rescue. I couldn’t have four frozen bodies on my conscience.”
“We could stay in a garage,” Joey said. “I’m really sorry.”