At that moment, Camille came back through the front door, with Cody right behind her.
“One vanilla latte for the traitor.”
I lowered my brow at her and held out my hand for the coffee. “I’m not taking you because I don’t have room for you. Now give…”
She handed me my coffee and I turned my attention to Cody. “Trucks full?”
He tossed the keys back in the drawer and then tucked some of his hair back behind his ears. “Yep.”
“Great. Thank you.”
Camille had made herself comfortable on the trio of couches that surrounded a gas fireplace in the middle of the room. She was sipping her coffee and had picked up a fly-fishing magazine. “Camille, I’m going out back to help Mac. Do you want to come with me?”
“I’m good here. I’ll just hang out for a while.”
Camille’s dad owned the San Diego Padres, so we were both from sports families. Not only did her dad own the baseball team, he was also part owner at Snow King Resort. Camille and I had become friends as children, and closer friends when I moved here full-time.
Camille also did not have a job. She spent her days shopping, sleeping…bugging me. Every now and then she would do something philanthropic, like host parties for local charities, but only when inspired to do so buy some popular single athlete.
I left the itinerary on the counter and headed out back to help Mac.
Our shop was on an empty lot behind the store, surrounded by a chain-link fence. Two of our three Ford-F350 dually trucks were parked inside the gate, along with both a large and a small trailer to haul the sleds. Cody had left my truck parked on the street.
Grabbing my down jacket off the hook by the back door, I stepped out into the harsh cold, tucking my chin into my turtleneck and lowering my head as I walked to the shop.
It was sunny today, and I was praying it would hold. Bad weather would make for a long weekend stuck in the lodge.
I heard the engines running from inside as I opened the chain-link gate and walked across the cement slab. Pulling open the heavy steel door, I saw Mac checking each sled, one by one to make sure they were ready to go. I flipped the light switch two times fast so he’d know I was there, and I waved when he looked up and saw me.
He turned the engines off.
Pulling the hood off my head, I unzipped my jacket and walked towards him.
Wiping his hands on a rag, he approached me and stood to my side so we were both looking at the sleds.
“Everything looks good. Shouldn’t have any problems.” He was nodding confidently and I turned sideways to smile at him.
When my brother and I started the business, I wanted nothing but the best sleds, the prettiest, the fastest. I wanted them all to be red, and I wanted them to all be Polaris 800 switchbacks. Over time, after many accidents, and mishaps, and dare-devils, I had come to accept the fact that most people wouldn’t know the difference. Now, I just wanted them to stay in one piece.
My sled was a Ski-doo Freeride and she was beautiful. Now that I was no longer beholden to Polaris, I bought myself the sled I’d always wanted. She was capable of handling deep powder, as well as being powerful enough to pull someone out if I needed to. She was kept covered and Mac knew to baby her.
“Great! Thanks Mac.” I slowly wandered through the shop doing my own assessment, and then sat down on one of the doubles. “Cody’s back with my truck so we should be ready to go soon. I’ll check on Jacob one more time and then we’ll leave for the airport.”
Mac stared at me pensively, quietly. And I just sat in the now silent shop.
“What’s on your mind, Princess?”
I took a deep breath, puffed out my cheeks and exhaled dramatically. Weighing my words, I waited a minute to gather them.
“Do you think I made a mistake, Mac?”
“What kind of mistake?”
“I don’t know. It just felt weird last night celebrating thirty-one and without having someone to celebrate it with.”
He opened his mouth to speak, but I cut him off. “And don’t say I have you.”
He laughed and said, “You know I’m not one for these deep talks, Mia.”