“No, I know that, but before you arrived, she said…” Nathan trails off. “Never mind. Anyway, it’s fine. Ignore my meddling.”
“Oh, we will,” I mutter.
“We’re going to hit the double black diamond run next. Do you want to join us?”
“No,” I snap at the same time as Jacob says, “Yes, I think I will.”
“What?” I twist in my seat to look at him.
He doesn’t meet my gaze.
“Fine.” I sink lower against the couch cushion and glare at the fire. “I’m going to stay here and finish my hot chocolate.”
Jacob brushes a kiss on my temple and then slides out from beside me. “Stick to the easy runs until I find you?”
“Sure thing,” I say sarcastically.
Nathan laughs. “You sound more like his bratty daughter than his girlfriend, you know that?”
I flip him the bird, my cheeks flaming. My family hasn’t brought up our age gap yet, but I know it’s just a matter of time.
Jacob leans over and tugs on my ponytail sticking out the back of my beanie. He waits until my brother is moving away, then murmurs, “Just remember, lippy girls get spanked. And bossy dad types enjoy that.”
Leaving me blinking in surprise at him as he stalks out of the ski chalet.
* * *
Instead of hitting the slopes again, I wait until they’ve been gone long enough to be at the top of the mountain, and I send them a group text that I’ve decided to do some last-minute shopping instead.
Nathan replies to the group chat that he’ll take good care of my boyfriend.
The boyfriend in question replies in a private text message with a reminder that I should be safe and not go too far, and he’ll find me after he schools my brother on the slopes.
I think about turning off the location finder on my phone. But then I remember the hollow feeling in my chest all day yesterday, and how relieved I was when he showed up.
Even if I was confused.
And angry.
Deep down, I was mostly thrilled to see him again.
But that’s for me to know, and maybe share in time, so I don’t reply to either of them. I do go back to look at Jacob’s text three times because it makes me smile.
The last-minute shopping I need to do is for a Christmas present for Jacob. Except it needs to be a present forJake. Something myboyfriendcan open in front of my family. I browse through an outfitters store first, and I’m tempted to get him some new ski accessories, now that I know he’s so secretly talented on the slopes, but that feels impersonal.
The next store I go into in the little ski village is a gift shop that sells art, and nothing there feels right either.
It’s also all too expensive for a girl who just quit her job, and then doubled down on that by informing her boss that she definitely didn’t want that job back—and also didn’t want any other job that might be offered to her, if it meant moving away from the now ex-boss, new boyfriend.
A problem for any other day, but not the day before Christmas Eve.
In the third store I go into, I strike gold. There’s a wall of “perfect last-minute gifts for dads”, and since Jacob leaned into the fact he’s a dad type—who wants to spank me—I’m going to push that button as hard as I can.
Innocently, because he likes that, too.
Since he needs a haircut, which he usually gets at the barbershop on Main Street in Conception Ridge, complete with a close shave, I grab him a fancy shave kit that comes with barber scissors.
I think he’ll enjoy me threatening to give him a trim myself.