Love on the Lifts Read online

  “Looked like you had someone last night…on the deck,” Leah said. “Or was it just an optical illusion that made it look like you were kissing Joe?”

  I felt the heat rush to my face. I wasn’t cold anymore.

  “I wasn’t kissing him. He was kissing me, but he said it’s no big deal.”

  “Yeah, sure. It certainly looked like a big deal.”

  “I don’t even know how you could see us. We were in the dark.”

  “You were a shadowy silhouette. Trust me, we saw.”

  Which meant Sam saw, too. I couldn’t believe he hadn’t said anything. Probably because it would have embarrassed his friend. Not because he wanted to spare me any mortification. Sam didn’t work that way. At least not where I was concerned.

  Not wanting to follow this trail of conversation any further, I stood up and unzipped my jacket. “I need to get ready for the movie.”

  “Your big date?” Leah said, wiggling her eyebrows.

  “No, we’re just friends.”

  “I don’t kiss my friends.”

  “Will you let it go?” I asked. “He knows how I feel about Brad. He’s not making any moves on me.”

  “If you say so.”

  Honestly, my friends were becoming as irritating as my brother.

  “I like him better than I like Brad,” Allie said.

  “It doesn’t matter,” I said. I made a little waving motion with my hands. “Now, go, so we can all get ready.”

  Once they left, I dropped back down onto the edge of my bed, stared at the floor between my snow boots.

  Having everyone witness my failure with Brad hadn’t been fun. Even though I trusted Allie and Leah with everything…I wasn’t quite ready to admit that maybe I was falling for Joe…just a little.

  Brad was a player. For all I knew, Joe was, too.

  I mean, really, why had he kissed me?

  How did a girl know when she could trust a guy not to break her heart?

  Chapter 15

  “What about this one?” I asked, pointing to a picture of Aunt Sue standing beside a man with a camera slung around his neck. They both wore safari hats and brown clothing. The foliage was thick behind them. I thought it was taken during one of her trips to Africa, because a guy who was about eight feet tall was also standing beside her. A tribal chief, I thought.

  “Nah, he doesn’t look like a Michael,” Joe said.

  We’d decided to stop by A Novel Place on our way to the movie to see if we could locate the mysterious love of Aunt Sue’s life. Sam and Allie were going to meet us at the Last Buck. Leah was meeting Ian at the Avalanche. Brad had been AWOL at supper, which was a shame because the stew had been really delicious—a little short on vegetables, though. Now I knew why Allie was so keen on fixing it the way that Sam wanted it.

  “What does a Michael look like?” I asked.

  Joe shrugged. He was wearing a bulky green sweater that made his eyes turn green. I was wearing a green sweater as well, but my eyes would have looked green regardless.

  “We’ll know him when we see him,” he assured me.

  So far, we’d looked at about two dozen pictures. The most difficult part was that they were spread throughout the store with no rhyme or reason. Some hanging on the walls, some displayed on bookshelves. Some were just of Aunt Sue. Most had someone else in them, but seldom the same person. There was no pattern, no one who always showed up.

  “Maybe he was the one always taking the pictures,” I muttered.

  “She said there was a picture of him here.”

  I looked around. There were so many nooks and crannies. A Novel Place had a lot of novel places that displayed various items. It was almost like being in a room of mirrors where all the mirrors reflected all the other mirrors into infinity. I got dizzy just thinking about it.

  Joe glanced at his watch. “If we want to make the beginning of the movie, we’re going to have to go.”

  I took a last look around the bookstore. Paige was behind the register counter, but Aunt Sue was nowhere to be found. Probably off at the U-Sack-’Em buying steaks for tomorrow. I needed to tell everyone we were doing that tomorrow night. I’d see Aunt Sue in the morning and tell her about Ian, because he’d probably join us. And I’d make her show me the picture of Michael.

  “Okay,” I said. “Let’s go.”

  It wasn’t a far walk to the Last Buck. Sam and Allie were standing out there waiting for us.

  “They changed movies,” Allie said.

  Joe looked at the marquee and groaned. They were now showing a chick flick.

  “I say we blow off the movie and head to the Avalanche,” Sam said.

  “Sounds good to me,” Joe said.

  I considered the options. Sitting in the dark with Joe, while Sam and Allie got it on beside us—I wasn’t naive enough to think my brother wouldn’t take advantage of the dark—or head to a place with pretty much the same offerings that we had last night. The Avalanche would at least provide an opportunity to mingle with people.

  I glanced at Allie and could see that her mind was made up. Whatever Sam wanted, she wanted. And I hadn’t really wanted to go to a movie, anyway.

  “I’m okay with the Avalanche,” I said.

  So off we went, with all our gloved hands stuffed into our jacket pockets. To see us, no one would guess that at least two of us were a couple.

  What was up with that, anyway?

  In the main area, the Avalanche had a live band playing. The Ski Lifts.

  I don’t know if that was the band’s real name or if that was just the name they used when they played at ski resorts. I mean, I couldn’t exactly see them ever making an appearance on David Letterman with a name like that.

  Like Paige and her bookstore name.

  “That isn’t her real name, by the way,” Joe said.

  We’d joined Leah and Ian at their table. Ian did have a delicious accent.

  “It’s good to meet you, mates,” he’d said, his Australian accent thick. “My sheila talks about you all the time.”

  I’d shaken my head. Couldn’t any of these guys get the names right?

  “Her name is Leah,” I’d said, knowing how it hurt to have a guy call you the wrong name.

  “Sheila is what they call girls in Australia,” Leah said, a look of adoration on her face. “He’s saying that I’m his girl.”

  “Come on, Leah love,” he’d said then. “Let’s dance.”

  Leah love? How adorable. I could see why she was falling for this guy. They moved to the dance floor. Allie and Sam went to the back room where there were Foosball tables and a TV showing a football game. Leaving me and Joe to guard the table from the tourists who were searching for a place to sit. The place was crowded tonight.

  I stared at Joe, trying to figure out what he’d been trying to say. “What?”

  “Paige Turner. That’s not her real name.”

  “How did you know I was thinking about Paige?”

  Shaking his head, he grinned. “I didn’t. I was just watching the Ski Lifts, thinking that a band with such a bland name would never show up on Letterman—”

  “Oh, my gosh, that’s exactly what I was thinking.”

  His grin grew. “Really?”

  Too bizarre. I nodded.

  “Great minds, huh?”

  I returned his smile. “I guess so.”

  “Well, anyway, thinking of the band’s name reminded me about Paige, and since we’d talked about her being in the witness protection program,” he shrugged, “I forgot to tell you that I asked her last night about her name.”

  “She’s not in the witness protection program, is she?” I asked, somewhat disappointed that I was going to have to give up on my theory.

  “Nope. She’s an official member of the what-were-my-parents-thinking-when-they-named-me club.”

  I couldn’t help but chuckle at that. “So what did they name her?”

  “She wouldn’t say.”

  “Bummer! Why is everyone being so se