Love on the Lifts Read online

  I skewered a marshmallow and warmed it over the fire. I wanted it to be a perfect golden brown.

  I looked over my shoulder. We’d set the graham crackers broken in half on a cookie tray and set the chocolate bars on half of them. Although now little evidence remained that chocolate had ever been there. “Sam! Stop eating the chocolate!”

  All three guys were guiltily licking their fingers, but you can’t get after guys you barely know, so Sam got the brunt of my yelling.

  “It’s taking too long to make these things,” he said.

  I grabbed the bag of chocolate bars and moved it to the other side of me.

  “Hey, your marshmallow’s on fire,” Joe said.

  “Dadgum it!” I pulled it close and blew on it. It was charred, and gravity was drawing the melting ooze toward the floor. I dropped it on a graham cracker, snatched a chocolate bar out of the bag, unwrapped it, broke it in half, and placed it on top of the marshmallow, then a cracker on top.

  The three guys were waiting to see who I’d favor with the s’mores. And since Sam had Allie and Ian had Leah…well, I had no choice. I held it out to Joe.

  He grinned, took the offering, and promptly wolfed it down. “Thanks, but try not to burn the next one.”

  I scowled at him. He laughed.

  “It’s gonna be a long night,” I said.

  It was a long night. The lights went out again, but we were prepared with the candles already lit and flashlights nearby.

  We were also all stuffed with s’mores. I thought if I never saw another marshmallow for the rest of my life, it would be too soon.

  “Well, this sucks,” Sam said, sitting on the floor, his back against the couch. “I wonder how the game ended.”

  “Someone won, someone lost,” I said.

  “Very funny, Kate.” He glanced over at Aunt Sue who was reading a book in the recliner, using a tiny flashlight. “You’re not going to try to walk home tonight, are you?”

  Looking up, she peered out the glass doors. “Probably not.”

  “You can sleep with me,” I offered. “I’ve got the king-size bed.”

  “Thanks, Katie.”

  “It’ll be like old times,” I said. When I was little, I’d always sleep with Aunt Sue when I came to visit her.

  Aunt Sue smiled. “Do you remember that time—”

  “Aunt Sue, before you say something that will probably embarrass me, can we skip the walk down memory lane?”

  “If you insist.”

  “There will be great skiing tomorrow,” Ian said.

  “Since Brad moved out and we have the extra bed downstairs, I told Ian he could stay. I hope that’s okay,” Leah said.

  “That’s cool,” Sam said.

  “He can sleep on the couch, Joe, if you want—” Leah began.

  “I’m cool on the couch.”

  Leah smiled like Joe had handed her a ring. I guess she wanted Ian as close as she could have him.

  “How long have you lived here, Ian?” Aunt Sue asked.

  “Three years.”

  “Do you miss your family?” Allie asked.

  “A little, but I love living here. America has the most beautiful girls.” He gave Leah a look that said she was one of them.

  “I always thought Australian girls were beautiful,” Sam said.

  Allie slapped his arm.

  “Hey!” He rubbed his arm. “What was that for?”

  “You’re not supposed to notice beautiful girls.”

  “I was doing the noticing before you.”

  I couldn’t help but smile. Allie always seemed like the quietest of our group, but I had a feeling that Sam wasn’t going to get away with a whole heck of a lot.

  I felt Joe’s gaze on me and I looked over at him. I think he was thinking the same thing. That Allie was sweet, but she also knew her own mind.

  “I think I’m going to turn in,” Aunt Sue said. “Good skiing tomorrow means I’ll be busy in the morning. Goodnight, everyone.”

  Her departure practically started a stampede: the downstairs group headed downstairs, leaving me and Joe sitting in front of the fireplace, watching the fire burn. I thought about saying that I should go to bed, too, but I wasn’t tired.

  The lights came back on and Joe popped up. “I’m going to turn them all off.”

  We left the candles burning. The scent was familiar. I remembered it from that first morning when I’d done meditation with Aunt Sue. I was pretty sure it was midnight passion.

  Figured. She probably hadn’t really gone to bed, either. Come to think of it, she took her book with her. Meddlesome matchmaker.

  Joe sat back down on the floor. Raised a knee, draped his wrist over it, looked at the fire.

  “Well, I guess when the storm is over and Ian goes back to wherever he lives, you’ll finally get to sleep in a bed,” I said.

  “I like the couch.”

  “How can you like sleeping on the couch?”

  He angled his head slightly so he could see me better. “I just do. I can watch TV, raid the kitchen.”

  “You raid the kitchen?”

  “Sometimes.”

  Of course, he could still watch TV and raid the kitchen if he was sleeping in a bed. It wasn’t like where he slept made either off-limits.

  I thought about what had almost happened in the pantry, how he’d almost kissed me. Part of me wanted to say, “Hey, remember what we were doing before Sam spoiled the party? You can finish now.”

  But part of me thought that maybe I should leave well enough alone. I’d practically thrown myself at Brad. I didn’t want to do that with Joe.

  I mean, sure, he’d expressed some interest and maybe he had wanted to kiss me earlier, but he didn’t seem to want to kiss me now. I drew my legs up, wrapped my arms around them, planted my chin on my knees, and stared at the fire.

  I really wanted to go out on the deck for some heavy thinking. But the wind was still howling and the snow still flying.

  “You ever been in love?” I asked.

  “Been in like plenty of times.”

  I peered over at him.

  “Never in love,” he admitted.

  “Same here. I wonder how you know when you’re in love.”

  “You just know.”

  I chuckled. There were those two little words—just know. But for some reason, they didn’t irritate me.

  “I’ve got something for you,” Joe said quietly.

  And I thought here it is, here comes the kiss. But I was wrong. I watched him stretch out and grab his duffle bag that he kept beside the recliner. Poor guy didn’t even have a place to keep his clothes. How much more hospitable could my brother and I be?

  “There’s some empty drawers in the dresser in my bedroom,” I said. “Why don’t you put your things in there tomorrow?”

  “Okay. Thanks.”

  “It’s no big deal. You’re using that bathroom to get ready in the morning. Might as well hang your stuff in my closet, too.”

  “Okay.”

  He unzipped a side pouch, removed a bag that I recognized, the bag he’d been holding the first day at A Novel Place. He pulled out a bookmark and handed it to me.

  It was clear, a tiny purple and white flower pressed inside.

  “I saw that and thought that since you like to read, maybe you’d like to have it. Then I chickened out of giving it to you, because I thought that since you like to read, you probably have a hundred bookmarks—”

  “No,” I said, cutting him off, thinking how sweet he was. “I don’t have any bookmarks. I’m always using whatever scrap of paper is handy when I stop reading. This is beautiful. Thank you.” I rose up on my knees, leaned toward him, and kissed him briefly on the lips. “I have to go to bed now.”

  I got up, clutching the bookmark to my chest like it was an entire bouquet of roses. “Thanks, again.”

  I hurried into my bedroom. Just as I’d surmised, Aunt Sue was sitting up in bed reading.

  “Thought you were tired,” I sa