Love on the Lifts Read online

  “That’s it.”

  I breathed a huge sigh of relief. That had gone a lot easier than I’d expected.

  “I’ll add your rules to ours, then we can all sign—”

  “Kate, we don’t have to sign anything. We’ve agreed to the rules. Now move away from the TV. The Pats are back in scoring position.”

  “You’re from Texas. You’re supposed to like the Cowboys or the Texans.”

  “I like anyone who’s good. And the rule is you don’t talk when we’re watching football, so”—he made a zipping motion across his mouth—“go.”

  “I still think we should sign—”

  “We’re not signing. It’s non-negotiable.”

  “If he doesn’t follow a rule, I’ll kick his butt,” Joe said, still smiling warmly.

  I couldn’t figure out what color his eyes were. Were they brown or green? A light blue?

  “Yeah, Mr. Law and Order over here will make sure all the rules are followed,” Sam said. “Now, Kate, please get out of the way before I haul you to the deck and toss you into the snow.”

  “I’d like to see you try,” was what I heard inside my head, but since Brad was sitting there, I didn’t give actual voice to the words. That, too, was a disadvantage to having Sam around. I’d have to fight my natural inclination to constantly argue with him. Who wanted a shrew for a girlfriend? Plus I didn’t want to appear childish again. I took a deep breath. “Only because you said please.”

  With my shoulders squared, I walked away from the TV with Allie and Leah following behind me.

  We’d won. Sorta.

  “Did you see the way Brad looked at you?” Leah asked. “Too cool!”

  We’d retreated to my bedroom. As soon as the door was closed, I’d done the happy dance around the room before plopping on the quilt-covered king-size sleigh bed. This room was totally romantic, and I was feeling very romanced—in a subtle kind of way.

  “Did you see Brad wink?” I asked. “He actually winked at me. Have you ever seen anything so sexy?”

  “It was definitely hot,” Allie said. “And directed entirely at you. It was like Leah and I weren’t even there. He wants you around, Kate. That’s so great, especially since it’s incredibly obvious that Sam doesn’t want us around.”

  “My brother can be such a jerk. Is it any wonder that he can’t get a girlfriend?”

  “He’s not that bad,” Leah said. “You should try living with my brothers sometime.”

  “No thanks.”

  “Honestly, guys, I don’t think it’s that Sam doesn’t want us around,” Leah said. “It’s like Joe said. We weren’t expecting them; they might not have been expecting us. So we make the best of the situation.”

  “You’re right,” Allie said. “And the best of the situation is that Brad has a definite interest in Kate.”

  “The best is that the guys will clean the kitchen,” Leah said, grinning. “I hate cleaning the kitchen.”

  “Who doesn’t?” I asked. Maybe my mom. Nah, I was pretty sure she hated it, too.

  “Speaking of the guys,” Leah said, “I gotta confess, Joe is to die for. The way he looked at you, Kate, while you were reading off our demands—so intense. Like he was really listening, really cared. And the way he took our side was totally awesome. My brothers would walk barefoot over glass before they’d side with me on anything.”

  “He surprised me, jumping to our defense the way he did,” I admitted. “You’re welcome to him.” Grimacing, I looked over at Allie. “But if we pair up, me with Brad, Leah with Joe, that would leave you with Sam. I wouldn’t foist my brother off on my worst enemy. I guess we better not try to pair up.”

  “No, way!” Leah said. “Operation Get-Brad-Together-With-Kate is officially underway. Allie and I can take turns with the other two, so there’s no obvious pairing, except for you and Brad.”

  “But if you’re interested in Joe…” Allie’s voice trailed off.

  “I’m not interested in him as a potential winter break boyfriend or anything,” Leah said. “I just think he’s cute. Our real goal here is to get Brad with Kate. And if Allie and I have to play guy-tag for that to happen, so be it. No hardship.”

  I nibbled on my bottom lip, trying not to get too excited about the prospect that I might actually end my winter break with the boyfriend of my dreams.

  “Are you guys sure you don’t mind?”

  “We’re sure,” Allie and Leah said at the same time.

  “You guys are the absolute best.”

  “Of course we are,” Leah said. “So what are we gonna cook for supper tonight?”

  I groaned. “Right. I know Aunt Sue loaded the fridge and pantry for us, so there is bound to be something we can whip together. There’s also a crock pot. We could fill it with something before we leave for the slopes in the morning. Let it simmer all day so it’s ready when we get home.”

  “You mean like a stew?” Allie asked.

  “Yeah. Or chili. We don’t have to get fancy. Just so there’s plenty of it and it’s hot.”

  My cell phone began to chirp. I hopped off the bed, grabbed the backpack I’d left by the dresser earlier after I’d settled in, dug out my cell phone, and immediately recognized the number.

  “Hey, Aunt Sue. Were you calling to make sure we still had survivors over here?”

  She laughed. “This could be a reality show. A brother and sister snowed in together. How long can they survive?”

  “No, thanks.”

  “But you did get everything worked out?”

  “Pretty much, yeah.”

  “Good. Since you’re all still alive and friends—”

  “I wouldn’t go that far.”

  She laughed again. My aunt had a really fun laugh. Boisterous, like she enjoyed life. Which she did.

  “How about we all get together for dinner tonight? My treat,” she said.

  Saved from cooking! “That would be great. Where did you have in mind?”

  Chapter 4

  Pile It On Pizza was where we all ended up. Like every other restaurant and shop in Snow Angel Valley, it was quaint with its own unique atmosphere. Very rustic, it looked like the inside of a log cabin. We picked the size crust that we wanted, then we walked down the long length of the counter pointing to the ingredients we wanted piled on.

  We ended up ordering two pizzas because the guys made a big production of groaning when Allie pointed to the green olives. My brother had always been a meat-and-potatoes-only kind of guy. I guess the others were as well.

  They went with pepperoni, sausage, hamburger, and Canadian bacon. Aunt Sue, Allie, Leah, and I chose mushrooms, green olives, black olives, and more mushrooms. Pile It On honored its name. The guy at the counter piled it on until we told him to stop. Then into the oven they went.

  We took two pitchers of root beer to a long wooden table. Allie, Leah, and even Aunt Sue, jockeyed for chairs at the table until miraculously, somehow, Brad ended up sitting beside me. Aunt Sue was at the head of the table, with Joe beside her, then Leah and Sam. Allie sat across from Sam, Brad was between Allie and me, and I was beside Aunt Sue. It couldn’t have worked out better, except of course, for poor Allie who was stuck at the far end of the table across from my brother. I was afraid if she spent too much time with him she might re-evaluate her friendship with me. Was it worth putting up with Sam?

  I glanced down there and saw that Sam was actually being polite, smiling, and talking with her. That was something that I didn’t see very often—Sam being pleasant. Of course, I also didn’t see him with my friends too often. He tended to avoid us like the plague.

  “It’s supposed to snow again tonight,” Aunt Sue said. “Fresh powder will make your ski experience so much better.”

  “Do you ski?” Joe asked.

  Aunt Sue smiled. “Not as much as I used to. I fancy ski boarding these days and snowmobiling.”

  “A lot of people think snowmobiles are bad for the environment,” I said. “The exhaust pollutes the wilder