Love on the Lifts Read online

  Chapter 10

  “Hot dogs?” Sam asked. “That’s your idea of cooking a meal? Hot dogs?”

  We were sitting at the dining room table. I glowered at Sam. “We’re short on time because we have a party to get ready for. Besides, there’s bound to be food there. Consider this a snack.”

  “I love hot dogs,” Brad said. He’d come back from Cynthia’s shortly after we got home.

  “Clean-up should be a breeze,” Joe said.

  “Absolutely.” I smiled at Sam. “So there.”

  “What are we going to have tomorrow?”

  “We were thinking stew,” Allie said.

  Sam looked over at her, and I thought she was actually blushing.

  “We could put all the ingredients in the crock pot before we leave in the morning, and they’d simmer all day. If you like stew,” she said.

  “Yeah, I like stew,” he said.

  “Since when?” I asked.

  He glared at me. “It’s got meat and potatoes in it, doesn’t it?”

  “And vegetables.”

  “I can pick them out.”

  “We don’t have to put vegetables in there,” Allie said.

  “Yeah, we do,” I said. “Otherwise, it’ll be boring.”

  “Maybe we should take a vote,” she said.

  “I don’t think we want our menus determined by a committee.”

  “Kate’s right,” Leah said. “There’s always going to be something that someone doesn’t like.”

  Allie shrugged. “I just wanted to be fair.”

  “Whatever y’all cook will be fine,” Sam said, looking at Allie again.

  Whoa! Was this my brother talking?

  He looked over at me. “Except for hot dogs.”

  “Whatever. Like I said, we were short on time.”

  “Just make sure you fix a lot of whatever it is, because we’ll be hungry after skiing all day.”

  “We’ll take care of it, Sam.”

  “Speaking of taking care of things, your aunt sure is taking good care of us,” Leah said. “The pantry, the freezer, they’re full of food. I don’t think we’ll have to do much shopping while we’re here.”

  “She likes taking care of us,” I told her.

  “She’s always been like that,” Sam confirmed. “I think because the first time Mom and Dad left us here, Kate cried the entire time.”

  “I didn’t cry the entire time,” I said. “Besides, I was six.”

  “Remember the year we sneaked down to the store after she’d gone to sleep and ate all the marshmallows?”

  Nodding, I laughed. “I was what? Eight?”

  “Yeah. I’ve never been so sick in my life.”

  “I couldn’t stand the sight of a marshmallow for the longest time,” I admitted.

  “Good times,” Sam said. “We’ve had lots of good times here. And more to come, starting tonight.”

  I shoved back my chair, stood, and grinned at him. “Not until after you clean up.”

  “What do you think?” I asked. “Is this too much?”

  Allie, Leah, and I were all in my bedroom getting ready for the party. We’d decided that was the best way to do it. We’d hog one bathroom and let the guys get ready downstairs.

  Leah smiled. “You look great!”

  I was wearing a green cowl-necked sweater. The sleeves hugged my arms and went down to my knuckles. I loved the way they covered my hands, leaving only my fingers visible. The sweater itself wasn’t too bulky, so my figure wasn’t hidden away. I was wearing jeans. It was absolutely too cold to wear a skirt. There wasn’t a lot of parking in the heart of the village, so it was impossible to know how far we might have to walk.

  Leah and Allie agreed with my assessment of wearing a skirt. They were in jeans, too. And sweaters. Leah wore a red turtleneck sweater, and Allie wore a pink one with fluffy white fur at the collar. Leah with her short, dark hair looked mysterious; Allie with her blonde hair draped around her shoulders looked delicate.

  I was somewhere in the middle, not too mysterious, not too delicate. The three of us could be a bedtime story.

  I’d applied a hot iron to my hair to try to straighten out some of the natural curl. And I’d used some light green shadow to highlight my eyes.

  “I don’t look like I’m trolling for guys, do I?” I asked, a little unsure about the makeup, worried that it was a bit too much.

  “You mean like Cynthia next door?”

  I grimaced. “Yeah.”

  “You gotta fight fire with fire,” Leah said.

  “So I look like a skank?”

  “No,” my friends both assured me at the same time.

  “You look like you want guys to notice you,” Leah said. “But we all do, right? That’s the whole point of going to a party. To hook up with guys.”

  “Right.”

  “And tonight is all about getting you with Brad.”

  I stared at my reflection in the mirror. Was it?

  “Right?” Allie asked, as though reading my mind.

  “Right.”

  “So what’s up with you and Joe?” she asked.

  “Why would you think there was anything?” I picked up my brush and started dragging it through my hair. It created static electricity, causing the strands to start flying around my head like Medusa’s snakes. I should have left well enough alone.

  “Maybe the fact that you came in with him before supper and you were both laughing and breathless.”

  “Laughing leaves you breathless.”

  “Your cheeks were flushed.”

  “They were cold. Besides, I told you. He stayed and helped during the rush at the hot chocolate counter.”

  “I think he likes you,” Allie said.

  “He likes someone, but I don’t think it’s me. He kinda mentioned her today.” I spun around. “Speaking of kinda liking someone, this morning Aunt Sue told me that she was once in love.”

  Leah and Allie smiled as though I’d shared the secret of the century, their eyes huge. “Really? Who is he?”

  “I don’t know. She wouldn’t say. She thought she was going to marry him.”

  “What happened?” Allie asked.

  “I don’t know. Like I said. She wouldn’t say. She was her usual mysterious self.”

  “I’ll bet there’s a picture of him hanging somewhere in her store.”

  I stared at Allie. I hadn’t thought of that. A lot of the photos did have guys in them. “I’ll bet you’re right. I’ve looked at all of them, but not that closely.”

  “Tomorrow we’ll have to go on a hunt through the shop, study all the photos, and see if we can figure out who he was,” Leah said.

  “I’ll bet he was hot,” Allie said. “He had to be hot.”

  “Maybe he was an artic explorer,” Leah said.

  “In which case he’d be cold,” I said.

  “Lame, Kate!” Leah shouted.

  We were still laughing when we stepped into the living room, ready to go.

  And came up short.

  Had my stupid brother actually styled his dark hair? And what was this? A button-up shirt? Guess he was hoping to hook up with someone at the party as well. Whoever he ended up with would have my deepest sympathy.

  “What’s that stink?” I asked.

  “It’s some fancy aftershave,” Sam said, jerking his head to the side.

  That’s when I noticed Joe standing there, grimacing. I grimaced, too. I thought I’d been insulting Sam. Apparently another miscalculation on my part.

  “Moves, by Adidas,” Joe mumbled.

  “And we’re all planning to make some moves tonight,” Sam said. “Let’s go.”

  “What about Brad?” I asked.

  “He already went to get Cyn. They’ll meet us there.”

  I did my best to hide my disappointment, but since Brad had joined us for supper, I’d mistakenly thought he was back over playing with us. Why didn’t he just move next door already?

  We all grabbed our jackets and