Viva Vermont!

by Melody Carlson

  “Was that your boyfriend?” asked the woman as she set the cup in front of her.

  “My friend.” DJ peered down at the muck in her cup and wondered if there was any way to make it drinkable. “Hank from the Shell station is going to tow his truck to town and—”

  “Well, that’s going to cost a pretty penny.”

  DJ nodded. “I guess. But it sounds like he’s going to get it fixed, and we can make it on up to Ashton Peak.”

  The woman laughed. “Hank’s going to stay up all night and work on your boyfriend’s car?”

  “Pickup.”

  “Car, pickup, bicycle … whatever. But I just can’t fathom Hank’s gonna be out there working on it all night. Not the Hank I know.”

  “But that’s what he told my—”

  “Don’t count on it, sweetie.”

  DJ frowned as the woman set a dish of creamers and sugar packets in front of her.

  “I don’t mean to pop your bubble. But Hank’s just not that sort. I’m surprised he’d drag himself away from the TV to go out and tow anything this time of night. Your boyfriend must be paying him good.”

  “If that’s true …” DJ paused. “What will we do?”

  “You mean for the night?”

  “Yeah.”

  “I got a room I can rent. I don’t usually rent by the night, but I could make an exception.”

  “A room?”

  “Yeah. It ain’t the Ritz. But it’s not like you’ve got much choice in this one-horse town.”

  “No hotels?”

  “No hotels, motels, guest houses … sweetie, we don’t even have a real brothel.”

  DJ rolled her eyes. Like they needed a brothel!

  15

  “WELL, MAYBE YOU’RE WRONG about Hank,” said DJ as she poured a second sugar packet into her coffee. “Maybe he’ll get the pickup running tonight. And maybe we’ll be out of your hair before long.”

  “And maybe pigs will fly you out of here too.” The woman laughed loudly as she went to see if anyone needed a refill on their drink.

  DJ sat and watched the grainy TV above the bar. An old rerun of Law and Order was playing, but at least it helped to pass the time. It was close to midnight when Conner finally reappeared.

  “Bad news,” he said as he pulled out a barstool and sat next to her.

  “Hank’s not going to fix the pickup?”

  “How’d you know?”

  She nodded over to the woman who was watching them as she lit a cigarette. “Small town,” said DJ. “Word travels fast.”

  “Hank said it’s the U joint, and that he’ll get to it first thing in the morning.”

  “That’s it then? We’re stuck?”

  Conner exhaled loudly then nodded. “That is unless you had any luck with the guys already up there. Any chance that Harry wants to make a moonlight run to get us?”

  She quickly filled him in on the inebriated state of Harry and friends. “Even Taylor said it was a bad idea.”

  Conner glanced around the room as if hoping that a taxi driver might rise up from one of the tables. “And Hank said there are no buses or anything from here.”

  “That’s what I hear.” DJ shook her head. “What’re we going to do?”

  “I could call my dad to come get us. But by the time he makes it up here, it’ll probably be close to two … and Hank told me he gets up early. He thinks he could have the pickup running by nine. That means we could make it to the lodge before noon. Not that it would do much good since there’s no place to stay. Hank told me there’s no hotel. I guess I better just call Dad.” He pressed his lips tightly together. “I’ll probably get some big lecture too.”

  “Unless we take care of this ourselves.” DJ sighed. “Apparently there’s a room we could rent for the night.”

  “A room? As in one room?”

  DJ held up her hands defensively. “It’s not like I’m offering to sleep with you, Conner. I just mean there’s a place where we can hole up until morning. Unless you’d rather sleep in your pickup.” She brightened. “In that case, I’ll take the room.”

  “I’d be a frozen corpse by morning.” He shook his head. “I wish I’d brought a sleeping bag … but Harry promised me a bed. Not that it’s doing me much good now.”

  The woman, who must’ve been eavesdropping, approached them now. “You kids want to rent that room tonight?”

  DJ glanced uncomfortably at Conner, and he just shrugged.

  “I guess so,” said DJ. “How much is it?”

  “Well, like I said, it’s not the Ritz. But then again, I don’t normally rent it by the night either.” She seemed to study them now. “But I’ll let you have it for a hundred bucks. How’s that sound?”

  Well, it sounded like highway robbery, but DJ decided not to go there. Instead, she opened her purse.

  “I can pay for it,” said Conner.

  “No,” she insisted. “I’m paying. And you are sleeping on the floor.”

  The woman laughed as DJ counted out the cash. “Sleeping on the floor, now that’s a good one.” She handed DJ a brass key. “It’s the second door on the left at the top of the stairs. The bathroom’s down the hall.”

  “The bathroom’s down the hall?” DJ whispered to Conner. “Meaning we share it with others?”

  “I guess.”

  They went up the stairs without speaking, and DJ was feeling more and more uncomfortable with this. Really, what had she been thinking? On the other hand, what choice did they have? She put the key in the door and turned it.

  “Want me to go in first?” he offered.

  “Sure.” The truth was she wasn’t sure what to expect. But everything about this evening seemed to resemble a bad scene in some old horror movie. She expected to see a bloodthirsty ax murderer lurking around the next corner.

  Conner flicked on the lights to reveal a stark room with tan walls and one window, a straight-backed chair, a dresser, and a full-sized bed with a bedside table and lamp next to it.

  “It’s not the Ritz,” teased Conner.

  DJ pulled back the coverlet to examine the sheets. Although they were yellowed, they seemed to be clean.

  “Any bedbugs in there?”

  “Yuck.”

  “Are you serious about me sleeping on the floor?” he asked as he looked down at the hard linoleum.

  She opened a door to a tiny closet and found a spare blanket, which she handed to him.

  “Gee, thanks.”

  She looked down at the floor now. It did look hard. And cold. “I don’t know, Conner. This is a tough call. I mean, obviously, I don’t think we’d do anything—you know—but, well, it just feels, you know …”

  “Wrong.” He nodded. “Yeah, I know. If you want me to sleep on the floor, I will.”

  She stood there considering everything and finally said. “No. Let’s both sleep on the bed. But fully clothed, okay?”

  He nodded. “Trust me, I was planning on sleeping fully clothed anyway, DJ. No way am I taking my clothes off in this place.”

  “And no touching.”

  He laughed. “Don’t worry. I know the rules. We’re just friends, DJ. We both agreed to that, right?”

  She frowned as she stared at the bed. This was not how she’d planned to spend the night. Not how she planned to spend her first night with a guy. Not that that was what this was. She knew that. But at the same time it felt all wrong.

  “I’m going to check out the bathroom,” he said as he hung his jacket over the back of the chair.

  “Let me know how it goes.” Already DJ felt like she wanted to disinfect herself from everything she’d been exposed to in the bar—and normally she wasn’t a real neat freak. Fortunately, she’d used the restroom when they’d had dinner. After a swim meet she was usually somewhat dehydrated and knew she could probably last until morning.

  She peeled back the covers on the bed. After Conner’s comment, she was checking for bedbugs now. Not seeing anything moving, she rolled the spare blanket into some
thing of a barrier and laid it right down the center of the bed. Okay, she knew it was silly, but it made her feel better. Then she took off her shoes and climbed in and, lying down, she pulled up the covers and closed her eyes.

  Eventually, she heard Conner return to the room. She had already decided to play opossum and pretend to be asleep. It seemed the simplest solution. She heard the bed creak and felt him carefully getting in beside her. He turned out the light and before long, she heard the even sound of his breathing and was pretty sure he’d fallen asleep.

  As tired as she was, she was wide awake. But at the same time, she didn’t want to move, didn’t want to disturb him. Okay, on the weirdness scale of one to ten, this had to rank right up there at eleven. The craziness of the whole thing almost made her laugh. But she knew that might wake up Conner. And then she’d have to explain. Why risk it. Because despite all this lofty talk of just being friends and a purely platonic relationship, she still remembered what it felt like when he kissed her, when his arms were around her. In fact, she almost found it hard to believe that he was able to go to sleep like that. It seemed unfair.

  That’s when she knew it was time to pray. Here she’d been so worried about how he might act in this situation, and she was the one ready to jump all over him. Well, if that wasn’t humbling. So she actually confessed this to God and asked him to help her stay in control of these reckless feelings. Finally, she asked God to help them get the pickup running and safely up to the lodge in the morning. Praying did the trick, because before long she was falling asleep too.

  “Want to get some breakfast?”

  “Huh?” DJ blinked at the light coming through a window. “It’s nearly eight,” Conner told her. “I let you sleep in.”

  She sat up and looked around, attempting to get her bearings.

  “Hank’s working on the pickup. He thinks it’ll be ready to go in about forty more minutes.”

  “Really?” DJ swung her feet around the bed and began putting on her shoes.

  “Hey, did you know you snore?”

  “So I’ve been told,” said DJ.

  “It’s kind of cute, really. Kind of a puppy-dog snore.”

  “Gee, thanks.”

  “So how do you feel?”

  “How do I feel?”

  “I mean the morning after.”

  She turned and stared at him with shock. “What?”

  “You know, after our first night sleeping together.” He had a teasing grin, and she knew he was just jerking her chain.

  She picked up her pillow and began smacking him in the head with it, over and over. “I feel just fine, Conner,” she said. “How about you? How are you feeling?” She suppressed laughter as he tried to defend himself.

  “Okay, okay!” He finally grabbed the pillow and tossed it to the bed. “Sorry. I thought you could take a joke.”

  She narrowed her eyes and then shook her head. “Not before breakfast, I can’t.”

  “Let’s get moving then. There’s a tiny café down the street. Hank said the food’s not bad.” Conner laughed. “Not that we have any other choice.”

  As it turned out, the food wasn’t bad. And the coffee, though not great, was way better than the bar’s coffee last night.

  “So, did you have sweet dreams last night?” Conner asked in a teasing tone after the waitress refilled their coffee cups.

  “Are you nuts? I felt like I was starring in a Stephen King flick.”

  He chuckled. “Me too.”

  “Well, today should be much better.”

  He glanced at his watch. “Just think, we might be riding down the mountain in a few hours.”

  He wasn’t far from wrong. A few hours—and a few hundred dollars—later, Conner’s pickup was pulling up in front of General Harding’s lodge.

  “Wow, this is nice,” said DJ as she grabbed her duffle. Hopefully, the girls had taken her other things inside by now, although she wouldn’t be surprised if they’d forgotten. She just hoped that Taylor had remembered to mention this whole thing to Grandmother this morning.

  “I’m heading over to Harry’s,” said Conner. “My guess is that the rest of them have already headed up the mountain by now. Want me to come back by here to get you?”

  “Yeah, sounds good.” DJ opened one of the big double doors and went into the spacious room. The floors in the entry were slate, and the big open beams looked like real logs.

  “Well, well …” said Grandmother as DJ wandered into an open room with an enormous rock fireplace that went clear up to the high, vaulted ceiling. “You made it after all.” Grandmother had on a stylish-looking ski outfit that probably wasn’t going anywhere near the slope. She was comfortably seated in an overstuffed chair next to the crackling fireplace, with a mug of something hot and several magazines at her elbow.

  “Did Taylor tell you about Conner’s pickup breaking down?”

  “Yes, which only proves that you should’ve come with us in the first place, Desiree. We had such a lovely ride up here.”

  “Well, that would’ve meant skipping out on the swim meet, Grandmother.” DJ smiled at her. “And you’ve said that young ladies honor their word.”

  “That’s true. Anyway, you are here now. In one piece. The others have gone up to the mountain. I was enjoying the quietness of this lovely place.”

  DJ sensed that was a hint to make herself scarce. “Do you know where I’m supposed to be staying?”

  “One of the rooms on the second floor. I’m sure you’ll find it if you look around.”

  DJ wasn’t so sure, but decided to give it her best shot. She found a room with two beds, where it looked like Eliza and Kriti must be staying. Another nice suite at the end of the hallway appeared to be where Grandmother had made herself at home. Eventually, DJ found a large room with three sets of bunks, with her own things piled on one of them. Voila!

  Relieved to be back in “civilization,” DJ took a long hot shower, changed into her snowboarding stuff, and hoped that her snowboard would be somewhere easy to find outside. She’d also taken the time to put on the sturdy elastic leg brace that her therapist had insisted she wear for snowboarding. It felt a little awkward as she went down the stairs, but if it prevented any further injury it would be worth it.

  “You be careful up there,” the therapist had warned her. “Your leg is almost as good as new, but a hard fall could land you right back where you started.”

  “There you are,” said Conner when DJ emerged. “Is this yours?” He held up the dark blue Burton board that her mom had gotten for her several years ago when DJ had insisted she had to go snowboarding or “die.” Those were pretty much her words too. Now it was sadly ironic to think that it was her mother who had actually died. But DJ remembered how pleased her mom had been to present this board to DJ on her fourteenth birthday. “It’s perfect,” DJ had cried, throwing her arms around her mother. “How did you know?” Mom had teased her then, reminding DJ of how she’d left computer printouts and ads for this exact same board all over their condo.

  “You okay?” asked Conner with concern.

  “Yeah.” DJ sighed. “Just remembering.”

  “Well, that’s a cool board. Mine’s a Burton too. You ready to hit the slopes?”

  She grinned. “You bet. It’s been a while, but I’m sure it’ll all come back to me.”

  “We should probably get our boards waxed first,” he said, nodding over to the big lodge. “And we need lift tickets and a map, since I haven’t ridden here before. Have you?”

  “Nope.”

  Fortunately, since they were late, the rush hour was over and they soon had everything they needed. “Did that guy say there were only four lifts?” asked DJ as they strapped on their boards and headed for a lift line.

  “Yeah. This is a pretty small resort. But the good news is the lines are pretty small too.”

  Soon they were riding up the mountain and finally standing at the top and looking down.

  “Viva Vermont!” said DJ and then sh
e carefully took off. She’d already informed Conner that, because of her leg, she planned to take it slow and easy. “No kamikaze runs for this girl.”

  “Nice ride,” said Conner when they regrouped at the foot of the hill. “For taking it easy, you go pretty fast.”

  “Thanks.” She grinned. “Ready to go again—”

  “Hey,” yelled Taylor as she and Seth joined them. “The renegades have arrived.”

  “When’d you get here?” asked Seth as they all got into line together.

  “About an hour ago,” Conner told him.

  Taylor grabbed DJ’s hand now. “You’re riding up with me, girlfriend.”

  DJ didn’t argue. It was kind of nice that Taylor was glad to see her, but as soon as they were seated on the lift, Taylor started grilling her. Naturally, Taylor tried to make the night in a hotel sound like something it wasn’t. But at least she was doing it with good humor.

  “No, no,” laughed DJ. “Nothing happened, I swear.” Then, without thinking, DJ told Taylor about how she’d made a blanket bridge.

  “You mean you slept in the same bed?” Taylor’s eyes lit up.

  DJ realized her mistake now. “Well, yeah, sort of. But we were stuck in this tiny town with no hotel. And there was just this one nasty little room, and I couldn’t make Conner freeze in his pickup. Trust me, Taylor, we slept with our clothes on, and nothing whatsoever happened.”

  Taylor was laughing really hard now. “Yeah, sure, whatever you say.”

  “Honest! Nothing happened!”

  Taylor nodded. “Lighten up, DJ.”

  “Huh?”

  “I believe you. That’s why this is so funny.”

  They were at the top now, and it was time to get off. “It’s so funny.”

  “What are you saying?” demanded DJ as she adjusted her goggles.

  “It’s funny because only you, DJ, could sleep in the same bed with your boyfriend for an entire night and not have sex.”

  “Shh!” DJ glanced over her shoulder, worried that someone might be listening.

  “Don’t worry,” said Taylor as she got ready to take off down the hill. “The trees aren’t talking.”