“I’ll give Preston a fair chance to make a good impression,” she said. “How about that?”
I nodded. “Fine.” It would have to do for now.
“I can’t make any promises about your brother, though.” She grinned mischievously.
“I know,” I replied, smiling. “It was worth a try.”
CHAPTER TWO
A three-hour flight to Vancouver somehow turned into a full day of travel. There was no such a thing as a short line at airport security, our take-off was delayed, and it was written in Murphy’s Law that every single time I traveled my suitcase would be the very last one to hit the baggage claim belt.
By the time we were settled into Adam’s rental, I could tell that he had been waiting for a few hours. His blonde hair was tousled and his gaze weary. My brother was only twenty-four, but sometimes he seemed an entire decade older. It wasn’t his physical appearance that aged him as much as it was the permanent fatigue planted within his dark blue eyes.
“Mom wants you to call her,” Adam told me after greeting us. “She was worried about your late arrival.”
My mother was worried.What else was new?
As we set off on our ride to Whistler, I switched on my phone, but ignored the numerous voicemail and text notifications, deciding against responding to her right away.
One week. I just needed one week off.
Before I was even able to place the tiny device back in my purse, a familiar number flashed on its screen.
“I’m alive,” I said as I picked up. “The plane landed safely and I haven’t been kidnapped by anyone. Not yet, anyway.”
“I understand that you’re on your little vacation, Dylan, but jokes like that are not amusing,” my mother responded dryly. “I have been trying to reach you for hours.”
“Our flight was delayed. Everything is fine.”
“Now that I know you’re safe and sound, I wish to discuss your summer plans. You’ve been avoiding my questions all week. Have you given any more thought to what you’re going to do for work?” When she wasn’t worrying about my health and safety, my mother was fretting over my education and career.
“Yes, I have. But I can’t talk right it now, Mom.” Final exams had taken a lot out of me, and the last thing I needed was yet another one of her lectures on the importance of networking amongst medical professionals. Or the one about how her friends’ kids already had their prestigious summer internships on lockdown.
“I don’t think it would be in your best interest to help out at your father’s clinic again this year. You already have his name on your resume,” she said, either oblivious to my attempt at avoiding the talk or choosing to ignore my wishes as she often did. “We need to expand your horizons. You need a mentorship position with someone who can tutor you and help you get ahead of the pack. Sure, you managed to stay at the top of your class for the past four years, but medical school is going to be a lot more competitive than your undergraduate years were. Just ask your brother.”
“I know, Mom,” I said, gritting my teeth to keep from raising my voice. How many times has she told me this? About twenty. Just this week. “I already contacted some free clinics to see if they’re accepting any student volunteers. I’d really love to shadow a pediatrician.”
“Free clinics?” I could almost imagine the blood draining from my mother’s already pale face. “Dylan, you need to be working with influential professionals. Not wasting your time in some free clinic.” She said free clinic like it was some dirty strip club name. “Listen to me—”
“I promise to listen, but I really need this week to rest.” Maybe it was the fresh mountain air or the physical distance from my mother, but I gathered enough courage to cut her off—something I rarely did. “We’ll talk more about this when I get back next week, okay?”
“Next week?” There was a slight pause on the other end as my mother took a deep breath. “I didn’t know you were going to be gone an entire week.”
“Yes, Mom. Just a week.”
“What possessed you to go all the way to Whistler, anyway? We have plenty of ski resorts in Denver.” My mother never got audibly angry, but she was now speaking in that cool, collected tone that meant she was less than thrilled with me.
“Maddie. The best friend I haven’t seen in ages, remember?”
“Thank goodness I convinced your brother to keep you company,” she muttered, never one to miss an opportunity to voice her dislike for Maddie.
I narrowed my eyes at my brother. “And here I thought Adam wanted to treat his sister to a graduation present by spending some time with her.”
Adam shrugged sheepishly and offered me a thin smile. “I did want to spend time with you. Mom just…helped persuade me.” Considering our lack of closeness in the past few years, I shouldn’t have been surprised to learn that my brother was only here to appease our mother. Still, I couldn’t help the slight twinge of disappointment.
“Right,” I said to him, then turned back to the phone. “I have to go, Mom. Adam needs me to help him figure out the directions to the cabin.”
Once again, my mother ignored my attempt to disengage from our conversation. “I’m going to contact a few of your father’s colleagues and see if they would be willing to take you on.”
“Mom, please.”
“What do you think of Dr. Forrest? He’s got such a great client list and—”
Groaning, Maddie stretched out her hand from the back seat and plucked my phone from my ear. “Bad…pshh…rece…shhp…ption.” After some more attempts at imitating static, she hung up.
“You needed that,” she said, turning off my phone before tossing it back to me. “Trust me.”
I nodded, wishing I’d had enough guts to do that myself. Maddie was right. I desperately needed a week away from worries and responsibilities.
Just one tiny week of fun.
I was angry at myself for letting my mother rule my life and treat me like a five-year-old, but that was her routine behavior. Long ago, I had tried to stand up to her and fight the rules, but my attempts at rebelling caused her to suffer from chest pains and migraines. Memories of my father administering anti-anxiety injections into her body as he threatened that I would be the end of her were forever embedded in my brain. Somehow, over the years, I was trained to believe that pleasing my parents and obeying their wishes was my only duty as a daughter.
As we wound our way up a particularly icy hill, I could see from her expression in the rearview mirror that Maddie was starting to wonder if being trapped in a cabin with two “Type A Silvers” was going to be a good idea. She was peering through the window at the darkness around us, gnawing on her pinkie. It was a nervous habit dating way back to the first day of grade one.
I turned around to face her, plucked her hand from her mouth and laced her fingers through mine. “I will be tons of fun, Mads. I made a promise, didn’t I?”
She nodded at my brother. “What about this one over here?” He didn’t even seem to register her voice. “Can you say the same for him? He has barely said ten words to us since Vancouver. Not to mention, we just found out that your mom had practically forced him to come.” She disengaged her hand from mine and hit his shoulder.
“Huh? What?” Adam glanced back to her, his eyes widening as if he was seeing her for the very first time.
“My point exactly,” Maddie huffed.
“I’m sorry,” he said, one hand on the wheel, the other tugging at his short curls. “I’m just waiting to hear about this hospital internship that I applied for last week. They only take one med student each semester and—”
“And stressing over it isn’t going to help you get it,” Maddie said cutting him off. “Can we please leave school and work at the bottom of the mountain where they belong? Just for a couple of days. Then you can go back to drowning in exams and saving lives. The world won’t stop turning if you get a little buzzed and have a few naked encounters in the hot tub, you know!” She placed a hand on his thigh an
d laughed throatily.
She suddenly had Adam’s full attention, simultaneously grossing me out and proving that my big brother was just a mere mortal, after all.
“Maddie!” My jaw dropped and I smacked her arm, but I had to bite down on the inside of my cheeks to keep from bursting into a fit of giggles. “Please refrain from talking about getting naked with my brother unless you want the contents of my stomach to end up all over this car.”
“Chill out. That’s just the airplane food talking,” she said, grinning. “It’s not like I was inviting you to join the party.”
“I hope not!” My brother and I exclaimed simultaneously, which made us both laugh. I couldn’t recall the last time Adam and I had joked around together.
Maddie ruined the moment by saying, “You’ll be too busy getting naked with a guy of your own when I’m done dishing out my orders, Dee.”
I shook my head in disbelief. “What have I gotten myself into?” I groaned, feigning annoyance as I bit back another smile.
God, I missed this crazy girl!
She had a way of tearing through my life and turning everything upside down, but somehow still managing to make me smile amidst all the chaos. She’d always been the one unstable, unpredictable, explosive substance in my world. Whenever I wanted to escape the monotony of my perfect household, I would sneak over to her house.
It was amidst her five younger siblings, a journalist mother, and painter father that I learned life didn’t have to be neat to be beautiful. A small, messy house could equal a happy home. Spills and stains on white tablecloths were meant to be laughed at, music was supposed to be blared at full-volume, and hugs and kisses didn’t have to be limited to special occasions—they were doled out in abundance. Of course, I never dared to try out that philosophy in my parents’ home for fear of being reprimanded.
After what seemed like an hour of riding in silence, Adam finally spoke. “Is that the place we’re looking for?” he asked, squinting through the darkness. “Up where all those lights are?” He pointed to the top of the hill.
I glanced down at the GPS in my hand. “The address is a match.”
“Wow!” Maddie exclaimed. “My client didn’t tell me his place was located on a resort.”
We continued up the hill, passing by a few stores, a small bar, and a dance club, then driving up to a row of five three-story houses resembling modern versions of traditional Swiss chalets. Dark wood and expansive windows stretched across their entire façades, allowing a peek into the expensively decorated interiors bustling with snowboarders, skiers, and groupies. The house at the very end was the only one shrouded in darkness, awaiting our arrival.
“I didn’t know this would be such a party place,” Maddie said as we pulled into the driveway. “Since we’re not staying in the main village I thought we’d have to trek for miles to get to all the fun stuff, but it looks like our entertainment is covered for the entire week.”
We spent the next hour exploring the house and its surroundings with Maddie as our tour guide, eagerly narrating every little detail.
“Crystal chandeliers! Persian rugs! Marble fireplaces!”
“Look at this massive fridge! So much room for booze!”
“The third floor window has a great view of the ski hills. In turn, we have the perfect view of a group of sexy snowboarders tearing up the night runs.”
“Isn’t this bed the most comfortable thing ever? It’ll be like doing it on a cloud!” I could only hope she was referring to the act of sleeping.
“We share a pool with the rest of the community, but we have our own hot tub. It’ll be like doing it in a—”
I elected to tune her out at that point, but not before I could hear another infamous: “We’re going to have the best time ever!”
CHAPTER THREE
“I knew all those goats I’d sacrificed to Eros would eventually pay off,” Maddie said as she slipped into a slinky red dress.
My eyebrows shot up. “We haven’t even started drinking, but I’m pretty sure you’re already tanked. What are you talking about?”
“Don’t you know?” She grinned. “I’ve been praying to the Greek god of sex, pleading with him to ensure that you wear something hot and trendy for once. I’m so glad it worked.”
I adjusted the hem of my short black dress and smiled bravely. “I dress like this all the time.” There was no way I was going to tell her that this outfit had spent the past three years stuffed in the back of my closet.
“Sure you do,” she teased. “Every time we Skype your cat sweaters are such a turn-on. You have no idea how hot and bothered I get.”
Contrary to Maddie’s belief, I didn’t actually enjoy dressing like a geriatric homebody. I liked wearing sexy, fashionable clothes and enjoyed experimenting with make-up. Not for the purpose of attracting men or showing up other women—for myself.
It was just that comfort often won out over style. Especially between cramming sessions for biology and chemistry finals. There was something unorthodox about wearing lipstick and stilettos while performing a dissection of a pig fetus. Not to mention, my mother would go into immediate cardiac arrest if she ever saw me in anything as risqué as the low-cut piece of fabric that currently clung to my every curve, barely managing to cover my ass.
“You look amazing, Dee,” Maddie said, eyeing my reflection in the floor-length mirror spreading across an entire wall of my bedroom.
“I feel amazing.” My long, wheat-colored curls were tamed and polished. My black dress and dark make-up contrasted my pale skin and light eyes, bringing attention to features I often forgot were there. Full lips, long lashes, high cheekbones. My round baby face and long bangs pulled down my age slightly, but I countered those obstacles with the rest of my body. I didn’t have dangerously jaw-dropping curves like Maddie, but I managed to fill out my dress quite nicely.
“Do you often make a habit of praying to the Greek God of Sex?” I asked Maddie.
“Only when it comes to you, sister,” she replied, winking. Then she narrowed her eyes and asked the one question I’d been skirting around answering. “How’s sex with Presty Boy?”
I sank down on the edge of my bed, refusing to meet her eyes.
“Dee?” Panic filled Maddie’s voice. “Oh, Dear Lord! Don’t tell me that—”
“Sex isn’t really our thing.”
“Sex is everybody’s thing!” she cried. “What the hell is wrong with you?”
“I didn’t say sex wasn’t my thing, Mads,” I corrected carefully. “I just mean that Preston and I…uhh, we—”
“Have you never done it?!”
“Once,” I said sheepishly.
A mixture of terror and disbelief flooded Maddie’s eyes. “You’ve had sex one time in the past two years? One time?”
“You look like I just told you I was dying of a terrible disease or something.”
“You might as well be! Once in two years, Dee? Are you fucking insane?” She then lowered her voice and trained her pitying gaze on me. “Was it that bad?”
“Worse,” I admitted. “There was no…”
“Spark?” Maddie was holding firmly to her theory.
I nodded. “There was no anything really. He actually encouraged me to have fun with other people. As long as we kept up the pretense in front of our parents, he was okay with having an open relationship.”
She took a moment to mull over that idea. “Please tell me that you took his suggestion and slept around with a horde of well-endowed Stanford students,” she said, brightening. “And perhaps even some well-endowed professors.”
“I didn’t have any time to sleep around.” I buried my flushed cheeks in my hands. “Studying kind of sucked up most of my energy.”
“Are you planning to wait until you get your medical degree to have sex again?” she sounded genuinely concerned. “You know, you don’t actually need a license to bang.”
I stretched out on the bed and stared at the ceiling. “I don’t need any distractions
right now.”
“Did Stanford force you to take some shot that makes you immune to men?” she asked, peering down at me. “Or is that just the side effect of having a sexless relationship with Preston?”
“A little bit of both?” I shot her a dazzling smile, hoping to convince her that I wasn’t as much of a lost case as she imagined me to be. I was fine being single-ish.
“From what I recall, your only genuinely good lay was all the way back in freshman year.” With her hand on her chin she reminded me of some kind of perverted sex therapist.
“Why do you have to say such unbelievably twisted things?” I groaned. “And why do I even talk to you about any of this?”
She pretended not to hear me. “Freshman year. That’s right. With that hot bartender who worked at the pub near your campus.” Maddie shot me a knowing smirk. She was going through a particularly dry spell in Africa when I shared my stories about Ryder, so the details stayed embedded in her memory for much longer than I’d intended them to. “Whatever happened to him?” she asked.
“There was no chemistry between us outside of the bedroom,” I explained. “The guy couldn’t hold a conversation if his life depended on it.”
Maddie groaned and loomed over me with her eyebrows drawn in so tightly her entire forehead rippled with worry lines. “There’s your problem. Looking for conversation.”
“Shut up. You love talking to my brother.” I jabbed her with my heel. “And you know better than anyone else that not every hookup is meant to be.”
My best friend prided herself on being wild and free, but she was extremely careful with both her heart and her body. She had five basic rules that ensured every single one of her hookups was always regret-free. She’d drilled them into my head every opportunity she had. I could practically recite them in my sleep: always use protection; don’t be anybody’s booty call unless he’s yours too; attached guys are off-limits; never sleep with someone if you’re unable to walk to his bedroom without stumbling; you don’t have to be in love with someone to have sex, but you have to be in a position where you won’t regret the experience even if you wake up the next morning and he’s no longer next to you.
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