Brinley entered the gift shop and quickly bought the Gatorade, stuffing it into a brown paper bag so no one would associate her with a drink best known for being poured on visor-wearing football coaches.
As she exited the shop, she debated moseying up to the front desk on the way back to her room so she could talk to Shane about their plans for later that night. She figured if anyone saw her talking to him at the front desk, they would assume she was lodging a list of complaints about her room. But before she had even made her way halfway across the lobby, Portia’s shrill voice stopped her.
“Brinley!” she called out, motioning for her to come closer. “There you are. I have something to ask you…” Brinley’s mind darted at warp speed as she stepped toward her. Had she somehow found out something about the Ellie and Sarah Corliss situation? Sarah had been adamant she didn’t want anyone finding out. And Ellie wouldn’t be thrilled either, considering she was standing by the guy.
“I already told you,” Brinley replied brusquely. “Marge is the best facialist here.”
Portia smirked. “Actually, I was wondering where you were last night?”
“What are you talking about? I was asleep in my room.” She kept her tone light, but a heat rash was quickly erupting on her chest.
“Earlier than that.” The crowd of students around them had suddenly silenced themselves, all listening to the exchange. “Were you with anybody in particular?” Portia leaned forward and gave her a wink that sank Brinley’s stomach. She knew about Shane.
Brinley would admit nothing. Better to let your opponent lay their cards on the table than to beat them to it and entrap yourself. Maybe she didn’t know as much as she was pretending.
“What are you trying to say, Portia?”
“That I saw you from my balcony last night. You were in the employee parking lot. Making out with a guy who seemed to look an awful lot like that front desk guy over there.” A sea of heads turned to Shane across the lobby, who was handing out a new set of keys to Fiona Hutchison, blissfully unaware of the attention and luckily out of earshot.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Brinley sniffed, as dozens of muffled side conversations erupted around her. How the hell had she been so careless? She had taken more precautions not to be seen with the stupid bottle of Gatorade than she had making out with a townie. She could not let this story get home to her mother, or worse yet, make the rounds of the D.C. social circuit. No one would ever look at her the same.
“You’re going to have to do better than that. I saw you. In the Prada fur-lined jacket you’ve been parading around in all weekend. And you were making out with someone.”
“Yeah. It was me,” a male voice from behind Brinley piped up. She turned to see Kyle Price, stepping next to her as he scowled at Portia. The side conversations were no longer muffled as everyone glanced between Kyle and Shane. They had similar builds, the same dark hair. It was like the entire room could see how Portia had made the mistake. Except for Brinley, of course, who knew it was not a mistake at all. She had no idea why Kyle Price had decided to throw her a lifeline, but she wasn’t going to waste it.
Portia reddened. “I... well, then why were you in the employee parking lot?”
“We were trying to be discreet, but apparently, you’re my new stalker, Portia. Next time you want to eavesdrop on us, I’ll cut a hole in my bedroom wall.”
Brinley and Kyle turned in unison, heading toward the elevators. As the two of them marched past the front desk, Brinley could’ve sworn she heard Shane’s voice calling for her. But she didn’t know for sure because she refused to turn toward him, or even so much as flick an eye his way. Instead, she clutched onto Kyle Price’s arm like the proverbial life preserver he was, looking up at him, gratefully.
She had been looking forward to her second night out with Shane, but now there was no way she could go through with it. She silently cursed Portia as she waited for the elevator silently with Kyle. Why did she have to screw up the best thing about Stowe?
Finally the doors opened and Kyle and Brinley stepped inside.
“Thanks,” she said, dropping her arm from his now that they were safely alone. “So what do you want from me?”
“Nothing,” he replied. Brinley frowned. He sensed her distrust and added, “Relax. I won’t use this against you. We can call it a quid pro quo situation. I was hoping it might get our mothers off both our cases for a while.”
It was hard to argue with that.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Saturday, 5:31 p.m.
Taryn whipped down the mountain, feeling the wind propel her braids behind her as she reached the bottom of the hill. She screeched to a halt, then turned to see Gabe still halfway up casually gliding down, as if in no particular hurry, his earbuds on, taking his time as he cut into the powder. Despite his protestations about not boarding recently, he was actually pretty good. He just clearly didn’t care about pushing himself to the limit. They had stuck to the more mellow runs today, and Taryn was chomping at the bit to get at least one double black diamond run in before the lifts closed. As she looked to the lift line impatiently, waiting for Gabe to pick up the pace, a quick thought popped in her head that she had been trying to suppress all afternoon. This was a lot more fun with Brooks. But she instantly regretted it. Gabe came out with her today because he knew she wanted him to. Who cared if they didn’t do the best runs as long as they were doing it together? Wasn’t that the point of today?
Gabe finally coasted up.
“You ready to try Upper Liftline?” she asked, giving him a challenging nudge.
“It’s getting late. Maybe we should just go in,” he said, sounding exhausted. “Get some of that spiced cider?”
“Uh, sure,” she replied. It wasn’t like cozying up in front of the fire with Gabe was exactly a bad option either.
But before they even had gotten to the lodge, they saw Evan emerging from the double doors, almost falling over in her oversized ski jacket, as she hustled toward them.
“Hey, Evan,” Taryn called out, but when Evan neared them, she had a serious expression on her face.
“Whoa, Ev. What’s wrong? You’ve got Nancy Grace Face,” Gabe said.
“It’s, uh…” Evan bit her lip, her eyes almost imperceptibly flicking toward Taryn. “It’s actually about Ellie.” Raw emotion flickered across Gabe’s face before he carefully replaced it with his casually aloof expression.
“I think she’s in trouble,” Evan elaborated.
In an instant, the causally aloof expression was wiped off Gabe’s face. “What do you mean?” He didn’t appear to notice he had dropped Taryn’s hand, leaving it hanging listlessly.
“It’s Weston.” Evan paused. “Look, I don’t know how to say this, but he basically tried to drug her last night.”
Anger flashed across Gabe’s eyes, his fists clenched, though he tried to keep his voice measured. “How do you know that?”
“It’s a long story. But I have it from a very reliable person. Brinley and I tried to tell Ellie but she wouldn’t listen.”
“You have to make her listen. This is serious. What the hell is wrong with her?” It was a level of emotion Taryn had never yet witnessed in him. Anger, jealousy, passion. Oddly, all the emotions she had been trying to coax out of him this weekend. And suddenly, an even more annoying thought popped into her head. What if Gabe wasn’t just a chill guy who didn’t like labels? What if the real problem was that he still had feelings for Ellie?
“You know how out of control she’s been since she got here,” Evan was saying.
“Yeah. I saw that firsthand last night.”
“Wait. You saw her last night?” Taryn interrupted. Somehow he had failed to mention that all day. Gabe turned to her, though he didn’t meet her eyes.
“Just for a second. I stopped by a party in Weston’s room after I dropped you off…” Wait, what? Gabe had mentioned there were a few parties going on last night, but Taryn had been too exhausted by the time
dinner was over to even try to feign interest in going. Still, Gabe never mentioned that he was still planning to go to one. Without her.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” A strange look crossed his face and Taryn instantly knew. He had gone there to see Ellie.
“It wasn’t a big deal,” he said weakly. “Don’t blow this out of proportion. It’s not really the point right now.”
“It’s fine. Go with Evan. Go help Ellie. I’m going to stay out here.” She turned and began hauling herself through the snow at a record pace, her snowboard in hand and her anger projecting her forward, even as she waited to hear Gabe crunch up in the snow behind her, begging her to stop and apologizing for lying to her.
But with each step she took, she gave up a little more hope that Gabe was going to come running after her. And by the time she reached the chair lift and finally let herself turn around, she saw he had taken her at her word. He was nowhere to be found.
Ten minutes later, Taryn was rushing down the top of the mountain, speeding straight past the groomed run and into off-charted territory. She and Brooks had explored a little of this area yesterday and she was eager for a challenge to take her mind off Gabe. Though she wasn’t sure how well her plan was working. As she shot down the hill, she couldn’t stop replaying the conversation she, Gabe and Evan had. She was still trying to figure out what was worse…the fact that Gabe had been shady or that he wouldn’t admit to being shady when suddenly, her board hit a rock she hadn’t seen and in an instant, she was flying into the air. She landed wobbly, and as she shifted her weight to avoid careening into the thatch of trees, she cut too hard against the mountain, her back leg giving way, sending her hurtling down the mountain. She tumbled faster and faster as she tried to grasp onto something to break her fall. Somewhere along the way, she felt the sickening snap of her ankle, but it didn’t register until she finally landed in a heap on a plateau.
It wasn’t Taryn’s first wipeout. But as the pain from her ankle urgently throbbed through her boot, she instantly knew it might be one of her worst.
Stay calm. She pulled out her cell phone, though she already knew what she would find. No service. There wasn’t cell reception anywhere on the whole damn mountain.
She looked up the hill. Not a single person. Why had she chosen to go off course? And if the snow flurries were any indication, the storm was on the brink of coming in. She could be stuck up here all night. How long would it take before anyone realized she was missing? Would Gabe even care or would he assume she was avoiding him?
A fresh wave of agonizing pain throbbed through her body, a few tears overflowing. Get yourself out of this. It’s probably only a mild sprain.
Taryn took a few deep yoga breaths, repeating one of Chandini’s, her mother’s yoga guru, frequent mantras. Pain is just a state of mind. Pain is just a state of mind.
Hesitantly, she tried to uncurl herself. If she could hobble down the mountain somehow…just to a place where she could find another human being. She tentatively tried to stand, putting all her weight on her good foot, but the snow was coming down too hard, and she lost her balance, crying out in pain as her bad ankle sunk into the snow.
She was forced to face the fact that this was bad. Really bad. And as soon as she did that, the panic set in. What was she going to do?
And that’s when she saw someone in the distance. Someone expertly skiing down the mountain. Relief flooded her.
As the person got even closer, she saw the tell-tale blue ski jacket and realized it was Brooks.
He came to a quick halt right next to her and she prepared herself for some kind of teasing taunt about the trouble snowboarding had gotten her into, but instead, he looked at her, dead serious, worry in his eyes. “Are you okay?”
Taryn swallowed. “Not really. I think it’s a sprain.” Embarrassment rose in her cheeks as she chastised herself for stupidly getting herself in this position. If only she had been paying better attention instead of fixating on Gabe. “Could you send the ski patrol up when you get to the bottom of the mountain?”
Brooks looked at her as if she was insane. “I’m not leaving you up here.”
And before she knew what was happening, he carefully hoisted her off the snow, tossing his ski poles aside as he slowly began skiing down the mountain with her in his arms.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Saturday, 6:41 p.m.
Ellie stepped on to the hotel elevator with Weston, concentrating on putting one foot in front of the other. She wasn’t sure what was making her brain fuzzier, the tequila from last night or her altercation with Brinley and Evan. She had left them that morning and spent most of the day wandering around town alone, recounting over and over in her head what the girls had told her about him. They’d been so convinced of what they were telling her, yet she was having a hard time reconciling it with the laidback, amiable Weston she’d spent the last few days with. She of all people knew there were two sides to every story and after everything she had been through the past few weeks, she didn’t want to jump to any conclusions without hearing all the facts herself. So she had accepted his invitation to dinner tonight, hoping to bring it up with him. She just didn’t know how. He had been so cool about the photograph scandal that the idea of grilling him about something so unbelievable made it that much harder for her to question him. She would have to find a way to broach the subject at some point tonight, though, because it was impossible to get Evan and Brinley’s words out of her mind and the voice in the back of her head was telling her not to dismiss her two best friends so quickly.
“Want to go back to that club later?” he asked, as the elevator doors opened to the lobby floor.
“Maybe,” she answered vaguely as he locked his hand into hers.
They walked through the lobby and she immediately saw Hunter chatting with Narc and Graham by the fire. They caught eyes, but she quickly looked away. Right past him, Brinley was deep in conversation with Kyle Price. Fortunately, she was too wrapped up talking to him to notice Ellie and Weston. The last thing she wanted was for Brinley to confront him about the drug thing in front of everyone before she had a chance to deal with it herself. Stowe was starting to feel as claustrophobic as D.C.
“I brought something to warm us up on the walk to dinner,” Weston said, flashing a flask from underneath his hoodie.
Ellie caught a whiff of whiskey and almost vomited. “No thanks.”
He shrugged with a smile and took a long swig. Did he ever stop partying?
Suddenly his phone beeped with a text. He stopped by one of the large bay windows to read it. “A few of my friends from Sidwell invited themselves along to dinner. Is that cool?”
She nodded, finally seeing an opportunity to fish for some answers. “Which friends from Sidwell?”
“Some of the guys who were at the party last night,” he answered, his fingers moving rapidly across the keypad on his phone. “Cooper, Josh, Dan, those dudes.”
“If all your good friends are at Sidwell, why did you transfer to Landon?” The snow was falling in sheets outside the window, but she wasn’t watching it. She was watching him.
“Just wanted a change.”
“In the middle of the year?”
He looked up from his phone. “What’s with the Supreme Court nomination hearing, Elle?” he asked teasingly.
He certainly sounded like a seasoned pro on the stand. Answer the question with another question. He had done the same thing last night…
When she told him she wasn’t going to sleep with him.
He had handed her an overflowing cup of rum and Coke immediately after they had had that conversation. What if he tried to drug her so she would sleep with him? A baseball-sized lump formed in her throat as they began walking again. She had tried to convince herself Brinley and Evan had it all wrong, but her gut was now telling her otherwise. The fact that the two of them never agreed on anything, but were somehow united on the Weston front, had been nagging at her all day. As she replayed the events of last
night in her head again, it hit her even harder that she might have made a horrible mistake in trusting this guy she barely knew over her friends.
She wanted to talk to Brinley. Right now. If all this was true, Ellie wasn’t going anywhere with Weston tonight.
As she was about to call out to her, Gabe and Evan entered the hotel, the double doors swinging shut quickly behind them from a mammoth gust of wind. Gabe was striding toward her so fast, Evan couldn’t keep up with him.
“I need to talk to you, Elle,” Gabe said when he reached her, his voice as serious as his eyes.
Something about the sharpness of his tone made Weston bristle next to her. “Sorry, man. We were just on our way out.”
Weston tried to pull Ellie along with him and Gabe’s fist connected with his jaw in such a swift force of motion that the movement was a blur. Weston stumbled backward, but was back in Gabe’s face within seconds. He threw a punch and a cracking sound whipped through the air. Hunter, whose seat was inches away, jumped up to try and break up the fight, but he got hit in the face instead and he instinctively threw a punch back at one of them. It was impossible to tell who it landed on, though, because they were all so entangled.
Everything was happening so fast and she thought she heard Evan or Brinley scream something, but it was like one of those nightmares where everyone’s faces and voices morph together in confusion. She suddenly looked down and realized there was blood on her shirt.
She couldn’t even begin to guess which one of the three guys it belonged to.
Ellie sat nervously in one of the three uncomfortable hospital waiting room chairs, Brinley and Evan in the seats beside her. If only she had listened to them in the first place, the guys would have never gotten into that fight and none of them would be here. She was too embarrassed to look at either of them so she stared into her lap. This was so bad on so many different levels.
The hotel front desk clerk, who she hazily remembered had said his name was Shane, had finally broken up the fight. He had also been nice enough to drive them all to the hospital in the Lodge van before the chaperones caught wind of the situation. The two in charge of “guarding” the lobby were thankfully having dinner in the hotel restaurant and their view of the front entrance where the fight occurred was obstructed. Although they must have heard about it by now and were probably already on their way.
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