Sometimes he’d stop for a coffee with Annie before finishing his run back to the cabin. Not today, though. Not when Everett and Mia were in the house, lording it up. Best to avoid those two altogether.
He was almost back at the forest when he saw the two figures ahead of him, running and laughing as they exchanged volleys of snowballs. He slowed down, veering left in an attempt not to come in contact with them. A moment later the two of them turned, spotting him in his high-vis gear, standing out like a sore thumb against the white landscape.
He recognised Jonas straight away. His nephew was a good kid, a friendly, outgoing boy who seemed to idol-worship Adam in spite of his gruffness. He was wearing a thick jacket and snow pants, with a woollen hat and scarf covering him up. For a moment, Adam remembered how he’d seen him plunge into the lake the other day, his tiny body breaking through the thinnest layer of snow-covered ice. Adam had panicked, and ran from his spot inside his cabin as fast as he could, reaching the water only thirty seconds after seeing the boy fall.
But thirty seconds was all it took in weather like this. It was a miracle the kid hadn’t suffered any lasting damage.
It took a few moments more for Adam to work out who was with Jonas, maybe because she looked so different to the previous day. Gone were the sexy, tight jeans and the pitiful suede shoes, instead she was bundled up in an expensive snow-suit that cinched in at the waist, her long blonde hair flowing down her back. As she ran towards Jonas, holding a snowball aloft, her hair lifted up in the breeze, revealing her slender neck. She was laughing, though the smile froze on her face as she turned to look at Adam, dropping the snowball clutched in her gloved hand.
‘Uncle Adam!’ Jonas called out, his face open and warm. ‘Want to join our snowball fight?’
His plan to pass them unnoticed had clearly failed. Adam stopped running for a moment, lifting his hat off to cool down.
The girl was still staring at him.
Her skin was pink from the cold, her lips a cherry red. She had one of those perfect noses – the sort that people paid a lot of money to plastic surgeons for – lifting slightly up as it came to a peak.
‘Hey, Jonas.’ He shot the kid a smile. ‘Not now, maybe another time?’
The girl gave him a tentative smile, one that seemed to light up her whole face. Adam felt his muscles pull in an attempt to respond to it, his lips wanting to lift up into a smile of his own.
He dragged his gaze away from her, refusing to let his body respond. She’d driven him crazy yesterday, with her lack of awareness about the weather, her car, the deer. A typical city girl thinking that the mountains were just like suburbia but with a bit of snow and wildlife. The sort who came barrelling in, leaving a trail of devastation behind them.
He’d seen enough devastation to last him a lifetime. He definitely wasn’t going to invite any more in.
Lifting his hand in the weakest of goodbyes, he began to run again, his eyes trained on the line of trees ahead of him. He could feel the skin prickle on the back of his neck, as though she was staring at his retreating body. And he knew what her expression would be, too. He’d seen it last night when he’d all but pushed her out of his truck and onto the driveway of the big house. What had she called him then? Anything but a gentleman. For some reason that description rankled. It wasn’t as though he went through life trying to make girls cry. He was too busy just trying to get through the day.
By the time he reached his cabin Adam’s body was covered with a sheen of perspiration. He pulled his T-shirt over his head, screwing the thin material into a ball and throwing it onto the mat beside his door.
He finished his morning routine with a hundred pull-ups on the porch frame, contracting his large, iron biceps to lift his body. Staring out across the water, he could see the big house on the side of the mountain, and the plume of smoke that spiralled out of the chimney. He wondered if she was still there, staring at the gap where he’d disappeared into the forest.
He was still thinking about the girl as he opened the door to his cabin, hearing the creak of the hinges as it swung inside. He jumped, seeing the annoyingly familiar frame of his brother lounging on Adam’s easy chair, his ankles crossed and his feet resting on a hand-crafted wooden coffee table that Adam had made himself. Everett’s smart, sleek business suit was a contrast to the roughness of the cabin’s interior.
Stalking across the living room, Adam opened the cupboard and grabbed a fresh towel before heading towards the bathroom. Pointedly ignoring his brother, he walked into the tiny cubicle and pulled off his sweaty clothes.
Everett was still sitting there when Adam emerged ten minutes later. He was still wet from the shower, a white towel wrapped around his slim hips. Refusing to acknowledge his intruder, Adam grabbed a bottle of water from his refrigerator, lifting it to his dry lips and gulping it down.
‘How long are you planning to ignore me for?’
His brother’s words reminded Adam of his therapist. He leaned on the kitchen worktop, the bottle still clasped in his hand. ‘As long as it takes,’ he said, meeting Everett’s gaze.
‘So that’s it. We have a little falling-out and suddenly I’m not welcome here? What happened to family loyalty?’
Adam steepled his hands, in an unconscious mirror of his brother’s stance. ‘I was wondering the same thing myself. Have been since last September.’
Everett sighed, his chest rising and falling in an overexaggerated movement. ‘Isn’t that all over with? Mom told me your therapy was going well. I thought you would’ve dealt with it by now.’
Adam stared at his brother, trying to work out how they’d ended up like this. Though they’d been close once, growing up, there were few similarities between the brothers, either physically or in personality. Sometimes Adam found it hard to believe the two of them were related. But as boys they’d been inseparable, the older Everett making up stories and planning escapades, while the younger, stronger Adam would c
arry out their plans, adding his brawn to Everett’s brains. Even at high school they’d made a good team – with only one academic year dividing them they were often together. When Everett’s overactive mind got him into trouble, it was Adam’s fists that would help him to find an escape route. They’d been a band of brothers, the Klein kids. Nobody messed with them, not if they had any sense.
As they became older, their lives naturally diverged. Everett had always been driven to succeed, forcing his way to the top of film school with sheer determination. Adam’s journey through school had been more roundabout. He’d started off studying directing, and then became naturally attracted to the long-form of documentary making. With his nose for the truth, he’d found a way to coax the most reluctant interviewees to reveal more than they wanted to. Some said his good looks didn’t hurt him, either. More than one female was an avid Adam Klein fan because of the way he looked on camera.
But this divide between them was more than two brothers growing up. It was a chasm, caused by the events of last summer, leaving Everett standing on one side of the hole and Adam on the other. Neither one of them appeared to be willing to bridge the gap. Instead they were waiting for the other to somehow jump across.
Not that it was ever going to happen.
‘I’m going to therapy because the police insisted on it,’ Adam reminded his brother. ‘And we all know who called them in the first place.’