In the living room, I stop and look around. From behind me, I hear Bree shout FIVE!! in what must be the slowest anyone has ever counted to twenty.
The curtains. Floor-length, heavy fabric. Perfect for a hiding spot from a three-year-old, and standing definitely beats kneeling on a hard floor again.
“SIX!” she shouts. I lean against the wall, figuring I may as well settle in. From the kitchen, there’s a gale of laughter, and I smile to myself.
“You were completely certain you’d broken your femur,” Delilah is saying.
“And then you scared the pants off her by telling her that if she had really broken her femur, she would’ve ruptured an artery and died,” Vera says, her tone half-laughing, half-admonishing.
“I wasn’t wrong,” Delilah says.
“But you did convince me that I was going to die at any moment,” Ava says, and Delilah laughs.
“Sorry,” she says.
I wonder if I knew Delilah during the trip they’re talking about, because I can absolutely imagine it: Ava, still a kid, hurt; Delilah, who got really into the macabre as a teenager, telling her all the ways she could be hurt worse.
“Was that the same trip when Nolan took you and I on the black diamond trails?” Olivia’s voice asks.
The hairs on the back of my neck stand at the name. I wish they wouldn’t, but they do.
“Goodness, no, that was years later,” Vera says.
“I remember that day, though,” Winona chimes in. “It was the first time I’d tried a double black diamond, and it was a terrible mistake.”
Everyone laughs.
“You flew on down like it was no big deal, but I was way too scared, and of course at that point there was no way out but through,” she says. “So he spent the next hour guiding me down as slowly as I wanted. Half the time I was sliding on my butt, and he was so sweet and patient the whole time.”
There’s a quick moment of silence. I close my eyes, tilt my head against the wall and hope it’s awkward as fuck in there right now.
“I thought you’d died,” Olivia said, and everyone laughs again. “I got to the bottom and you were nowhere to be seen.”
“We found you drinking hot chocolate in the lodge,” Winona teases.
“Anxiously,” Olivia protests. “I was anxiously drinking it.”
“Didn’t he also somehow program the TV to come on at full volume at four in the morning and Mom called the Snowpeak cops?” Ava asks, to more laughter.
“Their response time was very impressive,” Vera says.
“For the record, he felt really bad about that,” offers Delilah.
It’s not what I want her to say. I want her to say what a moron or thank God I divorced him or how could I ever think I loved that man. Not something as simple and neutral as he felt bad.
“I know, I got an enormous fruit basket with a very sweet apology note the next week,” Vera says, sounding amused. “The papaya was delightful.”
A fruit basket. Nolan gave fruit baskets.
“He had his moments,” Delilah says. “Speaking of skiing, is there a plan for tomorrow?”
“Yeah, stop talking about Nolan, the new one might hear you.”
“You mean —"
“Olivia, please,” Vera says, cutting Delilah off.
“He has a name,” Delilah says.
Now I feel like I’m eavesdropping.
“EIGHTEEN!” Bree shouts from down the hallway.
“Well, I can’t go skiing, obviously,” Olivia says, ignoring Delilah. “And I know the shopping in town is only so-so, but there’s the cutest kids’ boutique, so I was thinking I might get some things for the nursery there, it’s too bad that we still don’t know if it’s a boy or a girl…”
“NINETEEN. TWENTY READY OR NOT HERE I COME!!”
Feet barrel down the hallway to the living room, and I put one hand out and wiggle the curtain back and forth, just to help her find me faster.
“You having fun, sweetie?” I hear Winona ask.
“Yes,” Bree says, very seriously.
“All right,” Winona says, just as Bree gasps.
“WHO’S THAT?” she says, and moments later, she’s yanking on the curtains.
“Whoa! Careful,” I tell her, parting them.
“I FOUND SETH!” she shouts, and then grabs my hand. “Come ON, now we have to find grandpa.”
“Yes, ma’am,” I tell her, and we go look for Harold.Chapter Thirty-NineSethSeven and a Half Years Ago
(Two years before the previous flashback)The bartender looks at Caleb’s ID, her lips thinning. Her eyes flick to his face, and then back down.
“What’s your name?” she asks.
“Daniel Loveless,” Caleb says.
“Middle name?”
“Creed.”
“Birthday?”
“October twenty-fourth.”
“What year?” she asks, eyes narrowing.
Caleb pauses for a split second before answering, and my stomach drops.
“Nineteen ninety,” he says.
At last, the bartender shrugs, tosses the three IDs back onto the bar.
“All right,” she says. “What can I get you?”
We order beers, and as she’s getting them, Levi glances over at Caleb.
“Told you,” Caleb mutters.
“Don’t involve me in your nonsense,” Levi says, though I think he’s smiling.
Is he smiling? He’s smiling. Somehow, he’s inscrutable, even though I’ve known him my whole life. He wasn’t particularly enthused about Caleb borrowing Daniel’s license to come out drinking with us, but he didn’t protest that hard, either. Probably because Levi doesn’t mind breaking the rules he thinks are stupid.