Three Little Words

“Ooh, he does look like Matt Dillon,” the clerk said. She grinned as Christy fluffed my bangs. They both stepped back to get a better look.

“What do you think?” the clerk asked critically. “Would you date him?”

“Totally.”

“Oh, totally.”

My eyes bugged behind the mirrored lenses. The clerk was flirting with me, and Christy was playing along. Totally!

“How much are they?” Christy asked. She didn’t even blink when the clerk told her. “We’ll take them.” She opened her fanny pack and pulled out her wallet.

I started to object, but they were already headed toward the register. The clerk gave me a discreet once-over when Christy returned with the bag, but Trip and Wren joined us and cut off any argument I might’ve started. (An argument about the sunglasses, not the clerk—I knew better than to mess with Pandora’s box, whatever her name was. But I digress.)

“Cool glasses,” Wren said.

“Um… thanks.”

“You ready to hit the slopes?”

“Yeah, come on, Mr. Sexy Eyes.” Christy tugged my hand, and we headed out to the lifts.

Wren wasn’t as athletic as Christy, but she wasn’t a couch potato either, and she quickly graduated from the intermediate trails. She wasn’t as confident on the difficult ones, but she managed them if she took a cautious line.

Trip was a different story. He had so much natural ability that he was skiing almost as well as Christy herself by the time we took a break for lunch.

Not for the first time, I asked myself why I hung out with people who were better than me at so many things.

We skied till late afternoon and talked about getting night passes, but Wren had plans that involved the hot tub and lots of alcohol. So we stowed our equipment and headed back to the cabin. The girls started on dinner while Trip and I hauled in firewood and turned up the thermostat on the tub. Then he fixed a couple of Jack and Cokes before I could even ask. At least he had the courtesy to look chagrined as he handed me one.

“Orders,” he said quietly. He made sure we were far enough away to avoid being overheard. “And just a heads-up… she’s really in the mood for some, ahem, female companionship. So don’t be surprised if she starts something in the hot tub.”

“I don’t think Christy’s ready for that,” I said, just as quietly.

“Yeah, that’s what I told her, but…” He shrugged. “You know how she is.”

I nodded and took a sip of my drink. “Holy crap,” I gasped. “Whose side

are you on?”

“Sorry about that,” he chuckled. “I’ll dial it down a bit for the next one.”

“Thanks.”

“If the hot tub thing doesn’t play out,” he mused, “you should probably expect a visitor later tonight. You have my permission to tease the hell out of her and send her back frustrated. I’ll take care of her.”

“Gee, you’d do that for me?”

“What’re friends for?”

“I’m beginning to wonder,” I said dryly.

“Hey, don’t blame me. You’re the one who introduced me to her.”

“And then you stole her out from under me.”

“You’d’ve killed each other,” he said. “She’s right about that.” He took another drink and nodded toward the kitchen. “Besides, you and Christy seem made for each other.”

“We really are,” I admitted. “It’s kinda scary how much we… um…

enjoy the same things.”

“Wren says she’s really into giving head. Like, a total nympho.” He laughed and slapped my back when I tried to snort some of Tennessee’s finest.

Wren stuck her head out of the kitchen. “You guys okay?”

“Yeah.” I cleared my throat. “I tried to inhale my drink is all.”

“You shouldn’t do that.”

“No shit, Sherlock.”

She grinned and nodded at our glasses. “You wanna open a bottle of wine for us?”

“We’re on it, sweetheart,” Trip said.

She blew him a kiss and disappeared into the kitchen again.

“Sorry,” he said to me in a low voice. “You and I were supposed to get started first. I feel like such a Judas setting you up like this, but you know how it is.”

“Yeah, I do. And don’t worry. You gave me plenty of warning.”

“Well, that’s what I try to do. But sometimes she doesn’t give me any, so…”

“The things we do for love, huh?”

“I dunno ’bout you,” he said with a grin, “but I’m doing this to get laid.”

“Yeah, by my girlfriend.”

“It’s only fair. Besides, I’m willing to share.”

I rolled my eyes and glanced at him sideways. “Did you ever think we’d be having this conversation? I mean, back when we first met, when you lived across the hall with Luke and Jeff and that other guy?”

“Never in a million years,” he admitted. Then he laughed. “Back then, I thought you were a little weird. Definitely cool,” he added quickly, “but you stayed in your room or disappeared all the time. Little did I know it was

’cause you had two girlfriends and were getting laid more than a rock star.”

I chuckled and silently toasted the past. Appropriately enough, the future stuck her head out of the kitchen.

“Hey,” she said, “where’s that wine you promised us?”

“Don’t let her size fool you,” I said to Trip. “She’s a handful.” To her,

“Coming right up, dear!”