Live Through This (11 page)

“Don’t you
dare
,” I say, raising a finger on my free hand.

Zach and Reece laugh.

“We had a Jacuzzi outside on the deck when I lived in Alaska,” Reece says. “Whenever my cousin would visit in the winter, we’d have all these competitions—”

“Farting competitions?” Jacob asks.

Reece laughs again. “No. We’d see who could hold their breath underwater longer. Or we’d run out in the snow while we were soaking wet.” Reece’s thumb slow dances with mine. “I think we should have a hot-tub-to-snow-angel competition right now.”

“What’s that?” Jacob asks.

“It’s when you and Zach get out of the water, run
downstairs, lie on the snow, and see who can thrash your arms and legs around for the longest.”

“That’s sounds
cold
.” Zach lifts his hands up into the steam as if to check the temperature.

“That’s the point of it,” Reece says. “Shock your body. See who’s the toughest. If you guys run around to the back, your sister and I will be the judges from up here.”

“No way,” Jacob says. “I’m only doing this if we
all
do it.”

Reece looks at me. “Do you want to?”

“Of course,” I say. “Frostbite sounds lovely.”

He smiles. “The bravest girl I know.”

“Sweet! Let’s go,” says Jacob.

He climbs out of the hot tub and Zach follows. As they head inside with water running down their legs, Reece says quietly to me, “I can tell you right now that you won’t be in the snow long enough for frostbite. We’ll be lucky if we can last ten seconds.”

“That’s reassuring,” I say.

I don’t want to let go of Reece’s hand, I don’t want to get out of the water, and I especially don’t want to make an angel in the snow, but I hoist myself out anyway, slip on my flip-flops, and wrap my towel carefully around my body. I have on my red bikini instead of my sporty, blue one-piece. As soon as we’re finished with this little contest, I’m going to have to
hurry and get dressed so that Mom and Tony won’t catch me in what they’ll probably think of as an “inappropriate” swimsuit to wear around Reece.

As he steps out behind me, my phone rings. This time it’s my older brother.

“Thanks for calling,” Bryan says as I answer.

I head into the dining room to get out of the cold. Jacob and Zach have already run downstairs, but Reece kind of hovers at the top with his towel around his waist as if he wants to wait for me, but isn’t sure if I want him to. “Was I
supposed
to call?” I ask Bryan.

“Would’ve been nice if you’d let me know what’s going on.”

My stomach drops. It’s dark outside and the ski lifts closed back while Reece and I were still at the tube park. Which means that my brother has been waiting around with his gear for who knows how long. Why didn’t he call me sooner?

“Bryan, I’m sorry. I thought Tony said that he left you a message.”

There’s silence for a moment, and then Bryan says, “He did.”

“Oh.” I don’t know why, but I can’t keep up with this conversation. “So did you know that Mom and Tony were with Emma at the hospital, and we’re watching Jacob and Zach until they get back?”

“I thought someone was supposed to pick me up.”

“Reece can come get you.” I glance at Reece, who nods. “Or, actually, Mom let me know that they’re grabbing Chinese food and then coming home. If you call them now, they can probably swing by on the way.”

Bryan sighs in my ear. “Are you kidding me? Chinese
again
? How about . . . do you want to have dinner with me at that sports bar at the base of the slopes?”

“With Reece, too?”

“Obviously.”

I hold the phone away from my mouth. “Reece, is it okay with you if we eat with Bryan in the Village?”

“Sure,” he says.

“Okay,” I say to Bryan. “But we can’t leave the boys until everyone gets back. And I need to wash the chlorine out of my hair. We can be there in maybe forty minutes.”

“I’ll get a table. Just hurry, okay? Don’t be all picky about your makeup and everything.”

“Okay,
Mister
Bossy.”

We hang up, and as I’m setting my phone on the table, Jacob yells from downstairs, “What’re you guys waiting for? Come on!”

Reece and I make our way to the bottom of the stairs, and Zach pulls the door open and jumps back. A gust of wind
makes the goose bumps all over my body stick up even more.

“We’re really doing this?” I ask, pulling my towel tighter.

“It’ll be quick,” Reece says. “And mostly painless.”

I follow him out and glance at the boys. Zach steps back into the foyer, out of sight. Jacob looks right at me and shouts, “Suckers!”

The door slams shut with the two of them inside and the two of us outside.

“Hey!” I yell. “What are you doing?”

I try to twist the door handle, but it’s locked. “Jacob DeLuca! Open the door! Right. This. Second.”

He laughs on the other side.

“Did he really lock us out?” Reece asks.

“Yup.” I hit the door. “Open up! Now!”

“Have fun out there, you lovebirds!” Jacob shouts.

“Come on, you guys!” Reece calls out. “This is not cool.”

We’re greeted with silence.

Under the porch light, I pound on the door until my fists hurt. Reece rings the doorbell every few seconds and hops up and down on the stoop in his bare feet. Less than two minutes out here already feels like hours.

“Your brothers are supervillains,” Reece says.

My towel is sliding, so I pull it tighter around my chest and retuck one end at the middle. “I’m going to murder them both.”

“Literally?” he asks.

“Literally. Knives and carnage are up next on the agenda. Just as soon as, you know, we figure how to get back in.”

“There’s that tiny detail.” He steps close to me and runs his hands briskly up and down my arms. His hands aren’t especially warm, so it doesn’t help, but his touch jumpstarts my heart.

“You’re wishing you were home right about now, aren’t you?” I ask.

It’s a silly and desperate question, but I need to hear him say that he wants to be here, that he wants to be with
me
.

“I’m going to have to have my feet amputated if this goes on too much longer, but it isn’t so bad that I wish I were at home,” he says.

That wasn’t quite what I was hoping for. “You getting frostbite is not an option.” I gesture down the street. “I’m wearing shoes, so I’m going to run to the main office and see if I can get them to unlock the door for us.”

“You don’t have to do that,” he says. “I’m sure that Jacob will let us back in any second.”

“
I’m
sure that you don’t know him very well.”

Reece drops his towel on the ground, stands on it, and then folds it over his feet. “There. See? I’m out of the snow so you don’t have to leave.”

“Meanwhile, the rest of you is going to freeze.”

“Or . . . not.” He takes my hands, draws me toward him, and wraps his arms around me. I loosen my towel and hold both ends behind his back so that we’re sharing it. My heart thumps against his ribs and his thumps into my collarbone.

“This might be shaping up to be our best day ever now,” he says as we shiver against each other.

That’s
what I wanted to hear. I look up at him. “Really? This is better than giraffes and ice cream?”

“You don’t think so?”

With his face this close to mine, he’s just eyes, a nose and cheeks that are pink from the cold, and upturned lips. I smile back so big, it almost hurts. “I’m going to have to think about that.”

“Sure. Let me know when you decide.”

He slides a section of damp hair off my face, and I float up to my tiptoes so that our noses are nearly touching. Seconds, months, decades pass until finally—
finally
—Reece bridges the centimeters between us. My eyes fall shut and our lips brush together: once, twice, three times. As we deepen the kiss, his mouth is hot against mine. He tastes spicy, like cinnamon. Our tongues touch. Unlike what I’ve told my friends, I’ve never done this. I hope I’m getting it right, that he feels as warm and tingly inside as I do.

We break away and I’m breathless. Reece watches me, expectantly.

“You’re right,” I say, resting my cheek on his chest. “Totally our best day ever.”

•    •    •

Seconds later, our moment on the stoop is interrupted by tire chains grinding over the snow and headlights beaming at the town house. I squint as Mom’s minivan comes to a stop next to Bryan’s car. Reece and I let go of each other and I fix my towel again. “We’re rescued,” I say.

I’m too hyped up to stress about the lecture I’m going to get from Mom. Her eyebrows practically lift off her forehead as she climbs out and hands Tony her keycard, but it’s Tony who says, “What in the
world
are you two doing out here?”

“Well,” I say, “We were going to have a snow-angel-making contest with Jacob and Zach, but they decided to lock us out instead.”

“Oh, jeez.” Tony shakes his head. I can’t tell if he thinks I should have predicted that they would do something like this, but I don’t
think
that’s what he’s thinking. “How long have you been out here?”

“Not long,” Reece says. “About five minutes.”

“It felt like longer,” I say. “We came from the hot tub to
this
.”

Tony lifts Emma from the backseat, and she holds on to his neck while her legs hang over his arms. He leans back inside for a moment and pulls out a set of crutches.

“Do you need me to help with anything?” Reece asks.

Tony gestures toward Mom opening the hatch, so Reece rushes across the snow on his poor, frozen feet. Tony makes his way up to me carrying Emma, and I take the crutches from him while he swipes the keycard. When I step inside behind him, it’s already much warmer than outside, but not enough to keep me from continuing to shiver.

I follow Tony upstairs. After he sets Emma on the couch, I help adjust pillows behind her back and under her leg.

“How are you feeling?” I ask her.

Her eyelids look heavy. “Tired. Really . . . tired.”

Tony rubs the top of her head. “They have her on pain killers. She’ll probably be asleep again any minute.”

I’ve never broken anything, so I don’t know whether Emma needs to keep her leg propped up all night or what. I seem to remember that that’s what Bryan had to do when he broke his ankle a couple of years ago. “I can sleep up here in the living room tonight if she needs the bed to herself,” I say.

“We’ll figure something out,” Tony says.

Reece and Mom walk past and set the bags of Chinese food on the counter.

“Where’s Bryan?” Mom asks.

I explain about him asking Reece and me to meet him in the Village for dinner. Mom purses her lips as she pulls a stack of plates from the cupboard.

“Your mom told you that we were bringing food for everyone,” Tony says.

“I know,” I say. “But Bryan wanted something different. And he still needs a ride no matter what.”

Reece says, “Um, if it’s all right, I’d like to go take the hottest shower of my life now.”

Tony chuckles. “You know where it is.”

As Reece runs upstairs, Jacob comes barreling down—fully dressed again—with Zach behind him.

“Oh!” Jacob yelps, jumping aside.

“ ‘Oh!’ is right,” Mom snaps. “Get down here!” She waits with her hands on her hips. When both of my little brothers are standing in front of her, she continues. “It is not
ever
okay to lock your sister outside. Especially when she’s wearing a wet bathing suit in the middle of winter, for God’s sake. What were you
thinking
?”

“We didn’t know the door was locked!” Jacob blurts out.

By his expression, I can tell that it was the first excuse that came to his mind and he already knows that it isn’t going to work.

I roll my eyes. “And us ringing the doorbell, like, two hundred times didn’t give you the hint?”

Zach stares silently at the floor, but Jacob never gives up, even when he knows he doesn’t stand a chance. “It was a joke,” he says to Mom. “And I was coming down to let them back in.”

“It wasn’t funny,” I say. “And, obviously, you were too late.”

Mom narrows her eyes. “Nicole, you need to go put some clothes on. Your lips are turning blue right in front of me. And Jacob, sit
down
. You too, Zach. When you’re finished eating, you can both go to your room for the rest of the night.”

“Mom!” they say in unison.

“Don’t ‘Mom’ me. I’m not in the mood for it right now.”

On that note, I run downstairs for my own hot shower.

CHAPTER 12

T
he lighting inside the restaurant is dark, but instead of feeling moody, the atmosphere is upbeat with a lot of loud talking and laughing going on. The greeter leads us through the crowded dining area to a booth where Bryan is slumped over a half-eaten burger, some scattered fries, an empty pitcher, and an almost-empty glass of beer. “There you are,” he says, barely glancing up.

“You’ve already eaten?” I ask.

“Sorry. Got tired of waiting.”

He doesn’t sound sorry; he sounds, well,
drunk
.

“We can leave if you’re ready,” I say. “There’s actually lots of food at the house.”

“Who said I was ready?” Bryan sweeps his hand out in front of him. “Have a seat. Stay awhile.”

The greeter lifts the menus she’s holding. “So you need these or . . . ?”

I look at Reece. He shrugs and nods at the same time like he’s fine either way, so I sit and he slides in beside me. The woman takes our drink orders: I request water with lemon, Reece asks for a Coke, and Bryan taps the side of the pitcher and says, “I could use another of these.”

“Of course,” she says, swiping it from the table and hurrying away.

It’s weird to me that Bryan can legally order alcohol in Canada. It’s weirder that he managed to down an entire pitcher before we got here. I don’t know how many glasses that would amount to, but I’m guessing at least five.

We sit in silence for a few moments while Reece and I look over the menu.

“So what’s up with Emma?” Bryan asks, slouching back. “Did she get the air-cast-and-crutches treatment?”