“This is fun.” Brayden beams, grinning from ear to ear. “I’m really glad we came out here.” He pulls me close to him. “We needed this.” He kisses the side of my neck, his lips lingering for a few seconds.
“Yeah, we did,” I agree, my voice coming out breathy.
“Want to switch out our skis for snowboards?” he suggests, not even slightly out of breath.
I take in a large gulp of air, trying to catch my breath, as I nod in agreement, too winded to verbally answer. Brayden, attuned to me, notices. “You okay?” he asks, lifting his goggles up to his forehead so he can assess my features.
“Yeah.” I wave him off. “Just out of shape.” I laugh.
“Are you sure that’s—” he begins, when each of our names are called.
We glance over and find Mia, dressed like a cute fucking little snow bunny, waving at us. She’s fully dressed in a pink snowsuit, but the second I lay eyes on her, the image of her perfect, wet, naked tits jiggling as Ashton fucked her last night hits me hard, and I’m thankful as hell I’m wearing thick snow pants.
“Where’s Ashton?” Brayden asks once we get over to her.
“Inside renting us some equipment,” she says, giddy as fuck and not at all looking hungover.
“You sure you want to do this?” Ashton asks, walking out and handing Mia a snowboard. “It’s not too late to turn around and go back to that warm bed.” He palms her jaw and kisses along her neck.
“I want to snowboard.” She pouts. “Please.”
“I can show her,” Brayden offers. “Drew over here has become an old man during his time off the rink and can barely keep up.” He shoots me a teasing wink, and I force a smile.
“I’ve got this, man,” Ashton says, his tone more serious than usual. “I don’t mind showing my girl how to snowboard.” He smiles softly at Mia, and something feels different… He’s acting differently. Less playful. Less Ashton.
“All right.” Brayden shrugs. “Then let’s do this. We can all go to the blue slope. Drew needs a little break anyway.” He nudges me playfully.
“I think I’m actually going to sit this one out. You guys go. My head is throbbing. I’m going to grab a coffee and some pain reliever and then I’ll catch up.”
“Then I’ll go with you,” Brayden says.
“No, don’t do that,” I insist. “Go snowboarding. I promise I’ll catch up.”
He eyes me curiously but in the end agrees. I watch as he, Mia, and Ashton take off to go grab Brayden a board, and then I take my skis off and place them against the equipment wall. I take the golf cart back to the house and run upstairs to our room. I swallow a couple pills and consider going back to the resort, but the bed looks comfy as hell, and I end up lying down. I close my eyes, telling myself I’m just going to rest for a few minutes, but I must end up falling into a deep sleep because the next thing I know, my name is being shouted as footsteps climb the stairs.
“There you are,” Brayden says. “We were looking everywhere for you. Have you been sleeping this entire time?” He kicks his shoes off and climbs into bed next to me, pulling me into his arms.
I glance at my watch and see it’s already late afternoon. “Yeah. Guess the fresh air knocked me out.”
“You sure you’re feeling okay?” he asks, concern etched in his features.
I suck in a large mouthful of air and exhale easily. “Yeah, I feel perfect.”
There’s a knock on the door and we both look up to find Mia standing in the doorway.
“We’re going to go to dinner. You guys are coming, right?” Her eyes are wide and hopeful and even if we didn’t want to go, I know damn well neither of us would be able to tell her no.
“Yeah,” I tell her, sitting up. “I’m just going to shower to wake up and I’ll be good to go.”
Brayden grins at me. “I think I’ll join you. I’m feeling a little dirty myself.”
Needless to say, we’re late for dinner.
We find Ashton and Mia at a pub and grill at the lodge. Ashton has Mia’s high-top barstool pulled close to him at the round table. They’ve already started in on an appetizer, but it doesn’t look like they’ve eaten without us.
I wait for the jokes.
The taunts.
Usual Ashton shit.
Nothing.
Like earlier, he’s clinging to Mia, barely looking at Drew and me.
“Glad you guys could finally join us,” Mia says, smirking. “We were almost ready to eat without you.”
I chuckle as I hop up on the barstool beside Ashton. Drew sits next to me and grabs a menu for us to look at.
“Hey, Ashton,” I say, waiting for him to look at me.
“What’s up?” he rumbles, a bored look on his face.
“You on your period or what, douchebag?” I kick his stool, making him jerk his attention my way.
Guilt flashes in his eyes and then he laughs, flipping me off. Still acting weird as fuck. I glance over at Mia and her brows are furled, clearly feeling the same way.
“What can I get you handsome fellas?” a blond chick chirps in greeting. “House special is a bison burger and a Moscow mule. We call it the Russian Redneck special. You game? I’ll throw in some honeyed sweet potato fries for free.”
“Yeah,” Drew says. “We’ll take two of those.”
Ashton holds his fingers up. “Make it four.”
“Great,” the waitress says. “I’ll be right back with your drinks.”
Mia jabbers on about snowboarding until the waitress brings us back our Moscow mules. I sip on my drink, my attention bouncing back and forth between Drew and Ashton. They’re both being weird as hell today.
“Listen,” Mia says, straightening her spine, “I don’t know if things are just quiet and weird because everyone is hungover or what, but I don’t like it.”
Silence.
“Are we going to talk about the big elephant in the room?” she asks, exasperated.
More silence.
“Boys are such brats,” she groans. “Last night was fun. We were drunk. It happened. Can we get over being weird now? I, for one, thought it was kind of hot.”
Drew laughs. “That makes two of us.”
“Three,” I agree, smirking.
All eyes land on Ashton. His lips quirk up. “Yeah, it was hot.”
“There,” Mia says, giggling. “Now stop being weird and go back to normal.”
When Mia and Drew get locked into a conversation about a couple nearby, I lean forward, meeting Ashton’s gaze.
“You really okay?” I ask.
He nods. “As long as Mia’s happy, I’m happy. I don’t ever want to make her unhappy.”
It clicks into place.
Last night, by the four of us messing around, he thought he would lose her. Poor fucking guy. He clearly can’t see how fucking crazy she is about him. I give his thigh a squeeze, letting him know I understand and that I’m here for him. His hazel eyes flash with gratitude as he brushes his thumb over the back of my hand.
“He’s boning her sister,” Mia says, earning Ashton’s and my attention.