“I seriously do,” she replied before taking a long sip of her milkshake. “Oh, my God, Gabe. You have to try this. It’s beyond chocolatey.” She handed him the glass and he took a sip and groaned at how good it was. Aspen quickly took it back before he drank more than his share. “That’s your punishment for mocking me for ordering dessert. It’s delicious and you only get a sip.”
“And the pie?”
Her eyes narrowed. “You’ll get the obligatory bite, but after that, it’s all mine.”
Before he could second-guess himself, he walked over to the desk phone and called room service and ordered his own pie and shake before triumphantly walking back to the table. “Problem solved.”
“Fine. But I get to take a ginormous sip of your shake.”
“What? Why?”
“Because that’s what you did with mine. Fair is fair.”
There was no point in arguing. “Fine. You can have a sip of mine.”
“A ginormous sip,” she corrected.
He nodded as he sat back down. “Sure. A ginormous sip.”
She preened in her seat for a moment before they picked up their conversation about the drive tomorrow. “I think seven is totally doable. I’m exhausted and will probably be asleep by nine.”
“Same.”
“I was thinking that when we’re close to Silver Bell Falls, you need to be the one driving.”
“Why?”
“I want to get the whole ‘Welcome to Silver Bell Falls’ experience! You’re going to have to play tour guide and there’s no way I can keep my eye on the road and see everything.”
“I can do that,” he agreed. “But I think you’re expecting way more than what there really is. I don’t want you to be disappointed.”
“Will there be snow on the ground?”
“Probably.”
“Are Christmas decorations already up?”
“Definitely.”
“So what are we going to see first when we get to town?”
“If I tell you that, you won’t be surprised,” he teased and smiled when she laughed. Aspen had a great laugh.
“Ugh…you know I hate surprises.”
“No. You hate bad surprises. This is a good one.”
“Technicalities,” she murmured before finishing her dinner. “I hope your order gets here soon so we can eat dessert together.” She took another sip of her milkshake before adding, “Although I’m pretty sure this will be gone by then. Still, we can have our pie together.”
“Sure.”
“Ooh!” Jumping up excitedly, she said, “Let’s get our pajamas on and then we can eat our pie in bed while we watch TV!” And before he could answer, she was opening her suitcase and pulling clothes out. “Give me five minutes and I’ll be ready! You can get changed out here. Just call out when you’re done!” The slamming of the bathroom door came next and Gabe let out a long breath as he stood.
Pajamas, pfft…
He normally slept in his boxers, but since he was going home to his parents’ house, he had packed a couple of pairs of flannel pajama pants. He had assumed that he’d be alone in a hotel room tonight, but it looked like he was getting a head start on wearing pants to bed.
Dammit.
Changing quickly, he slid a clean t-shirt over his head as Aspen walked out of the bathroom and breezed by him wearing her own flannel pajama pants and t-shirt. She smiled as she walked over to her bed. “Hey, we almost match!”
Glancing down at himself, Gabe shrugged.
There was a knock at the door and he went and retrieved his dessert and even helped clean up their dinner dishes so room service could take them away. Once the door was closed, he turned to see Aspen sitting on her bed flipping through the channels on the TV to find something to watch. After a moment, she huffed with annoyance. “I’m just going to pull up something on Netflix. Is that okay with you?”
“Yeah. Sure.” He got himself situated with his dessert–but not before giving Aspen a sip of his milkshake. Once he was comfortable, he pointed to the TV. “How about Master of None? We haven’t watched that in a while.” She nodded and got it set up. Once the show started, she leaned back on the pillows. Gabe could feel the heat of her stare and glanced over at her. “What? What’s the matter?”
“Nothing,” she said quickly, looking down to study her slice of apple pie. “I was just feeling really happy.” Then she looked up at him again. “I’m excited about spending Christmas with you and your family.”
Unsure of how to respond, he simply smiled and nodded.
“I mean it, Gabe. The last few years I’ve really dreaded the holidays.”
“Because you were always working and didn’t get to see your family?”
“Pretty much. There was nothing special about the days because they were just like any other.” She took a bite of her pie before adding, “Although, it did save me from having to deal with going home and dodging and weaving the whole time.”
“Because of the outlaws?”
She laughed softly. “Exactly. It’s hard to be joyful and relax when you always have to be on guard for wayward hands and gross innuendos.”
“I still can’t believe your sister married someone like that.”
“I know. Maddie’s a bit uptight and it seems to go directly against everything about her, but for some reason it doesn’t seem to register with her or bother her. It’s kind of bizarre.”
“Well, I can totally promise you that there will be no wayward hands or gross innuendos. And if by chance there are–and it would have to be a tourist because no local resident of Silver Bell would do something like that–just tell me and I’ll take care of it.”
Her smile grew from ear to ear as her hand flew up over her heart. “My hero.”
“Yeah, well…”
Aspen got up and walked over to him and sat herself beside him on the bed, placing her head on his shoulder. “You are, you know. You’re like the best best friend ever and totally have the hero thing going on, so…thank you.” She straightened and kissed him on the cheek before putting the smallest of space between them. “Come on, take a bite of the pie and let me know what you think!”
It took a minute for him to actually do it because he felt mildly uncomfortable with Aspen sitting so close to him.
On his bed.
It shouldn’t be a big deal because this was just who she was, but…it suddenly felt weird. Or maybe it was just him.
Probably just me…
Forcing those thoughts from his mind, he took a bite of his dessert and moaned because it was seriously delicious. He glanced at Aspen and saw her smiling at him.
“Stick with me, Gabe. I will always pick the yummiest things for you.”
And if that wasn’t a loaded statement, he didn’t know what was.
They finished eating in silence as they watched TV and after the second episode ended, Aspen yawned loudly. “That’s it for me. I can’t even hold my eyes open anymore.” She slid off the bed and put her pie plate over on the table where they ate before she slowly shuffled to the bathroom.
Gabe stood, stretched, and straightened up a bit, turning off all the lights except the one next to his bed. Setting the alarm on his phone, he plugged it in to charge. When Aspen came back out, he took his turn in the bathroom. By the time he came out five minutes later, she was already asleep.