I shook my head. “Nope. No way. This one is soooo much better.”
“All right, all right! Don’t get my hopes up too high!” she said with a laugh. Her curls shuddered when she laughed, making me wish my hair wasn’t so dang straight and boring. But then, I was going to chop it off, right? Maybe within a couple of days I’d also have enviable hair. A girl could dream. And be simultaneously terrified of said dream.
“You’re right. Sorry,” I said. “I’ll shut up now.”
“Next!”
It was my turn at the front of the line. I ordered an omelet with cheddar and roasted tomatoes. The girl put a bookmark in to hold her page and hugged the book to her chest.
“It’s just, I’ve never been a big reader,” she told me, blushing. “Until recently, I’d only really read fashion mags and blogs or music columns. But someone recommended this series to me, and I had no idea. It’s so engrossing! I can’t ever put it down.”
“Welcome to the life of a habitual reader,” I told her.
“I’m Carina,” she said. “I’ve been dragged here against my will for my dad’s latest work trip.”
“Tess,” I replied. “Sent here against my will to spend time with my grandmother.”
No need to bring up the divorce. I didn’t have to tell my sad history to every single person I met on this trip. Thinking this made me think of Christopher, and I glanced up and down the buffet again. No sign of him. No sign of his parents.
“My sympathies,” she said jokingly.
“Mine, too. For you, I mean.”
The chef behind the counter took her order—egg-white omelet with spinach and feta—and then we stood aside to wait for our food.
“So, are you going skiing today?” Carina asked. “My dad’s been so busy, we haven’t gone out on the slopes yet, and I hate to go alone.”
“I wasn’t planning on it,” I told her. “My grandmother wants us to go to some high tea or something with her.”
“Us?” she asked.
“Oh, me and my sister,” I said just as Lauren herself walked through the double doors with Tarek and…Damon? What were they all doing together? And how had Lauren gotten up and showered and made herself look that good that fast? It would always be a mystery to me. The three of them glanced around, and when Lauren saw me, she pointed me out. To Damon. He grinned and started weaving around other diners toward me and Carina.
“Oh, God,” I said.
“What?” Carina looked around, baffled.
“Guy. There. Coming. Here.”
“Okay, you just went totally Cro-Magnon on me,” she said, her brows knitting.
“Hey, Tess!” Damon greeted me, all dimples and confidence. I noticed he wasn’t wearing his Best Bean polo shirt or his name tag. He was, instead, wearing a very nice and form-fitting blue ski sweater and had his long hair down around his shoulders, which kind of made him look like a model in an outdoorsy catalog. The whole effect was making me sweat just the tiniest bit. Clearly he was off duty right now.
“Hilo,” I said. “I mean, hello. Hi. What’s up? I thought you were working.”
“They doubled up shifts by mistake, so I got the morning off.” Damon looked at Carina. “Hey. I’m Damon. Are you a friend of Tess’s?”
“We just met, but I like to think we’ve formed a deep and impenetrable bond,” Carina said. Damon just looked confused. “Yes. We’re friends,” she added slowly. “I’m Carina.”
“Nice to meet you.” He turned his attention back to me, hands in the pockets of his black sweatpants. “So me and Tarek and Lauren were gonna go hit the slopes. You wanna come?”
I actually flinched, I was so taken aback. “Um…we can’t go skiing,” I told him, just as the chef handed over my plate. I took it from him, the steam still rising from the eggs. “My grandmother has plans for us all day. Me and my sister, I mean. Not, you know….you. Or Tarek. Or anyone. Else.” Why couldn’t I form a normal sentence?
“Screw the plans.”
I jumped. Lauren had somehow snuck up behind me and was now eating a piece of sausage wrapped in a pancake like it was a taco.
“I want to go skiing,” she added, her mouth full. Tarek sidled up behind her, gnawing on a bagel. Damon and Tarek standing next to each other was almost too much hotness to handle this early in the morning.
“I…”
I glanced at Carina, who had also just gotten her food. She looked at me hopefully. She wanted to go skiing, too, and it seemed like she was hoping to get roped into this new group plan. I thought of Christopher, wishing he could join us, too, but clearly that wasn’t in the cards. Where was he, though? Still in bed? It wasn’t like him to miss breakfast.
I knew what he’d tell me if he was here, though—this was my opportunity to cross another item off my list—ski a black diamond run. And I could do it with my sister, so if I died, there’d be someone there to deal with my remains.
“Sure, I guess,” I said, and Tarek whooped. “Can Carina come, too?”
“You’re Carina?” Lauren said, looking her up and down.
“And you’re the sister?” Carina replied, looking Lauren up and down right back.
“Oooh! You have an accent!” Lauren said, excited. “What part of Britain are you from?”
“The cool part,” Carina shot back.
Lauren barked a laugh. “I like her,” my sister proclaimed. “Fine by me.”
“Sweet!” Damon said. “Let me grab some grub. I’m starving.”
He turned and walked over to the carb station. Tarek gave my sister a quick kiss on the cheek and squeezed her arms. “I just have to check my schedule for next week before we go.” Then he bounded off, too.
“Go where?”
I jumped again. This time it was Loretta. Was everyone in my family this good at sneaking up on people?
“Loretta!” Lauren exclaimed with a big smile. “Tess and I were just making plans with Tarek and his cousin to go skiing for the day.”
Loretta’s lips formed that thin, stern line I was getting so used to seeing on this trip. “Girls, I don’t think that’s such a good idea.”
“Why not?” Lauren asked. “This is a ski resort, isn’t it? And we haven’t been skiing once since we’ve been here.”