twenty
CALEB
“What’sthe next step for a pro ice climber like myself?” Summer looks over at me from the passenger seat of my Bronco with an expression that’s so serious it can only be sarcastic. “I mean, do I guide tours, climb without ropes, enter contests?”
I try to match her same playful seriousness. “All of the above.”
There’s a cocky-cute undertone to her shrug. “I’m probably going to need gold-encrusted crampons.”
I smile, amused by everything this woman does and says. “Probably so.”
She shifts her eyes to her window, tapping her fingers and shimmying her shoulders to the beat of “Last Christmas” playing on the radio. “You know, my dad loves this song. One winter, when I was in middle school, I worked for him at his office after school to earn money for Christmas. Whenever this song came on, he’d turn the radio up in his office so loud that the entire workplace could hear it. He never said anything or even came out. But when the song was over, he would turn the radio down again and go back to work as if nothing had happened.”
I watch Summer tell her story, her eyes casting to the scenery out the window, a slight smile crossing her lips. She looks like a giant marshmallow in her white, puffy snow coat that makes her bright-red lipstick stand out. Who wears lipstick to go ice climbing anyway?
Summer does, and it totally fits.
“I thought your dad was a general contractor. What was he doing in an office instead of at a job site?”
“He’s moregeneralthancontractor,even though he’ll never admit it.”
“After talking to him, I got the impression he was the Tarzan of contractors, swinging from one scaffolding to the next.”
“No,” I spit out with a laugh. “I don’t think the man’s ever been on a piece of scaffolding in his life.” Her brows lower. “When did you have this conversation with him?”
“I think it was the night of the Turkey Stuff when you were in the bathroom. He told me about all the house remodels he does in Telluride and how when he tears off sheetrock, the walls are crookeder than a dog’s hind leg.”
“Yeah, he loves that saying.” She glances at me as I make a right turn off the highway. “Where are we going? I thought we were going to your parents’ house for dinner with Justin.”
“We are. We’re just taking a little detour first.”
She reads the road sign in front of us. “Ouray Hot Springs?”
“Yeah, have you ever been?”
“Once, when I was little, we stayed at the hotel and did the hot springs, but that was years ago.”
“I thought we could go try them out.”
“I’m in snow clothes.”
“They have swimsuits we can buy in the shops. Besides, if we go straight to my parents’ house, we’ll get there early before Justin and be waiting around. We might as well kill some time before dinner.”
She glances at the clock on the dash, obviously doing the math on the dinner start time. “I have wanted to go back as an adult.”
“Today’s the perfect day.”
Her eyes dart to me. “Maybe I should call Justin first to make sure he isn’t getting to your parents' house early.”
“Yeah, you can give him a call.”
She holds her phone up to her ear, biting her lip while waiting for him to pick up. After a second, she clicks off the call. “He didn’t answer.”
“So, should we check out the hot springs?”
“I guess that would be alright.”
I pull the car into a hotel parking lot.
