“But why?”
Brent shrugged. The ladies were walking back out of the building toward the hot tub. “No idea.”
Normally, he had an idea why women disliked him, which was rare in itself. But he truly didn’t know why Candace did. He couldn’t recall a single thing he had ever done to her to make her so hostile. Part of him assumed it was just her personality, but she wasn’t that way with anyone else. He had seen her aroundcountless other people and it was like her attitude only shifted to sarcasm around him.
Jessica stepped into the hot tub first, carrying some sort of mixed drink and a beer for Travis. Then came Candace. She stepped in, kicking water across the hot tub and into Brent’s face before sloshing over to him and handing him a beer.
“Oops. Sorry.” She smiled sweetly before setting her drink down on the edge of the hot tub and heavily dropping into the water to slosh more water onto his face, getting both Jessica and Travis in the process as a wave rolled through.
Brent wiped the water out of his eyes before smiling back. “Oh, it’s no problem. I can see it was an accident.”
Candace only smiled in response as she picked up her drink before sliding as far away from him as she could—which ended up being only a foot away.
“I think the plan tomorrow is to head up the mountain and ski, right?” Jessica asked.
“I believe that’s up to you two since it’s your week and all,” Brent said.
Candace gave him a surprised look before turning a smile to Jessica and Travis. “If that’s what you want, it sounds great to me.”
“Great!” Travis said, a little too enthusiastically.
Truth be told, it didn’t matter if they all went up on the mountain together. They likely wouldn’t stick together, with the exception of Jessica and Travis. Everyone in their group had different skill levels, so the chances were that they would all split up and go to the runs they were most comfortable with and only meet up for food and drinks later. It didn’t matter if Jessica and Travis wanted to ski. Any of them could have said they weren’t up for it and it wouldn’t have made a lick of difference.
But with the glances Travis and Jessica had been giving one another, they looked like they were conspiring to do something. Brent’s eyes narrowed.
“What are you two up to?”
Jessica’s eyes widened briefly before she composed herself and took a long drink from her plastic cup. She and Travis looked at each other once again before shrugging.
“Nothing,” they said in unison.
“Well, that’s not suspicious at all,” Candace said sarcastically.
Brent cracked a smile.
“Nothing is going on. We are just looking forward to skiing,” Jessica said.
Travis nodded emphatically, only increasing Brent’s distrust in him.
“So the wedding went well,” Jessica said, shifting the conversation. “Thank you both for everything you did. Without you, the day would have been a mess.”
“Well, more of a mess than it already was,” Travis said, laughing at his own comment.
Candace only smiled. “It was beautiful. You both looked incredible, and I think everything worked out the way it was supposed to.”
Brent couldn’t have said it better himself. “I agree. It was a great evening.”
“And now we’re all stuck in this town together,” Travis said.
Brent shrugged. “Could be worse. This isn’t a terrible place to be stuck. We were just lucky that all of us made it up before things shut down. It would have sucked if one of us hadn’t.”
They all nodded in unison. The groups in the hot tubs nearby were talking and laughing loudly, but the silence among the four of them was welcoming. Brent studied Candace out of the corner of his eye. She was nursing a drink, which looked suspiciously like water. She had never been one to drink a lot, and he hadalways noticed it. He wanted to ask why, but figured she would give him a snotty response, so he kept his comments to himself.
No need to poke the bear… yet.
Jessica was whispering something into Travis’s ear, and Travis’s eyes darted between Brent and Candace, not disguising the fact that Jessica was talking about the two of them. Shortly after she sat up straight, Travis fake yawned and stretched his arms over his head dramatically.
“Okay, well, we’re beat and going to hit the sack,” he said.
