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“What are you talking about?”
“He was flirting with you.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Liv murmured, and turned up the volume on the stereo.
2
“I have a week before I have to go back,” Renie said when they finished cleaning up from the Christmas party they’d hosted the night before. “Let’s go skiing.”
“I’d love it. Where to?”
Renie stopped what she was doing. “You’re kidding, right?”
Liv laughed. “There may come a day that you want to go somewhere else.”
“No, Mom. Crested Butte is our place.”
When they woke the next morning, the sun was shining, and the weather forecast was good for the rest of the weekend.
They packed their bags and skis and got on the road, making the two-hundred-mile drive to Crested Butte in a little over five hours.
“Let’s go to The Goat tonight. I’ve always wanted to hang out there,” Renie suggested after they checked into the hotel at the base of the ski area.
Liv yawned and checked the time. They’d arrived at the hotel a little after five, and she was hungry.
“Do they have food?”
Renie shrugged. “How would I know?”
Liv laughed. “Right.”
Her daughter had recently turned twenty-one, so it would be the first time she’d be allowed into the bar that was a Crested Butte institution. It was located in the middle of the historic downtown district, on Elk Avenue.
“If they don’t, we can always leave and eat somewhere else.”
They took the shuttle from the ski area down to the main part of town, and walked a half block to The Goat.
“I look like I’m a hundred years older than anyone else in here,” Liv mumbled when they walked into the bar.
“You’re not, and you’re gorgeous. Everyone will think you’re my sister, not my mom.”
They’d been there a few minutes when Liv noticed a poster promoting bands scheduled to play at the bar. CB Rice was playing the next night—what were the odds?
“What’s up, Mom?”
“CB Rice is playing here tomorrow night. Remember—”
“The guy you met at Red Rocks. Yeah, his family owns this place.”
“What?”
“The Rice family. His grandfather developed the ski area. They owned most of the businesses downtown at one point.”
“How do you know this?”
“Haven’t you ever read the history of Crested Butte in the magazines they leave in the hotel rooms? We’ve been coming here at least once a year since I learned to ski.”
No, she hadn’t read the history of Crested Butte. As a single mom, she had her hands full unloading bags, getting skis, boots, and snow clothes ready. Then she’d have to figure out where they’d go for dinner, and how she’d entertain her daughter until bedtime. Not that Renie wasn’t helpful, or able to entertain herself, but most of the responsibility for everything they did fell on Liv’s shoulders. It had been that way since Renie was born. By the time she fell into bed each night, Liv had no energy left to read a book, or even a magazine. It was true at home and worse when they traveled.
