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“Sure,” she said, forcing Derek to relinquish his place and inadvertently pairing him with Josh.
The men sat together in awkward silence for the first part of the lift ride until Derek broke the ice. “Are you upset with me or something? Because I’m getting some hate vibes every time you look at me.”
Josh tamped down his anger, knowing he had no reasonable explanation for it. He attempted to make his expression pleasant. “No, I’m sorry—I’m a little tense.”
“But you still mean what you said night before last? You’re in love with Olivia, and I’m free to date Charlie?”
Josh couldn’t quite make himself say it, so he grunted and nodded his head.
“I just wondered, because Charlie seemed pretty ticked off when I told her what you said.”
“You told her what I said?” Josh practically growled at him. “That was between us. You weren’t supposed to tell her.”
“Well, you didn’t tell me that. And she seemed so concerned about whether or not you were in love with Olivia, I just felt like she needed to know for sure.”
“She was concerned about that?”
“Oh yeah, she was really worried. I almost thought she had a thing for you. I can see why you’d choose Olivia over Charlie though.”
“You can?”
“Of course. I mean... Charlie’s a lot of work. It’s really hard to know what she’s thinking. And she’s so competitive—I’ve got my work cut out for me.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, obviously she needs to be tamed a bit. She’s a little too dominant for her own good. Not that I won’t look forward to having a little tiger in the sack someday, but—” Josh’s gloved hand shot out to connect with Derek’s helmet. “Hey! What was that for?”
“You’ve already been warned not to talk about Charlie like that,” Josh spoke between gritted teeth. “Another word, and I’ll take my gloves off and your helmet as well before I knock your teeth into your head.”
“I don’t think I said anything bad if I’m talking about after we’re married,” Derek defended. “Right?”
Josh almost choked. “You’re thinking about marrying Charlie?”
“Well, I know it’s going to take some work. But yes, of course I am. I mean, this is just between us. I haven’t talked to her about it yet.”
“But you hardly know her.”
“If you think it takes a long time to realize she’s special, you don’t know Charlie as well as you think you do.”
Josh fell back into silence, trying to process Derek’s words.
“So we’ll probably end up being friends, you know.” Derek’s smile split his face. “In a month, you’ll be married to Olivia, and hopefully, not long after that, I’ll be married to Charlie.”
Josh stared at him, speechless. He tried to imagine this future reality. He and Olivia having Charlie and Derek over for dinner. Charlie and Derek holding hands, touching each other, in love with each other, married.
Derek continued, “I know you’ll have Jace and Chloe, but I’d be ready to start having kids with Charlie pretty soon. I hope she wants a lot of kids, because I want a big family.”
Josh felt nauseous, picturing Charlie, pregnant with Derek’s child. Derek pushed his goggles up and lifted his chin to soak in the sun’s warmth. Josh’s eyes were riveted on Derek’s relaxed and happy face as a sense of helpless rage built inside him. He struggled with a sudden strong urge to toss him off the ski lift.
Anne waited for Derek at the top of the run. He sat on the bench next to her while he buckled his boot onto the board. “Mrs. G, you were so right. That worked like a charm.” He la
ughed. “But I want you to know I risked my life for you on that chair lift. When I started talking about getting married to Charlie, I really thought he was going to kill me.”
“Who was going to kill you?” Steven rode over on his board, sitting on Anne’s other side to lock his boot in.
Anne panicked. “He was talking about... uhmm...”
“I was telling your wife about racing Josh yesterday. I thought he was going to kill me, but he just barely beat me. I think I could beat him if we were both on boards, though.”
