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“Why is your sister riding with Dan?”
“I expect she wants to spend time with him.”
He swung his leg over the snowmobile. “I’ll bring your sister home with me. That way you and Dan can have some time together.”
“Thank you. Did you and she get along okay on the ride from the airport?”
Jordan’s expression didn’t change. “We got along fine, don’t you worry. Now let’s get going before we’re too far behind to catch up.”
She wrapped her arms around his waist as they sped along the snow, following the groomed trail that led through the valley into the mountains, through aspen groves and vast glittering snowfields that in the summer would be meadows splashed with the color of wildflowers.
Today the landscape was a million different shades of white.
The mountains rose up out of forests of spruce and fir, the reflection of the craggy, snow-covered peaks shimmering on the surface of the partially frozen lake.
The cold stung her cheeks and bit through her thick layers of clothing.
They arrived at the lake to find Katie and Dan already sipping mugs of hot chocolate.
“That was incredible.” Katie’s cheeks were flushed, her hands curved around the mug. She looked happy and relaxed for the first time since she’d arrived. “What a perfect place. Dan was telling me he used to come up here before dawn so he could take photos of the sunrise.”
“In summer this place is so crowded it’s hard to find a place to stand on the lakeshore,” Jordan said. “Even at sunrise.”
Catherine was taking photographs, tall and slim in a white winter jacket and black ski pants.
“She already has a thousand,” Dan said. “But still she takes more.”
“I’m doing a wedding here in the spring,” his mother called over her shoulder, bracing her legs as she took a succession of shots.
Rosie glanced around and saw her parents standing a little distance away, facing each other. “What are they doing?”
Katie grinned. “Having a fight. Apparently Mum is a scary driver. Dad told her he’d ridden camels in the desert that were smoother. That didn’t go down well.”
Rosie didn’t want to hear that they were fighting.
She wanted evidence that they were still blissfully happy.
As if on cue, her mother stood on tiptoe to kiss her father. And then pushed a snowball down his neck.
There was a brief moment when her father stood frozen in shock and then he retaliated, scooping up snow where he stood and chasing after Maggie.
She ran, arms windmilling as she struggled through the ankle-deep snow, shrieking like a teenager, trying to protect her head and neck.
“I never knew she could run that fast,” Katie said mildly.
“Me neither. Ouch.” Rosie winced as she saw her father catch up. He swung her mother around and held a huge ball of snow aloft.
Their voices carried across the snow.
“Remember, Mags, you started this.” He pushed it down her neck and she gasped with the cold and scooped up more snow, pummeling him as he ducked and laughed. They continued to spar, ducking and diving as they grabbed soft scoops of snow and hurled it until they were both covered.
Rosie couldn’t remember ever seeing her parents as relaxed as this. Normally her mother fussed over her, checking she was feeling okay, that she’d used her inhalers, that she didn’t feel a cold or flu coming on. Since arriving in Aspen, Maggie seemed different. Rosie couldn’t quite identify what had changed, but something had. If anything her parents seemed closer than they had when Rosie had been living at home. Presumably relationships changed as people did.
Rosie snuggled inside her coat and smiled. It was good to see them so happy, and not only because it made her feel better personally.
Katie walked over to say something to Dan and Rosie turned to Jordan.
“Do your parents behave like this?”
