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1 – KINCAID
“It’s so cold!” Laurensays, hopping off the sky lift.
“What’d you expect? We’re in the mountains,” Denise giggles, lugging her bag further up her arm.
The rest of us hop off the sky lift behind the two of them and trudge through the snow.
“Oh, my God! Is this it? This is the place you rented?” Stacey shrieks.
“Yeah, babe. Cade’s been talking about this place all year,” my brother, Shepherd replies, wrapping his arm around one of his girlfriends.
“I’ve never stayed in a chalet before, Shep,” Stacey says.
“This is gonna be a blast,” my friend Andrew replies.
“Come on, Yaya! Let’s go,” Stacey shouts to her stepsister.
The original plan for this holiday getaway included my brother, Shepherd and his two companions, Kylie Wright and Stacey Hamilton and my four best friends, Andrew Grey, whom we call Drew, and his wife, Lauren Collins-Grey, and Tyler Pierce and his girlfriend, Denise Fuller, and me. The woman I’d been dating seriously for the last two years, Claire Maddox, accepted a job at a French magazine in Paris a few months ago, which was the end of us.
Finding a replacement wasn’t an option. Whereas Claire had wanted the position as the COO atMondiaux Revue’sAmerican office, it hadn’t become available. So, when the position opened at the French headquarters, she jumped on it immediately. It was a great career move for her, but she didn’t have much time to transition.
Although I often travel for business, a long-distance relationship wasn’t an option. The time I invest in a relationship is to find a wife.
I have no intentions of moving to France and having a wife who lives across the country from me, let alone across the globe.
Claire accepted the offer and was flying out within a month. We had little time to say our goodbyes, and while parting was hard on both of us, I always cautioned her to put her career first. I would.
I’d often considered not going on this vacation, but Andrew, Lauren, and Tyler would not hear of it.
Shep called me last night asking if Stacey could bring her stepsister along. I wasn’t in the mood for the company of my friends and family. I wasn’t interested in being bothered by someone I didn’t know.
Of course, I shared all that with my big brother, who didn’t listen. I sat in horrified silence as he told Stacey I would love some company.
Every name I could call him bounced off his ears and only made him laugh harder at me. Knowing I had lost the battle, I simply hung up on him.
I was stunned when I saw Yaya this morning at the airport. Yaya.
What kind of fucking name is that? It sounds like a baby’s first words. She looks like a baby...compared to the rest of us anyway. She’s young and looks as if she’s not even old enough to vote. Still, she didn’t deserve to be seated with that type of name.
Despite her youthful appearance, she is a striking beauty with freckles and soulful eyes that look like they can see your darkest secrets. Those were the first things that I noticed about her. The next was that she had the perfect, petite, tight little body that a man’s dreams are made of.
My final observation was that she’s quiet, a little too quiet. It’s been my experience that when people are that quiet, they usually have something to hide.
When I think about what we’ll get into, I’m not certain she needs to be on this trip. She’s not underage but the young, innocent type who hasn’t been broken in. A girl whose purity and innocence are still intact despite life’s brutality.
Something wet hits me in the back while a thud sounds in my ears. I slow my steps long enough to look over my shoulder and see Tyler throwing snowballs.
“Ty, quit that shit!” Lauren calls out.
“Grow up, dude,” Denise moans.
I chuckle under my breath. Tyler’s always been the big kid amongst us, initiating the shenanigans we participated in during our middle school years. Part of him has never grown up, and I envy that.
Out of the group, I’m the serious one. The one that always mapped out the plan for the adventurous ideas that Drew and Lauren, the creatives, came up with. It was no surprise when the two of them got married a few years after college. They’d been linked up since our senior year of college and were the most alike in our group.
Denise and Tyler never got along throughout our school years, so when they hooked up three years ago, that took us all by surprise. They’re still dating and haven’t announced any plans for marriage. I often wonder if Denise takes Tyler seriously enough because he’s such a big kid. I’ve warned him that he’ll push her away one day if he doesn’t mature.
The two women that my brother brought along are new to our group. We met Stacey a couple of months ago at Shepherd’s birthday bash and Kylie at our annual beach vacation earlier this summer. He sees both at once, and they seem okay with sharing him.
