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“I’m fifteen, not five.”
I walked away from the two of them without responding, and retreated to my room.
Later that day, upon a quick glance in the mirror, I realized that Owen had seen me with no makeup, my hair in a rat’s nest of a top knot, and in a sweatshirt with no bra underneath. A shower and a bit of time pulling myself together was definitely a necessity.
When I was finally satisfiedwith my appearance, I grabbed one of our games and made my way over to Owen’s chalet. I didn’t want to look like I was trying too hard, but I at least put a little effort into my hair and makeup.
For some reason, this gathering felt different than some of our previous ones. Sure, I had spent time with the three of them several times before that night, so I wasn’t sure why I was feeling such nervous excitement. I started to wonder if maybe my mom, Sierra, and Amelia had started getting in my head.
It’s not like I was expecting anything to happen. Or maybe I was. I needed to stop thinking about it and just enjoy the evening, but when Owen opened the door, I felt my heart skip a beat. His smile was so perfectly imperfect. His arms open wide for me as I stepped inside made me feel like I was completely at home. It was a sensation that I never really knew was possible.
“The girls are so excited that you agreed to come over,” he said as he embraced me.
“They are? Why?”
“They told me that you’re way more fun than I am.”
“Oh, whatever. I’m sure they didn’t really say that.”
“Laila? Cora?”
Two little faces emerged from around a corner.
“Do you think Dad is more fun or Skye?”
“Skye!” they said in unison.
They ran over and each hugged one of my legs, and I bent down to open my arms for each of them. It was an odd but wonderful feeling that two kids whom I was not related to and who had just met me a few days ago cared for me so much. Though I definitely felt the same way about the two of them.
“So, what are we playing first?” I asked.
“Pictionary!” called Laila.
“No! Uno!” Cora cried.
“Well, both of those sound really fun. How about we play Uno and then we play Pictionary after. Does that sound like a plan?”
The girls nodded their agreement, and I grabbed each of their hands and led them to the table where a pile of games had found a home.
“Wow, did you guys bring all of these with you?”
“They wouldn’t dream of going somewhere they couldn’t play games,” Owen said with a laugh.
I dealt the cards for the first game, and though it was slow-moving with two young kids leading the way, I don’t think I had laughed that much in a long time. They were so silly with their sweet comments, and they were professionals at bending the rules to suit them.
After the first round was over and Laila was crowned the winner, she suddenly didn’t dislike the game as much. In fact, she wanted to play more. I glanced over my shoulder out the window and saw that snow was quickly accumulating outside.
“I didn’t think it was going to snow today,” I said, without giving it a second thought.
The girls’ heads snapped to the window, and Owen’s did, too. All three of them gave a look of equal surprise. The clear, blue skies of the morning were long gone, and white and gray covered everything from the horizon and up. It was even starting to get hard to see the mountains, even though they were right beneath us.
“Looks like it’s going to be a good powder day tomorrow,” Owen said with a smile in my direction.
“We’re definitely going to need to get out there,” I agreed.
After a couple hoursand a truly outrageous amount of games, the girls had finally had enough. We devoured the dinner Beth had prepared, and then she took the girls up to their room for bed. At long last, it was just Owen and I alone.
I wandered over to the window that faced my family’s chalet and realized the snow had started to get exceptionally deep. It hadn’t slowed down in hours, and it didn’t look like there was any sign of stopping.
