Snowed In

“Morgan was gonna eat an egg roll but I stopped her,” Jeremy said accusingly. “Good thing I was here.”

A year, the little voice in my head repeated dreamily. A Whole. Damned. Year.

One year since we’d returned to the States. One year since we’d gotten back to campus, and pretty much immediately picked up where we let off. It was strange at first, going out on a real date with Shane… and then Jeremy… and then Boone. Sitting across from them at an actual table. Eating real food, walking along a real street, holding hands through real weather.

Sleeping with them in a real bed…

We’d been celebrities at first, if just for a little while. The Cervigno Survivors. The Fantastic Four. We’d been celebrated in the news and on campus, thrown avalanche-themed parties by the fraternities and alumni.

But just as with anything else like that, fame was fleeting. In just a few weeks, we were students again. Four very lucky people who’d gotten through a terrible ordeal.

Or a not-so-terrible ordeal, if you looked at it from our perspective.

One by one we dated, and the guys had given me all the space they promised. It seemed wholly unfair. I felt almost guilty during the process. A few weeks went by where we’d hang out alone, one on one, just me and one of the guys.

Then there was the night both Jeremy and Shane had come over, and things had gotten complicated all over again.

Not to mention the time Shane and Boone had both taken me into the city…

It came to me all at once, only a month after we’d all returned. Jeremy’s words from our last night in the hotel, echoing through my brain:

Don’t choose.

I called them together and told them. I couldn’t choose. I wouldn’t choose. I’d date none of them if I had to, because picking any one of them wouldn’t be fair to the others. I liked them all.

No… that wasn’t right either.

I loved them all.

After looking at each other for a moment, they stared back at me in unison. Not one of them was mad. Not one of them was disappointed.

“You don’t have to choose,” said Jeremy simply. “If you’re willing to date us all.”

That was eleven months ago now — a year since our disaster on the mountain. A year since I’d gone from being single and lonely…

… to having three gorgeous, dedicated boyfriends.

“I can’t believe you canceled with Faith and Brandon!”

Faith and Brandon — yet another happy byproduct of the Cervigno resort avalanche. I’d been overjoyed to find out Faith had not only made it down the mountain, but had been keeping rescue efforts alive. It was she who’d told everyone where they should be looking. She who was responsible for the helicopter that almost found us that day, in the short break between storms.

“Three hot guys, Morgan?” she’d chided me from the hospital room. “C’mon, you have to pick one! Give me my choice of the other two!”

She was half-kidding of course, but she also wasn’t. And if she only knew the extent of things…

In time I’d tell her everything. In time we’d both be picking her jaw up off the table in the little coffee shop in which I’d spilled all the beans. I laughingly told her she wasn’t to hit on a single one of my guys, and that if I caught her doing it I’d bury her beneath another avalanche of my own bitter wrath.

Then I did the next best thing: I set her up with Boone’s cute little brother.

“We have a hundred other nights to hang out with Faith and Brandon,” I said, handing the last beer to Shane. He took it eagerly, downing a third of it in a single pull. “But tonight?” I smiled wickedly. “Tonight belongs to us.”

I pulled on my belt and dropped my robe. Beneath it, the blood-red corset and lacy garters of my anniversary outfit drew the attention of all three of my gorgeous lovers.

All three of my live-in boyfriends.

Boone rose up from the couch. Shane stepped in immediately, sliding an arm around my waist.

“Is this the bonus you mentioned?” asked Jeremy, raising an eyebrow.