Her Best Men

“Isn’t it you who’s always saying that sex is an important facet of a relationship? How can you give advice on it if you don’t fucking do it?”

I sat there in silence while her words knocked the breath from me.

“I guess I hadn’t thought about it that way,” I said breathlessly.

“Good. You’re open to the idea, so when you get yourself some, I want all the nasty details.”

“Wait a minute there sister, I never said I’d was going to-”

Just as I was going to object, I received another phone call from my ex, and shut my phone off again. I wasn’t going to let his negativity and abuse get to me.

***

It felt so good to be back in Colorado. The cold crisp air in this mountain town brought back a wave of warm memories from my childhood.

“Kyra!”

I looked up and saw my father, with his broad chest and his long beard. I rushed toward him, throwing my arms out and wrapping myself around his body. I didn’t get home as much as I had while I was in college, and the smell of firewood and forest permeated his clothing as I clung tightly to him.

His grip instantly tightened on me, sensing that something was wrong as he set me down onto my feet.

His eyes fell to my left hand, now bare compared to the last time he saw it. He flicked his gaze up to my face, his dark brown eyes studying me closely. That was the thing about my father. He never had to say a word in order to make you feel both loved and petrified at the same time.

I pitied Landon if my father ever saw him again.

“Good riddance,” my father said before he took my bag, and we made our way towards his truck.

The car ride brought back so many blissful memories. The mountains rose to their precipices in the distance. Their snow-capped tops blended into the crisp, white clouds that hunkered down over their tops. The winding roads became steeper and heftier, and I could hear my father’s truck working just to get up and down the inclines.

The trees were lined with snow and ice, twinkling with radiance in their new outfits, while winter blue

s and Christmas whites permeated my vision. My small hometown was draped in its winter wonderland costume, and all I could think about was cozying up next to a warm fire by the window and watching the snow fall along the tree line on the horizon.

“You remember that time your mother tried to surprise you, that year she had to travel?” my father asked.

“The year she left for that convention or whatever she was doing?”

“Yeah. Remember how she tried to climb through your window and ended up breaking her leg?”

“My gosh, I do remember that. She broke her leg and got pneumonia from falling face-first in the snow.”

“That woman was wild,” he said.

“Remember the year Mom tried to make all of our Christmas treats instead of buying them like she always did?”

“That was the year she charred half the kitchen. We had to remodel that year. I told her it was her Christmas gift. You wanna know what my favorite Christmas memory of her is, though?”

“What’s that, Dad?”

“Remember that year you introduced us to your first boyfriend? What was his name… Dan?”

“Jacob?” I asked.

“Whatever. I didn’t have to say one damn word to that boy. Your mother ended up reading him his rights on how we expected him to treat you, and he shivered in his boots whenever she came around. And if she was still here, that Larry fella would be doing the same.”

“You mean Landon?” I asked.

“Whatever.”