“So camping is allowed?”
“In some places. Part of the Long Trail crosses our land but we allow public access and camping in designated areas. No campfires. Campfires have the worst ecological impact of all camping practices. And we stay off the trails during mud season in late fall and early spring when the ground is saturated.”
“So you own this land?”
“Yeah, it’s part of Snow Crystal.” He grinned. “I’m trying to impress you.”
He did impress her. Not because they owned the land, but because he knew so much about it. Despite complaining when he stepped
in something soft and smacking insects with his hand every few minutes, he’d proved himself to be tough and competent in the outdoors. He was skilled and efficient and in no time they had food cooking on the camping stove and the tent erected.
Élise sprinkled freshly grated Parmesan over a bowl of pasta and handed it to him, trying not to think about the two sleeping bags laid side by side inside the two-man tent.
“Tomorrow you are catching fresh fish for our lunch.”
“No way.” He shuddered dramatically. “I am not wading in a stream and catching my own food. That’s too primal. When I choose fish I prefer it to already be dead and on a restaurant menu, not swimming around my feet.”
“Fresh is best.”
“There is fresh and then there is still alive.” He forked up the pasta and tasted it. “Mmm. This is spectacular, and not just because I didn’t have to gut it before I ate it.”
Laughing, she ate, too. “Bien. I think even the most inept corporate person will be able to manage this. It is good, no?”
“Far too good for them. I thought the idea was that we made them suffer a little so that they bonded together in the face of adversity.”
“Is that what you and your brothers did when your grandfather left you out here to find your way home?”
Sean finished his food and helped himself to more. “It didn’t feel like adversity to Tyler and Jackson. And not to me, either, I guess, although I would rather have been left in peace to read.”
“You always liked books?”
“It was a way of escaping.”
“Escaping from what?”
For a moment she thought he was going to make his usual glib, dismissive comment but he didn’t.
Instead, he put his bowl down and stared off into space. “The pressure.”
The atmosphere shifted. There was a serious note to his voice she hadn’t heard before.
“What pressure?”
“For my grandfather the world begins and ends at Snow Crystal. He’s never been able to figure out why not everyone feels the same way. It was the reason he put so much pressure on my father. The atmosphere was pretty tense when we were growing up.”
“But your father loved it here?”
“He loved the place. He was an excellent skier. There are people around here who think he was almost as good as Tyler when he was in his teens. What he didn’t love was the work. He wasn’t built to be trapped behind a desk being nice to tourists. He just wanted to ski.”
Exactly like Tyler, she thought. “Then why did he stay? Why not do a different job?”
“Love. Isn’t that why most people end up compromising their dreams?”
“Do they?”
“Sure. It’s logic if you think about it. How can two people possibly have the same goals? They can’t, so it’s obvious that at some point one of them is going to have to give up on their own ambitions to satisfy someone else. In my father’s case, he was torn between his own wishes and the responsibility of running the family business. I guess the fact that my mother loved this place tipped the scales for him. A career in competitive skiing would have meant leaving her alone much of the time, traveling, living a life that was insecure and nomadic. It’s not great for a marriage.”
Élise thought about Tyler’s reputation. “No.”