“Hi, Bryce, what are you doing back here?”
“Looking for you. Actually everyone is looking for you. Nate said you were supposed to meet at the bar after your last run.”
“I needed to call Quinn. But we can go now.”
“You going to tell me what you needed to talk to her about?” he rumbles.
“Nope, just know that I talk to Quinn all the time and about everything. Now, let’s go meet everyone.” I try to walk past him, but he reaches around and pulls my back to his front, wrapping his arms around me.
“Devon, I’m not going to let you ignore me. Make this easy on yourself.”
“See, Bryce, that’s where you should be thanking Quinn. I’m not ignoring you anymore. What’s done is done. It’s time to move on. You asked for my forgiveness, you have it. You want to be friends again, we are. This is me not ignoring you.”
He kisses my cheek gently and lets me go, but not without linking our hands together and pulling me behind him through the condo.
Oh boy, nine more days of this is going to be the biggest test of my life.
~~~~~
“Daylight Savings Time!” I scream and the other ladies cheer. The three of us dance around and high five. We’ve been playing Pictionary for an hour and beat the guys every round. Groans surround us as the group of sore losers lay back on the sofa.
“I think it was a terrible idea to have men against women,” Nate complains.
“Hey! There’s four of you. It was your idea,” I remind him.
“Yeah, but I forgot that Dad draws like a preschooler.”
“Don’t be a sore loser. Get me some wine.” I thrust my empty glass in his face. He rolls his eyes but losing team has to wait on the winners.
“Dev, I think my body needs a break from skiing tomorrow. The last three days have made me sore. You want to go shopping with us?” my mom asks pointing between her and Sheila.
“Yes.”
“Okay, this old man is going to bed,” my dad announces and kisses my head before slapping Nate on the back.
I sip my wine and watch all the parents go to their beds. After I listened to Quinn’s advice and decided to move on, this vacation has been perfect. It’s almost exactly like old times. Nate, Bryce, and I have spent the days running the courses.
I’m not dumb, I know my mom wants to shop tomorrow to get me alone and ask me about Bryce. She’s been eyeing me with a knowing look since walking in the door the first night. Even my dad winks at me when we make eye contact. Sheila and Dave have been especially sweet and loving. When I went into my self-imposed exile from home, I forced myself to think of them taking sides with Holli. But now that I knew the truth about their feelings of obligation to the baby and not her, I feel bad for not contacting them when moving to Virginia.
“You wanna watch a movie?” Nate asks Bryce and me. I nod but Bryce’s phone rings and he leaves the room to answer. My ears immediately perk up, but it’s none of my business.
“Finally, I have you alone for a few minutes.” My brother scoots closer.
“You had me alone the first day here.”
“Yeah, but after you ditched me on the slope and Bryce found you back here. There’s always been someone around.”
“Well, what’s up?”
“Are you okay? I mean with Bryce being here and being around him for the first time in so long. Are you holding up?”
“Absolutely. I finally let it all go. The emotions of a young girl took over and I allowed them to guide my decisions for far too long. It’s fine. I’m fine. Promise.”
“I’m really sorry that I didn’t tell you about the break-up. We all thought it was best that you didn’t know at first. Then I decided to see what Bryce was going to do. It was his life.”
“What do you mean we all thought it was best?”
“Dev, you may have thought it was slick to up and change your college and life plans in the blink of an eye, but it was also transparent. It took me a little longer to catch on and then I wanted to fucking kill him. But he had enough shit to deal with. I gave Mom and Dad updates in case they wanted to share how bad it was with you, but they didn’t. You finally started showing signs of letting him go and moving on. Mom said she felt like she was betraying you but she didn’t want to bring false hope until Bryce cut all ties.