Page 97 of Old Acquaintances

I remember the hesitation, confusion, on his face. “She’ll probably break up with me by then.”

I had asked, “What are you doing to these women?” Referencing his back-to-back short-term relationships.

“Wouldn’t you like to find out?” He gave me a wink.

My mother saw only the wink and demanded that we both stop drinking eggnog and stand on opposite sides of the living room. The irony of which, at that point in my relationship with Tucker, was not lost on me.

Tucker talked to Johnny about it, and I arrived in his driveway to a cold, silent friend. He didn’t talk to me on the drive, but when we got to our rooms, he told me Serena and I would share. She wasn’t surprised, Tucker was. Another silent moment from Johnny.

I asked Serena, “What’s the big deal about Tucker and I staying in the same room?”

“He’s afraid you two are going to fool around and it’s going to affect the trip.”

“We aren’t like that.”

She didn’t respond.

We had dinner in the hotel that night, followed by drinks in the bar and the next morning they all planned to go skiing. Since I couldn’t ski and had little interest in beginner lessons, I planned to read a book in the lodge, drink a hot chocolate and walk around in the snowy garden. I wondered why Johnny didn’t want me here, why he didn’t think I could entertain myself. He had been cold to me the night before, as if I stole his girlfriend and ruined his birthday.

When I walked down for breakfast that first morning, I found Tucker alone at a table, drinking juice and scrolling through his phone. It made me smile seeing him like that. It reminded me of eating breakfast together on the cruise. The first bit of time I’d spent with him alone.

He looked up when I stood beside him.

“Why aren’t you with the others?” I asked.

He chewed on that. “Because I thought maybe you wanted to go play in the snow with me?”

“But today’s your only day to ski.”

“It’s also my only day to hang out with you.”

After we ate breakfast, I went upstairs to get my coat and boot. Tucker met me outside of my door. He put my hat on while I wrapped up in a scarf.

“Such a southern girl,” he chided.

“Says the southern boy.”

“I have the internal body temperature of an Alaskan husky.”

“I think that’s because you eat too much spicy food.”

We walked around the lodge, through the snowy pathways of ice-tipped trees and crystalline bushes, and Tucker blew hot air on my face when I looked too cold. He switched gloves with me since mine were thinly knit. We had the white world to ourselves, it seemed. No one around to hear our crunchy footsteps or notice how closely he walked beside me, to watch when his hand reached out to help me around a patch of ice.

We each built a snow person. I found two hooked bits of wood and commented that they looked like devil horns. “Look, it’s Gracie!”

“Oh, shit,” he laughed. “Get me a stick. No, smaller. No,smaller.” He stuck the stick in the bottom center of his snowman. “And it’s Steven.”

“Ha!” I covered my mouth.

Tucker smiled. “We might end up being in-laws, you know.”

“No. If they get married, then you will be my sister’s brother-in-law and I will be your brother’s sister-in-law.”

“Does that mean she’s gonna be nice to me?”

“Is she nice tome?”

He packed a snowball and tossed it at my feet. “And we would be…?”

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