Page 86 of You, Me, & Après-Ski
I sipped my coffee and it burbled in my stomach like hot acid at the reminder of his lies. “He probably needs board approval for something like that. Who knows how long that will take, or if he can even get it?” I was still holding out hope that somehow, our beloved Hale’s Peak wouldn’t get demolished.
Frankie cocked a skeptical eyebrow and continued prepping for the late morning brunchers. It was early April and Nolan’s board meeting was soon, but I hadn’t heard from him since I’d told him to go back to San Francisco. Not that I wantedto hear from him.
Okay. Fine. I wanted to hear from him.
And I felt sostupidabout it. Because even after all the deception, I still had feelings for him. I had thought being away from Nolan would get easier, but the memories were stamped onto my soul, pumping through my veins with every beat of my heart. Even though our bond was tattered and thinning with each silent day, the moments we’d shared weren’t something I could easily forget. I didn’twantto forget. And I thought it might be the same for him too.
I wanted to text him and ask about the sale, or about anything, just to see his name flash across my screen again. In the beginning, he’d tried calling and texting, but I hadn’t responded. And now I felt like it was too late to reach out. He’d almost said thefreaking L-wordto me, and I’d told him to get lost. What if his feelings had changed? What if he just wanted to forget the whole thing? That was a rejection I couldn’t face, so I held my silence. Moving on was probably for the best, anyway.
My phone pinged with messages from Cressida, Daphne, and Cora, and Frankie laughed as she read the group chat from her own phone.At least I still have my girl gang.We all had plans to meet up for the Hale’s Peak end of season celebration in a few weeks—as long as it wasstill happening. A lot was still up in the air, but Cressida and Daphne hadn’t said anything to the contrary, and they’d be the first to know.
Turning her screen toward me, Frankie showed me the latest message. “Cress says Nolan’s been wallowing this entire month. Daphne confirms. Brooding in his office, brooding at home, brooding with a drink in his hand. Maybe you should go easy on him, because you’re wallowing too.”
“Am not,” I said, ripping up the garbage from my empty sugar packet.
“Yeah, that’s convincing.”
“What’s convincing?” asked Austin as he slid into the seat beside me, then Frankie plopped a coffee in front of him. Hugh took that moment to extract himself from a chatty customer and hustle his way over.
I heaved a sigh. “This feels like an intervention.”
“We’re worried about you, Val,” Hugh said. “I know breakups are hard, but maybe you two don’t have to break up. It doesn’t seem like you want to.”
Hugh and Austin had both been brought into the cone of silence and clued in to my drama. After Nolan had broken my trust, I needed my friends now more than ever.
“Is there really no hope to salvage it?” Austin asked.
I shook my head. “Nolan misled me about a lot of things. How can I trust him again after that?”
A pensive look passed across Austin’s face. “I’m not trying to defend the guy, but maybe he deserves the opportunity to explain. You don’t have to give him a second chance but hearing him out might give you some closure.”
“Or, let him try and win you back. I love to see a man do some good old-fashioned groveling,” Frankie said. “And I have a feeling Nolan would be pretty good at it.”
Despite feeling like my heart was made of cement, I snorted. “He’d beexcellentat it.” I tapped a finger on the bar, considering. Maybe they were right. Maybe I did need closure, or something. It was worth at least one conversation, and then I could put this winter behind me forever.
I opened my mouth to say as much, but the shrill ring of my phone interrupted me.
“Hey, Diego,” I said. “Paparazzi again?”
“Val.” A sharp note of panic edged his voice, and my throat tightened.
“What’s wrong?”
“Juanito—he’s gone.”
The following evening, I pounded on the door to Diego’s apartment in Sun Valley.
“Ya voy,” came Diego’s voice from within. When he opened the door, I squeezed him into a massive hug. “I’m so glad you’re here,mana.”
We convened in the living room on the sectional crowding the small space. His new apartment was on the top floor of a new-ish two-story building on the outskirts of town across the street from a park. It was supposed to be a nice neighborhood. A safe neighborhood. But how wrong we’d been.
A freaking grand piano of anxiety had been sitting on my chest since I’d gotten Diego’s call, and I hadn’t slept all night. “Did the police find him?” I asked.
Diego rubbed his face with a grim look. He hadn’t shaved in a few days and his hands rasped across rough stubble. “No. With no information to go on, I don’t know how they’re supposed to find him.”
I paced to the window, racking my brain for a solution. Then I saw the bushes outside move, followed by the flash of a camera.
Without another thought, I sprinted downstairs and outside, Diego shouting after me. When I reached the bush, I yanked out the paparazzo hiding in it.
