King Sized Beds and Happy Trails (Beds Series) (13 page)

“Doesn’t
look like we’re going anywhere.” Sean says and flops onto the bed.

Oh no
no no. I refuse to be stranded here with him when I just dumped him, and told him he wouldn’t love me.

It’s just snow. Brewster barrels through snow like
it’s air. I pull on my mittens I have tucked into my pockets and dive into it. Cold penetrates my hands almost instantly, but I don’t stop. I dig a hole, snow falling into the room.

I’m making a dent, a very small dent when arms wrap around me and pull me away. The door slams shut
, and I kick and flail. I was getting somewhere.

Sean put’s me back on the ground,
hands holding me in place. “Are you out of your mind?”

“Maybe!” I yell as frustration boils over. Frustration mixes with an overwhelming sense of sorrow when I think of all that’s happened and tears stream down my cheek.

“Oh man, don’t cry.” Sean pulls me into his chest, and I don’t resist. I’ve lost any and all energy I had left.

“I couldn’t wait to come on this trip. It was supposed to be paradise. But nothing has gone right since I got here.
” Except for Ryan. And just when I was about to go to— “And now I’m snowed in a room with you!”

“Come on I’m not that bad.” He wipes the hair off my cheek and looks at me with blue eyes.
They sparkle just like they did that day at the library, but this time I don’t go weak in the knees. Though, I see the kindness in his gaze, the sincerity. .

“No
, you’re not.” I force a smile and swipe fingers under my eyes.

“H
ow bad can things really be?”

“I lost my ring.” I pull out of Sean’s embrace and flop onto the bed, hands landing
in my lap seconds later. “It’s the only thing important to me and poof it’s gone. Just like that.” I snap to emphasize the quickness.

“Was it a diamond?”

He never noticed the ring I wore every single day on my pinky.

“No
t valuable in the monetary sense. Priceless in the sentimental sense.”

“I’ll help you find it then.” His face lights up and hope flutters in the cobalt of his eyes.

“It’s pointless. I’ve looked everywhere.”

“Well you obviously haven’t looked everywhere or you would have found it.”

Thanks for the late breaking news
, Anderson Cooper.

“Trust me
, it’s gone.”

“I bet you it’s not. I’ll find it.”
He smirks, and I roll my eyes. Ryan’s right. Sean is a cocky douche. “Doubt me all you like, but I will.” His stupid smile gets bigger. “And when I do you have to kiss me.”

My eyes shoot up
, and I’m about to say hell no, because the only lips I want on mine are Ryan’s, but if I haven’t found it yet there’s no way Sean will. And if he’s looking for the ring, he’ll stay away from me. “Fine.”

He sticks out his hand
, and with a big cocky grin says, “Deal.”

Not like I’ll ever have to follow through on the deal. My ring is gone. I’ll never see it again.
A part of me wishes it was still perched on my pinky, but it’s part of the past. A past I’ve been holding onto for far too long. It has done nothing but let me down time and time again. Maybe it’s time to let go. Move on, far away from the things that broke me and toward the things that keep me together.

I look down at the orange stone Ryan gave me. It glistens against the
light of the lamp in the corner, copper specks shimmer just like Ryan’s eyes. My ring is gone, but it was haunted by ghosts of the past. And now in its place is a ring that represents the brightness of my future. But orange stone or no orange stone, as long as Ryan is here there will never be a dim moment.

Ryan. I need to call him. He needs to know where I am.

I pick up the phone and dial the front desk. When the lady answers, I don’t give her a chance to get her whole greeting out. “Hi, yes, I’m in room… Sean what room is this?”

“17A
.”

“I’m in room 17A and snow just fell off the roof
, and now I can’t get out. You need to get me out of here.”

“The best thing to do is stay put. The snow is really coming down
, and we’ve had several calls about the same issue. We have to take them as they come in. Get comfortable and we will have someone out to you as soon as we can.”

I look at Sean who just scratched himself and then back at the phone. “Do I have any other choice?”

“No,” the woman says just before she hangs up.

“What’d they say?” he asks arms behind his head
, a smile on his face like this isn’t the worst thing ever.

“Get comfortable.”

“Well you may as well do what they say.” He lifts his arm at me as if I’m going to climb across the bed and lay with him. That is so not happening.

I hang up the phone and dial m
ine and Ryan’s room. Busy signal. Darn it. If he knew I was here, alone, with Sean… he would dig me out with his bare hands.

I dial again. Still busy. The phones must be acting up.
Crap. Forty five more times and still a busy signal. Then I remember to call his cell phone, but it’s pointless since it goes right to voicemail. I text him, but if he has no service he won’t get the text until two days from now.

Ryan where are you? We rely on each other
, and I need him right now more than he needed me to throw his butt out the window when the chaperones came through.

The window!

Duh! I make it across the room in two strides. My hands go right to the bottom of the pane, and I push it up. Only problem. The window doesn’t budge, and my arms jolt back like they hit a brick wall.

What the…
?

“Window
’s broken. Or something. Damn thing won’t budge. Sandy had to hide under the bed when the chaperones came through.”

Did he really just say that? The boy just tried to win my affections not even five minutes ago
, and now he’s telling me about Sandy Mc-Slut-ster hiding under his bed. Ugh! 

I accept defeat and fling myself onto the very edge of the bed. He
changes the channel on the TV switching between SpongeBob SquarePants and some car show. I wish he’d let me have the remote. He doesn’t.

Two hours later
, and he still won’t share.

Two hours! It’s been two hours
, and not a single person has come by. I call the front desk again, but I get the same response. “Get comfy. We’ll get to you soon.”

I go and open the door, hoping the snow melted or blew away, but I’m met with a wall of solid white fluff taller than me.

“It’s getting late. We might as well turn in. I’m sure they’ll knock once we can get out.”

No way. I am not sleep
ing anywhere near him and his wandering lips. Besides all I need is to have one of my nightmares. Other than Ryan, no one knows about them, and I’m not about to let someone else in.

“I’ll stay up and wait thanks.”

“Suit yourself.” Sean pushes the pillow under his head and turns the light out on the nightstand.

I try Ryan one more time, but the phone is still busy. Of course. Why wouldn’t it be? I look down at my nails and pick away at the
Houston We Have a Purple
. I can repaint them when and if I ever get out of here.

My stomach growls, reminding me I haven’t eaten anything since lunch. “Sean?”

He answers with a loud, gargling snore. Great. Just great. The bed creaks as he turns over and, oh my God! Did he just? He totally just farted. Eww! Gross and oh man what did he eat?

My hand flies to my shirt and pulls it up over my nose. Air freshener. I need air freshener. I run to the bathroom and spot a can on the back of the toilet. Thank
God!

I step
toward it and…Oh God! Really! Is that pee on the floor? You have got to be kidding me! How hard is it to aim? The toilet is a big enough target, it’s not like he has to pee into a straw. Ugh! Disgusting.

Without t
aking another step closer, I reach out and grab for the can. I spray it out in front of me and continue spraying into the room. I walk up to Sean and spray his ass. Obviously there’s something rotting up there.

I hug the air freshener to my chest and fall against the only wall that doesn’t have
crap pushed up against it, wishing I was back in the king sized bed with Ryan. All this time I was searching for more when all I had to do was open my eyes. He was right there, sexy eyes and all. Right in front of me. But I was too dumb, or blind or whatever to see it.

From his conditione
d soft hair to the way my body fits perfectly against his as if we were made to go together. But most of all, he knows everything about me. Every awful detail yet he has never once judged me.

He’s never seen me as the daughter of the town drunk or the girl whose father abandoned her.
Ryan has only ever seen me. Maybe it’s because all of this time, all these years he’s felt as I do.

And now for the first time in ten years I can admit
, I’m in love with my best friend. I love him. Always have, just been too scared to admit it.

But what if he doesn’t feel the same about me? Life as I know it will change and I could lose him. I can’t lose him. He’s the only constant in my life. The only reason I haven’t given up.

For the first time since I realized I love my best friend, I’m terrified. Nothing ever works out for me. It seems everything about my life is up and down just like an elevator, but it’s never on the floor it needs to be. So it’s only natural I’m stuck with the human gas chamber while Ryan, the boy I love, is nowhere to be found.

All night. I was up all night waiting for Lex to come back to the room. Kaylee fed me some line about her sleeping with her and Nate, but I didn’t believe it for a second. That was the “Vampire Spider” room. And when I blink my eyes to the blinding light Friday morning and see Lex coming out of Sean’s cabin, I freeze for about two seconds before bolting.

I knew it. I
knew
it! I tell her the truth about how I feel about the dick, and she goes right over there. And not only that, but has the nerve to lie to me about it!

I stomp through the snow, feeling like such a dumbass. Jamming my hands in my pockets, my fingers mash into that two day old muffin that’s been sitting in there. As I pass the trash can, I chuck the remains with a lot more force than I mean to.

Ping!

What the…?

I know that muffin is beyond stale, but it shouldn’t have made a ping.

Peeking over the edge of the can, I see it. Lex’s ring. Covered in lemon poppy seed, but otherwise, intact.

My hands are shaking, and I’m jumping up and down like a damn girl. I can’t believe this whole time it’s been in my pocket! How did it get in my pocket? Who cares? I found it! Just in time too. We’re leaving tomorrow, and I really didn’t want to go back up to those slopes, especially with the storm warning we had yesterday. Got the message about ten times from the front desk lady—I’m really regretting putting the charm on her—before I unplugged the thing. Yeah, I got it. No slopes, stay near the resort, blah, blah, blah.

I wipe off the muffin goo from the ring, still not believing I actually found it.

“You know, there’s better food in the dining room.”

If she hadn’t said anything, I would have never known it was Sandy talking to me. She’s slumped over a
snow-covered picnic table, hair scrunched, and raccoon eyes that are more like panda eyes, since the black covers about half her face. Her arm raises, and she chucks a tiny glass bottle my direction, landing with a crash in the garbage.

“I take it that’s not where you got that.”

She shakes a finger at me and nods, letting out a tiny burp. Wow. I mean, really, wow. I know I don’t really know this girl, but she didn’t strike me as someone who gets drunk at ten in the morning.

It must be written on my face, because she pulls out another bottle, and spits out, “Don’t judge me. I’m not drunk. I’m just drinking. I haven’t slept in the past few
days because I was kicked out of my own cabin when Sean dumped me for that piece of trash—”

“Hey, watch it.” I may be upset at Lex, but I still won’t let people talk
shit about her.

“Right, she’s your friend.” She takes a swig. “Sorry.”

Things are getting uncomfortable. When that happens, I usually bail, but just as I take a step, I spot a silent tear going down her cheek. Ugh.

I m
ay be a lot of things. An idiot, a sucker, a walking ego, but I’m not a dick. And I’ve always been taught, when girls cry, you don’t just walk away. No matter how much you think they’re not worth the shoulder, you give it to them anyway.

Plopping down next to her, I tuck Lex’s ring back in my pocket and zip it up so it doesn’t go anywhere. Sandy swipes her cheeks and goes for another drink, but I stop her.

“What’s the deal with you two, anyway?” I ask.

“Yeah, right,” she snorts. “Like I’m going to tell you so you can go run off and tell her how messed up I am.”

I scratch the back of my neck. “We’re not exactly talking to each other right now.” Lex doesn’t know that, but I’m going to play dodge the best friend as much as possible today. I’ll give her the ring—or maybe give it to Kaylee—but I’m not dealing with the morning after talk. She can do that with Kaylee.

“I knew you had a thing for her.”

“Huh?”

She cocks her head toward me. “It’s so cliché, you know? Falling for your best friend.” She shrugs. “But whatever. Her and Sean are like… what’s that expression? Peas and jelly?”

“Sounds about right.” I chuckle under my breath before nodding at the bottle in her hands. “So, how’d you break the lock?”

Her lip pulls up
, and she reaches into her pocket. “The many uses of a bobby pin.” She hands it to me. “Just in case you want to forget about all this, too.”

A hiccup and a nudge in the shoulder later, she’s gone. Back
to her cabin or wherever. I don’t really pay attention. All I can do is finger the bobby pin and shake my head.

***

“No way! You found it?!” Kaylee jumps up and down as she yanks the ring from my fingers. Nate shushes her since Lex is standing in the other room. She’s made four attempts to talk to me, but Sean keeps hovering around her, and I keep jumping away. Right now, Nate, Kaylee, and I are huddled in the handicapped stall in the boy’s bathroom at the lodge.

“Yeah. Could you give it to her?” It’s like
I asked her something more obscene or something with the way they look at me. “What?”

“Uh, no.” Kaylee shoves the ring back in my hand. “You found it. You give it to her.”

I give Nate a “please, help me” look, but he just shakes his head. “She’s right. You should be the one to give it to her. It was in
your
pocket.”

There’s more reason than that
, and if he knows it, I’m glad he keeps his mouth shut.

“Come on, guys.”

Kaylee shakes her head so hard she whips Nate’s Fedora off with one of her braids. Master magician catches it in one hand like it’s happened so many times now, it doesn’t even faze him.

“Fine,” I grumble and slip the ring into my jeans. “Now, I
really have to go to the bathroom, which is why I came in here, so…”

“Okay, okay.” Kaylee grabs Nate’s arm and whips him out the door. As gross as their PDA is, I’m jealous.

I’m just drying off my hands when the door swings open and the douchebag and a few of his friends run to the urinals. I get ready to hightail it, but they step back—I mean step back to lean against the opposite wall—and a fountain of piss blocks my exit.

“Uh…”

No one hears me over all the shouts and peeing contest. I turn around and wash my hands again, just so I don’t see their junk. When Kevin shouts, “Done!” and then everyone flushes, I maneuver to the door, being careful of where I step.

“Hey, Ryan!”
Sean nods to his friends and they leave us alone. He wipes his hands off and tosses the paper towels in the garbage. “So, Lex told me about this ring. Mind if I go out with you guys to look for it?”

My chest tightens and heat shoots up my neck. She told him about that? It took her ten years to tell me, her best friend. A
nd the second she goes running to him, she tells the dick.

I gulp, trying to keep my voice level. “No need. I found it.”

“Really? Nice.” He holds his hand out, but I cross my arms. I’m not giving it to him. “Come on, man. I can give it to her. You’d really be helping me out.”

“What?”

“I really like her, but she’s a little… I don’t know. She doesn’t believe me or something. But really, dude, there’s something between us. Help a brother out?”

I cock my head, trying to figure out what this guy’s
angle is. But I don’t know why I care. Lex already chose him. She spent last night with him. She’s spent this whole time trying to get him to notice her. She even said she might love him the first night we were here.

And I
don’t want to give the ring to her anymore. I don’t even want to look at her. I know her whole plan to come on this ski trip was to get Sean to notice her, but once we got here I thought something changed. Things were different. For the first time since I fell in love with my best friend, I thought she finally loved me back. And now…shit, she’s sleeping in another guy’s bed. I’m done. I can’t do it anymore. I’ll never be the guy Lexie wants. I’ll be stuck in the friend zone till the end of time, and there’s no point in trying to get out of it anymore. She doesn’t want me. She wants Sean. And she deserves her happy ending, even if it means sacrificing my own.

Sighing—or more like grunting—I pull out the ring and hand it to him. “Be careful with it.”

“It’ll go right back on her finger.” He smiles and tucks it in his fist. “Thanks, man.”

I nod and grab his arm before he opens the door. “I mean it, be careful with it. With her.
If you screw her over, you might want to wear a coat you don’t mind getting blood on.”

He smirks, but nods. Then he’s gone
, and I follow him. I want to make sure Lex gets that ring back.

She’s leaning against the lodge exit. Some really stupid part of me thinks it’s to catch me so we can talk, but when Sean spots her, I remember she’s probably not concerned about me. She’ll want to head back to his cabin with him.

Nate pulls me over and starts yapping about something. I may be looking at him, but I don’t hear a word he says. I know she’s staring at me, and before I can help it, my eyes flick to hers for just a second.

She’s not smiling her
happiest smile. Or whatever I think is her happiest smile. She looks pretty pissed actually. Maybe last night wasn’t what I thought it was. Sean did say he needed help convincing her.

Two steps. That’s all I get before the dickhead moves in, wrapping an arm around Lex’s
waist and smacking a kiss on her lips.

I’m too frozen to move.
Some stupid part of me is shouting in my head. That should be me—the guy who kisses her, the guy she folds into. But
he’s
the one cradling her head.
He’s
the one hugging her.
He’s
the one dipping his tongue in her mouth. She’s gripping his chest, letting
him
.

That’s what does it. What makes me
move. I go so fast I’m not sure if she even sees me pass her. I pull out the bobby pin Sandy handed me this morning, and head straight for the mini bar. I know Lex will hate me for it. I know if she catches me, I’ll shock her straight to hell. But, at this point, I don’t care.

I don’t care.

She doesn’t want me anyway.