Sweet Reunion (16 page)

“Rough night?” Justin teased.

“Wouldn't you like to know,” she mumbled.

“Hmmmm....testy,” he continued lightly, “This wouldn't
have anything to do with dinner last night, would it?”

Amanda sat up, pushing her hair back from her face,
and putting on a stoic front. “I have no idea what you mean, “she said loftily,
“Dinner last night was lovely.”

“Oh, yes,” Justin said, giving her a thumbs up, “I
could tell you were enjoying it by the way that you didn't pause to breathe
between bites.”

Karina let out a bark of laughter at that remark, and
Sam and Lauren swatted at her.

“What? That was funny!” Karina defended herself.

Amanda pretended not to notice Karina's small
outburst. She turned her attention instead to Justin, saying, “Well, I noticed
that you were having
quite
the time.”

Justin feigned innocence, the only thing giving him
away was the small wink that he gave Amanda as he said, “I have no idea what
you're talking about.”

Amanda tried to sound as nonchalant as she could, but
was unable to completely keep the tightness from her voice as she said, “Well,
you seemed to be enjoying the service, so to speak.”

“Oh!” Justin said, making a big show of feigning
sudden realization of what she was talking about, “Do you mean Kelly? Oh, yeah.
Catching up with her was fun. She's a great waitress.”

Amanda spluttered out a disbelieving, “Fun?!” at the
same time that Karina burst out incredulously, “A great waitress?!”

Justin chuckled, “Amanda, if I didn't know better, I'd
say you were a little jealous...”

Amanda drew herself up in the kitchen chair, trying to
project as refined an aura of dignity as it is possible to achieve while
wearing faded plaid pajama bottoms, bunny slippers, and an “I <3 Nerds”
T-shirt. “I haven't the slightest idea what you might be talking about.”

“Oh, good,” Justin parried back with a cocky grin,
“because I was thinking of heading down there again tonight. Maybe she'll have
another shift. Or, who knows? Maybe it'll be another one of my exes. I'm pretty
sure they all remember me...well...fondly, I guess is the word.”

“Hornily?” Karina supplied, and when Lauren flicked
her in the ear, she said, “Whatever, semantics. Continue.”

Justin grinned wider, “Might be fun to catch up with
them, too.”

Amanda got up from the kitchen table, crossing to the
toaster and putting two slices of wheat bread into it. “Do what you like,” she
said tightly, “It makes no difference to me.”

Justin laughed heartily, throwing his head back.
Amanda looked at him with a mixture of suspicion and irritation, and a sneaking
feeling that she was being played. “What?” she asked, narrowing her eyes.

Justin shook his head, “Oh, nothing. Just that
watching you make toast with your super straight back and your choppy little
movements, and then listening to your strained tone of voice, the only
conclusion that keeps running through my head is – that girl is definitely NOT
jealous! You've convinced me, Amanda! Mission accomplished.”

He started to chuckle again, and the girls joined in,
melting Amanda's reserves. “Fine,” she admitted, grinning ruefully as she
spread butter on her toast. A blush climbed her cheeks as she said, “I will
admit that I didn't appreciate her treating me like crap, only  for her to then
immediately settle herself down into your oh-so-welcoming lap.”

Justin put his hands out in front of him entreatingly,
palms up, and smiled one of his trademark smiles. Amanda recognized this one.
It was #243, the carefree-little-boy-lost one, the one that projected a 'hey,
I'm just so irresistible, what do you expect me to do about it?' vibe.

“What could I do?” he asked innocently.

Karina jumped in, “I gotta say, bud. I'm with Amanda
on this one. There was a very distinct line in the sand drawn last night. You
could have chosen Team Friends or Team Boobs, and you definitely planted
yourself firmly in the Team Boobs camp. Well, I mean, I heard you come in
before ten o'clock, so you didn't plant yourself
too
firmly in Team
Boobs, but you get what I'm saying.”

“She needed a place to sit!” he protested, “I couldn't
very well just shove her off onto the floor!”

Amanda looked like she was considering this, “Well, I
suppose,” she said with a sly half smile, “that as much as that would have been
an exceedingly satisfying visual, one that I would have cherished close to my
heart for all eternity, it probably wasn't a very viable course of action.”

“And besides,” Justin said placatingly, but with a
tinge of heat to his voice, “If I had been choosing someone to sit on my lap
for this Team Boobs thing of Karina's, believe me, she is not the one that
would have been there.”

“Good one,” Karina congratulated, high-fiving him.

“And, after yesterday morning, I definitely have all
the necessary data to do a point by point comparison,” Justin smiled, waggling
his eyebrows.

“Pun intended!” Sam interjected cheerfully, looking
proud of herself. The rest of the table looked at her in puzzlement, and so she
followed up with, “Right? Am I right?”

Lauren tilted her head to the side, “I don't get it,”
she said flatly.

Sam looked flustered, “Just because, you know...point
by point...and boobs...and it's like...pointy boobs...or...something...I don't
know! I'm trying to start being 'quipy' like Karina, but I'm not as good at it
yet!”

Karina patted her hand, “Baby steps. It was a swing
and miss. Next time.”

Lauren smiled, “I think what we all really want to
hear about is the story from yesterday morning.”

“Oh, yes, agreed,” Sam said happily, clapping her
hands together in front of her in anticipation.

“Heck, yeah, you guys jetted out of here so quick that
we never got the straight scoop. So spill!” Karina finished.

Amanda groaned, “Oh, God. There was this spider in the
shower...” she began.

Karina snorted, “Oh, wow, that's so rare in the
mountains!”

Justin shook his head and defended Amanda, “No, you
don't understand, you've never seen a spider like this before. I sure hadn't.
This guy was a monster!”

“Thank you, Justin, yes he was,” Amanda continued,
sticking her tongue out at Karina

“The spider wasn't the only monster in there...” Sam
started to joke, but then shook her head.

“That one would've worked if Justin had been the naked
one,” Karina said dryly.

“Yeah, I saw that halfway through.”

“It was closer, though. Maybe you should practice on a
story that we're not all dying to hear, though.”

Sam nodded, chagrined, “Agreed.”

“Well, I don't blame you for wanting to hear the play
by play, it WAS a pretty heroic rescue...” Justin grinned.

“Psshh...” Karina dismissed, “Justin, I'm sure you
were MacGyver meets Rambo in the spider-killing department, but you are HIGH if
you think that what we want to know about is how you managed to finally kill
the little bugger...”

“BIG bugger,” Justin corrected.

“...when, obviously, what we all want to know is about
you peeping Amanda in the shower, and how that subsequently led to me walking
in on you, Sam, and a towel-clad Amanda in a heap on the bathroom floor
yesterday morning!”

“Well, OK, then, here's that story. The huge,
terrifying spider – who was about to be killed in an unspecified yet obviously
heroic manner – was in the shower, where Amanda already was when she noticed
it. She informed the world about her spider sighting by letting out, I swear to
God, the loudest scream I've ever heard! So I go racing up the stairs, thinking
Freddy Kreuger's in the bathroom, and then have to bust in the door.”

“My hero!” Amanda sing-songed good naturedly.

“So, I burst into the bathroom, ready to save Amanda
from some machete wielding psycho, but all I see when I get in there is Miss
Amanda Jacobs, standing in the shower, water running all over that fabulous
bod, and not a stitch of clothes on her. Not bad for a morning's work killing
spiders, I'd say,” he finished with a flourish, hitting the table with the flat
of his palm.

Amanda laughed and shook her head, “Well, let's just
call it even. You got a show, and I got rescued. I swear, I don't think I've
been that scared since I almost broke my neck trying to ski down Suicide Peak.”

Sam groaned, “Oh, no, don't remind me! I thought I
killed you!”

Karina threw her arm around Sam's shoulder. “Yeah, I
didn't think it was possible that your skin could actually get paler than it
is, but when I ran into the hospital that day and saw you in the waiting room,
you were practically see-through!”

Lauren rubbed her fingertips against her forehead as
if fending off a headache, “Oh, man, I don't think I've ever been as scared as
I was that day, when Kar and I got that call from your Dad.”

Karina added, “Yeah, Amanda, you officially have the
distinction of being the first and only member of the Fabulous Four to have a
search and rescue mission dedicated to them.”

Amanda drew up short. This was news to her. “What do
you mean? I was with Sam when I went crashed and knocked myself out. Ambulance?
Rescue crew? Sure. But search team? Why would that be necessary?”

Sam dropped her face into her hands and shook her
head, “We were all just so happy when you woke up I guess we didn't get into
the specifics of how we got you off of the mountain. But, here's the deal. As
you know, we made the incredibly ill-advised decision to ski down Suicide Peak,
as your father had specifically forbidden us to do. But, young and dumb as I
was, I thought it would be no problem, because I'm so awesome.

“Then, when I arrived at the bottom – because, incidentally,
I
am
awesome – I turned around to high-five you, and you were nowhere to
be seen. Seriously. No. Where.

“I scanned the horizon, I screamed your name. I was
completely freaking out. I skied to the Snack Shack as quickly as I could, but
panic was making my movements clumsy, and I felt like I was trying to run
underwater.

“When I got there, they sent out the search and rescue
team, and called your dad. God, I was so scared of what your dad was going to
say, how he was going to look at me. I thought he'd yell at me for days, and
then never let me see you again. If they even found you!

“Well, he got there just as they were hauling you down
off the mountain and putting you in an ambulance. You'd had your fall stopped
by a tree and your leg was broken. Honestly, it's a miracle you landed the way
you did against that tree, because you could have broken your neck!”

Amanda shook her head in wonder, “Wow, I seriously
don't remember any of that. It's all so hazy.”

Sam nodded, “Yeah, by the time you woke up, they had
already started pumping you full of pain meds. Believe me, it would have been a
much less pleasantly hazy experience if that hadn't happened!

“So, when your dad ran up, I just burst into tears,
and I was trying to apologize and explain all at the same time, but I was just
blubbering and stuttering – I was a mess, in short.

So, right in the middle of my big convoluted
confession-slash-apology-slash-explanation, he just stopped me with a hug and
said, 'Don't worry Sam, my girl's a lot tougher than you might think.'  I was
so relieved. He even motioned for me to ride in the ambulance with you guys,
which was just unbelievably generous. He was so great.”

Amanda nodded sadly, “I wasn't even conscious enough
in the ambulance to remember he was there.”

Justin smiled, and spoke with a quiet earnestness,
“Well, the pain meds were taking care of you pretty good. Parker was more
focused on comforting Sam and I.”

“You?” Amanda was shocked, “You were there?”

Justin nodded emphatically, “Oh, yeah, I sure was. The
call came in while we were clearing the trails. I heard it come over the radio
at the same time Parker did. And keep in mind, they hadn't even found you yet
at that point. The only facts we had were that there had been some kind of
accident on Suicide Peak, that you were missing, and that they were sending out
Search and Rescue.

“I didn't take it well. In fact, I doubled over and
upchucked the entire lunch I'd just eaten. You still owe me a roast beef
sandwich and chips, by the way.

“Well, when I stood back up, of course I expected to
see Parker running back down the trail towards the pickup truck. There was no
way I expected to see him still standing there, staring at me, but that's what
he was doing.

“He looked at me for this long moment that seemed to
stretch on, and then he nodded his head, just once, quickly, like he'd made a
decision, and said, 'Yep. Come on. Let's go get our girl.'

“Man, Amanda, that truck ride over to the bottom of
Suicide Peak was the longest of my life. We didn't know if you were OK...we
didn't know if you were alive. I was numb with fear. I don't think I even
started breathing again until we pulled up and saw you getting loaded into that
ambulance.

“The whole scene was just surreal. You were drugged
up, Sam was bawling her eyes out, and I was just staring like a zombie. I just
followed Parker and Sam into the ambulance without even thinking, it was like
my body just followed you on autopilot. Like I was attached to you with
magical, invisible ropes. You moved, I moved.

“The whole ride over to the hospital, I remember just
holding onto your good foot, the one on the leg that wasn't busted. It was
like...I couldn't believe you were OK unless I was touching you, and could feel
you, solid and real beneath my hand. So I just held your foot. I remember you
had on your lucky Garfield socks.”

Amanda's eyes widened even further. She spoke, and
fought to keep her voice natural sounding, although she could feel her throat
choking tight with tears.

“You remember what socks I was wearing?”