Snow Angel (13 page)

“Anyone who wants to shower here tonight, put your name on this list,” Karen said, waving a sheet of lined paper. “We’ll go in shifts. Pat will have the list for the other condo. Everyone else, once you have your stuff settled, meet in our family room and we’ll unwind with a movie and some popcorn before bed, unless you’re tired, in which case you can head to bed now. Understood? Let’s move.”

“No night skiing?” Gabe asked.

“That’s up to you guys,” Stan answered. “The grown-ups are waiting for tomorrow.”

The guys stared at each other, considering, but they all seemed to come to the same conclusion.

“Nah,” said Wendell. “tomorrow’s good. I’m up for a movie and bed.”

“So, roomie.” Jacob loomed over the back of Melinda’s chair, staring into her upturned face. “It’s been a while since we’ve bunked together. You don’t snore, do you?”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Jacob waggled his eyebrows playfully when Melinda scrunched her nose at him. She was so easy to rile.

“No worse than you, Foghorn Freakazoid,” she said. Reaching up, she grabbed for the underside of his upper arm and pinched.

“Hey, watch it, you,” he said, smacking her hand away. He dropped into the chair next to hers. “I bruise like a peach.”

That made her laugh and sent the tiny golden stars in the deepest parts of her blue eyes sparkling. His chest hitched funny, and he couldn’t look away from her.

She looked... different.

Jacob frowned. He’d noticed the midnight-blue rings around her irises many times before—so pretty—and the velvety smoothness of her skin, but tonight those things struck him like fresh discoveries.

“Bet you wish you’d brought a girlfriend along now, don’tcha, Mel?” Eddie asked as he walked past them, giving her a noogie on top of her head. “I pity you, rooming with this bozo.”

Melinda laughed again, though Jacob saw a shadow cross behind her eyes—Mitch lurking there still, the bastard—and she said something in reply to Eddie. Jacob barely heard her words. She took a sip of her soda. Even watching her swallow, the delicate motion of her throat, made something inside him sizzle.

It was sort of amazing how beautiful she was, without even trying. She’d gone through the awkward stage like everyone else—eyes too big for her face behind some seriously thick glasses, mouth too wide over teeth covered in braces, first chubby and round, then all gangly limbs too long for her gangly body—but once she came out the other side, the consensus in the guys’ junior-high locker room had been, “
Whoa
.”

Not that he thought about her that way, he assured himself. Whatever his radio-station brain might say. To him, she was simply his good friend Mel.

Okay, she had a great body now, and she was seriously beautiful, but being beautiful was only one small part of who she was, inside and out. Something he usually took for granted.

Usually.

He’d had to school some jerkwads over the years—guys who hadn’t known better than to make disgusting remarks about her and the things they’d like to do to her within his hearing. Their sophomore year of high school, one such
discussion
had gotten physical and landed both him and the mouthy asshat in the principal’s office. It had been totally worth it. That was what friends were for, after all. To stand up for each other.

“Want some?”

Melinda’s question pulled him back to the present. “Hmm?”

She waggled her soda bottle, her eyebrows raised. “Thirsty?”

“Oh. Um, yeah, thanks,” he said, taking the uncapped bottle from her and trying not to think about whether he could taste her lips on the opening. They’d shared drinks and food their whole lives, for crying out loud.

Nothing new here, man.

Karen asked him and Melinda to make up the beds in the loft as she walked past on another errand. Jacob nodded and kicked back in his chair, not really listening.

To avoid staring too obviously at Melinda, he focused on observing the first-night ritual. The people moving about, the conversations. His mom and dad were talking to Nancy on the couch behind him, and he could hear Rick and Eddie out front in the covered walkway between the condos. It sounded like Rick had roped Eddie into helping him practice his lines again.

Next to him, Melinda held the soda bottle loosely and sat propped on one leg, her foot swinging idly while she read over the resort’s pamphlet. The page was open to information about the New Year’s Eve festivities.

All very normal. And yet...

He breathed deeply, taking in Melinda’s scent. She smelled good. Always. Some mix of spicy and sweet, probably flowers and things he didn’t know the names of, but the scent suited her. Her hair, a dark, chocolaty brown curling almost to her waist, shone glossy and rich in the bright kitchen lights. And her lips were—

Well, hell.

What was he doing thinking about Melinda’s lips, for God’s sake?

Something was definitely wrong with him. He shook his head, trying to get the image of her mouth out of his mind. So what if her lips were soft and pink? That was nothing to do with him. He shifted in the seat, uncomfortable.

Something had definitely changed in the past few months. She kept getting stuck in his mind where she didn’t belong, messing him up. And when her Aunt Pat had read off the sleeping arrangements, putting him in the same room with Melinda, something deep in his belly had done a little shake, rattle, and roll.

His mental radio dial had gotten out of his control, returning to the same station all the time. The wrong one. And it played only one song, Melinda’s name, wrapped around the sound of her laughter, over and over, though he somehow never got tired of hearing it or seeing her lush mouth and smiling eyes in his mind.

Not only did it affect his thoughts, sometimes it affected the words coming out of his stupid mouth.

He would never tell Melinda the real reason he and Nicole had broken up—because he’d called Nicole by Melinda’s name, not once but twice in one week. Not during sex, thank God, but still.

It was beyond idiotic, and the two girls were nothing alike. There was no explanation for the mistake. His ears had rung painfully for days afterward, thanks to the volume of Nicole’s shouting.

Of course, if he had committed that inexcusable blunder during sex, instead of worrying over potential hearing loss, he’d be walking around minus his favorite appendage.

So there was that, at least.

Still, it shamed him, made him feel no better than those bastards in high school. Melinda was his friend, she trusted him, and he was absolutely not going to betray that trust by thinking of her that way.

Besides which, they’d bunked together before.

Nothing new,
he repeated to himself, even as his body twitched with denied desire.

Time to get over it.

Now.

“Hey,” Melinda said, breaking into his thoughts. “Where’d you go?”

“What?”

“You seem a little out of it.”

“Oh,” he said, striving for normality. “Just tired. It’s been a long day.”

“That’s for sure,” she said.

Did her eyes always have to light up like that when she smiled?

Oh, God. Yeah. He was in trouble.

“Come on, roomie.” Melinda poked his shoulder playfully. “Help me make up the beds so we can crash whenever.”

Melinda jumped to her feet and held out her hand like she’d done a million times before, though he noted the slight wince when she put her weight on her left foot.

He was slow to take her hand, wondering for possibly the first time in his life what it would feel like to hold her slender fingers in his, as though he’d never held her hand before, and worrying his palm might turn sweaty, betraying the direction of his thoughts.

“Jake? You okay?”

He’d waited too long, staring at her fingers. Making it weird. It cost him some effort, but he flashed her a big everything’s-great grin.

“Yeah, sorry,” he said. “More out of it than I realized.”

Taking her hand, Jacob let her pull him up, relief crashing over him when it felt completely normal.

Following her to the winding stairs leading to the loft, he started up after her, his eyes skimming her hair where it fell in waves over her slim back, and the sway of her—

Don’t look at her ass, don’t look at her ass, what the hell is wrong with you, don’t look at her ass!

“What’s the movie for tonight, do you know?” she asked.

Pulling his head out of the fog of lust that had momentarily swamped him, he cleared his throat. Then cleared it again.

“Uh, no. One of the
Bourne
movies, I think.”

She reached the top of the staircase and stepped into the loft. Jacob stopped on the stairs, just for a moment, to catch his breath. He hung his head, letting the shame roll over him, and swiped away the tiny beads of sweat that had gathered along his upper lip. He renewed his vow to fix the situation and to keep her from seeing anything strange reflected in his eyes. She never needed to know he’d gone through this… thing.

When he reached the top, she was already airing the fitted sheet over the bed closest to the balcony door. He ignored the way her dark red sweater clung to her curves as she moved. She had a really small waist for a girl with such big—

“Which one do you want?” she asked.

“This one’s fine,” he said hoarsely, indicating the bed closest to the stairs. He gave himself a mental smack.

Get off it, man
.

Jacob grabbed the other set of sheets and stared hard at the mattress while Melinda talked about a job she was hoping to get next term. He hoped he answered appropriately, because he had no idea what either of them actually said.

This was going to be a long week.

They’d just finished making the beds when a heavily panting Wendell topped the staircase dragging Melinda’s suitcase.

“What did you pack in here,” Wendell gasped, “an elephant?”

Shaking out his arms after he set it in place at the foot of her bed, he bent at the waist, then leaned on the bag trying to get his breath back.

Melinda rolled her eyes. “Boys. Honestly. Just because you can get through a week with one change of clothes doesn’t mean the rest of us are so uncivilized.”

“Whatever you say, Your Highness,” Wendell said, ducking when she threw a pillow at him. He tugged her bag to the foot of her bed.

“You’re supposed to kneel when you say that,” she told him imperiously.

Wendell tossed her a grin and the pillow before heading for the stairs. “Movie in ten,” he said.

“Where’s my suitcase?” Jacob asked.

“Get it yourself, butt-munch,” Wendell called back as his flaming red head rounded out of sight.

“You boys are so sweet to each other,” Melinda said with a pretend sniffle, dabbing a fingertip near the corner of her lashes. “Truly. It brings a tear to my eye.”

“Oh, shut up,” Jacob said with a snort. “Come on, let’s go watch the movie.”

CHAPTER NINE

Melinda snuggled next to Jacob on the couch, as she usually did for movie nights when they were all together, a furry blanket wrapped around her and her purple slippers on her feet.

Though her left ankle continued to throb with a beat of its own, it had lessened steadily over the afternoon and evening. Climbing the stairs hurt the most. She’d had to take a few deep breaths on the way up to make the beds, and again coming back down, but the rest of the time she hardly noticed it. It should be fine by the next day.

Rick and Eddie sat on Jacob’s other side, making the couch a bit of a crush and giving her an excuse to press more tightly against Jacob. Danny and most of the grown-ups had gone to bed after putting the two condos to rights, although her dad was camped out in one of the big recliners, his eyes half-lidded and fixed on the TV.

The rest of the guys sprawled over the room and furniture in heaps, tossing popcorn at each other and ragging on the bad guys while Matt Damon took them down one by one on the flickering screen.

Warm and comfy, she only paid half attention to the film. Jacob seemed okay now, but she was worried about him. He’d been acting off since they arrived at the condo.

Was he more upset about the breakup with Nicole than he’d let on? She hoped not. It didn’t seem likely, but she hadn’t spent a lot of time with them recently. Nicole had been obvious about her dislike for Melinda’s relationship with Jacob, jealous of the easy familiarity between them, so Melinda had tried to give them some space, even though Jacob had said repeatedly not to worry about it, that it was Nicole’s problem.

It was a problem that had come up before, whether from one of her boyfriends or another of Jacob’s girlfriends. No one seemed to get the depth of their friendship, and several of their romantic relationships had soured out of that jealousy.

Their loss, as Jacob would say.

Neither of them were willing to give up their friendship for the sake of some guy or girl. The
right
guy or girl would get it, understand it, and it wouldn’t be an issue.

Mitch had seemed okay with the two of them, although Jacob hadn’t come around very often when Mitch was visiting.

Still, she hoped Jacob wasn’t too hung up on Nicole. The girl had been bitchy and controlling about a lot of things, not just Melinda, and Jacob hadn’t seemed very happy with her.

Not like Melinda had been with Mitch.

Resolutely closing that door for the hundredth time in three days, she tried to get back into the movie, only she’d seen it so many times that it couldn’t hold her attention for long. Fatigue slid over her like sinking into a warm bath.

After her third jaw-cracking yawn in as many minutes, she finally gave up. Leaning over the recliner, she gave her sleepy dad a kiss on the cheek, waved to everyone else, and headed up to bed.

Melinda performed an abbreviated version of her nighttime yoga routine, adding a few rotations and stretches for her foot. It seemed flexible enough.

Outside, snow fell in big, heavy flakes, and the wind had picked up. Tuning out the movie noise from downstairs, she focused on the sound of the storm. It blew the snow against the giant windows in fitful spurts and howled down from the mountain peaks, but as she climbed beneath the covers, it seemed almost soothing.

She drifted with the soughing of the trees whispering in her ears and a comforting, familiar scent wrapped around her. Jacob’s, she realized, as she nestled further into the blankets and fell asleep, a smile on her lips.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Jacob sat through the end of the movie, though he was bone tired by that point. If Wendell and Christian weren’t bound for the couch, he might have slept there himself. Just to give his brain, and other... er, parts of his anatomy time to settle down.

Having Melinda squeezed tightly against him during the film had been an exercise in restraint he had not been prepared for. The urge to trace his lips over the downy-soft nape of her neck, or to bury his nose in the silky fullness of her hair and breathe her in had struck him like a hammer blow. Holding still with her head on his shoulder had required putting every muscle in his body on lockdown.

Though she’d gone to bed some time ago, his body still revved with unwanted energy.

Her scent still wrapped around him in invisible ribbons of temptation.

Closing his eyes, Jacob struggled for control while the rest of the guys stirred and rose, ready to call it a night.

Rick turned off the TV, and Melinda’s dad pushed to his feet with a loud, screechy stretch. Ruffling Rick’s hair, Stan shuffled down the hall to his room, yawning through a mumbled, “Goodnight.”

“See you tomorrow, losers,” Gabe said, grinning widely and casually flipping off the room at large, then following Rick and Eddie toward the door. Friendly middle fingers popped up all over in response.

Wendell made a pithy comment Jacob didn’t catch, but Gabe, Rick, and Eddie snickered appreciatively. Christian only rolled his eyes, though he shot a questioning look at Jacob.

He had too much Melinda on his mind to engage in their usual banter.

How many times had they snuggled up together without it bothering him? Too many to count. So why was it different now?

Jacob rolled his shoulders, trying to ease the muscle tension.

It was a mystery he didn’t want to solve. It had to all be part of that radio-station-in-his head thing. He sensed a dangerous revelation whispering along his mental airwaves, but if he refused to tune in, maybe it would go away.

He wanted it to go away.

Maybe it was the echo of Nicole’s accusations ringing in his ears, and his brain had latched onto them for some reason. He frowned. Other girls had made similar claims and never created this reaction.

Whatever the cause, he was putting a stop to it.

“Dude, beat it,” Wendell said, nudging him out of his seat so Wendell and Christian could pull out the sofa-bed.

“Yeah, yeah.”

Taking his time, in no hurry to head to the loft, Jacob ambled into the kitchen. He rinsed out the mug of hot chocolate Eddie had left on the coffee table. Randomly straightened things that didn’t need straightening.

Melinda—with her warm, curvy body, petal-soft skin, and sweet, enticing scent—wouldn’t leave his head.

It had to stop. There was no point in risking their friendship. His aunt and uncle, and even Carl and Donna—his and Melinda’s high school friends of pop-tent-peep-show fame—were perfect examples of the destruction friends-turned-lovers-turned-enemies could wreak on the people around them.

If he and Melinda got together, then broke up, it would tear like a cannon blast through both of their families and all of their friends, blowing apart loyalties and relationships all over the field.

Dousing the spark before it became a flame would be so much smarter.

If it wasn’t already too late.

Leaning his elbows on the counter, Jacob dropped his head into his hands.

How the hell was he going to survive sleeping three feet away from her all week? In the semi-private dark, with only her pajamas for armor against his fertile imagination, and his emotions in an uproar.

Jacob cast one last look at the couch, but the guys were already piling into the hide-a-bed, pushing and shoving at each other like preschoolers.

Time to go up.

He’d just have to battle through. Once this week was over, once they weren’t cocooned together in a warm, cozy loft, things were bound to level out again.

In any case, he’d be gone in six months. Maybe sooner, though no one except Eddie knew his plans. It had seemed only fair to give his friend plenty of advance warning, since Eddie would have to find a new roommate when Jacob moved out.

Afterward, he’d sworn Eddie to silence. Everyone else would have to wait to hear about it until the right moment.

Reaching the top of the spiral staircase, Jacob climbed into bed as quietly as he could, though it was a wasted effort with the guys still roughhousing downstairs, their voices getting louder by the second. If they didn’t shut up, they were going to invite grown-up wrath to rain down on their hides.

Jacob smirked, rolling onto his back and clasping his hands behind his head as he stared at the ceiling. And waited.

Sure enough, two minutes later his mom opened her bedroom door and hissed, “Cool it, you two!”

Indistinct male voices mumbled, “Sorry,” and, “Goodnight, Mama Lois,” in contrite tones, somewhat spoiled by unrepentant snorts of laughter when his mom closed her door with a quiet but definite bang.

Evidently deeply asleep, Melinda hadn’t budged through the noise. Jacob shifted to study her shape, lightly outlined in the near dark, and tried to come up with a good way to tell her he’d be leaving Cal State sooner rather than later.

He’d almost told her several times over the past four months. It was hell keeping secrets from his best friend when he was used to telling her absolutely everything. He’d wanted to tell her first, but now he was glad he’d waited. He could hold off a little longer—until she was fully over her breakup—before hitting her with his news.

She’d be happy for him.

Mostly.

Eventually.

He’d already had months to prepare for the coming changes to his daily life, including not seeing Melinda every day. It would take her a while to get used to the idea, too. There was no sense doubling up on her now, when she was already upset.

At least his leaving would solve his current problem where she was concerned, if he couldn’t change the stupid radio dial himself. Once he embarked on his new adventure, he’d only see Melinda on visits home.

Which would suck, because he’d miss her.

A lot.

Still, preserving all their tightly twined relationships, not to mention their own friendship, was far more important. Putting some physical distance between them would smooth over any lingering weirdness on his part. His brain would finally reset to friends-as-usual.

It would all work out for the best.

If the thought of not seeing her all the time, of her meeting someone else—maybe even getting married, starting a family—caused his belly to clutch in pain, that was his problem.

In her sleep, Melinda shifted and sighed.

Wendell and Christian finally settled into bed downstairs, and the condo went quiet, though the wind whistled around the building. It was a cold, shivery sound, but the loft was warm, spiced with Melinda’s scent. Her deep breathing, though hushed, reached his ears across the narrow space between their beds and soothed his jangled nerves.

Breathing deeply himself, he deliberately relaxed his muscles. The last of the curling restlessness in his belly eased.

It would be okay.

Better than okay, actually.

This was familiar, friendly, comfortable. Nothing to worry about. Just two friends, sharing a room, about to spend a great week skiing and playing in the snow.

Nothing could be better.

Yeah.

It would be good.

Jacob matched the rhythm of his own breathing to hers, tucked his body into the warm blankets—cursing the fool who’d created the so-called standard-length twin bed, as his feet hung off the end by a good six inches—and rolled onto his side.

He slid into sleep, wishing everything between himself and Melinda was as back to normal as he wanted to believe.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Morning brought the usual chaos, compounded by so many people trying to rotate their way through only two bathrooms. Somehow they managed without maiming each other, though according to Aunt Pat, Rick and Danny had gotten into an epic towel fight in the other condo.

Jacob eyed them warily—the brothers didn’t get truly angry with each other often, but when they did it got serious fast. They seemed in good spirits, giving each other the usual smack talk and casual shoves. Jacob relaxed. No refereeing today.

Breakfast was hurried and loud, everyone dying to get out on the slopes, discussing their plans for the day at top volume. The rest of the week, except for New Year’s Day, each condo’s group would breakfast in their own kitchens. He always enjoyed the full-party meals.

Jacob caught Melinda’s eye and stuck his tongue out behind his mother’s back when Lois insisted the dishes be dealt with before they left, making Melinda giggle, and that was another tradition.

There was some jostling as everyone sorted out the items that hadn’t gone in the right places the night before and generally got in each other’s way.

Aunt Pat, he noted, had cornered Melinda off to one side for what looked like a serious conversation. Jacob frowned, wondering what was up. Then Melinda smiled at her aunt, the women hugged, and they melted seamlessly back into the horde to gather their gear.

Finally, everyone was dressed, skis or snowboards in hand, and they congregated in the hallway, double checking they had all their equipment before heading out into the bright morning sunshine.