Beware Falling Ice

  He finally forced himself up onto his feet and grabbed everything he needed for his shower. “For the record, since we’re sharing a room this weekend, I’m not bashful, although I won’t walk around buck-naked. Unless you ask me to.”

  She gave him a smile he was torn between wanting to love and terrified of because it wasn’t caffeinated. “Don’t worry. You’ve seen me naked plenty of times. If I didn’t trust you, I wouldn’t have asked you along or roomed with you.”

  He’d almost made it to the bathroom when he turned. “You might regret having me room with you after a couple of days of me and not enough caffeine in me.”

  “This is our only early morning. Other than when we fly out on Monday. But we gain an hour today, so it won’t feel as bad getting up early Monday. Plus we won’t have to be up so early that morning.”

  “Okay. Good.”

  He started the shower and let it get nice and hot while he used the toilet. Holy hell, there were nights he went to bed about this time of morning, especially if he’d had to handle an overnight crisis at work.

  Weren’t many mornings he willingly arose at this godforsaken hour.

  I must really like her a lot.

  By the time he dragged himself out of the shower fifteen minutes later, he decided to skip shaving and he smelled coffee.

  Her head appeared around the corner, where he stood brushing his teeth in the basin and vanity area of the bathroom, which was open to the rest of the room.

  “How do you like your coffee?”

  “Black with extra sugar, please.”

  She flashed him a smile that was almost scary in how awake she looked before disappearing again. Within seconds, she reappeared with his coffee and set it on the counter for him. “There you go.”

  Before she could disappear again, he caught her hand and made her look at him. “Thank you.”

  She grinned. “You look like a rabid dog.”

  He smiled. “Not the worst thing I’ve been called.”

  * * * *

  “Motherfucker,” Andrew muttered. “You gotta be shitting me.”

  Rachel’s guts were already tied in knots. So far, their morning was not going well. The airport’s terminal building was under construction, and the airline used a weird tablet-based check-in system and a very confusing temporary stanchion barrier maze that had sent them through three different lines before they reached the right ticket counter to check their bags.

  Then, in security, Andrew had been randomly selected for extra screening.

  She was glad she’d stuck her vibrator in her checked bag, and taken the batteries out of it.

  Once they made it through security, she’d dashed off to get him another coffee from a snack bar located in the gate area while he’d gone to use the bathroom. Then they’d taken seats at the gate, where two different babies were screaming their displeasure at the early morning voyage.

  And now they were queued to board, except apparently the jetway was broken or also under construction. The gate attendants were herding them out an emergency exit and directly onto the tarmac to board, via another dizzying path that wound through a maze of cones and stopped twenty feet from the building. They could see three planes lined up, but they’d have to hike through the muggy Florida morning and then climb what even Rachel had to admit was a sketchy-looking portable ramp.

  As they started moving forward, their phones ready for digital boarding pass scanning, the guy at the front of the line, who’d already gone through the door, stopped and turned around.

  “Which plane are we getting on?” he called back.

  All three planes had one of the sketchy-looking ramps butted up against them.

  “Oh!” the head gate attendant said. She reached for a microphone. “Ladies and gentlemen, you’re boarding the middle plane. The middle plane.”

  Andrew turned around and arched an eyebrow at Rachel.

  “Sorry,” Rachel silently mouthed before he placed his phone facedown over the scanner.

  By the time they took their assigned seats, Rachel was beginning to wish she’d sprung for a more expensive series of flights out of TIA. They were both sweating like crazy, she’d felt like the dang ramp was going to collapse under them, and the plane was hotter than hell. She offered to swap seats with Andrew to give him the window seat, hoping he might be able to take a nap on the way up.

  She really felt sorry for him.

  As he settled in and pulled down the window shade, he closed his eyes. She got out her small travel-sized bottle of hand sanitizer that she loved. She bought it from the same company where she purchased her essential oils, and it had a pleasing aroma of clove and cinnamon. Squirting some in her hand, she vigorously rubbed them together.

  The last thing she wanted to do was pick something up flying.

  He had cracked open an eye to watch her do that. “What is that?”

  “Hand sanitizer.” She offered him the bottle. “Want some?”

  “If I’m going to die on this flight, it likely won’t be from germs.”

  “True.” She tucked the bottle away in her bag under the seat in front of her.

  “Do me a favor, huh?” he asked.

  “Yeah?”

  “If we crash, don’t tell me. I don’t want to know. At least I’ll go with a good companion by my side.”

  He reached over, felt for her hand, and laced fingers with her.

  “Deal,” she said, squeezing his hand. “And ditto.”

  Chapter Seven

  Andrew managed to catch a little bit of a nap during the flight. Then he’d bought a cup of coffee from the flight attendant—which cost him four whopping dollars—in enough time to drink it before they landed.

  The airport in Sioux Falls was far smaller than he was used to. Not that he’d done a lot of flying in his life, but it was always out of and into Tampa International, which was huge by comparison. As were the few other airports he’d been through, such as Atlanta, LAX, and JFK.

  They had a very short walk past the baggage claim area to the rental car counter, and only five people ahead of them in line. He walked over to wait for and grab their luggage off the carousel. It was a little confusing, because they both had nearly identical black suitcases—as did nearly three quarters of the passengers on their flight, apparently. He had made his way over to Rachel by the time it was her turn.

  “We might have some nasty weather this weekend,” the all-too-chipper rental agent said when Rachel gave her name. “Would you like to upgrade to an all-wheel drive vehicle?”

  “Sure,” Rachel said.

  “Wait, weather?” Andrew leaned in close to Rachel and dropped his voice. “Is that a scam to try to get you to shell out more money?” he whispered in her ear.

  “Nope. It’s an adequate warning.” She patted him on the arm. “But thank you. It’s only an extra five dollars a day. That won’t break me.”

  “Okay.” He wouldn’t complain. She was paying for the rental.

  “Any additional drivers?” the clerk asked, shooting a pointed glare his way. “It’s extra if there is.”

  “No,” Rachel said. “Just me.”

  “She’s my chauffeur this weekend,” he said, glaring back at the woman, who finally blinked first and looked down at her terminal.

  Rachel was the former local and would be doing the driving. Trust went both ways. If she could trust him enough to tie her up and beat her ass, the least he could do was trust her driving.

  He hoped.

  As they gathered their bags and headed for the exit, he stared out at the grey, ominous sky. “Looks like rain.”

  “Probably.”

  The chilly air slapped him in the face when they stepped outside. “Holy crap. I didn’t expect it to be this cold.” He stopped to pull his windbreaker from the front pocket of his suitcase and put it on.

  She grinned as she glanced over her shoulder at him. “This is balmy by South Dakota standards this time of year.”

  She kept walking toward t
he rental car parking area.

  “Fuck,” he muttered, wondering if he’d gotten himself in over his head as he followed her.

  * * * *

  Andrew helped Rachel load their bags into the back of the Toyota SUV and then patiently waited while she adjusted the driver’s seat, steering wheel, and mirrors.

  She also dabbed more hand sanitizer into her palm and vigorously rubbed it in. He’d noticed that she wasn’t a germophobe, but come to think of it, he’d seen her use that stuff a lot before, like at the club. He’d belatedly recognized the scent after asking her about it on the plane.

  He blamed his slow brain on an obscenely early wake up and too little coffee.

  He liked that Rachel never wore perfumes, instead opting for the oils she used. She frequently wore one in particular he liked that was a sweet blend of vanilla and other scents he wasn’t sure of.

  I’ll have to ask her about that.

  She offered him a smile when she noticed him watching her. “Sorry. Guess you’re used to driving, huh?”

  “This is a new experience for me,” he admitted. “I’m a little bit of a control freak.”

  Her smile transformed into a sunny grin that suddenly made all the aggravation of that morning well worth it. “Just a little,” she said. “But that’s okay. I kind of like that about you.”

  “Where’s our hotel?”

  “Here in town.”

  “I thought we had to be south of here for your brother’s graduation?”

  “That’s about sixty miles south,” she said. “In Vermillion. Everyone else might stay down there, but we’re staying up here.”

  “Hoping to avoid them?”

  “Yep.”

  “Ah.”

  She glanced in the rearview mirror before backing the car out. “Yeah. I’d rather drive an hour each way than stay down there and have them wanting to ‘socialize.’”

  “Do we have a ready excuse as to why we’re staying up here?”

  “I’m going to be spending time with a friend I don’t get to see often enough.” She glanced at him.

  “Ah. I’m guessing I’m the friend, if pressed?”

  “Wow. You catch on quick.”

  “Will you be able to actually spend some time alone with your brother while you’re up here?”

  “Oh, yeah. We’re spending time together Sunday. He’s coming up here for brunch with us and then we’ll show you around town.”

  “I don’t have to tag along. I can stay at the hotel, if you want alone time with him.”

  “No, I wouldn’t want you to miss out on the world-famous Sioux Falls.”

  “World-famous?”

  “You haven’t seen how flat most of this fricking state is. Okay, so maybe they’re not world-famous falls, but they’re pretty much the only thing that passes for a tourist attraction in this town.”

  “Freezing-ass spring weather, tornadoes, and flat lands. I cannot imagine why you moved to Florida.” He smiled.

  “Because it was either Florida or San Diego or Maine. I wanted to get geographically as far from South Dakota as I could manage.”

  “No Alaska, huh?”

  “It’s freaking colder than South Dakota, so that’s a hard no. And I really didn’t want to live in Hawaii. Too expensive.”

  They were still too early to check into their hotel, so they stopped for lunch at a restaurant not far from there.

  This time, he insisted on paying.

  “You don’t talk about your parents much,” he noted once they had their food and a full pot of coffee sitting next to him to refill his cup as needed. “And feel free to tell me to shut my face chasm if it’s a touchy subject.”

  That coaxed a smile from her. “Face chasm? You’ve been hanging around Tilly and her colorful mouth too much.”

  He liked making Rachel smile but wondered if there was a secret side she’d been hiding, well masked from him, that might expose a hidden vein of deep dysfunction that would send him running.

  He hoped not. He also accepted that running away might make him a shitty person, but he’d done the dysfunctional codependence dance once and had no desire to repeat it.

  Stand by her as a friend? Sure, absolutely. But it would mean nothing else—including play—would happen between them from that point on.

  He wasn’t a masochist.

  Especially not an emotional one.

  She stared at her plate for a moment. “It’s been me and Justin for several years now. After Mom died, Dad did his best. He was up in North Dakota a lot, even before she died, but he didn’t want to move us up there. He worked for an oil company, lived in one of their work camps. Not the best place for kids. Not the one he lived in, anyway. And there wasn’t a decent town nearby where he could settle us. Plus before that, the hospital and Mom’s doctors were all here in Sioux Falls.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  She shrugged. Now she wouldn’t look at him, wouldn’t meet his gaze. “I was only thirteen when we lost her. Justin was eight. I’d spent a couple of years pretty much as her primary caretaker. Dad worked his ass off to pay the bills and be home when he could, but his medical insurance was really crappy. Her meds were expensive. Breast cancer. And surgical expenses. That didn’t help. So once she died, Justin and I had to live with my aunt and uncle. My mom’s brother and sister-in-law.”

  When her expression darkened, Andrew felt his stomach take a dangerous roll. “Why do I have a feeling I know where this story is going?”

  “Fortunately, it didn’t go as far as it could have,” she said. “But it was bad enough.”

  “What about your brother?”

  “Oh, Uncle George was fine with Justin. They treated Justin like one of their own three sons. They never had any girls, and it’s probably a damn good thing, too.”

  “Why didn’t you tell your dad?”

  “Because he had enough worry on his plate. Justin was okay there, and I kept my head down and my grades up as high as I could. I knew it’d be the word of a teenager against a man and his wife, so it wasn’t worth the extra grief I knew it’d earn me. Besides, it wasn’t Dad’s fault.”

  “Did you report your uncle to the cops?”

  “No. He never did anything I could have reported. Besides, we didn’t have any other place to go, really. Then Dad was killed while on his way back to North Dakota after my high school graduation. Truck driver fell asleep and hit him head-on. He had life insurance, and we got a settlement from the accident, so that paid for my college and Justin’s. I got the hell out of South Dakota as soon as I could find a job anywhere else, which luckily was Florida. We each got half of the settlement. After college, I used what was left of mine to move down there, get a job, and buy my condo. Justin used all of his and then some on getting his doctorate.”

  “How long’s it been since you saw most of your family?”

  “Not long enough.” She let out a sound between a groan and resignation. “Oh, you gotta be shitting me.”

  He’d been sitting with his back to the door and realized she was looking over his shoulder. “What?” He turned to follow her gaze.

  A man and woman, followed by five kids of various ages, were making their way over with big grins on their faces.

  “Rache?” the man in the lead called out. “Is that you? How the hell you doin’?”

  She smiled up at the guy, but her expression looked more than a little sickly. “Hi, Jack, Jill. Long time, no see.”

  As she stood to hug them, Andrew thought he’d misheard her.

  Hoped he misheard her, because he’d be cracking up like hell all weekend if Jack and Jill were going to be part of the festivities.

  Without even asking if they wanted the company, much less asking the waitstaff if it was okay, the rowdy brood started pulling tables together to join them.

  Rachel looked like a woman in desperate need of a drink or a Xanax as she introduced everyone to Andrew, leaving him labeled as her “friend” and the assumption being that he was her boyfriend
.

  “So,” Jill said, sounding more than a little like an extra out of Fargo. “What’re ya all doin’ up here, eh?” Andrew didn’t miss how Jill and Jack both seemed focused on him, as if dying to know more about him.

  “We’re staying over at the East Lodge, and—”

  “Really?” Jack practically crowed. “So are we! We had a Groupon for it, and my brother wanted to stay up here so we can do some shopping. And the kids wanted to stay someplace with an indoor pool. This is great!”

  Yep, Rachel had gone from looking like she needed a drink to looking like she needed a puke bucket. “Oh. That’s…coincidental.”

  Her gaze settled on his. Andrew felt torn between wanting to burst out laughing and wanting to pull her into his arms and comfort her.

  So much for her plan to avoid her family.

  “Sorry we can’t hang with you folks this afternoon,” he said, grabbing the first excuse he could yank out of his ass when Rachel looked lost, “but we’ve already made plans to go visit with one of my friends after lunch.”

  Jill perked up. “Oh, ya don’t say? Are ya from up here, then?”

  “No, but he is.” Andrew smiled, enjoying the looks of confusion on Jack and Jill’s faces.

  He thought Rachel might have snorted, but he wasn’t sure.

  Oooh, made her laugh.

  It was funny how, despite the early morning, his seriously undercaffeinated state, and now this, Rachel’s laugh could still stir interest in what should by all rights be a dead zone below his belt.

  Andrew was glad that they already had their food. No reason for them to delay and eat with the others. Rachel followed his lead and started shoveling her food into her mouth nearly as fast as he was at that point. While the cousinly brood was still trying to make up their minds about what to order, Andrew was already signaling for their check.

  “So, then. Do ya all want to catch up and have dinner together, then?” Jill asked.

  Andrew took point, sparing Rachel. “I’m sorry. We’d love to, but we’ve already made plans. I don’t get up here often enough and kind of got locked in. But maybe we’ll catch up with you tomorrow at some point.”