The Fourth Summer
Page 24
“She invited all of us. She thinks of us as her friends. You should go.”
“Why? I really hope she has a great wedding, and I will send a gift if she’s got one of those registry things. I’ll even take care of it myself. But why do you think I should go?”
“Because you helped her get her dress, and I am going to be there, and weddings are so much more fun when you have a date.”
“So you want me to fly all the way across the country to be your wedding date?”
“Pretty much,” she said, and she was smiling. How could she not be smiling? They were in love.
He saw her smile, and the familiar warmth came back to his eyes; his shoulders relaxed. “I guess I can do that. Is there an RSVP card in this thing?”
“Those were too expensive. You need to email.”
“That’s easier than finding a mailbox. But are you—”
A voice shouted out, interrupting him. “There they are, there they are.”
Caitlin turned. Two guys were coming toward them. One was on crutches, and the other was astonishingly handsome.They were both shaggy haired and dressed like Seth in careless layers. Caitlin knew who they were.
“What the hell are you doing here?” Seth demanded.
“I brought her a coat.” Ben, the handsome one, unfurled a school-bus-yellow parka. “Newcomers always forget to bring coats.”
Caitlin certainly had. Ben started to introduce himself, but she stopped him. “I know who you are.”
“Do you speak Norwegian?” Nate asked.
“Ah...no.” What an odd question. “Is that a problem?”
“No, not really. It’s just that Colleen could.”
“I actually know who she is, too.”
Ben groaned. “Why does everyone—”
“Oh, shut up,” Seth ordered. “Seriously, what are you two doing here?”
“You’ve been acting like there was no hope so when we heard that she was comin’ round the mountain, we had to come out and meet her like the song says to do.”
“And bring her a coat,” Ben added.
“I don’t suppose it occurred to you,” Seth said, “that if there was any hope, you two clowns showing up wasn’t going to help.”
“So does he have any hope?” Nate asked her. “Are you the new Colleen?”
“I thought Colleen was history,” Caitlin said. “I’m trying not to be history. Why do you think I’m here?”
“Then we’ve done our job,” Nate said proudly. “Let’s run along, Ben.”
Ben hugged her—which Seth had not done—and Nate tapped her hip affectionately with his crutch. Then, by reaching far forward with his crutches, he was able to swing off in a stride so big that Ben was going to have to hustle to keep up.
“The coat,” Caitlin called after them. “You can leave the coat.” She had never needed a coat when she and Seth had been together before. It had always been summer.
Without turning around, Ben held the coat by the sleeve, swung it around his head like a lasso a couple of times, and flung it backward. It landed on a line of chairs about ten feet away from them.
“I don’t know why he thinks he can throw.” Seth shook his head as he went to get the coat. “None of us can.”
Caitlin watched as he scooped up the coat, moving as easily, gracefully, effortlessly as ever.
Airport sex. She had never thought about airport sex before. It might not be as bad an idea as it sounded.
“I liked your friends,” she said.
“I don’t really care what you thought of them. What do you think of me? I’m getting a mixed message here.”
“I don’t know why you think it is mixed. I wanted to come here and beg you to love me, but my sister said that that wouldn’t do any good.”
He stared at her. “Was that what you wanted to do?” He shook his head. “So why did my mother say you didn’t want to come? What did she know?”
“She didn’t know anything, but according to my sister, this is what both our mothers were hoping for. She probably made up that story so you wouldn’t show up at the airport all cocky.”
“Fat chance of that. I thought you hated me.” He started to drape the coat between the handles of her suitcase so that he could carry both and still have one hand free.
Caitlin noticed something slipping out of one of the coat pockets. She rescued it. It was an Endless Snow Resort envelope with his name on it. “Oh, look, you have more mail.”
“This is weird,” he said. “This is Nate’s mother’s handwriting. Those idiots forgot to give it to me.” He ripped it open and took out a key card with a Post-It note attached. Caitlin looked over his arm to read the note.
K3, it read.
“Isn’t that the mountain almost as high as Everest? Don’t get your hopes up, Seth. I’m not taking that ‘climb every mountain’ thing literally.”
“You’re thinking of K2. No, this is the honeymoon chalet at the resort.”
Oh. So her mom and his mom had an ally out here.
And honeymoon-chalet sex? There shouldn’t be any such thing. Honeymoon chalets were for making love.
Out in the parking lot he opened the car door for her as he had done that night in the Dairy Queen parking lot so long ago. He put her suitcase in the trunk and then came around to the driver’s side.
He put his seat belt on, then turned to her without starting the car. “Do you remember that night back when we were kids and we went to the park after you had to pretend that I was your boyfriend?”
“Of course I do. You opened the car door for me then, too.”
“I guess I have the same question that I had that night—how far do we want to take this?”
“Pretty far, I should think.”
“All the way to a ring and one of those fluffy white dresses?”
Caitlin blinked. “Seth...are you proposing?”
“Well, crap, it does sound like it, doesn’t it? I guess that’s something else I need to work on. Do you want to table it and let me try again? I can probably do better with a little prep.”
“You can’t be serious. People like us...do we get married?”
“Because we’re too cool to make a promise?” He grinned at her. “No, we’re way ahead of the curve here. The newest, hippest thing to do is get people to throw rice at you.”
“You don’t throw rice anymore. People used to think that it was bad for the birds. The rice swelled up in their stomachs, and the birds exploded. But it’s an urban myth.”
“Exploding bird guts? Caitlin, I may be bad at proposing, but you’re worse at answering.”
He had a point there. “Shouldn’t we just live together for a while? That’s what people do, isn’t it?”
“Sure...when we are out here. No problem. But I’m going to need to be back home more, and isn’t your mother going to bug you endlessly about a wedding if we get a place together there?”
“So you know about the big-ass Southern wedding?”
“I know about Southern mothers.” He started the car, and then he looked at her again with that mischievous grin she had seen so little of during the trial. “So if we settle at home and have kids, you know what that will make you, don’t you?”
* * * *
The first part of the drive to Mt. Hood took them through the eastern outskirts of Portland. It was still warm enough that big groups of families and friends were celebrating Labor Day with the last picnic of the summer, the last day at the pool, the last softball game. Summer was over for most of Americans.
It was never really summer on top of Mt. Hood. But that didn’t matter to Caitlin and Seth. They could finally stop counting their summers.
About the Author
Kathleen Gilles Seidel is a bestselling author of contemporary romances¸ two of which have won RITAs from the Romance Wri
ters of America. She has a Ph.D. in English literature from Johns Hopkins. She grew up in Kansas and lives in Virginia. She and her late husband have two adult daughters.