“Shit,” the other said, staring at the arm. “You broke it again.”
“You broke it!”
They argued about that the entire time Hud and Mitch were strapping the injured brother to a sled, preparing to take him down the mountain.
As they began the descent, the uninjured brother stayed alongside so that the two of them could continue to yell at each other.
“And don’t think I’ve forgotten that you owe me fifty bucks,” the injured one yelled from flat on his back. “I won our last two bets and you’ve never paid up! Cheapskate!”
“I don’t owe you shit! You stole my bike and crashed it!”
“That piece of shit was no good anyway!”
And so it went on.
When they got to the bottom, they loaded the injured brother directly into an ambulance. Yet another fight broke out when the uninjured one wanted to make the ride with his brother and the EMTs refused to take him because he kept stirring up their patient.
The ambulance drove off and the uninjured brother stared after it, suddenly silent and looking deflated. He lifted his head to Hud, eyes shiny and miserable. “They’ll take care of him, right? They won’t let him die?”
“They won’t let him die,” Hud promised, and turned away to get back to work.
But the guy grabbed Hud’s arm. “You swear it?”
Hud looked into his devastated face and was propelled back to another time, another fight, with his own brother. Ten years ago this had been them. Young. Cocky. Hotheaded idiots. “I swear it,” Hud said.
“I can’t be without him,” the guy said quietly, the fight gone, the adrenaline draining.
Yeah, Hud got that too. Once, he and Jacob had been like a pair of porcupine siblings, constantly needling each other but unable to be apart either.
How quickly they’d gotten okay with that. Except Hud had never gotten okay with it, not really. Every single fucking day he missed Jacob, like he’d miss a damn limb.
“I need a ride to the hospital,” the guy suddenly said.
“How did you get here?” Hud asked.
“My brother drove his new truck. I crashed his last one, so I’m not supposed to drive this one. He said he’d kill me if I did.”
Hud shook his head and pointed to the shuttle’s pickup spot. “Every twenty minutes a bus comes by and drives into town.”
“Twenty minutes is a long time.” The guy looked thoughtful. “Maybe I should hot wire his truck… you know, since it’s an emergency situation and all.”
Normally Hud was excellent at compartmentalizing his life. All the Kincaids were. Family was family. Play was play. Work was work. And while he was most definitely affected by what he did on the job, and occasionally also moved by the people he helped, for the most part he didn’t allow any of it to stick to him. Couldn’t, or he wouldn’t have anything left to give the next day.
But these guys were brothers. They’d fought, and one had gotten hurt.
There were too many similarities between them and himself and Jacob for him not to be moved. “Listen,” he said to the guy. “You can do what you want, but I’m telling you to think about this long and hard. One of these days you’re going to pull a stunt that he can’t get over or forgive, and he’ll leave you. Do you understand me? So do yourself a favor and take the damn bus.”
The guy blinked. “Okay, jeez.”
When he’d stalked off, Mitch came up beside Hud. “That was a little harsh.”
“It was the cold, hard truth,” Hud said, and walked away. He headed for his office but then decided fuck it, he needed to take a ski run to clear his head. Ten minutes later, he was flying down Devil’s Face, the wind in his face, his thighs burning, his lungs taxed, and feeling much better.
When the lodge came into view, he slowed and then stopped.
From here he could see the wall, which for as long as he could remember had been blank.
No longer.
It was crisscrossed with the scaffolding and he could see a small figure on the third tier. From here he couldn’t see much else since she was just sketching things in, but he knew that over the next few weeks that would change. Soon enough he’d be able to see himself and his family portrayed on that wall.
For better or worse.
He wanted to stay stoic about it, but there was something about the free-spirited Bailey Moore that grabbed him by the heart he’d thought long dead.
He liked her. There was no denying that. But he didn’t like the feelings she invoked from deep inside him. He could feel himself being drawn into her more each day.
But that didn’t—couldn’t—matter. His head was too full. He needed to help get the resort out of their dad’s debt before they lost it. His mom was getting worse and that weighed on him. And then there was Jacob. The guilt and regret were killing Hud. He simply didn’t feel like he deserved to be happy until he had Jacob home where he belonged.
Even if that meant missing out on what he suspected was the best woman to ever happen to him.
The following week was both painstakingly slow and whipping by. Hud visited his mom on the only night he could get away from the mountain and took her for her favorite—pizza at the local brewery, the Slippery Slope. He had a few of her friends there, including Char—Aidan and Gray’s mom.
At the end of the meal Char had the waitresses bring in a cake and they all sang “Happy Birthday.”
It wasn’t Carrie’s birthday but she liked to celebrate birthdays. If they didn’t do hers, then they had to celebrate his—which he hadn’t done since Jacob left.
Char had brought a roll of quarters and they loaded up the jukebox with ’80s hair-band songs, and then they sang each and every one word for word. Char had them using spoons for microphones and she even got up on a table to dance—until her boyfriend and Cedar Ridge equipment manager, Marcus, got her down.
“Enough beer for you,” he said.
Char beamed at him. She and Carrie were a huge hit and it took another hour to get them out of there.
“Best birthday ever,” Carrie said on the way home. She always said that.
When Hud got her tucked in, she smiled hopefully.
Hud dropped a wrapped present in front of her and she clapped in delight. “Oh, baby! You shouldn’t have!”
She always said that, too, every single week. The presents he gave her ranged from her favorite candy bar to movie tickets to a preloaded Visa that she could use online, though right now she had his credit card—which he needed to get back from her. They were going with preloaded from now on.
She squealed and nearly pierced his eardrums. She’d opened the iPod that he’d filled with her favorite music because she refused to listen to music on her phone. She saved her phone battery for “talking and shopping.”
“Oh, Hud!” she cried. “You shouldn’t have, but I’m so happy you did!” She shook the thing and he realized she had no idea what it was.
“It’s an iPod, Mom. For your music.”
“Well, I know that!” She stopped shaking it and held it up to her ear.
He found a smile. “Want me to turn it on for you?”
“No, I’ve got it. I love it, Hud.” As she always did, she carefully folded the wrapping paper into a square and untangled the ribbon, both of which he’d stolen from Kenna’s desk drawer.