How I Came to Sparkle Again (26 page)

“Well then, let’s hope you don’t fall.”

Jason shut the door to the shack and followed Tom across the ridge to the impossibly steep run. In keeping with the rules, Jason dropped first. He made tight, expert jump turns. Snow had piled up on a few large rocks that stuck out of the frozen waterfall, and he hit those on the way down like stairs. From the top, Tom waited for him to eat it, but much to his disappointment, Jason skied it perfectly and waited at the bottom.

Tom jumped off the lip and did the same, only near the bottom he scraped a rock, which slowed him down enough for him to lose his balance. He went headfirst downhill but rolled over to get his skis below him so he could slide for life if he needed to, and that gave him enough momentum to finish his roll and end up on his feet. He kept skiing without breaking stride. When he reached the bottom, he stopped next to Jason and shook his head.

Jason led the way back to the chair, and they whizzed up the line that was just for ski patrol, allowing them to cut in front of everyone and take the next chair.

“So how are the ladies at the Gold Pan these days?” Jason asked.

“I don’t know,” Tom replied.

Jason raised an eyebrow and studied him. “You hooked up with Lisa.”

“Why do you say that?”

“It was inevitable. It made sense. And I noticed you didn’t answer the charges.”

“No, I didn’t,” Tom said.

“Oh, I get it. She swore you to secrecy. Julie did that to me, too. Yeah, you’re going to have to propose.”

“What?” Tom asked.

“Julie wouldn’t go public with me until after I proposed. She said that given my reputation, people would think she was just another unfortunate floozy about to be left in my wake. I had to do something to distinguish her as different and worthy of more respect,” Jason said.

“What?” Tom asked again.

“Yeah, dude, you’re going to have to propose. But it’s not all bad. I get lucky several times a week with a really hot chick who sometimes does my laundry.”

“We didn’t have this talk,” Tom said.

“What talk?” Jason asked as if he already forgot.

“Exactly. Thanks.”

“One more thing. When you propose, don’t screw it up. You’ve waited a long time for her. Do it right.”

Tom didn’t reply. He just thought about it for a moment. Then something caught his eye. He pointed to it. “Check it. Rope duckers.” He got on his radio to get another patroller to snowmobile out there, nab them, and take their tickets.

Jason rubbed his hands together excitedly. “We get to play dog hole! Game on!”

“Oh, how I hope they’re season pass holders so they’ll have to play to get them back!” he said to Jason. “Stout’s avalanche rescue skills are surely getting rusty.”

“Be sure to tell Scooter that we want him to dig economy dog holes—not super deluxe dog holes. These guys need the kind of epiphany that can only happen when they’re running out of air in an economy-sized dog hole,” Jason said.

As Tom dialed Scooter, one thought overrode his excitement about burying rule breakers in the little caves that Scooter would dig. It overrode his excitement about the resolution of a long-standing disagreement between Jason and him: whether avalanche dogs would dig out a person with pizza or jerky in their pocket first. The thought that overrode all else was simply whether Lisa would ever say yes.

*   *   *

Lisa answered the phone. “Hello?”

“Ragazzina?” Lisa’s mom said on the other end of the phone. “I’m just calling to check up on you. It’s been a while since you’ve called me. I said to your aunt just today, ‘I haven’t heard from my little Lisa in a while,’ and do you know what she said? ‘She must be in love.’”

Lisa laughed.

“Oh! So she was right! Tell me!”

“Yes, Mama, I think I am.”

“Who is this boy?” her mother asked.

“My friend Tom,” Lisa answered.

“Tom. Tom,” her mother said again, sort of tasting his name. “He sounds pasty.”

“Yes. Yes, he is,” Lisa said. “He has blond hair and his legs glow in the dark.”

“Good. Because let me tell you something. Italian men cannot be true. None of the Mediterranean men can. Their hearts are too passionate. They are too easily influenced by the tides of passion. They have high sex drives. They are like volcanoes. They are, what do you young people say? High maintenance. I say, yes, get yourself a nice pasty blond man. He won’t be as nice to look at, but he won’t break your heart either.”

Lisa laughed. “Got it. Thanks, Mama.”

“So, when are you getting married?”

“Oh, gosh … I don’t know, Mama.”

“Are you afraid to get married?”

“There are a lot of reasons not to get married, Mama.”

“Reasons? What reasons? Wanting to go to hell?”

“Yes, Mama. That’s exactly it.”

“Don’t get sassy with me, Lisa. You’re not too old for a spanking.” After an uncomfortable pause, which her mother seemed to take as a little victory, she asked, “Everything else is okay?”

“Everything else is great,” Lisa said.

“Jill is eating?” her mother asked.

“It would warm your heart and make you proud to see how I am feeding Jill,” Lisa said.

“What about your father’s restaurant? Are the new chefs doing all right or are people in town saying the food is garbage now?”

Lisa wasn’t sure what the right answer was. “My friends are all too poor to eat there. I haven’t heard anything. What about you, Mama? Everything there is good?”

“Everything here is good. The weather’s been sunny. I never have to shovel snow,” she said.

Lisa laughed. “Well, enjoy the warm temperatures for me.”

“Okay, my little Ragazzina,” her mother said. “You make sure this Tom isn’t milking the cow for free, okay? And don’t wait so long to call your mother. I love you.”

“I love you, too,” Lisa said. “I’ll call sooner next time.”

“Okay, then. Good night, my Lisa.”

“Good night, Mama.”

Lisa hung up the phone and wondered whether Tom was really capable of a lasting relationship (there was that word again). She opened the door to the broom closet to look at the evidence on the game board, to look at all those women, but instead what she saw was that it was no longer there. Tom had taken it down.

And right then her phone lit up. “Message Received,” it said out loud. She flipped it open and saw a text from Tom: “Mardi Gras Luge party now! Hurry! Wear beads.”

*   *   *

“Luge,” Jill said, out of breath when Mike answered the door.

“Luge?” Mike asked.

“Luge,” Jill said again with a big smile.

“Cassie! Luge!” Mike called out. “Tarp?” he asked Jill.

“Optional,” Jill said.

Cassie ran down the stairs. She and Mike threw on some clothes, snatched the tarp off the woodpile on their way out, and hurried up the hill with Jill.

The luge was approximately eighty yards of pure thrill. A string of Christmas lights ran along both sides of it, giving it a carnival feeling at night. Luge building worked only when the weather started to warm. On most days in the heart of winter, the snow was too cold to stick, but on this day warm winds had blown in from the south, making the snow just right. Eric and Hans had been waiting for this day, and using their groomers to plow the course behind employee housing where the suits wouldn’t likely see it, they created what they called their finest masterpiece ever. Tom, Jason, and Scooter jumped in with shovels to polish it to perfection.

As Cassie, Mike, and Jill approached, Uncle Howard was just coming down the luge on his back, feet together, arms crossed across his front. He stood up and proclaimed, “This is their best luge track yet.” To someone who didn’t know him, it might have appeared as though he were not excited about it. He wasn’t the most expressive person in the world by any means, but Jill knew him well enough to know he was thrilled.

He stepped aside just in time to avoid Coach Ernie, who had sped down behind him. “Woo-hoo! That track was … what’s the word? Groovy? Rad? I don’t know. It was
swell
!”

“Coach Ernie!” Jill shouted. “You’re an inspiration!”

“Let me let you in on a little secret, Jilly,” he said. “Skiing is the fountain of youth! High speeds keep a person young!” With that, he started up the path to the top again.

Jill and Mike looked at each other and shook their heads in amazement.

“Well then,” Jill said, “I guess it’s a good thing I moved back.”

“I think it’s a very good thing you moved back,” Mike said.

Cassie raced ahead up the path to the start. When she was out of earshot, Mike said, “Thanks for getting us out here. She needed this.”

“Thank me when she breaks some bones,” Jill joked.

“At this point, it’s all about maximizing the good times,” he replied.

At the top were all Jill’s friends. They had a bonfire roaring and were roasting hot dogs on sticks.

Tom was excited. “And I didn’t think today could get any better! Jason, tell the people what you learned today.”

“Pizza rules. Jerky drools,” Jason said flatly.

“Meaning?” Tom prompted.

“Search dogs will dig out a person with pizza in their pocket before they dig out a person with jerky in their pocket,” Jason relented.

“And whose contention was that from the start?” Tom asked.

“The almighty and all-knowing Tom,” Jason said.

Jill and Mike said their hellos while Cassie hollered for them to hurry up from the top of the run. Mike and Cassie went first, disappearing down the chute like rockets, and then it was Jill’s turn. She crossed her legs and arms and let gravity work its magic. The Christmas lights were a blur as she sped past them, through the curves, and finally slowed to a stop at the bottom.

She didn’t see Mike or Cassie, and then
wham!
She was hit in the face with a snowball.

“Oh! You did not!” she shouted as she chased Cassie, who hid behind a tree, and then another. “You’re going down, Cassie!”

Suddenly, Mike grabbed her from behind and held her. “Get her, Cassie! Get her!” For that split second before Cassie relentlessly threw snowball after snowball at her face, Jill liked how he felt behind her, liked how his arms felt around her.

“That’s it!” Jill shouted. “You’re both going to Arizona!”

“Do you give up?” Mike barked.

“Yes!” Jill screamed.

Mike let her go, and Cassie stopped throwing snowballs. They victoriously high-fived each other, and then Cassie started off toward the trail back up.

Jill shrieked and shook out the snow that had fallen down the front of her jacket. She reached under her coat, untucked her shirt, and held it open. Clumps of snow fell out.

Mike smiled and raised his eyebrows a couple times.

“Oh, you’re into that, are you?” Jill joked quietly enough for Cassie not to hear.

Mike just smiled suggestively and shrugged.

“I will get revenge,” Jill vowed loudly as she and Mike followed Cassie up the trail.

“I’m scared,” Cassie said sarcastically. “Are you scared, Dad?”

“Oh yes. So scared,” Mike replied.

When they hiked up the trail again and stopped at the top to pay homage to the luge makers, Jill took a little nip off Lisa’s flask for warmth, or at least the illusion of it, and looked around at her circle of friends. She felt so lucky. So lucky and even grateful for some of the misfortune that had brought her back to Sparkle. Not the miscarriage. She wasn’t grateful for that. But David’s infidelity and the unraveling of the rest of her life felt neutralized. She was happy. Here in Sparkle, a person could be a playful kid forever—at least in some ways. Things like the luge didn’t happen in Austin, and certainly not at the hospital there.

There were more trips down the luge, a few more snowballs, and some warm-up time near the campfire, and then finally Mike said it was time for Cassie to hit the hay. Jill was tired, too, so she said good night to her friends and followed Mike and Cassie back to town.

As they reached the Kennel, rather than say good night, Mike asked, “Want to come to our house for a cup of cocoa?” She looked up at his face and could tell he didn’t want the night to end.

“Sure,” she said.

And when they arrived back at the house, Mike heated the milk, poured Cassie a cup of cocoa, handed it to her, and said, “Off to a hot bath you go!”

She whined for a moment, but then trotted off obediently.

Mike poured the rest of the cocoa into mugs for Jill and him but added a little Baileys to theirs. “You know what they say. ‘Candy is dandy, but liquor is quicker.’”

Was he flirting with her? Jill laughed and blushed.

He sat down across the table, looked right at her, took a deep, satisfied breath, and said, “This was a good night.”

She smiled. “It was.”

They drank their spiked cocoa, recalled funny moments from the evening, and laughed. His smile seemed sexier somehow, but she chalked up that perception to the Baileys. She was a lightweight. It didn’t take much.

But then, as she was heading for the door, he rested a hand on her back for just a moment as he walked with her.

When they reached the door, she turned toward him and smiled.

He paused and then asked, “Do you ever think about you and me?”

“What do you mean?” she asked, avoiding his question.

He shrugged. “I have fun with you. Sometimes I think about you and me. It’s probably wrong. It hasn’t been that long. And you’re going through your stuff. I’m going through mine. Cassie needs you. I’d never want to mess that up. But sometimes I think about it.”

Jill waited a moment to see if he would say more, and when he didn’t, she simply said, “Yeah, sometimes I think about it, too.”

Then she reached up and gave him a hug, and he hugged her back. She glanced up at him before she stepped out the door, and what she saw was possibility.

chapter twenty-two

SNOW REPORT FOR MARCH 17

Current temperature: 16F, high of 21F at 3
P.M.
, low of 12F at 4
A.M.