Page 79 of Falling Madly
I spotted Charlie and Bess next to it, waving madly. I waved back with a purple mitten. They’d gone ahead of us, transporting the sled, which took up the backseat of Charlie’s car.
We’d taken a detour via Trevor’s car, where I’d finally been reunited with my phone and wallet, as well as kitted from headto toe with Trevor’s knitting efforts. He’d been underselling his progress and had revealed an entire bag of socks, wool hats, and mittens.
I wasn’t hugely surprised. He’d been not smoking for months and had evidently replaced one addiction with another. I’d seen the relief in his eyes when he’d grabbed the needles and yarn from the car, shoving them into his backpack.
It was a bit weird, but I wasn’t complaining. It was cold as a corpse’s balls, so we’d divvied up his knitted items to ensure our collective survival. I was currently sporting purple mittens, a deep blue hat and the purple scarf that still had the needles attached to it. Trevor had wrapped some yarn around the ends to keep it together, but I held it in place with one hand, worried that the whole thing would snag on something and unravel.
I was out of the elf costume, feeling far more human in a fresh pair of underwear I’d borrowed from Bess, but it seemed looking even borderline normal in Cozy Creek was not an option for me.
“Teresa!”
I turned and found Peony smiling on the side of the slope, holding a thermos and a giant tote bag.
“Hi!”
I told Trevor I’d catch up with him and stepped off the path to talk to my old friend. “I just got my phone back!” I picked it out of my purse, waving it around for emphasis. “Now I can call you.”
“Wonderful!” Her smile was so warm it was like going back in time.
I wondered if we could go back far enough to not remember any of the crap that had come between us. I missed her. She was a friend from an era where friendship meant something. Sleepovers. Confessions. Round-the-clock emotional support. Everything I had in Denver felt mild and lame in comparison.We’d been so close, always physically together. My emotional support was mostly remote these days—text messages and phone calls.
I looked around. “Remember when this event was just three families and a handful of cardboard boxes?”
She laughed. “It’s grown quite a bit. And I heard we have a record number of tourists this year.”
“Because of the ski resort?”
“Yeah. And Cozy Creek’s been in the news. You know that missing skier?”
“Ah, yes. I’ve heard something.”
“She’s been missing for a few days now, and we’ve had all these volunteers running around the mountain.”
“It sounds like a morbid form of tourism.”
“That’s what I said!” Peony’s eyes widened. “But I swear some people draw sick enjoyment from that. Trekking around the forest, looking for human remains.”
“And then what? Brunch in town and a spa treatment?”
“Yeah, probably!” She held onto my arm, giggling.
“They’re not suspecting anything… sinister, are they? I mean, people get lost in the mountains all the time.”
“It’s a bit of a weird case. She vanished from the cabin she was staying at with her boyfriend, and he swears he’s innocent, of course.”
“So, she wasn’t skiing or hiking or…?”
“No. I think they were meant to go, but she wasn’t even fully dressed yet. She just popped outside to take a picture and never came back.”
“What? That’s bizarre!”
“Yeah. That’s why it’s getting so much publicity, I think. It’s like this mystery every Sherlock out there wants to solve.”
“Wow. That sounds crazy. I should look that up.”
“You should! Just don’t get freaked out.” She lifted her Thermos. “Sorry! Where are my manners? Would you like some coffee?”
“I’m fine. We just had coffees.”
