Chapter 21 #2
Arden burst out laughing. “Oh yeah, we’re already teasing her about it.
She mentioned it to Bear just so she could watch his face turn red up to his ears.
” Arden opened a can of pineapple rings.
“And, it’s fun to watch her ears turn red when she admits her real Bear is just as hot as the fictional one.
” She laughed again as she turned to Colin.
“And don’t worry, Kyle already knows about my obsession with the Lumbersnack. ”
Maren laughed as she watched Colin’s ears turn red. He took a long drink of his water and said nothing, which somehow made it even funnier.
“You’re going to fit right in at the next meeting, Maren,” Arden told her.
Maren felt her own cheeks warm. “I’d like that.”
“As much as I’d like to meet your brothers, I hope,” Arden answered as she pulled the tab and popped open the can of coconut cream. “They’re in the military, you said?”
“Yes. Marine Raiders.”
Arden looked up. “Oh, cool. I haven’t met any of those.”
“When you do, I’ll give you a hundred bucks to hand them each a box of crayons and say bon appetit.”
Arden stopped midway through opening the second can of coconut cream because she was laughing too hard. “You did not just say that about your own brothers.”
“Of course I did! They say it about themselves more often than I do. Though I do get them a crayon cake every birthday.”
Arden laughed again as she poured coconut cream and pineapple juice into a blender with half the pineapple rings. Then, she opened the bottle of rum. A funny look came over her face and she hesitated.
“Are you all right?” Maren asked.
Arden gave her a shaky laugh. “I have to confess, I smelled the rum and now I’m feeling slightly woozy.” She grinned. “Not a good woozy, a slightly urpy woozy. So…maybe mocktails instead? Can I interest you in a virgin colada? All the joy, none of the regret.”
“Honestly, I’m a lightweight on a good day,” Maren said. “I’d fall asleep on your beautiful couch before Kyle got home and miss the whole evening. Virgin coladas are perfect.”
Arden looked pleased. “Colin? I’ve got beer, too. Kyle keeps the good stuff.”
“On duty. But thank you.”
Arden opened her mouth like she might argue, then read something in his face and nodded once. “Gotcha. Virgin coladas all around then.” She turned her attention back to Maren. “Are your brothers twins as well?”
“No. Reid is the oldest, then Beckett. Beckett is eight years older than Mira and me. We were oopsie babies.”
“Whoops.” Arden was at the fridge scooping ice into the blender. “And twins, too.”
“Yup. Double-whammy, as Mom used to say. I guess when you get older the chances of having twins goes up? And Mom was older.” She looked up toward heaven. “Sorry, Mom, but it’s true.”
“Hang on.” Arden raised her pointer finger, then hit a button on the blender. Camo started as the sound of grinding ice filled the house. “Sorry, Buddy,” she apologized to the dog, who huffed and looked at her like I deserve a treat for enduring that.
Arden opened a cabinet and rummaged for a moment. “I think I have…there they are.” She pulled out two tiki glasses. “These are from my friend Elissa in Los Angeles. She got them when she was in Maui for a…um, competition.” Arden glanced away and Maren sensed there was a lot more there.
“So, I guess she would have preferred a vacation somewhere else as well?” Maren asked.
Arden smirked and tilted her head as she poured their drinks.
“Anyone else would have, but you haven’t met Elissa yet.
My girl drinks adrenaline for breakfast.” Arden carried the pina coladas to Maren and handed her one.
“Want to go outside? We don’t exactly have a tropical beach to sit on, but the sunsets can be pretty spectacular over the mountains. ”
“Sure.” Maren grabbed the plate of snacks, stood up, and Camo was instantly at the women’s sides like the four-footed bodyguard he was. “Arden, thanks again. I’m so thankful that Juni’s other family is so wonderful, starting with her aunt.”
Arden grinned. “What do you say we exchange stories about Mira and Sean? I’m sure you’re just as curious about Sean as I am about your twin.”
“Absolutely.”
Arden paused as they walked to the back deck. “Unless it’s too painful?”
“No. Not at all. It’s been a couple years, and I’ve had time to adjust. Besides, talking about her brings her right back to me.”
“Good. I feel the same way about Sean. But first, I want to hear all about your day.”
Arden had a charcoal grill set up at the far end of the deck, coals already banked and beginning to breathe orange at the edges. She checked them with the ease of someone who’d done it a thousand times, placed four foil-wrapped potatoes directly into the coals, and closed the lid.
They settled into the patio chairs—two Adirondacks with a small table between them for the cheese and crackers—and Camo stationed himself between their chairs like he was chaperoning.
Through the open patio door behind them, Maren could hear Juni’s voice, low and serious, conducting what sounded like a very important meeting involving Mr. Kibble.
She’s fine.
Then she heard Colin talking to her, telling her something that made her giggle.
We all are. At least for one night, everything is fine.
By the time Kyle got home, Maren had told Arden all about her day—minus the dancing of course. Kyle was carrying a platter of burgers. Camo greeted him, then scooted inside. Kyle bent to kiss Arden and straightened up to shake Maren’s hand.
“Good to have you here,” he said. “Both of you.” He looked back through the open patio door with a grin. “Your niece has commandeered the guest room. She’s putting Mr. Kibble, Snoopy, and the fairy to bed. Very seriously.”
Maren laughed. “She does everything she thinks is important seriously.”
“I noticed.” He looked at Arden. “Coals ready?”
“Ready.”
He rolled up his sleeves and took over the grill without ceremony, and Colin materialized from inside and Kyle looked up at him.
“Beer?”
“Not while I’m on duty, Boss.”
Kyle grinned. “Fair enough. Got some sodas in there, too.” He nodded at the cooler beside the grill. “Help yourself.”
Maren watched Colin pull out a soda and lean against the deck rail. She liked seeing him there, easy and unhurried in the evening light. It looked good on him.
She made herself look away.
Kyle set the grill lid ajar and turned to them. “I’m going to need at least one story while these cook. Something good.”
Arden tucked her feet up under her on the patio chair. “Oh, I have a Sean story.” She grinned at Maren. “You need to understand something first. Sean had what I can only describe as a gift.”
“A gift? For?”
Arden’s eyes went bright. “For making other people’s terrible ideas sound like good ones.
He never had the terrible idea himself. He just…
I don’t know, refined it. Improved on it.
Added the part that made it spectacularly worse.
” Arden shook her head in fond horror. “This was so bad because Bear was involved. He had the terrible idea and the size to execute it without thinking twice. Shane supplied the confidence.”
“Why am I not surprised?” Kyle interrupted with a wink.
Arden snorted and toasted her husband. “So Ben supplied the engineering skills and the voice of reason that no one listened to.”
“Why am I not surprised about that, either?”
“Shush, shush, or I’ll never get to the end of my story.” Arden took a drink. “Elias supplied the snacks, which, as I recall, were those Lunchables thingies. Of course he called them MREs.”
“Sounds about right.” Kyle took a swig of his beer. “How about Waylon?”
“Oh God, Waylon supplied the ‘extraction plan.’” She air-quoted the words. “Waylon had the fastest dirt bike in the county and absolutely no sense of self-preservation. The combination was heart-attack-inducing.”
Maren laughed. “His poor mom. And Sean?”
“Sean was the voice of temptation.” Arden did a low, solemn impression: “Guys, guys, hear me out. What if we—” She broke off, grinning.
“And then whatever came next was something that sounded reasonable until suddenly it wasn’t, and by then everyone was already nodding and no one knew exactly when the thing had gone sideways but they were all-in. ”
“He sounds like a natural-born operator,” Maren said. “Just like my brothers.”
“He absolutely was. Which, in retrospect, explains a lot about his career choice.” Arden took another sip of her drink.
“And the St. Vrain, which was his favorite place on earth and also explains why he became a Swick. Okay, that summer I think Sean was twelve or thirteen, so I was nine or ten. He and the boys had decided they were going to build a raft.”
“Of course they did.” Maren could just picture it.
“A military raft. This was important. Not a fun raft. A raft for a mission.” Arden held up her fingers to count.
“Ben had engineered the thing—inner tubes, pallets, and one very old aluminum lawn chair he’d liberated from his garage.
He’d also stood right beside the raft they’d just built and listed, very clearly, every single reason it might not work. Then they launched it anyway.”
“And Ben still went along?”
“Ben still went along. He said afterward he just wanted to see if he’d been right. Guess what? He had been right.”
Maren laughed. “That tracks.”
“Sean drew a map of the river full of dotted lines and little X’s for what he called enemy positions, which were, in fact, the rapids and the big rocks in the middle of the river that anyone with any sense would have called obstacles.”
Maren pressed her fist to her mouth. “Oh no.”
“The plan was to float from just off Apple Valley Road all the way to Second Avenue through town. Recon mission. They were going to ‘mark the enemy positions’ on the map, which apparently meant throwing rocks at them, which, again, big, dangerous rocks in the river. Fed by snowmelt. In June.”
“Where were you in all this?”