Chapter Genevieve - 1 year and 9 months after buying the van
Genevieve
“I’m so excited to leave for Costa Rica tomorrow!” I say, practically bouncing in my chair as I snap my laptop shut and set it on the edge of my desk. “It will be our last trip, just the two of us!”
I just booked one last excursion for us, get this, we’re going to ride horses on the beach! Like full-on galloping through the surf wind in our hair romance in the air!
Aspen looks up from where he’s tying his sneakers smirking like I’m the most dramatic person alive, which I probably am, but he loves it.
“Sounds great, Snowflake. I can’t wait,” He says, standing up and pressing a sweet kiss to my tummy and forehead.
It’s funny how he’s already so excited to be a dad.
We haven’t even told anyone yet, plus I’m not even showing.
It’s our two-year wedding anniversary this week and we are so overdue for a real vacation.
Honestly, it feels like the last few months have just been go-go-go, nonstop, barely enough time to breathe.
We’re deep in peak snowboarding season, and ever since Raul passed, Aspen and I have been helping out at Smoky Pine Ridge more than ever.
It’s been bittersweet working back at the place where it all started, the place that still holds so many memories of him.
Raul was like a father to both of us, Aspen especially.
There's no way we could just let the resort flounder, not now.
Not when it meant so much to him. To us.
But things have also been hard since mourning the loss of Raul.
On top of that, I’ve been working like crazy on my new clothing line it’s made specifically for snowboarders' girlfriends because, let’s be real, we deserve to look cute and be warm.
Don’t even get me started on the community events I’ve been organizing at Healing Grounds, our local coffee shop.
Between Aspen going pro, me launching a business, the events, the resort and now finding out we are expecting…
our lives are full to the brim. But we’ve earned this break. We need it like air.
Aspen pulls me out of my thoughts when he says, “I have bad news though, my mom just canceled on us. She said she can’t dog-sit anymore, she’s going to Aruba with her new victim.”
I blink, then let out a little laugh. “Victim?”
He shrugs like it’s obvious. “She calls them boyfriends, I call them victims.”
I shake my head smiling despite myself. “Okay, maybe I should ask Lana, she’s great with dogs.”
“Oh okay,” he says. “If she says no, I’ll ask Gio.”
Gio .
The moment he says his name a spark goes off in my head. I freeze for half a second, then feel a devious little grin creeping across my face.
That’s when the idea hits me, the idea. Like lightning-bolt-to-the-brain levels of brilliance. I have the perfect plan!
“Wait, did you say Gio was Italian?” I ask him.
“Yeah, why?” He says.
“Oh my God, I just had the best idea!”
He raises a brow at me, clearly both intrigued and bracing himself. “Uh oh.”
“Let’s parent-trap them!”
“What?”
“You know, like the movie! But instead of trying to get our parents back together, we’re setting our friends, Lana and Gio up.”
Aspen groans. “So… we’re trapping them.”
I bounce up from my chair more excited now, already imagining my plan unfolding. Just when I think I was getting into a dry spell of good ideas I pull this amazing one out of my sleeve.
“They’re perfect for each other! I seriously cannot believe we haven’t thought of this sooner. Remember two years ago when we were at the spa and I was swiping through Tinder looking for you, and Lana said—and I quote—‘All I want is a hot Italian man who will make me weak in the knees?”
He squints. “Vaguely.”
I point at him, triumphant. “And Gio? He’s Italian, he’s hot, he would make her weak in the knees!”
Aspen sighs the dramatic sigh of a man who knows he’s about to be dragged into one of his wife’s ridiculous schemes. “Oh God, not another one of your crazy ideas. Lana’s gonna hate it, you know she will.”
I grin wider. “You call them crazy until they work, trust me, Lana doesn’t know what she wants until it’s standing right in front of her, shirtless, with a charming accent and a bottle of red wine.”
He laughs, shaking his head. “I’m guessing I don’t even have a choice in this. Do I at least get a kiss for this?”
“Just so we’re clear, no, you don’t have a choice. But yes, I will kiss you now.’
I grab his face and plant a huge kiss on his cheek. He groans again, but I can tell he’s secretly into it.
He lives for my chaos.
I pause for one second before heading out. “I say this with love: if you ever wear those dirty new balances again, I will personally burn them, you’re not forty. We can find you a neutral that doesn’t scream “dad who gave up.”
He gives me a look.
“Don’t look at me like that unless you’re ready to back it up with actions. And by actions, I mean pinning me to that wall,” I tell him.
He rolls his eyes at me and I turn back to what I was doing.
I grab my phone and start scrolling for Lana’s number as I skip down the hallway, practically giddy.
This girl has no idea what’s coming… but something tells me she’s going to love it.
I mean, how can she not? All she’s ever wanted is a hot Italian man and I found her one!
Plus, she hasn’t been in a relationship since Evan and since he cheated on her, that gave her major trust issues.
The girl hasn’t been in a relationship since and as much as I try to understand her love of solitude and independence, I don’t.
It’s time for her to have a man that treats her like a princess.
The plan is forming faster than I can process it, but it feels so right.
I rub my little tummy and scroll through my contacts list until Lana’s name pops up, the little picture of us at the cabin as her contact photo. Her sticking her tongue out, me mid-laugh. We’ve been through so much together.
And now?
Now she’s about to step into something neither of us could’ve predicted.
Aspen watches me from the kitchen, arms crossed and that half-smirk on his face like he knows I’m about to wreak absolute havoc, in the best way.
My finger hovers over the call button.
This is it, I don’t even hesitate.
I press it.
The phone rings once... then twice…
And just like that, Lana has no idea her life is about to change. God she’s lucky to have me.
Lana answers on the third ring, “Heyyy!” She says, “Shouldn’t you be in Costa Rica?”