Chapter Twenty-Seven
Carlos
My eyes opened, head splitting, body aching like I’d been in a fight against a whole bunch of giant defenders.
Had I been injured?
No. No hockey. I was in Switzerland with Dusty, Fiona, Saoirse, and Hale.
Fiona and I were cuddled up together. Hale lay crossways, feet entwined with ours. While Fiona and I were naked under the blankets, Hale wore a gold bodycon dress.
And oddly enough, he looked hot in it.
What happened?
Okay, I’d gone to bed with them after the hot tub. I remembered that much. Frowning at how much I couldn’t recall, I sat up, hitting my head on something.
“Ow.” I rubbed it, realizing I was surrounded by blankets and on a mattress on the floor, something above me.
What? This wasn’t the bunkroom or Fiona’s room.
Poking my head out of the blankets surrounding me like a blanket fort, I saw that we were under the kitchen table.
Thirst burned my throat. I also had to piss. Shit. I almost tripped over a gold high heel. Whose shoe was that? Chips crunched under my feet.
Using the bathroom, I grabbed some PJ pants from my bunkroom, noting that the beds had no mattresses, then went downstairs into the kitchen.
Several champagne bottles sat in the sink, along with lots of dishes and pots and pans. The remnants of a cake lay strewn about the counter, which was also littered with eggshells and wrappers.
A snowmobile was parked by the couch, the dolls posed on it. Clothes were piled on the floor. Bags of chips were everywhere.
Grabbing some water, I went over by the fire. There were more mattresses, pillows, and blankets piled there.
A low growl emitted as yellow eyes looked at me. A greyish cat the size of a malamute was sleeping on top of the table, a blanket suspended from the ceiling fan creating a cozy little tent. There were little twinkling lights, too. Maybe from the tree.
Wait, why was I thinking about that when a giant cat looked like it wanted to eat me?
How the fuck did that even get in here? Please don’t eat me.
With an annoyed swish of his tail, he leapt off the table, and darted out the glass back doors, which stood partially open.
Relief that I wasn’t attacked by whatever that was sluiced over me as I closed the door. The green sports car Dusty had rented was parked on the porch, very close to the hot tub.
What. The. Fuck.
Yeah, this was too much to deal with before coffee.
Pouring myself a cup, I took a long drink of coffee. There was nothing in the fridge. The place also stank, the trash overflowing.
Opening the back door up again, I pulled the screen shut so no other large cats tried to warm themselves by the fire, but we could air the place out a little.
That’s probably what happened. It was snowing outside and nice and warm in here, so big kitty decided to take a nap.
Getting trash bags from under the sink, I gathered up all the garbage. The cushions of the couch were gone. Some of Hale’s drugs were on the table, along with my tin of recreationals.
“What happened last night?” Hale crawled out from under the table. “While I look fucking hot, why am I wearing a dress?”
“You look incredibly sexy.” Desire for him flooded me and I gave him a kiss.
“Wow, we trashed the place,” he muttered, looking around.
“There’s coffee. The last thing I remember is the hot tub. I’m going to put all the trash outside. I’m guessing we haven’t gotten maid service?” I finished gathering everything up.
“Guess not. Thanks.” He kissed my forehead. “I remember fucking Fiona a lot–and fucking you into her. But why were we asleep under the table?”
“I have no idea. Other than she wanted a nest post-fuck?” Lugging all the trash bags outside, I put them by the door. On the small covered front porch of the villa sat an ice chest and a big plastic bin.
Where did those come from?
The bin contained towels and sheets. Oh? I went to put it inside and I saw a big sign on the door that said something in German.
I shoved the bin inside then dragged in the ice chest.
“Please tell me there’s food in there.” Hale eyed the cooler.
“I don’t know.” I opened it. There was no ice in it, but it was cold outside. It was probably more to keep the animals out.
Inside were bottles of water and sports drinks, a box of teabags, a loaf of bread, and a bunch of containers.
“We can eat this, right? We might have ordered room service?” Hale started opening containers. “It looks like it could be German drunk food. Shit, I have one giant fucking hangover.”
“Me, too. What day is it?” I asked. Hopefully we wouldn’t miss our flight. But right now I felt too shitty to worry about that.
“Don’t know, let me check.” Hale took off.
I continued opening the containers, which were labeled in German. It looked like there was chicken soup, mashed potatoes, rice, some sort of creamy chicken dish that probably went with the rice, shredded smelly cabbage, beef stew, potato soup, fruit, cold meats, and cheese.
My stomach rumbled. This was a nice little feast here.
I put the fruit, cold meat, and cheese in the fridge, wanting something hot to start with. What should I warm up first? Probably everything. The containers weren’t huge.
Hale came back down the stairs, now in a T-shirt and boxers. “My phone’s dead. So’s Fiona’s. I’m charging them.”
“I’m going to heat up the food,” I told him.
“The power went out at one point. That’s probably why we were in the living room–to keep warm. Fireplace is gas,” he told me.
“That makes sense.” I nodded. It looked like the power was back on. It was probably all the snow. The ceiling fan was on, maybe for circulation?
“Why can’t I remember what happened?” He rubbed his head.
“We did party pretty hard,” I replied. “But yeah, I don’t know why there’s a snowmobile in the living room or how the car got on the porch.”
“The snow. It snowed hard, so we moved the car so it wouldn’t get buried in case we needed it.” Hale nodded. “Maybe that’s why we brought in the snowmobile? Why do we have a snowmobile?”
“Not sure. Maybe it came with the villa and we didn’t notice?
It does have the name of the lodge on it.
We also left the back door open, because there was a giant gray cat napping in here.
Not a house cat, like a wild attack cat.
” I put the chicken soup, the rice, and the creamy chicken in the microwave first.
Hale poured himself more coffee. “Lynx maybe? One of my brothers is really into animals.” He looked out the glass doors. “There’s a shit-ton of snow.”
Fiona crawled out from under the table, pouting. “I feel shitty.”
“Come here, Puddin’. Carlos made coffee.” Hale opened his arms.
“There’s tea, too.” I held up the box, which was all in German.
“Yes, please.” She nuzzled him.
I started the kettle, then began disassembling the blanket fort, mostly so we could use the table to eat at. The cushions went back onto the couch. I stacked the mattresses to bring back up later. The blankets and pillows all went into a big pile.
Getting Fiona some tea, I stirred the heating food, swapping out the containers for others.
Fiona had disappeared. I started putting food on the table. All the plates were dirty. Like all of them. So, I set the table with bowls and washed some silverware.
Hale started loading the tiny dishwasher.
“Champagne? Cake? Where did that come from? It also looks like we had eggs and beans at some point? And a steak dinner?” Hale observed, tossing the champagne bottles in the garbage.
I frowned as I sliced some bread. “We probably needed some food. Maybe we ordered room service? But all this points to this not being the next day.”
My chest tightened at the thought.
“Let’s eat and then figure out what happened before you freak out.” Hale hugged me to him.
My nose wrinkled. He needed a fucking shower.
So did I.
But I let him hold me, getting reassurance from his touch. It would be fine. We’d feel better after eating some food.
Hale looked around, still holding me. “Where are Dusty and Saoirse?"
“Upstairs in my bedroom.” Fiona came downstairs in some pajamas. “I’m full of hickeys. We absolutely had a sex party.”
“Is that a complaint?” I grabbed her and covered her in kisses.
She laughed. “No. But I wish I remembered more of it. Is food ready?” Fiona eyed the table. “I’m so hungry.”
“Yes. Go get Saoirse and Dusty.” I kissed the top of her head.
“Are they in bed together?” Hale grabbed a piece of bread and stuffed it in his mouth.
Her eyebrows rose. “We know they fuck.”
“They must have made up. Good.” I poured a cup of coffee for Saoirse and set it on the table along with the bread.
Fiona went back upstairs. I got coffee for Dusty then refilled mine.
Even with the few things I’d done to tidy up, the room was still a mess. What had happened?
But first, breakfast.