Page 33 of One Winter Knight
Saoirse gave him a look. “You live with your parents?”
“Kinda? My recording studio has an apartment attached, so I stay there a lot. But, yeah. Some of my siblings still live at home, too.” He shrugged.
We rejoined everyone.
“That looks like more than one doll,” I told Hale.
“They’ll deliver to our resort. I figured that since I never bought Christmas presents, other than that pillow Fiona helped me pick out for Mercy, I’d buy them for a bunch of my siblings.” He shrugged. “I mean, I did win money. Also, I got Christmas money from my sister,andsomehave fun at the ravemoney.”
“Oh, they deliver to the hotel. Great. Fiona, help me choose some, too.” I bought nine dolls. Dusty ended up getting a couple. Fiona bought some, too. We had them all sent to the resort.
We drove to our hotel and checked in. We had a two-story villa away from the main lodge. It was smaller than I expected, but there was a hot tub on the back porch.
Downstairs was an open-plan living room, dining room, and kitchen, and a bathroom. Glass doors looked out onto the hot tub. All our ski gear sat against the wall. The suitcases were lined up on the floor.
Dusty handed out different colored fancy wrist bands. “These are for the lodge. It’s cashless. The villa is paid for by the festival,but our personal shit at the resort is our responsibility. You can go online and add your card to yours. And these are for thefestival. I think most everything is covered, including drinks and food. But it’s thefestival,not where we’re staying. It’s also your ski and lift pass,” Dusty added.
“You good, Hale? I can cover you if you need it,” I said softly. Just in case he wanted anything at the resort.
“Even after buying a shit-ton of dolls, I’m good. That was the point of the race,” he replied. “But thanks.”
“The rooms at the villa are really small,” Dusty added. “Really, they expect you just to sleep in them, and to be skiing or down here. So, um, Fiona being the omega gets the big room. Hale and Carlos get one of the bunkrooms and Saoirse and I get the other? Or do you want to share with Carlos, Mi Cielo?”
Saoirse sighed. “It doesn’t matter. I won’t spend much time there anyway.”
Dusty’s face lit up. “Great. I don’t snore.”
Grabbing my suitcase, I went upstairs. The room was tiny, and had a closet, dresser, chair, and two bunk beds. But then I’d probably trade off with Saoirse spending nights in Fiona’s room. Which was probably why Dusty assigned bunks the way he did.
“Bunkroom. Got it.” Hale put his suitcase on the dresser. “Can I have the top bunk?”
“Go for it.” Opening my suitcase, I took out the tamales, which were still cold. Good. I got everything that needed to go to the kitchen and brought it downstairs.
Writing,For Christmas–don’t touch,I put them in the freezer, right next to a pan with a similar note. The enchiladas Dusty brought, most likely.
Putting everything else away, I checked the cupboards to see if we had what we needed. Slow cooker, pots and pans, oven…
“Groceries are almost here. They can’t find tortillas. I wanted to make Saoirse tacos.” Dusty frowned. “She’s never had a taco.”
“Blasphemy. We’ll go to Taco Hut when we get back to New York.” I went there a lot with my teammates for taco-eating contests. “There’s your cousins’ taco truck or your brother’s restaurant, too.”
He nodded. “Or we could just go to my moms’.”
“True.” While they were good cooks and really welcoming, they all had giant personalities and could be a lot if you weren’t used to them. “We could also cook for them.”
Dusty thought for a moment. “Oh, we could.”
“Dusty… what if I got my own place?” I asked. “I would keep the building, of course. But what if I moved out, too? Would everyone be okay without me?”
He leapt up to sit on the counter. “Wait, are you getting traded?”
“Not that I know of. But…” I looked up at the stairs.
Dusty’s eyes met mine. “Lalo, everyone will befine.Your mamá will be okay.”
Relief flowed through me. “I needed to hear that.”
Dusty looked at his phone and sighed. “We have the welcome party soon. You don’t have to come.”
