"‘This lovely morning?’ You are sure in a chipper mood."
I got a smile. "Every morning I wake up with you is lovely." Warmth radiated through my chest and I returned his smile. "Eggs and bacon or I can throw us together some fire omelets?"
"An omelet sounds great. Good thing you can cook because I suck at it." I swear if I lived by myself, I would either be living off peanut butter and jelly or die of starvation.
"Good thing you have me," he said back, cracking open an egg.
"Good morning, assholes," Lane called out, strolling into the kitchen. "I would first like to apologize for my tasteless behavior last night. We are going to blame it on the alcohol."
"Wow Lane, that's a real remorseful apology," Cora proclaimed, stepping in the kitchen from behind him. She had on matching long-sleeve thermal pajamas and her hair was a wild mess.
"Your hair looks amazingly in place this morning, Cora," Keegan said.
She threw him an annoyed look.
"Make up sex is the best," Lane grinned, wrapping his arms around her small waist and twirling his hair around his finger. "Her poor hair just never survives."
"You are officially cut off," Cora said, elbowing him in the stomach
"I'll need something later to make up for that, too.”
Cora ignored him and sat down in the stool next to me. "So what's on the agenda for us today?"
"We are going to go cause some hell in the snow," Lane hollered. "Be ready to leave in fifteen, so hurry it up with my omelet."
"This one is taken," he said, flipping the egg and pointing to me. "The pan is all yours when I am finished," he smirked.
"Dude, weren't you the one calling me *-whipped?"
I TRUDGED up the stairs to my room and opened up my bag. When I had packed, I followed the basic rule of packing for cold weather: lots of layers. Dragging out a pair of leggings, I slid then over my legs then covered them with my snow pants. A thermal Henley, a sweatshirt and my winter coat then followed, making me look like a giant marshmallow. I finalized my look with my big, bulky snow boots and a wool scarf wrapped around my neck.
Keegan burst out in hysterics when he caught me waddling down the stairs. "You do know we aren't in the Arctic?
"You have to wear layers in the snow. Don't be trying to borrow any of my warmth when you are freezing your butt off," I warned him, taking in his body only covered in snow pants and a jacket.
"I promise I won't try to get you out of your clothes," he said, giving me his best innocent smile, which was still far from that. "At least not in the snow.”
A cold, ivory blanket covered everything within my eyesight. I opened my mouth, sticking my tongue out and letting the wet snowflakes hit my tongue. We got in the car.
"Have you ever snow tubed, Dais-meister?" Lane asked, looking at me through his rearview mirror from the passenger seat.
"Dais-mesiter? Really?" Cora said.
"No, but I've always wanted to. It looks fun."
"You're going to have a blast," Keegan said, clasping his gloveless hands and rubbing them together.
"If anyone, and I mean anyone," Cora turned around from the passenger seat to glare at Keegan, "even attempts to shove my face in the snow, I will chop off your balls and feed them to the bears out here."
Keegan leaned forward, clasping Lane's shoulders and giving it a shake. "I feel for you, dude."
"You have no idea," he laughed, turning left into a large parking lot.
"HAPPY NEW Years, bitches, " Lane's deep voice sang out, jumping into the steaming water, grabbing Cora around the waist and pulling her shrieking body into the water. My bare feet hit the frigid, wooden porch and my entire body shivered. The long, rectangular hot tub was sunk into the deck with a magnificent view of the sparkling white mountains behind us. We were all exhausted from our day of snowboarding so we decided to keep it low key and stay in for the night.
"You are going to freeze that sexy ass of yours off if you don't get in there," Keegan's husky voice whispered into my ear, leaning into my body from behind and wrapping his arms around my torso.
"And so will you," I bit out. Before my brain even realized what the hell was happening, Keegan grabbed the edge of my towel in his fist and tore it away from my body swiftly. "What the hell?" I shouted, with a few other expletives falling out of my mouth. Shoving away from him, I placed my hands over my body in a poor attempt to cover my lady bits, which were already covered by a bikini and turned to glare at him.
"There you go," he said. “I just made it easier for you. Now get your ass in there before I throw you in." I twisted around without answering him, tiptoed across the deck and slid myself into the wet heat.
“Yo, what’s everyone’s resolution?” Lane asked.
“I don’t have one because I’m perfect, Cora said, snuggling up into his lap.