Chapter Forty Four

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12 years ago

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12 years ago

"Seriously, Brandon," Sadie rolls her eyes, adjusting her weight on the couch. "You don't need to stay with me. I am perfectly fine spending a few hours on my own and binge-watching Gossip Girl."

"First of all, that show is trash." I arch my eyebrow at her. "If I'm staying, we're watching One Tree Hill. And second of all, I don't even like skiing all that much." I shrug, hoping she can't tell I'm lying through my teeth.

I've been looking forward to this trip for months. A few days on the slopes of the Rocky Mountains with my family and the Sorentos was my dream, and when our parents rented this lodge, I was over the moon. But yesterday, Sadie took a bad fall and we're pretty sure her leg is broken. It's still so swollen the resort doctors can't cast it, but they put her in a huge brace and she's confined to crutches for the foreseeable future.

She swore up and down she would be fine on her own, but I wasn't about to pass up a little one on one time with her. Over the last few months, it was like I made the shift from looking at Sadie as my little sister to looking at her as the most incredible woman I'd ever met. The feelings were slow at first and mostly came in the form of jealousy when I saw the attention she got from other guys. But once I started to acknowledge it, my feelings for her hit me like a brick wall.

I started texting her all the time, especially when I knew she was with another guy. I would choose to hang out in the backyard with her roasting marshmallows than go to the parties my friends were throwing. I had even resurrected the old walkie talkies we had when we were younger so we could sit in our windows and talk to each other at night, long after everyone else had gone to sleep. As far as I know, she thinks we're just best friends, but I've been hanging on to her every word, laughing at her jokes. I memorized the way the corners of her mouth turn up when she's genuinely happy about something. All of a sudden, she isn't just my friend, I'm crushing hard, and I'm scared to admit it to anyone, let alone her.

So needless to say, I jumped on the opportunity to spend some time with her alone. And when I chose that over skiing the powder I was dreaming about, I knew I was in deep shit.

Sadie looks at me skeptically. "You don't like skiing all that much?"

I shake my head. "Too cold."

"So all the hours I listened to you talk about this trip were just for show?"

"My parents were excited, I didn't want to disappoint them and tell them I didn't really want to go." I shrug, a smile tugging at my lips. She isn't buying what I'm saying but I continue the lie to protect my image.

"Right." She smirks, grabbing the remote from me. "If you're really all that excited about sitting around in this stuffy lodge all day, who am I to stop you? But I'm not compromising on my show choice."

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