Rocky Mountain Mayhem Read Free Page B

although we’ve talked about me moving, it’s a
big commitment without a commitment.”
    “Don’t forget Lucy’s words of wisdom when she
had on her beachin’ bucket,” Vivian reminded.
    “What?” Lucy asked. “What advice did I
have?”
    “You said, ‘Girl, don’t move until there’s a
ring on your finger.’ Those were your exact words,” Wendy said.
    “I said that?”
    “Yes, ma’am, you did, wearing an ice bucket
on your head and after several tequila shots, I might add,” Vivian
said. “We were shocked by your inebriated clarity.”
    “I do love Jake, but I can’t wait forever.
I’m getting old!” Wendy said.
    “Tick tock, tick tock,” Vivian said, tapping
her wrist.
    “Well, heck, Vivian, not everyone pops out
two at a time,” Kate said.
    “What can I say? My ovaries are on overdrive.
I would be a surrogate for any of you, by the way. But I’m not
having sex with your boyfriends or husbands. They’ll have to turkey
baste me!”
    They all agreed and clinked to that.
    “So what are you going to do, Wendy?” Kate
asked. “Move? Break-up?”
    “I don’t know. I’ll figure it out on this
trip.”
    “You gotta know when to—,” Vivian said.
    “Ya, ya… Hold ’em.” Wendy said. “I got
it.”
    Everyone had a good laugh at Kenny Rogers’
“The Gambler.”
    “Look!” Kate pointed out the window to the
left. “I can’t believe people are still skiing.”
    “Loveland stays open later than most
mountains,” Lucy told them.
    “The aspen trees are beautiful,” Vivian
said.
    “Each grove shares a root system,” Kate
informed them.
    “You should see them in the fall when their
leaves turn bright yellow. That’s one of the reasons I love living
here,” Lucy said as she drove past the Continental Divide in the
Eisenhower Tunnel.
    “So, Viv, tell us. What’s the latest with
Craig?” Wendy asked. “I haven’t seen any
screw-you-Rick-look-at-the-hot-younger-guy-I’m-dating pictures
lately on your Facebook page.”
    “Well, lemme tell ya what happened with that.
It’s quite the story.”
    Kate rubbed her hands together in
anticipation. “This sounds juicy.”
    “Oh, it’s juicy, but not in a
filet-mignon-wrapped-in-bacon kind of way.”

 
     
     
3
     
     
    AS Lucy turned off I-70 onto Highway 91
toward the town of Climax, snowflakes began drifting over the SUV.
Vivian felt her ears pop as she began to tell the girls about
Craig.
    “Y’all know I didn’t date during the whole
divorce, wouldn’t even sleep with Jon, so I was ready to rumble
after the papers were signed. My friend Monica introduced me to a
coworker, Brandon, who is a perpetual bachelor but a great rebound,
get-your-feet-wet kinda guy. He and I became friends, then friends
with benefits. He’d fix my deck, I’d fix his—”
    “Vivian!” Kate said.
    “What! I’m recovering. I deserve to do
whatever the hell I want. At least for a little while.”
    “Okay, okay.”
    “Anyway, he and I are friends first, and the
rest is gravy. We’d text a lot, he’d come over when I didn’t have
the kids, etc. It was a good, no-commitment, get back on the horse
kinda thing.”
    Snickers.
    “About three months ago, I was pumpin’ gas
and the guy on the pump across from me struck up a conversation.
Oh, and he was cute. Beautiful green eyes, dark hair, nice
shoulders.”
    “How come I never meet a guy when I’m pumping
gas?” Lucy said.
    “He seemed normal enough, so we went out. It
went well, and I started to see him just about any night I didn’t
have the kids. The sex was the best I’d had since you-know-who in
college.”
    “Oh, I know who,” Lucy said. “Mr. Ride His
Bike Over, Greek Godlike Guy.”
    “Yep. Him.”
    The snow had turned to sleet, pinging off the
windshield. The temperature gauge on the console read 31
degrees.
    “What about Brandon?” Wendy asked.
    “Oh, he rocked in the sack, too,” Vivian
laughed.
    “No, what happened to him?”
    “We had decided early on that we’d