She gets into the back seat and I get in behind the wheel and start off. Oh, how I wish I didn’t buy a new truck last summer. My old beater would have definitely broken down and given me a way out of this mess.
What the hell was I thinking asking Blue, The Demon, Porter to be my fake date? She’s liable to take the side of my parents and reveal our plot.
“Okay, Evergreen. Explain to me why I’m just finding out now we’re headed to Sugar Valley for this family reunion? You told me we had a three-hour drive today. I packed car snacks.”
I pull out onto the highway and clear my throat. “Evergreen is my middle name. My last name is Riverton.”
“Okay. I don’t get…” But then she does. I hear the slight intake of air, even over the engine of the truck and the heat blowing out of the vents. “Your parents own the ski resort in Sugar Valley? Charles Rutherford said the Rivertons basically own the entire town.”
“I wouldn’t go that far, but we, I mean,theyown quite a bit of it.” The ski slopes, three hotels, all the ski-in chalets and condos, a spa, and all the ski shops on the main drag.
“Huh,” Blue says. “So you’re rich.”
“My family’s rich. I built my business from nothing all on my own.”
“Ah,” she says like she knows me. “They disinherited you.”
“They’re pushy, but they’re not assholes. I chose to build my business on my own.”
“I don’t get it. Why don’t you want anyone in Yuletide to know who your family is?”
“They already see me as an outsider. If they find out I’m from Sugar Valley, where all the tourists come from, and that I’m from a really wealthy family, they’ll hate me.”
“You think they’d hate you because you’re rich? That would just mean your business is more likely to succeed because you have help… Oh, that’s what it’s about.”
I glance over at her, lost and a little annoyed. She doesn’t know me. “What’s it about?”
“You don’t want anyone in town to think you had help building your business. You aren’t just proving something to your family. You're proving something to yourself and you want everyone else to see it.”
Her words sock me in the gut. Is she right? I don’t think she’s wrong. How has she seen me so clearly when I don’t know her at all? “Whatever, Demon. Just focus on being the best damn fake girlfriend I’ve never had.”
The road climbs upward into the mountains as we leave Yuletide and the valley beyond. I work my jaw to pop my ears at the change in elevation.
“I’m sorry, Blue.”
“You should be. I wouldn’t have taken my meds if I’d known this would be such a short trip.”
“For carsickness?”
“Driving anxiety. It’s worse when I’m the passenger.” She pauses. “It’s not something I’m embarrassed about, but I don’t tell everyone I meet. If you think you can use it to blackmail me, you’re wrong.”
“I’m not sorry about lying about the length of the trip.”
“Gee, thanks for being honest, I guess?”
I sigh. “I’m sorry you took your meds unnecessarily. But what I was apologizing for was assuming as soon as I met you that you were the enemy.”
“I wasn’t wrong to call you out for using city vehicles, Garrick. You were totally irrational about that.”
“It’s possible I overreacted. I’ve been stressed about my business lately, with Sugar Valley Guides opening up, and you’re this hotshot from the big city coming in here and thinking you know how to improve Yuletide without getting to know the town first.”
“If that was really your concern, you could have talked to me like a rational human being. You could have explained to me what you like and dislike about my plans and ideas. Instead, you, like half the town council, decided I must be the enemy and the only solution was to drive me out of town.”
I rub the back of my neck. I’m such an asshole. “I was wrong. The town council is wrong. Thank you for going to bat for me and trying to get them to give me those permits.”
“I didn’t do it for you. I did it for the town. Maybe if I’d opposed them, you would have gotten them.”
“I wish I could say I can help you by talking to council members or telling everyone in Yuletide what a great mayor you are, but I doubt it would be enough to change the council’s mind. None of them seem to like me very much.”
