“This. This is Logan’s house?” Serena’s mouth gaped as she took in the huge fir pillars of the modern multi-million-dollar mountain chalet.

  “No, this is Charlotte’s house. Logan is building his own down the street, or at least that’s the plan.” Freddie didn’t think that the house was ever going to get built. The longer construction was delayed, the longer Charlotte and Logan would have an excuse to stay shacked up together.

  “Should we have brought something?” Serena asked.

  “I’ve got it covered,” Freddie said. He hopped out of the truck and jogged around to open Serena’s door.

  “Thank you,” she smiled. “Are you going to do that every time? I’m perfectly capable of exiting a vehicle on my own.”

  “I guess I’m a little old school,” he said. He opened the tailgate and pulled out a case of beer.

  “Is that what we’re bringing to the dinner party?” Serena pointed to the box.

  “What else would I bring?” Freddie grinned.

  “Oh, I don’t know, an appetizer, maybe a salad?”

  Freddie shrugged. “This is what I always bring, it’s kind of expected.” He could tell that Serena was embarrassed, but he didn’t care. Charlotte only bought the expensive hoppy craft beer, so his cheap stuff was a welcome addition to any party. “Shall we?” He held the case of beer in his left hand and crooked his right arm. He may not know dinner party etiquette, but he was never short on chivalry.

  “Here goes nothing,” she whispered under her breath.

  Freddie wondered if he should tell Serena that Charlotte knew about Sidney’s contract. Then he felt the engagement ring band digging into his arm - a sharp reminder of the reason they were together, and something told him to keep his mouth shut.

  He rapped the huge iron knocker and waited. He banged it again, but when there was no response, he just opened the door.

  “You’re just going to walk in?” Serena asked.

  “We are.” He squeezed her hand in his and pulled her into Charlotte’s entryway. “They’re probably just out back and can’t hear the door.”

  He was right. As soon as they were inside, they heard laughter coming from the back patio. He pulled two bottles of beer from the case and shoved the remainder into the industrial-sized refrigerator. He handed one to Serena and as he took her hand in his, he could feel her fingers trembling. This was going to be hard for both of them.

  Fifteen

  The animated group fell silent and turned to stare at Freddie and Serena as they stepped onto the patio. The conversation dropped off and all that Serena could hear were crickets, literal crickets chirping, as the judgemental eyes of Freddie’s inner circle looked her up and down.

  “Hi, Freddie,” Charlotte stood up from one of the lounge chairs and squeezed him in for a hug.

  Serena gripped her hands around the cold beer bottle, unsure of what to do next. To her complete surprise, Charlotte, a woman who had poured champagne over her head only months earlier, pulled her in for a hug, too. Serena was stiff as a board in the tiny woman’s arms but followed her lead and patted her on the back. “Hi Serena, so great to see you again,” Charlotte said as she pulled out of the awkward embrace. “Let me introduce you to everyone.”

  Charlotte led Serena to the configuration of outdoor furniture. “Serena, this is Megan and her husband, Josh.” The couple on the love seat raised their hands and waved in unison. “That’s my sister, Lauren,” she continued, as the girl with the thick glasses and chestnut brown hair stood up and shook Serena’s hand like there were a desk and official document in between them. “And you know Logan.”

  “Hi,” Serena said quietly.

  Logan grunted and grabbed the beer from Freddie’s hand. “Glad you could make it.”

  Serena’s heart sank. Logan wasn’t even attempting to be civil.

  “Have a seat, Serena.” Charlotte motioned to one of the free chairs. “Can I get you something decent to drink?” she asked, as she pointed to the bottle in her hand.

  Serena thought quickly. What would Freddie’s real fiancée drink? “No, thanks. This is my favorite.” It wasn’t. She didn’t really like beer at all.

  Charlotte raised her eyebrows at her. “Okay, but if you change your mind, let me know. I’ve got some great Italian wine in the cellar.”

  The conversation started back up and Serena sank into the chair. She raised the beer bottle to her lips to take a sip and the clink of the cap on her front teeth instantly brought tears to her eyes. She instinctively clapped her hand to her mouth to the dull sting at the front of her mouth.

  “Here, let me get that,” Logan said. He took the beer from her hand and unscrewed the cap. Serena ran her tongue over her teeth and her heart sank as the sharpness of her jagged front tooth cut her tongue. She touched her finger to her gums and discreetly pulled the chip of her tooth out of her mouth, wishing she could disappear. She pressed the tooth in between her fingertips, intent on keeping it. She had spent a fortune straightening her teeth, there was no way she was losing that chipped piece.

  Had anyone else seen? She gripped her tooth with all her might and mustered the guts to look around the firepit. To her, the world had gone silent with that dull cracking sound inside her skull, but Lauren and Josh looked to be in a very descriptive conversation, her arms flailing as she spoke, and Megan and Charlotte were standing at the bbq.

  “Don’t worry, I’m the only one who saw that,” Logan whispered.

  Serena looked at Logan, earlier his eyes had looked black. Now she could see that they were the same blue as Freddie’s, the coldness replaced with concern. “I’ve lost my fair share of teeth at the rink, these…” he pointed to the perfectly straight white chompers at the front of his mouth, “are fake. I’ve had them since I was twenty.”

  “How bad is it?” Serena said, and grimaced at the unexpected whistle that came out. She clapped her hand back over her mouth.

  “Let’s go inside.”

  Serena followed Logan into the house.

  “Freddie, your girlfriend needs to learn…” he paused, then continued, this time his voice deeper and somehow colder, “I mean, your fiancée needs to learn how to drink.”

  Freddie emerged from the kitchen. Serena’s hand was still pressed onto her mouth, the chip of her tooth gripped tightly in the fingertips of her other hand. “What happened?”

  “I think that she knocked her tooth out,” Logan replied, and headed back outside.

  Freddie set down his beer on the island and rushed to Serena. “Are you okay?”

  Serena nodded but kept her hand clamped over her mouth, tears springing up in her eyes.

  Freddie reached to pull her hands away from her mouth, but she resisted, shaking her head.

  “Come on, let me see.” Freddie tried to coax her hands away from her mouth.

  Every muscle in Serena’s body was focused on keeping her hand clamped over her mouth, but when she saw the concern in Freddie’s eyes, she relaxed and allowed him to gently pull her hand away. She opened up her other hand, revealing the piece of tooth.

  “Oh, that’s not so bad.” He took the piece of Serena’s smile and rolled it over in the palm of his hand examining it.

  “Do you think it can be fixxxxxed?” the whistle slipped through her teeth.

  Freddie’s head snapped up; his eyes wide. “It’s not that bad,” he said. Serena didn’t know whether he was trying to reassure her or himself. She turned and ran through the main floor of the house in search of a mirror. Tucked under the round staircase she discovered a small powder room. She flipped on the light and gripped the edge of the marble vanity and curled back her lips.

  “Oh, my god.” She traced the jagged edge of her tooth with her fingertip. A hillbilly stared back at her in the mirror. She hung her head; this was going to ruin the entire weekend. There was no way she was going to be able to create all of the content that they needed to pull off their little façade.

  She took a deep breath, her shoulders hunched and raised her gaze to meet her reflection once again. She gasped as her eyes met not only hers but Freddie’s.

  “You can’t sneak up on a perssssson like that,” she hissed, literally.

  “There was no sneaking. Come on, let’s get back to the party.” He tugged at her hand. “I left your tooth on the counter. There’s a great dentist in town. He should be able to fix it up just fine, but for now, let’s try to have some fun.”

  “Fun?” she whispered. “This isn’t about fun. How are we supposed to get all of the footage that we need when I look like this?” She bared her teeth at him.

  Freddie’s lips turned up in a smile. “It’s kind of cute,” he laughed.

  “I’m glad this is such a joke for you.” She tried to push past him, but he gripped onto her elbow.

  “Stop.” He turned her body to face the mirror. “Look at you. You’re beautiful. If we really were engaged, my fiancée would laugh this off, make a bunch of hillbilly jokes, and have a great time tonight. What do you want to do, crawl into a hole until the dentist opens on Monday?”

  “Monday?” Serena’s heart raced. She smiled at herself in the mirror and swore she heard banjos start to play. “I can’t…”

  “Yes, you can. Now, come on.”

  She knew that he was right. She needed to make the best of the evening. This wasn’t for her; it was for her dad. She pulled her lips into a closed-mouth smile. It wasn’t as good as her pearly white smile, but it would have to do.

  “Alright,” she said and let Freddie lead her back out to the patio.

  * * *

  It took everything he had not to laugh. It doesn’t matter who you are, nobody can pull off a missing front tooth. A cute gap, maybe, but half of Serena’s front tooth was missing. If they didn’t have to do a full-on lovey-dovey photoshoot for the weekend, he would’ve thought it was hilarious.

  She sat next to him, drinking her beer – out of a glass, while everyone chatted amongst themselves.

  He knew that they were going to have to address the elephant in the room at some point. He didn’t know if Logan had told Megan, Josh, or Lauren about the engagement, but when he saw Megan staring at Serena’s ring, he knew the announcement had to come soon.

  “I heard that you went to the mountain film festival,” Lauren said. Freddie was thankful that someone was trying to include Serena in the conversation. “Did you see the one about the women mountain climbers, the ones who climbed in their full-length dresses?”

  “That was my favorite,” Serena replied. “Those women really were pioneers in more than one sense of the word.”

  “That actually was a good one,” Freddie agreed. “I can’t believe that they could climb in those outfits.”

  “Do you do any climbing?” Lauren asked.

  “Me? No.” Serena replied.

  “What about skiing?” Lauren continued.

  Freddie knew where this was going. Serena and Freddie had absolutely nothing in common, Lauren was fishing, trying to make sense out of their engagement.

  “Actually, I loved skiing as a kid, but haven’t been for years.”

  This was news to Freddie. He didn’t know much about Serena at all.

  “Well, you’re with the right guy. Freddie is the best skier in town.”

  “Was,” Freddie interjected.

  “I’m sure you could still give the young guys a run for their money,” Lauren said.

  Freddie hadn’t been on skis since his last knee surgery, years earlier. The accident that had killed his Olympic skiing career had also killed his love for the sport.

  Logan jumped into the conversation. “Nobody has broken the peak to valley record he set when he was sixteen.”

  “Really,” Serena turned to look at Freddie. “That’s pretty impressive.”

  “It’s not the Olympics,” Freddie sighed.

  “Who’s ready for Meg’s burgers?” Charlotte called out as she lit the candles on the outdoor table.

  As everyone stood to make their way to the table, Serena leaned over to Freddie and whispered, “The Olympics?”

  “That was a lifetime ago,” he whispered back. It really did feel like that young ski racer was another person.

  “Come on you two lovebirds,” Charlotte shouted from the table.

  Freddie pulled Serena up and they walked hand in hand to the table.

  “This is gorgeous.” Serena pulled out her phone and took a picture of the table. Sparkling light bulbs were strung on strands over a pergola, fresh peonies adorned the table, and color-coordinated pink napkins were folded on everyone’s plate.

  “Want me to take a picture of you two?” Charlotte asked.

  “Sure.”

  “No.”

  Serena and Freddie both spoke at the same time, but for once it was Serena who didn’t want to be photographed. “I think I’m just going to do scenery shots this weekend.”

  “Don’t be silly,” Charlotte said. “You’re going to need some good photos from your first weekend together.”

  Serena looked at him and he shrugged. “She’s right,” he said.

  “Okay,” Serena sat down at the table and Freddie stood behind her, his hands on her shoulders while Charlotte snapped a few photos of them close up, and some of the table setting.

  “Thanks,” Serena replied.

  “Hey, everybody,” Charlotte tapped her knife on her wine glass. “Freddie has an announcement.”

  Freddie looked to Charlotte, wishing he could shoot fire from his eyeballs. What was she doing? First, she pushes for photos, now an announcement?

  “Um. Yeah,” Freddie cleared his throat. He stood at the head of the table and Charlotte took more photos as Freddie raised his glass in the air. “I want you all to be the first to know, that I have fallen in love with this woman, Serena.”

  A hush fell across the table and everyone’s eyes were glued on Freddie. “I know that it seems fast, but I know, we know, what we’re doing.” That was the truth. Freddie wanted to get through these next couple of months with as few lies as possible. “I’ve asked Serena to marry me, and can you believe it? She said yes.”

  “Congratulations,” Megan was the first to speak. The rest of the table, with the exception of Charlotte, who continued snapping photos, looked shell-shocked. “When is the wedding?”

  “We haven’t set a date yet,” Serena jumped in. “We’re okay with a long engagement.”

  “Good,” Logan grumbled from the other end of the table. “You two hardly know each other.” Charlotte elbowed her boyfriend. “I mean, that’s great, it will give you time to get to know each other.” He looked up at Charlotte, who nodded at him.

  Charlotte held up her glass, “To Serena and Freddie,” she said.

  “To Serena and Freddie.” The rest of the table, except Logan, chorused back.

  They dug into their burgers and spinach salad. The rest of the dinner was filled with talk about the café, the developers that were sniffing around Sugar Peaks Resort, and the burgeoning local real estate market. Freddie was thankful that the conversation had been veered away from the engagement, and truth be told, the announcement went over a lot smoother than he thought that it would. He was shocked that the only person who seemed opposed was Logan.

  * * *

  Serena understood why Logan was being a dick - he was protective of his younger brother. She would have felt the same way if her sister, Sarah, had gotten engaged to someone she barely knew. Everyone else was kind and generous, and as the evening wore on, she found herself growing more and more comfortable with Freddie’s friends. They were all heavily involved in Chance Rapids, and genuinely interested in each other’s projects. She couldn’t remember the last time she enjoyed a dinner party with such good conversation.

  Freddie was totally in his element, his eyes were electric as he cracked jokes. At one point during the evening, he absentmindedly slung his arm over the back of her chair. She had stiffened, the weight of his arm heavy over her shoulders, and gazed sideways at Freddie, but he wasn’t looking at her, so the move seemed to be an unconscious one. She realized that the weight of Freddie’s arm would feel welcome to a real girlfriend. The girl he chose to be with would swoon to be in the arms of this man. People were drawn to him. He was a natural storyteller and even though she wasn’t his real fiancée, his girlfriend, or hell, even a friend, she let her guard down and enjoyed being an extended part of him.

  Charlotte started clearing away the plates and Serena stood up to help her. Freddie’s arm trailed down her back to rest on the waistband of her jeans, his thick fingers splaying down over her ass. A wave of tingles followed down her back and the heat from his palm seemed to pulsate right through the denim.

  She felt like she had just been electrocuted. No man’s touch had ever done anything like that to her. She held her breath, but the sensation wasn’t subsiding. She fumbled around her chair and Freddie’s hand fell to rest on its wooden slats. She gathered up everyone’s plates and followed Charlotte into the kitchen.

  “You and Freddie make a nice couple,” Charlotte said as she scraped the remnants off the plates into her composter.

  “Thanks,” Serena replied and immediately changed the subject. “This is a great house.” This was their first time alone together and a bit of small talk seemed necessary.

  “I like it,” Charlotte replied. “Although it’s a bit big for just the two of us.”

  Serena took the plates from Charlotte’s hand after she scraped them and rinsed them in the sink. “Where’s your dishwasher?”

  “Oh, don’t worry about that. As long as they’re rinsed, my housekeeper can take care of all that in the morning.”

  Must be nice.

  “I like the coffered ceiling in the living room, doing it with the raw beams was a nice touch.”

  Charlotte raised her eyebrows at Serena, “Thanks, I wanted to keep a mountain feel. You’re the first person who knows what coffered ceilings are.”