Snow Job

Elyce put her cup and saucer down on the coffee table and sat on the couch at the farthest possible distance from Karl. It wasn’t far. It was a small couch. “A proposition? Is this about us or about the development thing?”

“Both,” he admitted. “About my family, anyway, and the development thing.”

“Okay,” she said hesitantly. “I guess if it’s important enough to bring you here this early on a Saturday, I can hear you out. Although why you couldn’t have just phoned me…”

“It wasn’t the sort of thing I thought would go over well on a phone call. And I didn’t know you were sleeping in, although I guess I should have assumed you would be. You always do when you get the chance.”

Elyce wished she’d remained standing. From her current location she could smell Karl’s aftershave, lightly applied though it was. And the clean smell of his hair, which despite his long drive that morning was still a tiny bit damp over his ears and at the back. He always kept it short, but the thick curls took a long time to dry, she recalled, especially in the cold weather.

“What made you assume I’d be alone?” she asked suddenly, remembering that when he’d seen her last she’d been on a date. Or at least, on what he clearly assumed was a date. Not that she had done anything to suggest otherwise. She had to remind herself now that it actually had been a date.

Karl shrugged again. “I didn’t. But when I got here I only saw one car, and it was your car. So I figured I was pretty safe… You don’t want any development on the inlet, right? No matter what it is, you just don’t want it happening?”

She eyed him cautiously. “Right. It’s a fragile, protected inlet with a specific microclimate. It needs to be left untouched. Anything you build there is going to threaten the—”

“I get it,” Karl interrupted impatiently. “Quid pro quo. You want the inlet protected. I need you in Colorado for Christmas to keep my mother from making my life miserable, and to keep from ruining the holiday for my elderly grandparents. You come with me and put on a good show of still being happily married, and I’ll ensure that no development happens on that stretch of shoreline.”