At a chalet, different people arrived in waves for vacation, parents, adult children, aunts and uncles, cousins, in-laws, all over twenty-five, all glad to be free of the city for a long weekend. Skis and boots were stacked by the door. Laughter filled the high-ceilinged space as coats were shed and wine was poured and shared around.
The next morning they rode the lifts together, bantering as they ascended. The banter turned flirtatious almost at once.
“You still cut those turns like you did at twenty,” Aunt Elise told her nephew Marcus, her gloved hand resting a moment longer than necessary on his thigh as the chair swung upward.
Marcus grinned. “You still look better in ski pants than anyone on this mountain.”
Below them, cousins raced each other down around the open space, while par
