won’t say anything, either,” Dakota promised. “If you need someone to listen, if you just want to bounce ideas off me, I’m always available.”
“I know that,” Nevada told her. “Thanks.”
“Has it occurred to any of you that none of us have been on a date in months?” Montana asked. “Maybe there is something to this stupid man shortage.”
“I’m dating,” Dakota said.
“No. You’re having sex with Finn. That’s not dating.”
“Did I know this?” Nevada asked. “When did you start sleeping with Finn?”
Dakota briefly explained her recent encounters with the twins’ brother. “It’s not serious,” she said. “When he figures out that his brothers are more than capable of taking care of themselves, he’ll go back to South Salmon. This isn’t a long-term relationship. And technically, as Montana said, it’s not really dating.”
“Point taken,” Nevada said with a grin. “So the question is, do you want a date or do you want to have sex?”
“Can’t I have both?” Montana asked. “Do I have to pick?”
“Find the right guy and you can have both,” Nevada told her.
“Is that what you want?” Dakota asked.
Nevada laughed. “I’ll take the sex, at least for now. Love is too complicated.”
“Sometimes sex is complicated, too,” Montana reminded her.
Nevada shook her head. “I’m willing to take my chances.” She looked at Dakota. “What about you? Is sex enough?”
There were things they didn’t know, Dakota thought. How she couldn’t have children and how knowing that had changed everything. She would tell them eventually, just not today. Not when they were having fun, enjoying such a beautiful day.
So she smiled at her sisters and said, “Is sex with Finn enough? Absolutely.”
FINN WAITED with Sasha in the lobby of the Gold Rush Ski Lodge and Resort. The place was nice enough, he thought. If one was into attractive tourist hotels. He would rather be home.
Once Geoff found out what carting everyone to San Diego would cost, especially for the beachfront hotel he preferred, he’d decided to keep Sasha and Lani in town.
The pool area of the Lodge had been transformed into a tacky tropical paradise, with fake palm trees, twinkle lights and tiki torches. Unfortunately, the weather was anything but tropical. While it didn’t phase Finn, everyone else was running around wearing thick coats and shivering.
“What if I gave you ten thousand dollars?” he asked his brother. “To go home and finish college. Would you do it?”
Sasha grinned at him. “The show is paying twenty, bro.”
“Fine. Thirty. Go back to school and you’ll have a check that day.” His business was successful, and he didn’t have a lot of expenses. The house where he and his brothers had grown up was paid for.
“What did Stephen say when you offered it to him?” Sasha asked.
“To shove it up my ass.”
Sasha’s grin broadened. “He read my mind.”
“I figured,” Finn said glumly. “But I had to ask. What’s the plan for today?”
“It’s all going down tonight. We were going to have a city tour, but since we’re pretending we’re not in Fool’s Gold, I don’t see that happening.”
Finn glanced around at the fake greenery. “This is a crazy business.”
“I like it.”
He thought about pointing out that Sasha’s love of fame was tied to their parents’ death, but he and his brother had had that conversation a dozen times before. He suspected Sasha had to go through the process himself and learn the truth the hard way.
That was the part Finn objected to. Not the learning, but the inevitable pain that would follow. If only he could be sure that his brothers were ready to be on their own, that he’d done all he could to keep them safe. Then he could walk away. But how to know?
“You should chill,” Sasha told him. “You’re wound too tight. Relax.”
“You’ve been spending too much time with Hawaii girl.”
His brother laughed. “I like Hawaii girl. She’s fun.”
Finn was sure Sasha liked Lani well enough but suspected their relationship was far more a means to an end than anything romantic. Sasha’s idea of a steady relationship was a date that lasted two hours. On the other hand, Stephen had always preferred long-term relationships. Despite being identical twins, the brothers were fairly different.
“You should do something fun,” Sasha told him. “Think of this as a vacation.”
“Except it’s not. I’ll ‘chill’ or ‘relax’ or whatever you want when you and Stephen get back to Alaska and finish college.”
Sasha sighed. “Sorry. No can do. I wish you could let it go.”
Before Finn could say anything, one of the production assistants called for Sasha to get ready for a lighting check. His brother waved at him and followed the girl toward the hotel.
Finn checked his watch. He had a group of tourists to take on a flight in a couple of hours. They would be the second ones this week. The previous group had been a family, including a thirteen-year-old boy who’d been fascinated by the idea of flying a plane. Finn had talked to him about taking lessons.
“You’re looking serious about something.”
He glanced up and saw Dakota walking toward him. She carried a clipboard in her hands and stopped in front of him.
“For once, not the usual,” he told her.
“Your brothers?”
“Work stuff.”
“Everything okay back in South Salmon?”
“As far as I know.”
She stood there, as if waiting for him to explain more.
“I was thinking about the tour I have later and the one I had a few days ago,” he said slowly. “There was this kid. He was really into flying. Sometimes I think about opening a flight school, focusing on kids.” He shrugged. “Who knows if it would work.”
“Don’t you have to be a certain age to get your pilot’s license?”
“You can solo at sixteen, but training could start before that. Teaching a kid to fly gives him, or her, the ability to sense possibilities. You need math skills to do some of the calculations. There would have to be a way for them to raise money to pay for the lessons, or
