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“Damn, that man’s got a death wish,” Felix muttered as he stood up and faced me. “But I’m not here to protect him, I’m here for you … and Daisy.”
“We’ll be fine. We’ll follow you down as soon as we’ve had some coffee. Daisy’s getting dressed right now. We’ll only be ten minutes behind you.”
Felix eyed me carefully and I knew he was weighing up the risk of leaving us.
“Who would recognize me in all that ski wear? I promise to keep my shades and hat on until I meet up with you down there.”
“And you’ll message me the second you reach the resort?” he asked, negotiating further.
“Scout’s honor,” I swore.
“Jamie, you were never in the fucking scouts, but I’ll hold you to your word,” he mumbled as he began piling on clothes for the journey down to the resort.
I left him and hit the kitchen. I prepared some coffee and Daisy appeared ready for the day just as the coffee brewed. Taking two mugs, I poured us each a drink and handed one to her.
“Did Felix go down to stop Paddy?” Daisy asked, and I figured she must have heard some of our conversation.
“Yeah. As soon as you’ve finished your coffee, we’ll head down there as well.”
“You don’t happen to have a spare portable power bank for my mobile phone, do you?”
“Felix has tons of them. Let me go look.” It paid that we all had the same phone. There was always one of our phones dying and in need of recharging. I stepped into Felix’s room and didn’t need to look far to find one.
When I headed back to the open family room/kitchen area, Daisy had already left, her coffee cup empty on the dining table. I saw her by the front door pulling on her ski wear. With her ski coat open she stepped into her boots and tied the laces as I pulled a snood over my head and shrugged on my ski coat. I turned and zipped her up, handed her gloves to her, and pulled her in for a kiss.
“I promise, we’ll get to that chocolate later if it’s the last thing we do today,” I whispered as I pushed her back, grabbed her hand and opened the cabin door. “But right now, I need to go rescue my stubborn and reckless bandmate.”
CHAPTER 18
Ryan wasn’t wrong about Paddy. Any frustration I’d felt about him calling me quickly disintegrated the moment I set eyes on my bandmate and functioning alcoholic, Paddy. The idiot was already three sheets to the wind, drunk and arguing up a storm with the ski rental attendant.
He was so busy causing a commotion at the boot station he didn’t notice us when we joined him. “I’m not wearing red and white boots. I need black ones, like those over there,” he insisted, pointing toward pigeonholes full of black boots.
“But, sir, these are the only size thirteen we have,” the poor assistant insisted. As I was also a size thirteen and had brought my own boots, I told the assistant I’d swap with Paddy. I figured anything for a quiet life and to stop Paddy from drawing a crowd. The last thing that we all needed was to draw attention to ourselves.
“Fuck. Read my lips. I’m wearing a green jacket. Don’t you know the saying? Red and Green are never seen except on an Irish Queen? Now, do I look like an Irish Queen to you?” he reasoned as he stared intently toward the ski rental attendant. He swayed and grabbed hold of the counter to steady himself.
I signaled to the assistant I had this. When the attendant backed off to help someone who’d called for his attention, I turned to his wife, Bernadette, feeling concerned. “What time did he start drinking?”
“What do you mean?” she asked innocently. She looked puzzled by my straightforward question and didn’t appear entirely sober herself.
“How much has he had?” Bernie blinked slowly as if she were considering my question.
“Not sure. We had a couple of bottles of duty-free booze that he bought.” She narrowed her eyes like she was thinking more deeply about what I’d asked. I huffed in frustration, and she glared at me. “We’re not all you, Jamie. Some of us fly commercial.”
It was a cryptic explanation but one that made sense immediately. Had I remembered Paddy would hit the duty-free stores, I’d have sent my own plane to pick them up. “So, two… litre bottles?” I guessed. “How much is left?”
“Four bottles, I bought two as well,” she corrected before she glanced toward her husband. Felix had taken Paddy in hand and was already sitting him down.
“Bernie?” I asked, jolting her memory that I’d asked her a question.
“What do you mean left?” she asked, repeating my question. She closed one of her eyes and I wondered if she could see two of me.
“Stop repeating what I say,” I snapped to get her full attention and glanced toward Paddy again. “It doesn’t matter. He’s not going skiing at all today. He’d kill himself or kill someone else,” I decided, reneging on my plan to swap boots.
Wandering over beside him, I flung my arm around his shoulder. “Hey, buddy, how’s it going?”
“There you are,” he said like he’d been waiting for me. “Would you tell that guy over there, I’m not wearing red and white ski boots?” he slurred and swayed unsteadily, even when sitting down. He tugged at the collar of his jacket as if his reason should have been clear to me.
