Nine Lives - Danielle Steel Page 0,54
hardly ever went, except to make you happy. He didn’t go nuts like you when you hit the slopes.” Aden had entered junior downhill ski races for a few years, and was an expert skier. He loved to ski as fast as he could. “It’s up to you,” she said adamantly. “No helmet, no Vermont. And don’t lie to me and tell me you’ll wear it, and then don’t. I need to be able to trust you on this or you’re not going.”
He finally gave in the night before he was supposed to leave. They’d had a lovely holiday other than that one argument. Even without Brad, their Christmas had been warm and cozy. Aden had gone skating several times with friends at a nearby pond where they skated every year when it froze over. He’d gone caroling, visited his old coach, Buck, and told him all about the hockey team at BU. He’d gone out twice with a girl he knew from high school who was in college in Boston too, and he had dated a few times there. And he had reveled in being at home in his room, in familiar surroundings with all his belongings. It felt good to be home, and Maggie had stocked up on all the foods he liked to eat. It had been a perfect Christmas vacation and he held his mother tight the morning he left to fly to Boston. He would drive up to Vermont with his friends the next day. He thanked her again, and hung out of the car and waved as he left, driven to the airport in Chicago by a friend’s father. The roads were icy, and Maggie didn’t like driving in those conditions, so Aden had hitched a ride with them. She stood in front of the house as long as she could see him, and then she went inside, grateful for the holiday with him, and sad to see him leave. He wasn’t coming home again until spring break in March.
She’d had a text message from Paul on Christmas, wishing her a Merry Christmas and telling her that he was on the boat in Antigua, enjoying the comforts of the Lady Luck, and feeling better after the accident a month before. He said everything was healing well, and his ribs hardly hurt at all. He could even laugh now, which had been excruciating before.
She was putting some things away in Aden’s room that night when Paul called her and said he just wanted to check on how she was, since she had mentioned in her text response to his that Aden was going skiing. He had fully understood how much her son meant to her and how hard it was for her now that he was away.
It was nice hearing his voice. They had exchanged texts after his accident and on Christmas, but she hadn’t heard his voice since she called him in Barcelona, after seeing him in flames on TV.
“What are you doing for New Year’s?” he asked her, trying to sound casual, and she laughed.
“Going to bed with a good book. Brad and I never went out on New Year’s. It’s too scary on the roads that night. Are you still going skiing in Courchevel pretty soon?”
He laughed. “Not with six broken ribs. They’re better, but not totally healed yet. I don’t think I can ski for another month or two. I’m going to stay on the boat and relax. I don’t have anything scheduled for the moment.” And then he decided to leap in and see if his luck with her had improved. She sounded relaxed after the nice holiday with her son, and like she was in a good mood, now that Brad’s anniversary date was behind her. He was hoping it might make a difference, but not sure it would. Maggie could be stubborn when she wanted to be. Once she had a point of view, or an opinion, she stuck to it, even at seventeen.
“What do you think about coming down to the boat for a few days, or a week or two, or as long as you like, just to relax and float around and get waited on?” He tried to make it sound as appealing and nonthreatening as he could. “Separate cabins of course. Just two old friends who enjoy each other’s company. Besides, I’m not dangerous. I’m all taped up, and I can still barely move. You can push me overboard if I misbehave.”