We were all stuffed, bloated, and possibly needing to be rolled right out of the restaurant when Finn reminded us about skiing with him. “I’ll text Olive the details about how to get to me and what times. It’ll be fun seeing this one ski.” He patted my leg, and I resisted the urge to pinch him.

“Oh, that sounds wonderful!” Mom answered for the table.

I hadn’t been skiing since I was a kid, and the thought of going for the first time with Finn was not pleasurable. A last-minute colonoscopy doesn’t sound too bad right now.

When we got up to leave, Finn hugged my mom and shook my dad’s hand. He politely said goodbye to my brother, sister, and their spouses.

“I'll have Finn take me home so we can catch up.” And so I don't have to ride with a certain sister.

“Be careful, dear.” Mom kissed the top of my head. “Finn, it was lovely to meet you! Looking forward to tomorrow. Don't hurry home now.” She winked at me, and I blushed a bright red.

“Okayyy. On that note, we are headed out. Bye.” I grabbed Finn’s hand and pulled us out of the restaurant as fast as possible with him chuckling beside me the whole time.

“I'm parked over here.” He dug his keys out of his pants pocket to unlock his vehicle, a blacked out Chevy Tahoe that he must have remote-started from inside, as it was already running when we reached it.

“You have a mom car,” I said, unsure if that was a question or a statement. Either way, I was surprised; I expected a sports car or maybe a big diesel truck.

“Sometimes I have to carry ski equipment back and forth between the two resorts, so I need the room.” Makes sense. “But eventually it'll be a hot dad car,” he said with a wink. Ugh. He would be such a DILF.

I climbed in the passenger seat, and once settled behind the wheel, he turned the heat up all the way and turned the butt warmers on. I leaned into the warming leather and became one with the car. Exhaustion hit me all at once. I didn’t realize how tired I was until I let my body relax. We waited for the windshield to defrost, and he looked over at me. “Told you I’m pretty good with parents.” He winked again, and I pushed away the desire it stirred up in my stomach.

“Yeah, too good. Now they’re going to be all upset when we break up and I’m gonna have to tell them something terrible about you to make it even.” I leaned my head back and groaned. “Did you have to know so much about hockey? Or talk to Matt about his business strategies? Where did you even pull this stuff from?”