𝐑 𝐎 𝐒 𝐀 𝐋 𝐈 𝐄 ' 𝐒   𝐏 𝐎 𝐕

I cannot leave Cara alone for two minutes.

Walking out the doors of Boston Airport, with my luggage in tow. My eyes scanned the area, and it didn't take long for me to find Cara, who is picking me up, considering she and a traffic officer are currently having words at the pickup area.

The Christmas period flew by. One minute I was arriving at LAX and the next I was leaving again. Back in Boston, I miss my family already, but Boston has a vibe about it I missed too.

The cold air of Boston brushes against my face, while the rest of me is covered once again in winter clothes. A very big difference to what I was wearing when I was back in LA. When I landed it didn't take me long to get my luggage. Only having one case, I immediately made my way out to the pickup area where Cara is picking me up so we can head to the cabin.

Being two days away from the New Year, everyone is now back in Boston. Cara and I are the last two to make our way to the cabin we are staying in to ring in the new year. With everyone else already there, we have an hour's drive to the cabin, which would have been longer if Cara hadn't packed me some clothes considering I didn't take any winter outfits back to LA with me.

"Miss, you've been parked here longer than the time allowed," The traffic officer says as Cara stands with her arms crossed. Both of them are talking loud enough to draw the attention of everyone standing around the pickup area.

"My friend's flight was delayed. Would you like me to drive off and then come back again to restart the time? Because I'll be back." Cara points to the already annoyed traffic officer.

"I would like you to follow the rules of pickup at the airport." He crosses his arms and I find the perfect time to intervene. Rolling my case alongside me as I walk over to them, I come to stand beside Cara.

"That's perfectly understandable. We'll be leaving," I announce my presence before I put my case into the back of the car as fast as possible, and we climb in. Cara waves to the traffic officer as we drive off, who I'm sure is cursing her out right now.

"What a dick."

"Is it hard for you to stay out of trouble when I'm not here?" I ask Cara, and she shrugs. "How was your Christmas?"

"I regret not taking your offer to spend it with you guys. Don't get me wrong, my mom didn't bring any guy to spend it with us, but she was out every night and had a revolving door," Cara sighs.

"I'm sorry, but next time you're more than welcome to," I offer, and she nods her head. "You missed out. Great grandma Rose was the life of the party as always."

"For 92 she is fast," Cara mumbles and I nod my head, remembering when she chased my Uncle Dylan on Christmas day after the mash potato incident. "Who won the hike?"

"Aaron. Dad had to carry him back down," I chuckle, and she joins in. "I took a picture at the sign and sent it to Roman, being clever about the nickname he has for me."

"Oh, I bet he loved that," Cara laughs, and I nod my head. "Anyway, we have an hour to go so...want to play a car game?"

The next hour of our drive is spent between talking about our holidays and random car games to amuse us. Moving away from the city, the snowy mountains come into view and soon enough, so do an array of log cabins. Parking up behind Roman's truck and Octavia's car, we get out, grabbing our bags from the trunk.

"Who found this place?" I ask Cara as we make our way to the door of the cabin.

"Octavia. She and Isaiah have been here before for weekends away," Cara says, and I scrunch my nose up.

"Hopefully, they burned everything first. Those two are like horny rabbits." I shiver and Cara laughs.

"I heard that, and we have no shame." Isaiah shakes his head as he leans against the open door of the cabin after he must have heard the car pull up. "Last two, as always."

"I'm sorry, blame the airline for the flight day." I tell her before walking past him and into the house, seeing Miles and Octavia in the living area and Roman in the kitchen.

Dark mahogany wood covers every inch of the cabin. From the floors to the walls and the ceilings that have triangular beams coming across it. With a ranch style aesthetic in terms of the furniture, the place is nicely finished off with a large fireplace.

"Your flight got delayed?" Octavia asks as she gets up and rounds the sofa to hug Cara and me.

"Yeah, I guess they were worried about being stuck flying in the snow, so we had to wait for them to decide," I explain as we take off our winter jackets.

"You LA folk are adorable." Roman shakes his head with a smirk on his face.

"Any normal human being would not want to fly a plane in the snow. Which adds to my idea that you're not normal." I smirk and Roman rolls his eyes.

"And it has begun," Isaiah comments. "Octavia picked out your room for you, I raced to ours and she raced to the one for you. Leaving Miles and Roman with what was left."

Cara and I high five Octavia before she tells us to follow her. Walking through the cabin as she points out whose room is whose and where the main bathroom is. She opens the door to a good-sized bedroom with a king-sized bed in the middle. "And this is your room."

"I call the left side!" Cara immediately states as she throws her bag onto that side, and I roll my eyes. She lies down on the bed and sighs happily. "I'll be here for the entire trip."

"Not happening. We have dinner reservations tonight and we're ice skating on the pond out back tomorrow," Octavia explains, and Cara raises her eyebrow.

"Is that safe?"

"We did it today, and it was fine," Octavia waves us off. "Reservations are at six so let's get ready."

❈❈❈

"Back together again like one big happy family."

We all tap our drinks together in cheers as Octavia speaks and Isaiah snorts at her comment. "More like a dysfunctional one considering these two argue all the time." Isaiah points to Roman and me before pointing to Miles and Cara. "And let's not get into them two."

Octavia smacks his arm, and I shake my head before looking down at the menu. My curled hair falling in waves at the side of me as I do. The cozy, yet classy restaurant that overlooks the mountains that are down the road from our cabin, has a nice atmosphere.

Light music plays in the background and the ominous lighting from the candles and dimly lit lights above the tables gives into the cozy ambiance of the place. My little black dress hugs my body and everyone else around the table is dressed for the occasion.

With everyone on the tables surrounding us in the busy restaurant are decorated in outfits like ours. While the others are in conversation about the menus and deciding what to get. My eyes land on Roman as he taps the table, and his eyes roam the restaurant.

Leaning forward and resting my arms on the table, I question him. "Did you enjoy your Christmas present?"

Roman takes his eyes off the restaurant and looks over at me as a smirk overcomes his face. "It made my day."

"I thought it would." I shrug before looking back down at my menu.

"Why were you at the sign on Christmas day, anyway?" Roman asks, and I flicker my eyes back up as he takes a drink of his beer.

"Family tradition. Some of us walk the trail while others stay home and sort out for dinner. When we get to a certain point, we race to the sign and whoever wins gets a piggyback ride back down. My brother Aaron won this year and wanted my dad to carry him back down. As you can imagine, a middle-aged man carrying a grown twenty odd year-old man is not easy." I chuckle before taking a sip of my wine.

"Even though he used to be an NFL football player?" Roman raises his eyebrow and I nod.

"He couldn't believe he used to be one after he ran. He's not out of shape, but after four kids, two who are still young, he can't keep up with what he used to," I explain before the waitress comes over and we all order. "What did you guys do for Christmas?"

"Usual. Present exchange in the morning. We all went out on a walk with Buster then ate dinner." Roman shrugs as he reaches over for some bread in the middle of the table they placed down.

"Leave some for the rest of us." Cara slaps Miles' hand away as he reaches for another piece of bread after devouring the first one.

"Why are you three always so hungry?" Octavia grumbles, before taking a sip of her wine.

"Because we burn off everything playing hockey and need to eat to maintain our weight," Isaiah explains before our food arrives, and they start to place our meals in front of us.

"Maintain your weight? You're all practically bigfoot." Octavia scoffs and we all laugh. I shake my head and look around the table.

One big dysfunctional family back together again.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

𝐀 𝐔 𝐓 𝐇 𝐎 𝐑   𝐍 𝐎 𝐓 𝐄

「 Thank you for 200k reads on Perfect Obsession!!

The next chapter you guys are not ready for, I'm so excited to share it with you on Friday.

Q: what do you think will happen on this trip? 」