Page 130 of Skins Game

“Due to the odd circumstances of the bet with Gabriel ‘The Shark’ Fish, the bonus will be paid on New Year’s Day and equal to fifty percent of your current salaries.”

Shock.

Gasps.

Nicole laughed, and the joy was contagious. Laughter spread through the room as people fanned themselves and turned to each other to confirm that what they’d heard was real.

Kingston couldn’t help but laugh with them. “We are a family here at Sidewinder, and family takes care of family. Now let’s eat pizza!”

The crowd flowed toward the receptionist’s desk and the pizza boxes, and Kingston threaded his way through the peopleslapping his shoulders and thanking him to find Nicole, who hugged him around his waist.

Someone shoved a slice of supreme-topped pizza in his hand, and he folded it in and took a bite off the end, his arm around his fiancée, happiness surrounding him and looking forward to a barbecue that coming weekend and his wedding on Valentine’s Day, two months hence.

No matter what, Kingston had people around him who loved him, a family, and the love of his life under his arm, and a really good slice of pizza in his hand.

Everything was perfect.

53

The Narragansett Club

NICOLE LAMB

Nicole was trying so hard not to complain, but—“Whyis it socold?”

“Because it’s Connecticut. Actually, we crossed over into Rhode Island,” Kingston said, walking beside her.

“Why does anyone live where the air hurts their face?”

“Spoken like my favorite little California girl. We can return to the car, and I’ll drop you off at the door. I offered.”

“No. I’m fine. I’m tough.”

She was not tough. Nicole was, at best, a complete wimp when it came to the frigid wind blowing off the ocean that had been slate-gray earlier in the afternoon and was now pitch black except for the whitecaps of waves roiling in the light spilling out of the clubhouse at the Narragansett Club on New Year’s Eve.

She’d been afraid she would slip on ice. Somehow, there was ice on the ground, outside, like the ice that built up in garage freezers, but it wasoutside.“There’s snow on the beach, just like the song.Snowshould not be on abeach.”

“New England might as well be on a different planet than California.”

“Please reassure me again that we’re going to live in California.”

“We will live in California.”

Nicole clung to Kingston’s arm as she shuffled over the frozen gravel, the toes of her snow boots barely visible peeking out of the puffy coat that went down to her ankles. “You got my bag out of the trunk, right?”

“Yes, my little engineer. I brought your bag with your shoes and hairstyling implements for after you remove the hat and muffler once we get inside.”

“I’m trying really hard not to complain.”

“And you’re doing a smashing job of it,” he said, laughing out loud into the night.

Despite the snow tire-like treads of her boots, her feet kept slipping out from underneath her every time she took a step, and he caught her. “I’m sorry, but I don’t know how to walk on this. Wha—what?”

Kingston swept her up into his arms, carrying her easily as he marched over the snow toward the front of the country club’s clubhouse.

“How are you not slipping and falling down?”

“I grew up in Switzerland. The weather here may be wilder than in the Alps around Gstaad, but ice is ice.”