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check behind them and began to look ahead to the rest of the afternoon. “So what are your plans for this afternoon? Skiing?”
    Ron looked to Kara before answering, but the sudden grin on his face told her everything she needed to know about his inclination. He loved skiing almost as much as her sister did.
    “Sure!” Kara agreed. “But we still have to rent our equipment.”
    “Great!” Ron said. He stood up and took out his wallet just as the waitress had a chance to notice the measly tip his father had just written onto her bill. Generous with his son, Kara noted, but not with the female staff. Somehow that fit her overall impression of Howard.
    Ron pulled out a ten-dollar bill—definitely too much in Kara's opinion even though she was pleased to see him bucking his parents on the issue— and handed it to the waitress. “Your service was great,” he said. “Don't mind him—he's in a bad mood.”
    “I am not in a bad mood!” his father objected.
    “Well, not in relative terms,” Ron agreed, “but it's a bad one just the same.” Somehow he managed to say all that with a twinkle in his eye and enough tease in his voice that his father didn't get angry.
    The waitress thanked Ron and disappeared.
    Kara and Hanna stood up at the same time and Ron stepped closer to his girlfriend to give her a hug.
    Neither Hanna nor Howard appeared to like that, which added just a bit to Kara's enjoyment of the embrace.
    “I guess we should all get our skis,” Hanna said. It was a not too subtle reminder that there would be a third wheel on the coming date.
    “I think I'll get a pair, too,” Howard announced.
    “Howard?” Hanna asked as Ron simultaneously said, “Really, Dad?”
    “Sure,” Howard said, “unless you're trying to tell me I'm not invited.”
    Kara was surprised at how delighted Ron looked at the idea of his father joining them. It was obvious that Ron loved his father, but just as plain that he found the relationship difficult. Still, the older man's suggestion had clearly pleased Ron. “Of course you're invited,” he said. “This will be great! I don't think you've been skiing with us since I was ten years old.”
    Howard Miller patted his paunch and laughed. “That's when I stopped being able to keep up with you,” he said.
    It was the first time Kara ever remembered seeing him expressing any mirth and it totally changed his appearance. He remained a balding, overweight, sixty-year-old man, but for a brief few seconds there was life in his eyes and she got a glimpse of a fun loving stranger inhabiting an aging body worn out by too much hate.
    Ron laughed, too. “That doesn't mean you should have stopped. This is going to be awesome!”
    Hanna's look of surprise had transformed into one of suspicion and cynical calculation, causing Kara to wonder what she thought was happening here.
    Ron had no such concerns on his mind. He clapped his dad on the shoulder and then slid his arm back around Kara's back. His enthusiasm continued to bubble forth. “This is going to be great!” he said again.
    For his sake, Kara hoped Ron was correct.
    * * * *

    * * * *
    Howard Miller made Kara look like a professional skier.
    It wasn't just his excess weight. Other people on the slopes were as heavy as Howard, but they still looked graceful compared to him. No, Howard Miller had lost—if he'd ever actually owned—the basic athletic competence that let a person flow smoothly down the slopes at high speed.
    It was amazing to think that Ron could be descended from him.
    Not that any of that really mattered today. If Howard Miller had needed anything to help him overcome the frustration of painfully snowplowing his way down the slopes of Snowline Peak, he got all the encouragement he needed in the form of his grandchildren excitedly calling out to him as they zipped about in circles around him on their own way down the mountain. It didn't make a lot of rational sense to Kara, but the grandchildren clearly loved the