He awoke to the smell of hickory smoked bacon and the aroma of delicious Columbian coffee filtering into his nostrils and tickling his senses. He pushed himself up from his bed and rubbed the sleep from his eyes, glancing over towards the digital clock on the bedside table, which read 7:45.

Wonder who that could be cooking… he thought to himself as he got out of bed and padded over to a large, comfy leather chair that was situated in the corner of his room. Grabbing the robe that was draped over the back of the chair, he swung it around and onto his body, pulling the fleece material snug against himself.

Grateful that the floor automatically warmed his cold feet, he opened the door to his bedroom and began his descent downstairs. As he neared the bottom of the stairs, he took a deep breath in, inhaling the intoxicating aroma of a good home cooked breakfast and a fresh pot of coffee to compliment it.

“Smells great.” Howie voiced out to Nick and AJ, who were both sitting in the parlor, flicking through channels.

Both Nick and AJ looked up at Howie, “Good morning your majesty!” Nick said in an exasperated tone as he jumped up from where he sat on the couch and rushed over towards Howie, “Would you like today’s paper to read as you enjoy your fine meal that was generously,”

“Not to mention hella early!” AJ added.

“Prepared for you? Please, tell me, how do you like your eggs; over easy, scrambled, sunny side up? Do you prefer wheat or white toast and what kind of jam would you like to be slathered over your slice of golden brown toast?”

Howie gave his younger friend a weird look, “Um, are you okay Nick? You’re kinda scaring me right now.”

“Have you paid a visit to the lavatories this morning by the way? To drop your kids off at the pool? If not, I implore that you go and please know that I offer my assistance in wiping your ass.”

Howie laughed and playfully pushed Nick away from him, “Shutup man, now you’re just being gross.” he looked off towards the kitchen, “Are the Kentucky cousins our chefs during our stay?”

“Don’t get that shit twisted!” AJ quickly replied as he rose from the couch and made his way over to where they stood, “Nick and I were dragged outta bed to go with Kevin to the store to stock up on groceries then help him cook a surprise breakfast for you two for now goddamn apparent reason.”

“Well then, are you two out here because you’re hiding from Kevin?”

“Hiding from Kev?” Nick asked in a ‘you’ve got to be shitting me’ tone. “The asshole kicked us out of the kitchen. He asks for our help, then he decides to kick us out, so as soon as he gave the words, we were out.”

Howie sighed and shook his head, “Why is it that I can see you two purposely messing stuff up so he would kick you guys out?”

“No, Kevin had no reason to kick me out!” AJ voiced out in his defense, “According to daddy, I wasn’t frying the bacon right. I mean, as long as you don’t burn the shit, I would assume there’s no right or wrong way to frying bacon. But this dipshit on the other hand seriously thought it was okay to throw a Poptart in the microwave.”

Howie cocked an eyebrow, “Okay, and? I throw my Poptarts in the microwave all the time.”

“The Poptart was still in the fucking wrapper when he put it in the microwave.”

Howie eyes literally bulged out, “You did WHAT?!? Are you serious Nick? You put a packaged Poptart in the microwave? Please don’t tell me you started the microwave with that in it.”

Nick simply gave a shrug, “You guys can’t tell me you’ve never wondered what would happen if you left the Poptarts in the package and put it in the microwave.”

Closing his eyes, AJ shook his head and began to massage his eyelids. “I’ve wondered Nick, but I also never wanted to find out. I have better sense to know what the hell would happen if I put foil in a microwave rather than me trying to experiment and actually find it out myself.”

“So… what exactly happened Nick, or dare I ask?” Howie drawled out slowly.

“Nothing, just popped and sizzled. You should’ve seen Kevin though, he dove at the microwave like Superman!” Nick said as he busted out into Soulja Boy’s “Crank Dat” song.

Howie continued to stare at Nick in utter shock, “You know, it absolutely scares me that you find this situation funny. You could’ve caused some major damages to this place Nick, damages Brian would have to pay for. What’s worse, you could’ve hurt yourself or others in the process of trying to figure out what would happen if you microwave a Poptart still in it’s damn package.”

“Which is why daddy Kevin kicked me out of the kitchen.” Nick pouted. “So, about that neglected trip to the lavatories… since Kevin kicked me out, my offer for wiping your ass still stands. Because I am here to serve you Howard.”

Howie rolled his eyes as he continued his trek into the kitchen, “Go do something with yourself Nick.”

When he walked into the kitchen, he was greeted by Brian sitting on a bar stool which was situated at the kitchen island, enjoying a cup of orange juice and reading the paper, while Kevin was taking something out of the oven.

“Well, well… if this doesn’t look like a scene out of ‘Three Men and a Baby’ right now.” Howie joked as he took a seat next to Brian.

As Kevin turned to address the newcomer in the kitchen, Howie could only laugh at Kevin’s appearance, wearing a white apron with a dishtowel draped over his shoulder.

“Three Men and TWO Babies.” Brian corrected as he flipped to the sports section of the newspaper.

Howie chuckled and began to sniff the air, “Mmm, that smells great Kevin! What you baking over there?”

“Some good ole fashioned buttermilk biscuits.” Kevin replied as he walked the hot, freshly baked biscuits over towards Brian and Howie. “Which, we will drizzle with honey.”

“Man, this looks so delicious!” Howie complimented as he looked over the spread of scrambled eggs, Belgian waffles, pancakes, bacon strips, sausage links, French toast, seasoned potatoes and buttermilk biscuits. “The smell of all this traveled right upstairs and woke me up.”

“Well, you guys can go ahead and dig in. Everything is ready, we were just waiting on the biscuits.” Kevin said as he turned and began to pile all the dirty dishes into the sink.

Howie smiled, “You don’t have to tell me twice.” he said as he grabbed two plates, handing one to Brian. “Um… what was the occasion for this?” Howie whispered to Brian as he gave him his plate.

Brian simply shrugged, “Don’t know, but lets not say anything because this is definitely something I could get used to.” Brian whispered back before he turned his attention onto his cousin. “Hey Kev, why don’t you have Frack do the dishes? It’s a simple task for him to do, and I’m sure there’s nothing in there that could cause harm to himself or any one of us.”

“With that kid, you never know.” Kevin replied with a slight chuckle and sigh, “But you’re right, I should have him do the dishes while AJ cleans up.” and with that, Kevin removed the apron he was wearing and tossed the white apron and dishtowel on the counter. “I worked hard to make most of this food, and I think I deserve to enjoy it with ya’ll.”

“Damn straight.” Howie laughed as he handed Kevin a plate.

Kevin grabbed the plate and was about to shovel a heaping spoonful of scrambled eggs onto his plate, but stopped. “Speaking of which… where are those two?”

“There were chilling in the living room last time I saw them.” Howie replied as he munched away on the rather crispy strip of bacon.

“Nickolas and Alexander.” Kevin called out as he continued making his plate.

“Why does he have to use our full names like that?” they heard Nick silently grumble as both he and AJ walked into the kitchen.

“Yes master.” AJ joked.

“Aren’t you guys gonna join us for breakfast?”

“That depends. After we make our plates, are you gonna kick us out again?”

“Shutup and make your plate Alex.”

The two young ones both cracked a smile as they grabbed their plates and began to pile on food. When they were through, they joined Howie, Brian and Kevin, who were situated at the kitchen island, silently eating their food.

“So, how do you guys like the bacon?” AJ asked no one in particular.

Brian, Howie and Kevin glanced at each other, looking to see who would give the response. “It’s good.” Howie said as he took a swig of his orange juice, washing down the crunchy pieces of bacon he was having a hard time digesting.

AJ gave Kevin a smug look, “You see? You kicked me out of the kitchen for nothing!”

Nick glanced around at all their plates, “Wait… where's the Poptart’s I made?”

“Are you serious Nick?” Kevin said as he gave Nick a pointed look. “Do you even want me to answer that question?”

“No need, I’ll just go make us more.”

“NOOO!!!!!” they all shouted in unison as they sprung up from their chairs to stop Nick from going anywhere.

“Why don’t you let me take care of it buddy?” Brian assured as he gave his friend a pat on the back. “Does anyone want Poptarts?”

When he got no response, he turned to face Nick, “You see? Now that we’ve got that all taken care of buddy, you don’t have to worry about a thing. So, why don’t you have a seat again and just enjoy your breakfast?”

Nick pouted as he sat back down, “I bought us blueberry Poptarts to eat with our breakfast.”

“And maybe we can have it for breakfast tomorrow.” Brian laughed.

They continued finishing off their breakfast in silence; all that could be heard was the notable chewing, crunching, munching, slippping, slurping and breathing sounds. Howie finally broke the silence, “Well, that surely hit the spot.” he said as he place his fork down on his now empty plate. “I hope we have nothing planned for today because right now I just wanna crawl back into bed.”

Kevin perked up on what Howie had said, “Oh by the way, an officer came up early this morning to warn us of a storm system that’ll be moving in. We’ll be getting some hard snow fall and a few feet of snow, so he advised us to just stay in, wait it out, and they’ll send up some trucks to plow away the snow.”

Brian nodded, “Looks like we’ll have to get some wood ready for a fire.” he said as he rose from his chair. “Welp, thank you cous for the delicious breakfast, thank you AJ for burning the bacon, and thank you Nick for trying to blow this place up, with us in it.”

Before Nick and AJ could protest, Kevin voiced out, “Nick and AJ, since you two failed with helping me with breakfast, you two have cleanup duty. AJ, you’ll clean the kitchen while Nick does the dishes.”

“We didn’t fail, you fired us Kev.” AJ pointed out.

“Yeah, I fired you guys because you failed.”

Before anything else could be said, Kevin, Brian and Howie had quickly filed out of the kitchen, leaving their dirty dishes on the kitchen island, and leaving their two youngest friends to stare at each other, and the mess that laid waiting for them.

“You know… I’m beginning to think the only reason why Brian wanted the two of us on this trip and invited Kevin over was so that they could boss us around, just like they used to do back then.” Nick grumbled as he walked over towards the double sink and began to fill one side with water and soap.

AJ chuckled, “I’m so locking my door tonight. And I’m setting traps so in case the asshole decides to wake me up early again, he’ll be in for a lovely surprise.”

“I find it absolutely amazing that this lodge seems to have everything, but it lacks a dishwasher and an automatic fireplace. Wow, whoever constructed this lodge was a true genius.”

Ten minutes later, both AJ and Nick had the kitchen spotless. The clean dishes laid in the rack to be dried, the counters and table were wiped down, the stove was scrubbed from the oil and grime that clung to it.

“From this point on, we’re not doing shit!” Nick said as he tossed the dishtowel that was draped on his shoulder onto the counter.

AJ nodded and sighed, “I’m gonna go out for a smoke, you wanna join me?”

“Nah man, I think I’m gonna head upstairs and hide out there for the rest of this trip.”

AJ laughed as he walked out of the kitchen and headed towards the door. He glanced off into the living room, seeing Kevin and Brian watching TV, but Howie was nowhere to be found. Shrugging, he opened the door and stepped out into the chilling cold.

“Holy shit.” he muttered as he wrapped his arms around himself, too lazy to go back in and grab his leather jacket.

Closing the door behind him, he walked further out from the entry way to see that the snow was indeed falling harder and faster, noticing the ground was already covered with a few inches of snow. Shoving his hand into his pocket, he pulled out his pack of cigarettes and shook a stick out. Placing it to his lips, he used his other hand to reach into his other pocket and fish out his lighter.

He tried to steady his trembling hands long enough to flick his lighter, and after a few attempts, he was finally able to produce a flame. He quickly placed his cigarette over the open flame, puffing all the while to get the nicotine burning and to feel the rush of the intoxicating smoke fill his lungs. Immediately, he felt warmth spread throughout his body as he took the first drag of his cigarette.

“Should’ve picked up another pack while we were out there.” he said to himself as he exhaled a cloud of smoke, watching as it intermingled with the frosty mist of his breath.

As the smoky mist cleared away, he noticed a defined figure off in the distance. Squinting his eyes, he soon realized that it was a figure of a woman, staggering towards their lodge.

“What the fuck…” he said to himself as he flicked his cigarette off to the side, wondering if he should alert the guys. Deciding against it, he ran out into the cold, figuring he would help the woman back to the lodge.

Shit, he thought to himself, feeling for the first time how extremely cold it was out under the falling snow, but his adrenaline kept him going. When he finally reached the woman, his arms quickly shot out to catch her, for her legs had buckled. Catching her falling form had caused them both to fall to their knees on the soft snow.

“Ma’am, are you okay?” AJ asked, his voice full of concern as he tried to look her over.

Her golden brown hair blowing in the chilly wind, she slowly lifted her head to look at her savior, her azure eyes weak, yet lustrous. “I’m so… sorry.” the woman said softly, her teeth chattering.

“There’s no need to apologize, but are you okay? You’re not hurt or anything are you?”

She shook her head, “No… it’s just… so cold… I, I’m having… problems with… my car and it wouldn’t… start and I have… no cell phone… so I started… looking for… help.”

“Shh, it’s okay.” AJ soothed as he wrapped his arms around the shivering woman, in hopes to transfer what little body heat he had to her. “My friends and I are staying at this lodge right up ahead, why don’t we get you there, warm you up a bit and then you can use our phone to call for some help.”

The woman glanced up at AJ, smiling weakly, “Thank you, so much.”

AJ gave a slight nod and rose to his feet, bending down to gently haul the woman to her feet as well, “The name’s AJ by the way.” AJ introduced as he embraced her trembling form, pulling her closer to his body to keep her warm as he began to walk her towards the lodge.

Releasing a sigh, she snuggled herself tighter into AJ’s body. “Adrianna.”