Every Boy's Dream

Aspen, Colorado

Chris almost had heart failure when they drove into the town of Aspen.

It was one of the most beautiful places he had ever put eyes on, just a stunning, quaint-looking, very clean, almost Christmas Kringle-looking Winter paradise framed by the Elk mountains beyond. Even driving through the main streets he could make out a long trail of gondolas winding up into the ranges beyond, and it frankly, got him so fucking hot, he almost got hard just looking at it.

It would have been embarrassing if Darren hadn't also been squirming with impatient delight.

"Where are we staying?" He felt like a Who from Whoville that had just gone to Chrismas Town, face pressed to the glass, mouthbreathing into the window over it all, with googly eyes and giggling like a school girl. At least, that's how he felt about it, if not literally what he was doing. Inside though, he was already doing backflips.

Darren pointed somewhere left. "We'll go up into the resort side. Mom and Dad have their cabin up there."

Now Chris wasn't an expert here, but he was pretty sure Aspen, Colorado, was fucking expensive as fuck, and felt his brows shoot up. "Like your personal residential type of cabin? Year round?"

Darren looked at him with bemusement. "Yeah."

"Like, your family just owns it outright?"

"I mean, I think they pay a mortgage on it, but yeah."

Chris blinked at him, and finally just asked, "Aren't houses out here like ten million or more?"

Darren laughed softly and shrugged, "I think they got it for fifty or something...look I don't question it. All I know," He grinned at Christian's outraged expression now. "Is that we come up here all the time, and they felt strongly it was worth the price for the family to have vacations."

"What the literal fuck?" Chris flung a hand out, got his phone out and Darren just laughed when he pulled up current housing lists and slammed back in the seat. "What is wrong with you fucking people? This one is thirty-four million fucking dollars!"

Sounded about right, and Darren just looked at him with bright humor. "Christian, you're pretending you don't live in a house, right now that's worth way more than that."

Chris looked shocked, just shocked! "Caleb said he spent six on it."

"Noooo..." He made a whirling motion around with his finger. "He spent six on the property alone and built that house. I mean, it's Roster, so I doubt he spent a billion dollars on it, but I guarantee you, you spend your days languishing in a house that's probably worth more than half the city combined, Christian."

The look on his face was so dumbfounded, that Darren couldn't even do it.

He did laugh at him because he was just such a fucking poor kid at heart. He really was. If Caleb hadn't twisted his arm so much he probably wouldn't even have taken the credit card and just lived in a box outside.

"Christian, do you really think he walks around in watches that cost half a mill and drives cars worth millions of dollars and didn't shell out some cash for the fucking palatial manor that supports about twenty five people full time?" He looked at him with a "get real" expression, and Chris truly looked just stricken about it. "We have three pools and a Spa, Chris!" He wanted to shake him and it was just staggering the real just no concept of anything beyond twenty dollars and a rent, that Chris had no conceptualization skills of.

Just it didn't register at all, Darren realized with a real start of his own surprise.

For the first time, he really, really realized, that someone in the world, just liked them all for no other reason than he just did, and the fact that the Walkers were worth hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars didn't even cross his mind.