“He just doesn’t think it’s a good idea for us to start anything since I work at the lodge.”
“Like I said, stupid. You two started something the moment you got here. I sensed it at our bonfire.”
The shaking of my head was barely perceptible underneath my helmet. “It wasn’t like that. He didn’t even like me when I first got here.
“He’s stubborn and stupid, but he definitely likes you now.”
“Even if he does, he already told me nothing is going to happen again.”
“Again?” Erin smirked at my admittance. “We’ll see about that. Fifty bucks says that resolution lasts less than a day.”
“Why don’t we just get down the hill?”
“Fine, fine.”
Erin stood up and took off. I placed my palms on the snow behind my back and pushed myself up much less gracefully. Leaning back on my heels, I slowly turned myself so that the front of my board pointed straight. The powder was so deep I had to lean far back on my board so that the front didn’t sink into the fresh snow.
The part of the hill we were on today was crowded. I was hyper-focused on not getting too close to anyone else as I made my way down the hill. The green hill, which was the easy flat one I was on, intersected at times with more difficult terrain. The skiers and boarders shooting down those sections intimidated me.
I was just arriving at a point where my flat hill intersected with a steeper one. After looking both ways a few times, I continued.
Moving my board was becoming second nature, and my thoughts shifted to Giles. Was Erin right? Would he really change his mind? I hoped she was right. All I wanted was a repeat of last night.
“On your right!” A loud shout sounded out directly behind me.
I looked over my shoulder in a panic. All I saw was a sloppy skier coming directly at me at full speed. I dug my toes in to try to turn and get out of the way, but the sudden movement had me off balance.
Right before I was about to fall, the skier hit me full force. The collision knocked the wind out of me and pushed me right off the edge of the flat green terrain and into a steep sea of trees.
ChapterTwenty-One
I screamedas my adrenaline kicked in.
I was no longer on the main run but surrounded by trees and barreling down the ungroomed terrain. I flung my body out of the way of a few trees and was shocked to find my board was still underneath my feet as I continued to fly down the steep hill. The trees were getting denser and denser as I tried desperately to avoid hitting them.
I sunk into my heels quickly to avoid a large trunk, but there was another tree just next to it. Before I could react, my body slammed into it. My limp form ping-ponged off it, but my board was buried deep in the snow and wasn’t moving freely. As my body flew forward, but my board stayed stuck, I felt a snap somewhere near my ankle. Pain shot up my leg before I face-planted into the deep snow.
The snow engulfed me, and I panicked. I couldn’t breathe.
I clawed desperately to free my face, my heart pounding a mile a minute. Gasping for breath, my face finally came up for air, and I looked bewilderedly at my surroundings. All I could see were trees in every direction. I pushed myself out of the powder and winced. My whole body was in pain, and my head was throbbing. I reached up to touch my helmet, only to find that it had shifted back on my head. I touched my forehead. Warm, wet, and sticky. Blood. Shit, I must have reopened my stitched gash— or gotten a new one. I couldn’t tell.
I tried to pull my board so that it was in front of me, but just that tiny movement caused me to yelp in pain. My ankle hurt badly. It felt broken. I dug around in the snow and struggled with the binding for a few minutes before I was finally able to release my boots. I brought my legs out in front of me while my board stayed stuck in the snow. Moving around in this much powder was a ton of work. I was sweating and breathing heavily by the time I had gotten resituated.
Now that I was out of immediate danger, I took in my surroundings. Just trees everywhere, and to my alarm, there were no fresh tracks. I knew experts liked to do tree runs from talking to Johnny and Erin, but it appeared no one had been over here today. This wasn’t good. I typically didn’t have service out here, but I pulled out my phone anyway, only to see that I had shattered my screen with the fall. It wouldn’t even turn on now.
Shit.
I couldn’t walk, my head hurt so badly I saw spots every time I turned it, and I couldn’t call for help. I was stuck.
“Help!” I finally shouted. “Help!”
I continued to scream my lungs out for what felt like an hour, but at no point did anyone shout something back. My alarm was slowly turning into fear.
They would have to find me, right? Johnny and Erin would know roughly the place they last saw me. It would probably just take them a minute to realize I was missing, and then it would take a while to locate me. Someone would be combing through these trees soon enough.
My snowsuit might be brightly colored, but it was thick and warm. At least despite the piles of snow around me, I wasn’t cold in the slightest. I leaned against the tree that was next to me and took deep breaths in through my nose and out through my mouth, trying to remain calm. There was nothing I could do but sit here and hope someone found me soon.
My eyes drifted closed. I took some snow and smacked myself in the face with it to try to stay awake. I didn’t know too much about concussions, but I knew that if I had one, I probably shouldn’t fall asleep. Still, despite my best efforts, I felt myself fading.
