“As much as I’d like to watch you struggle down the slope, I can’t watch you hurt yourself more.”
His hand snaked around her waist. Even through the heavy coat, her body tingled to his touch. Traitor.
“So go on ahead, and then you don’t have to watch.” She smirked up at him, and he let out a loud laugh.
“Well, that wouldn’t be very gentleman-like.”
She snorted. “Gentleman my ass.”
He raised an eyebrow but didn’t respond to the comment. “Besides, I suspect me running into you probably made it worse.”
“It didn’t make it worse. It caused it,” she muttered.
As if she were driving a knife into his chest, a flash of pain shot across his face. “I’m sorry, Candy.”
“Candy?”
“It’s easier to say than Candace.”
“Yeah, okay.”
The buzzing of a snowmobile sounded in the distance and continued to get closer. Within a minute, the ski patrol was pulling up onto the cat track and approaching them.
“Did you call for help?” a man asked. His bright red jacket easily identified him as a member of the ski patrol, if the snowmobile wasn’t any indication. Another patrol person got off and fiddled with the gear on the backend.
“Yes, thank you for coming. I’m Brent. This is Candace. She seems to have injured her ankle, and I don’t think she’s going to get to the lodge without help.”
“I’m fine,” Candace said, giving them all a tight smile. She wasn’t fine, but she’d be damned if she was going to ride down the mountain with the assistance of the ski patrol.
“She’s not fine,” Brent stated matter-of-factly.
The man looked between them before settling on Candace. “I’m Noah. It’s okay to get help. It’s better than risking further injury to yourself. Let us take a look.”
With Noah on one arm and Brent on the other, they helped lead Candace over to the backend of the snowmobile where the female ski patroller was getting a sled-looking thing attached.
Candace raised an eyebrow and looked over at Brent, who was stifling a laugh.
“I am not riding down on that.”
Noah did little in surveying Candace’s foot, which was still inside her boot, except to ask if she could put weight on it. She couldn’t. Then he told her she needed to get on the toboggan, so they could transport her down to the lodge where the medical facility was set up with someone who could better treat her.
“I will slide down on my ass before I get on that,” she said.
“Ma’am, you are injured, and we can’t let you go down the mountain except on this,” Noah said.
Candace raised an eyebrow.
He continued, “You can put other guests at risk if you try to go down. Not to mention, you could hurt yourself further.”
He had a point. She knew he did. But giving Brent the satisfaction of seeing her strapped into the toboggan was not helping.
Brent covered his smile. “Candace, just do what they say. What’s it going to hurt? Very few people up here know you. It’s not like it’s going to end up on YouTube or something.”
She narrowed her eyes. “Now I’m expecting you will put it on YouTube.”
He laughed. “That’s tempting, but I don’t need your sister cutting off my balls.”
Candace laughed out loud in spite of herself. Jessica would be murderous if she knew Brent would attempt to hurt her sister—even if just by embarrassment. Travis wouldn’t stand to see his brother attempt to disrupt his bride’s big week, either.
“Okay. Fine. But no cameras.”
The ski patrollers looked at Brent, who raised his hands in surrender. “No cameras.”
The amount of stuff that was used to strap her into the sled was overkill. They stabilized her foot, which they said they needed to do to make sure none of the bumps would hurt her on the ride. They wrapped her in some blankets and strapped her to the sled, so only her face was visible.
Brent laughed, and she threw him the best dirty look she could. Before she could say anything, they were off. The ski patrollers mounted the snowmobile and rode at a snail’s pace along the cat track. Brent could easily keep up and skied along behind them, laughing the whole way.
She would never live this down.
Several minutes later, they finally arrived at the lodge. Brent got her skis from the ski patrol and told her he was going to go return them for her. She thanked him, and he disappeared. She was more thankful for the fact that she could sit in her embarrassment with no one else she knew seeing her.
