‘Why?’ was her response, but I was just glad it wasn’t a straight no.
‘It’s so fuckin’ beautiful around here.’ Especially when she was standing in front of me.
‘Aren’t you supposed to be resting?’
‘A walk is restful, isn’t it? Therapeutic.’
‘Maybe you should just get therapy.’
I might need to if she kept breaking my heart with every word she uttered. But I deserved it, after what I’d pulled over the years.
I crossed my arms. ‘You still haven’t said no.’
‘I noticed that too,’ she mumbled. ‘Are you planning to lure me into the forest and leave me there?’
‘Cross my heart, I’m not. Last time I did that to someone it backfired badly.’
She almost smiled. Just a slight lift of one corner of her mouth, but it felt like a gold medal – and I’d won two of those at Australian Nationals two years ago, so I knew what I was talking about.
‘Whether you believe me or not, I just want to talk.’
‘I suppose we should discuss how this project for PowerFuel is going to run.’
That wasn’t the kind of talking I’d pictured, but if the other option was the door slammed in my face, I’d take it.
‘Give me five minutes to change?’
Chapter 6
Leesa
Angry. I was angry with him. Fuming. He’d humiliated me in front of the entire team. It was so much worse than the time he’d replaced a painting in the hotel breakfast room with a photo of me and I hadn’t noticed for a week. Or the time he’d somehow managed to put Bubble Wrap under the sheets on my bed.
Colin was an idiot. It wasn’t news. But this time not only had it hit harder – deeper, somehow – but he was still able to disarm me with a few jokes and that crooked smile. Although it hadn’t been his smile. It was something in his eyes when he peered at me that I’d first noticed only last September, when I’d thought I’d never see him again.
I didn’t dare look at him at first, as we dawdled along the gravel path from the hotel across the vivid alpine meadow. As much as it pained me to admit Colin Gallagher was right about anything, a walk had been a good idea and the landscape was so beautiful it was painful.
One of the approaches of altitude training was ‘sleep high, train low’, so the hotel was nestled in a saddle at over 6,500 feet above sea level. The rays of sunshine were so intense you could almost touch them. Stony Dolomite peaks ranged up on all sides, protecting this isolated valley and the smattering of wooden cabins on the sloping meadows.
The absence of noise felt like a cocoon around my head.
‘I missed being in the mountains.’ I hadn’t meant to say those words aloud, but they were out now. Maybe in a second I’d be admitting I wasn’t any happier for quitting cycling, that I wasn’t sure I’d made the right decision, but it was too late now. Luckily, Colin stopped me.
‘Doesn’t America have mountains?’
The question was asked lightly, a reminder that he didn’t want to have a heartfelt conversation with me and I was being stupid imagining he might listen, simply because I caught shadows in his eyes sometimes.
I nodded in reply. ‘I grew up in Colorado. Oh yes, there are mountains. But I haven’t left LA in six months and now it feels weird to think I used to conquer gradients like these on a bike.’
‘Six months isn’t that long.’
‘It’s a lifetime,’ I mumbled. ‘A different me.’
‘You’re still Leesa Kubicka,’ he insisted.
‘And you’re still Colin Gallagher. Will I have to search my suitcase for a toy snake every night while I’m here? You’ve even managed to trick your impressionable teammate into growing an ugly moustache.’
‘I didn’t bring any toy snakes with me,’ was all he said at first. ‘But fair warning, I might trick you into going on a recovery ride with me.’
