My weight shifts wrong. One ski edges too far out, catching on one of the metal posts holding up the mesh separating the bunny slope from the woods.
It happens fast and hard. One second I’m upright, the next I’m down in the snow with a surprised yelp, my head hitting the next metal post along, poles sticking up from the snow and my pride nowhere to be found.
“Carly!”
I hear him before I see him, his skis cutting through the powder and throwing fresh snow over my legs when he abruptly stops.
“Hey,shit, are you hurt?”
His voice is different now, concern lacing through it so clearly that for half a second I almost forget to answer. He kneels down beside me and pulls his visor off, dropping it into the snow, and rips one of his gloves off.
Shit. He looks genuinely alarmed.
His hand comes up to the back of my head where it's resting in the snow, lifting it slightly, his gaze flicking between his hand and the impression of my skull in the ice.
And for some reason, maybe because the fall itself didn’t hurt, maybe because I’m high on cold air and adrenaline and the way he's looking at me like he cares, I burst out laughing.
His brows crease immediately.
“I’m okay,” I laugh.
He frowns down at me, tugging gently on my hair tie to release my bun, then running his fingers over my skull.Is he seriously checking me for an injury?“You sure?”
“Yes.” I wipe at the tears budding on the corners of my eyes from wheezing at him. “Oh my God, you're so worried. Look at your face.”
“My face?”
“You looked like I’d been shot.”
He stares down at me, those lines between his brows deepening, his mouth parted like he's trying to work out a solid response.
But his shoulders loosen as his fingers stop their exploration at the back of my head. They don't leave, though.
“You scared the shit out of me, Carly. You whacked your head on the stake.”
Something in my chest twists just a bit, enough for the giggles to start to calm.I tilt my head back against his hand and grin up at him. “That’s kind of nice.”
His brows lift. “What, my hand in your hair?”
“No. That you care.”
The words are out before I can stop them, and I can feel the change in the air immediately. It's not dramatic, but it comes all at once, just enough that the cold feels sharper and the proximity feels like too much and not enough at the same time.
He lets go of my head before I can really take it in, and holds out his hand instead. “Come on.”
I reach up to take it.The second he braces to lift both himself and me, one of his skis slips out from under him.
“Shit—”
I'm cackling before he even hits the snow.
Grayson groans as he rolls onto his back with a look of profound irritation aimed at the sky.“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
I’m laughing too hard to breathe properly. “Did you just— Did youfalltrying to rescue me?”
He stares directly up. “No.”
“You absolutely did, Gray.”
