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She eyes me like she thinks I’m messing with her. “You can steer a sled?”
“Absolutely. But you use your legs not your hands.”
“What? Won’t I lose my leg if we’re going fast and I try to steer with it?” Now she really looks like she doesn’t believe me.
“You don’t put it on the snow, Tansy. You just press it out to the side you want to turn toward and the sled will move in that direction.” When she still doesn’t look convinced, I laugh. “Never mind. Just sit down, hang on and enjoy. I’ll take care of the rest.”
I got the big sled, meant for two or three people, but Tansy is so small I probably could have gotten away with one of the smaller ones. I watch as she settles onto the thing, making sure she’s right in the middle so there’s less chance of her getting hurt.
“Are you ready?” I ask after she looks as comfortable as she’s going to get.
She turns to look at me, eyes wide and confused. “Aren’t you getting on?”
“In a minute.”
I bend down, start pushing the sled to give it a good start. Tansy starts shrieking when the things starts moving, which makes me laugh—which in turn, makes it harder for me to jump on the sled. But I manage it, right before we crest the hill and then we’re flying down the slope, Tansy wrapped up safely in my arms as I steer us around a couple big rocks.
She’s laughing now, too, though her hands are clutching my legs in a death grip the whole way down. We finally come to a stop at the bottom of the hill and I wait to see how Tansy’s going to react.
It doesn’t take long. In seconds, she’s bouncing out of my arms, off the sled. “Come on! Let’s do it again,” she calls, already running back up the hill.
I grab the sled and follow her, shocked at how good it feels to just have fun. Logan is back at the lodge, drinking hot chocolate and playing cards with the others and for once, I don’t have to worry about him. I don’t have to worry about anything but not running Tansy and me into a tree—which is a mission I can totally handle.
We try out all three runs, then decide the middle one is our favorite and do it again and again and again. Tansy loves it, says she’s never felt so free, and I can’t help wondering if I can talk her into giving snowboarding a try. If she likes this, she’ll love the way it feels to barge down a mountain on a board.
And I’d love to teach her. Except … after this week, I don’t snowboard anymore. And even if I did, this thing between us is temporary. Just for fun. Once we get back home, we’ll go our separate ways and that will be that. I’ll go back to Logan and working at the resort and someone else can teach Tansy to snowboard.
The thought leaves a bad taste in my mouth, but I shove it away. Refuse to think about what’s going to happen after we get back home. I’m having fun with Tansy here, now, and for once I’m going to let that be enough.
At least that’s what I tell myself as we push off for another run.
We’re on the steepest run now, and we’re going fast—really fast—when I look up and realize that a large huemul is watching us from right at the bottom of the run. Shit. I try to steer around it, but if the stupid deer doesn’t move soon, we’re going to crash right into the thing.
“Ash! Look out!” Tansy calls.
“I’m trying,” I tell her, wondering what the hell kind of deer has a fucking death wish. We’re going too fast to do anything but brace ourselves, so I wrap my arms around Tansy to protect her and hope I don’t end up getting trampled, or bit, too badly in the collision.
But at the last minute, the damn deer leaps out of the way and Tansy and I, who were still trying to avoid it, go careening into the base of the nearest tree.
We go flying at impact, and I don’t let her go. Instead, I twist to take the brunt of the fall when we hit the packed snow. We land with a pretty solid thud, one that knocks the wind out of me and has Tansy stretched out above me.
“Ash! Ash! Are you okay?” She scrambles into a sitting position, her eyes wide and worried as she runs her hands over my arms and chest, looking for broken bones, I assume.
“I’m fine,” I tell her when I can finally breathe again. “Are you all right?”
“Yeah, of course. I barely felt anything with you on the bottom.”
“That’s the first time I’ve had that complaint,” I tell her, brow lifted. “I’ll have to work on it.”
“Ash!” She rolls her eyes at me, but she’s giggling, too. It’s a good sound, one that—combined with the way she’s still straddling my hips—makes me hard.
I roll her over then, and kiss her until we’re both completely breathless. But when I go to slide my hand inside her pants, Tansy stops me with a glare.
“We’ve already had this discussion. No frostbite on my ass. Remember?”
I do remember. I climb to my feet, pull her to hers. Then eye the tree we just crashed into. “So, uh, I understand the no frostbite rule. But how do you feel about splinters?”
Tansy follows my gaze then starts to laugh. “I actually feel surprisingly okay about splinters.”
