Page 5 of One Last Gift

Cassie struggled to properly take in any of the beautiful surroundings, however, due to the fact that she and Hazel were climbing slowly up the mountain, suspended in air and hanging off what looked like nothing more than a telephone wire in a moving chair. Her legs felt vulnerable, dangling beneath her, and she kept feeling like her skis would drop off and hit an unsuspecting skier below. She was gripping the bar in front of her tightly, remembering the one and only time Tom had forced her onto a roller coaster when they were growing up, and how much she had hated it—hated the horrible, sickening feeling in her stomach, and the way she’d almost collapsed from the rush of adrenaline after they’d gotten off. And this time it was worse, because when they got off, she’d actually have to ski down the bloody mountain.

“Ready?” Hazel asked brightly. She took hold of the bar, and Cassie gripped it more tightly, trying to hold it in place. She saw Tom and Sam, two seats in front of them, gliding off the chair lift and onto the snow, both with seemingly effortless grace.

“No,” she hissed out through gritted teeth.

“Yes, you are,” Hazel said firmly, and she shoved the bar up, forcing Cassie to let go. “You’re going to have to get off, otherwise you’ll be like Bridget Jones and end up doing a loop and heading back down again, and that will be more scary.”

The launch-off place, or whatever you were supposed to call it, was getting closer now. Cassie swallowed, her throat dry.

“Just stand up, OK? It’s easy. Easier than it looks, anyway, trust me.”

“Right,” Cassie muttered. “OK.” It wasn’t like she had a choice, was it? She’d only done one of those tiny practice slopes before Hazel had declared her ready to go, which she definitely did not feel.

When her skis touched the ground, Cassie stood before she could think too hard about it, and felt the chair lift give the back of her knees a little bump as she did so. Then she was sliding away with Hazel toward where Tom and Sam were waiting. She stumbled but didn’t fall. OK, good. Point for her. Because falling on her face in front of Sam as she got off the chair lift would not be in keeping with the poised, confident, sexy vibe she’d planned to portray during this holiday. Because maybe—just maybe—something might actually happen between them this time, now that they had a week together, with the possibility of some time for just the two of them in among the foursome activities. Maybe—just maybe—the last two years of glances and occasional touches that lasted a bit too long to be considered only friendly might finally come to something. Not that she was putting pressure on the holiday or anything.

She had a feeling, however, that even though she’d planned the pale-blue ski outfit, she looked more like a pale-blue marshmallow, or a thirteen-year-old girl, given her height, than sexy skiing chic. She’d like to say that no one looked good when skiing, but Hazel was pulling it off in a purple-and-black outfit, her black hair striking against the white of the snow. Then again, Hazel had had several skiing holidays with her family to get it right. Tom and Sam had been a few times together too. Which left Cassie, who had never been skiing before—Claire wasn’t exactly the family-holiday type, and skiing was expensive. Plus, in all honesty, the concept of strapping wooden slats onto your feet and going as fast as you could down the side of a mountain had never appealed to her. Tom had been insisting that they went as kids once, before their parents died, but she was too young to remember it, so she didn’t think that counted. And how much skiing could she really have done at that age anyway?

Tom moved his sunglasses onto his mop of blond hair and grinned at Cassie as she approached him, reaching out to grab her arm to slow her to a complete stop. She took a deep breath, which made both him and Sam laugh.

“Don’t look so pleased to be here, Cass,” Sam said, his eyes hidden by dark, expensive-looking sunglasses, “you’ll make the rest of us look like we’re having a bad time.”

She just rolled her eyes. Partly because, now that they were at the top of the slope, with people darting around everywhere, going over what looked like the edges of cliffs, in her opinion, her mouth was feeling dry and she wasn’t sure she actually could form coherent sentences.

“Come on then,” Hazel said, her green eyes glinting. She grinned at Tom and Sam. “Bet you two a pint that I can beat you down the run.”

Tom pffed. “Whatever, Niagara. You’ll be eating my snowdust.”

Hazel cocked her head. “Is it called snowdust?”

Tom shrugged. “No idea.” He looked at Cassie. “Ready?”

“No,” Cassie said bluntly. She was fine here, she decided, standing very still.

“You are,” Hazel said again, like by saying it she would immediately change how Cassie felt just through force of will.

“I’m not. How about I stay up here, and we’ll all meet up later?”

Hazel put one hand on her hip, the other clutching her two poles. “And how exactly are you planning on getting down?”

“I’ll walk,” Cassie shot back. It had to be easier than skiing, anyway.

“You did fine on the baby slope,” Hazel insisted. Though calling it a “baby slope” was hardly inspiring confidence. “And this is an easy blue run, you’ll be fine.” There were three different ways to go, as far as Cassie could tell, but Hazel gestured toward the slope that they were apparently aiming for. It didn’t look easy to Cassie, it looked steep, and there were loads of people skiing down already—more people to crash into. She could feel all three of them looking at her, though, so opted for silence, trying to balance acting cool and confident with being genuinely terrified.

Hazel moved away gracefully to the start of the slope, glancing back over her shoulder to check that the rest of them were following her.

“You’ll be OK, Cassie,” Tom said softly, starting to move slowly toward the edge and taking her gloved hand in his to drag her with him. “It’ll be fun, trust me—you’ll be glad you’ve done it when you get to the bottom.”

“On three,” Hazel said firmly. She was giving Cassie that look you just couldn’t say no to, so Cassie nodded. Tom let go of Cassie’s hand, slid his sunglasses onto his face, and gave her an encouraging smile as he took a pole in each hand. Cassie felt Sam come up behind them, her body always aware of his position in relation to hers.

“One, two, three.”

But she couldn’t do it. Sam, Hazel, and Tom all pushed away, Hazel and Tom heading left, Sam heading right…leaving her behind, where she was rooted to the spot, her legs having forgotten how to obey the instruction from her brain to move.

“Come on, Cassie,” she muttered to herself, and with great effort, managed to push away. She tried to remember what Tom and Hazel had been trying to teach her earlier. Skis parallel and weight down on right foot to turn right, right? She tried it, felt herself speeding up, and her heart lurched. She immediately pointed the tips of her skis together as Hazel had shown her to slow down.

“Looking good, Cassie!” She looked up from where she was staring at the snow to see Hazel give her a thumbs up sign. She saw Tom, his red ski jacket standing out, gliding into action from where he’d been standing at the side of the slope, presumably having been waiting to check that she was following. He raced right by Hazel.

“Hey!” Hazel shouted, and sped up too. “That’s not fair!” The two of them started zigzagging down the slope, gaining speed until she couldn’t see them anymore.