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“No, you go on. We may catch up with you later.”
Anne smiled with satisfaction. Things were going well. She only needed to step in on occasion to help the process along.
GRACE WAS IRRITATED. She whispered to her sister, “Why didn’t you go with Derek?”
“I’m tired,” said Olivia. “And I’m not good enough to ski blacks—you know that.”
Grace sighed. She’d have to talk Charlie into skiing with them tomorrow. She couldn’t let her spend too much time alone with Derek. She pondered how she might manipulate things at the house that night to force Josh and Charlie together. Jace seemed to really like Charlie a lot. Perhaps that was where she should focus her efforts.
“Jace, did you have fun with your Aunt Charlie? Is she a good teacher?”
“She’s awesome!” Jace said, enthusiastically. “And she’s taught like a million kids how to ski, and she says I learned faster than anyone. And she says tomorrow I’m going to ski pairing well.”
“Pairing well?” asked Grace, in confusion.
“Parallel,” Josh corrected. “She said tomorrow he’d already be skiing parallel and they could start skiing blues.” He gave Jace a pat on the back.
Steven handed them two hot chocolates.
“Awesome!” said Jace.
Josh elbowed him. “What do you say, Jace?”
“Thanks, Mr. uhmm, what was it?”
“Papa Steven,” Josh prompted.
“Thanks, Papa Steven.”
“Thank you, Steven.” Josh smiled. “Where are you skiing this afternoon?”
“Steven and I got a lot of runs in this morning, so we were planning to take it easy this afternoon and ski with you and Jace and Olivia.” Anne smiled as she spoke, but her eyes were on Olivia.
“Is Aunt Olivia skiing with us?” asked Jace.
“I’m sorry, Olivia. I assumed you would want to watch Jace ski,” said Anne.
Olivia’s cheeks reddened as Jace waited for her answer. “Of course I want to see him ski.” His face lit up with pleasure.
“You guys don’t have to ski with us,” said Josh. “We’ll be doing greens all afternoon.”
“Oh no—we want to ski with you. Don’t we, Olivia?” said Anne.
“Sure,” she answered, although her voice was less enthusiastic than her words. She sent an imploring look to her sister.
Grace whispered, “Just do a few runs and then meet us on the blues. Brad and I will keep skiing with Emily and Spencer. I’ll keep my cell phone on, and we’ll meet up.” She realized she had a formidable opponent in Anne Gherring. Anne was obviously trying to push Josh and Olivia together. She needed to counter Anne’s moves without revealing she had a different agenda. She’d have to plan carefully. But they were skiing six days, and this was only the first. She had plenty of time.
Hannah and Claire came up to the table, pulling off their outer layers, and stomping their boots, still covered in snow.
“Hey, guys!” said Hannah. She glanced about while freeing her auburn curls from the confines of her helmet. “Where are Charlie and Derek?”
“They left to do some blacks. How was your lesson?” asked Anne.
“It was great!” said Claire. “Our instructor was sooooo hot! His name is Barron and he said I was really talented.”
“That’s because he wants you to sign up for another private lesson,” said Claire.
“You’re just jealous because he thought I was a better skier,” Hannah accused.
