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Derek gave her a surreptitious wink.
THE LONG GROOMED BLUE with a series of steep hills was set up perfectly for making jumps. Previous skiers and boarders had shaped a small area on the side of each hilltop into a lip to provide a bit more loft.
They leapfrogged down the run. Two people would ski ahead with the camera, setting up down the hill and signaling the jumpers when the coast was clear. Steven, Derek, Spencer, Josh, and Charlie all took turns making jumps. With enough speed, they could clear a significant distance. Josh managed to do a spread-eagle and Charlie performed a tail-grab. They made four sets of jumps before the clouds rolled in, bringing with them snow and decreased visibility.
“I can’t believe that came up so quickly,” Anne complained.
“We can still take pictures,” said Charlie. “We’ve got one more good jump. I’ll just set up a little closer to the landing.”
“I want to do a jump,” said Jace.
Josh looked to Charlie for her opinion. “He can do a jump, if he doesn’t go too fast. Let him go last because he’ll flatten out the lip when he goes over it.”
“I’ll go, too,” said Emily. “Just a slow one like Jace.”
“Okay,” said Charlie. “I’ll try to get it a shot of it.”
Charlie went down to set up the camera, and Anne skied below to watch. Charlie took off her board and set it end up in the snow as a warning. She could see the spot where previous jumpers had landed and checked to be sure there weren’t any dangerous ruts. Then she gave the all-clear sign, and they started down, one by one. First Derek, then Spencer, and then Steven.
Josh gave clear instructions to Jace so he wouldn’t start too high up the hill, before making his own jump. Charlie couldn’t help the way her heart swelled in admiration as she watched him do a double-twister and land perfectly. She was fairly certain she’d gotten pretty clear shots of the jumps, despite the cloudy, snowy conditions.
Charlie moved farther up the hill to get a picture of Emily’s jump. She came at a much more cautious pace, and squealed as she flew into the air. Even at a slow speed, she made it half as far as the others before her skis touched the snow. She pumped her hands in the air in triumph as she landed perfectly and kept her balance.
Charlie moved a bit farther up in preparation for Jace’s jump, while all the others waited below. She tried to yell instructions at him, but he couldn’t hear her. She had to wave her arms broadly to signal the all-clear, due to the poor visibility. She hoped she would get a good picture of his first jump.
When Jace flew into the air, he got an amazing amount of loft because he was so light-weight. He landed almost as far down the hill as Emily, and wavered a bit, but just managed to keep his balance. Down below, everyone was shouting and jumping up and down in celebration of Jace’s successful first jump. He came to a stop just above the spot where the other jumpers had landed. When he turned around to beam proudly at Charlie, he lost his balance and fell over.
Charlie could hear him cackling with laughter as he struggled to move skis that were stuck above him. The heel of one ski was buried in the snow.
“Do you want help?” she called down to him.
“No,” he said, determinedly. “I can do it—I don’t need help.”
He got the ski loose and performed a rollover to get his skis below him. He sat up and got his skis perpendicular to the slope, but was still struggling to stand up by himself. From the corner of her eye, Charlie noticed someone on the slopes above her. It was a snowboarder. Descending. She could see him dimly through the heavily falling snow. He was barreling down the slope toward the jump. Instinctively, Charlie knew Jace was sitting exactly where he would land. The snowboard was on a direct path to hit Jace and there was no way Jace could move fast enough to get out of the way.
Without thinking exactly how she was going to save him, she started yelling and running toward Jace. She was above him and to his side. She ran as fast as she could in her bulky snowboard boots, knowing she couldn’t afford to fall, praying she would reach him in time. In time to grab him and tumble out of the way before the board impacted with his head or his neck or his spine.
She was close, but not close enough when she saw the snowboarder rise off the jump. She had dimly hoped the lip was flattened from Jace’s jump. But as he hurtled through the air toward Jace, she knew she only had one chance.
She leaped.
AT FIRST JOSH WAS CONFUSED when he saw Charlie running downward toward Jace, yelling at the top of her lungs, “Move! Move! Move!”
Had Jace injured himself? He’d looked perfectly fine when he toppled over after landing his jump. Josh and the others were standing well below Jace, staring up the snowy slope, trying to comprehend what had Charlie so upset.
Then Josh saw it. A man on a snowboard flew off the lip of the jump, plunging at a high rate of speed. Straight toward Jace.
Charlie was running toward him, but she couldn’t possibly get there in time. She was too far above Jace. Josh braced himself for the collision as he watched the scene unfold with helpless horror. Everything seemed to move in slow motion.
Suddenly, Charlie flew sideways, directly into the path of the snowboard.
The sound of the impact was sickening.
Chapter Thirteen
JOSH DIDN’T REMEMBER running up the hill. He found himself kneeling over Charlie, who was lying unmoving on her back where she had landed in the snow, just short of where Jace sat, still stunned.
“Charlie? Baby? Are you hurt?” She was staring up at him, her expression full of pain, breathing shallowly.
