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“I have a feeling I’ll be doing that one a lot.”
“Always watch out for other skiers, especially since some assholes like to zip down the easier trails to fuck with newbies,” he said as an experienced skier did exactly that. “Keep your knees bent slightly and hands in front of you. Always keep your skis together unless you’re stopping, then do a pizza move.”
“A what?”
He started sliding down the slope, then turned his feet in toward each other, forming a pizza slice shape. “Pizza.”
“And now I’m hungry.”
He smirked and walked back uphill to her. “You try.”
Jupiter positioned herself according to his instruction and slowly pulled her ski poles out of the snow and pushed forward. She moved slowly down the slope and turned her feet in like he instructed.
“Perfect. Now, if you ever need to stop another way, shift left or right. I don’t think we’ll have any trouble today.” Rubble said from beside her. She hadn’t even noticed him join her. “This trail isn’t very steep, and you don’t need to turn unless you want to get fancy. Think you’re up for a little faster?”
“Better now than when it’s busier.” She slipped her ski goggles over her eyes, the buttered croissant from breakfast jumbling in her gut.
“That’s the spirit.” He pushed off and Jupiter watched for a good ten seconds before she did the same.
Gripping the poles tight, she tried to remember what Rubble taught her. The soft whir of snow beneath the skis combined with the gust of air hitting her puffy coat made her grin beneath the polka dot scarf. She quickly caught up to Rubble, keeping her body balanced in the middle of the skis.
“You’re doing great!” he encouraged, keeping a safe distance from her.
Jupiter couldn’t see the smile but heard it in his voice. For the next ten minutes, they skied down the mountainside, picking up speed little by little. The closer they came to the bottom, the more skiers they saw.
“Careful. People aren’t the best at getting out of the way in time.”
Rubble easily maneuvered around a slow skier. Looking to the end of the trail, Jupiter’s pulse skyrocketed. A mother and daughter were up ahead in her line of travel.Shit!She cast frantic eyes to Rubble, but he was having his own trouble with a group of teens on snowboards. Suddenly everything he said was a jumbled mess.
The ski lodge loomed ahead, and she sent a quick prayer to the snow gods for a safe landing. She was going to crash. How hard was the only question.
The mother and daughter hadn’t moved yet, and she was almost on them. Seeing a snowdrift to the left, she shifted her weight and moved her feet ever so slightly. Suddenly, the skis roughly jerked, and she barreled toward the embankment. The hard snow knocked out her breath, body tumbling to a stop at the pile of snow. Manly shouts and feminine screams cut through the ringing in her ears. The only one she heard was Rubble’s.
CHAPTER22
RUBBLE
Fuck!Rubble unlocked his boots and jumped onto the snow. Heart pounding in his ears, he hurried past the growing crowd to the snow heap Jupiter not so gracefully plowed into moments earlier.
“Move!” He shoved back a man, not giving a damn how sharp his tone was or if he’d done any damage. His girl was in trouble and he hadn’t prevented it. Sourness engulfed his mouth and his blood chilled.
Finding Jupiter’s bright pink outfit, he quickly assessed the situation. No limb was catawampus and the snow around her remained white. Her head, on the other hand, was out of sight.
“Get Doc from the lodge. Now!” he snapped at a prospect loafing around a group of snow bunnies. The prospect nodded and sprinted toward the large resort and Rubble kneeled in the snow. “Jupiter, can you hear me?”
A muffled sound from the snow responded, and he let out a relieved breath. She wasn’t unconscious. Scooping the snow away from her face, he swallowed at the sight. Jupiter almost looked comfortable with the top half of her body wedged deep. The little mascara she wore earlier streaked around her eyes and down her cheeks.Tears.He gritted his teeth.
“Baby girl, what hurts?”
Jupiter burst out laughing, makeup smearing more. “Oh my God, am I stuck in a snowdrift?”
“Uh, kinda yeah.”
She laughed more and winced when she attempted to dislodge herself from the packed snow.
“Don’t try to move. Doc’s on his way. He’ll know how to get you out safely.” Rubble couldn’t see any damage, but then again, internal wounds were a different story.
“We should do that again.” Jupiter rubbed her bright red lips together. Her entire face was flushed from the cold. “I really liked skiing until the end.”
