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She nodded. “I train for marathons with my friend Taryn. We have the best time chatting and just not worrying about life for an hour a two each morning, four to five hours on Saturdays.”
“Running for four or five hours is fun?”
“Try it,” she challenged him with a sassy smile.
“I’ll take your word for it.”
“Wuss.” She grinned.
“I am for sure.”
“No, you’re actually not.”
He resisted flexing. “Give me four or five hours uninterrupted on a Saturday and I’d rather watch Hallmark movies.”
She giggled and then laughed. “You keep it up and I’ll make you watch one with me.”
He would watch about anything to spend time with her, even a cheesy Hallmark movie.
They lay there in the snow, smiling at each other. A few skiers flew by and called to him. Jace didn’t even try to respond. He was lost in her and wanted to continue talking, holding her, teasing with her.
“How many marathons have you run?” Jace asked.
“Um, I’ve run a marathon length dozens of times. My fastest time is two-fifty-nine.”
“Wow, Ayla. That’s fast. Qualifying for Boston and all of that, right?”
“Yep.” She grinned proudly.
“Have you run Boston, then?”
“Um …” Her smile slipped. “Who needs starting lines, crowded roads, port-a-potties, and aid stations?”
“You’ve never run an official race?”
“Nah.” It was obvious her disinterest was a coverup.
“Why?” That was like him training for an alpine event but never competing. He only did local events now, mostly focused on the aerial, downhill, and mogul events, but back in the day he’d traveled everywhere he could afford to, until he attracted enough attention to secure sponsors, then he’d traveled even farther and raced every event possible, barring an injury he’d been assured a win in the Olympic qualifiers … before he’d met Iluminada.
“They’re expensive,” she quietly admitted.
“Oh,” was all he could think to say.
She pushed away from him, and he let her go. He helped her to her feet and back into her skis. Neither of them said anything, but his mind was spinning. She’d admitted she bought everything at a thrift store, so she obviously didn’t have a lot of money. He wished he could help her, but she’d gotten downright feisty with him a few times and he doubted that offering her money to run a marathon would go over well. He and Ammon had two part-time job openings right now—marketing and event coordinator. If he combined the openings and pushed the salary a bit higher than he probably should, would she stay in Summit Valley and stay away from that loser Bryan?
She shifted nervously on her skis. Was it the skiing she was nervous about or admitting she couldn’t afford race fees? He needed to stop worrying about convincing her to stay, longing to kiss her, and help her love to ski first.
“You ready to conquer this mountain, Ayla?”
She looked uncertainly down the slope, but she nodded bravely. “Let me at it.” She shuffled around on her skis and snow-plowed down for a bit, then she suddenly screamed out, “Let’s go!” She straightened her skis and sped off down the mountain before she cried out, “Too fast, too fast!”
“Hard pressure on one ski,” he called to her. He didn’t dare tell her to “pizza”. If she crossed her tips right now, she’d take a hard tumble.
She seemed to be trying to put pressure on her right ski, but she wasn’t slowing down. Jace skied quickly to her, not enjoying the bite of cold air rushing by or the sensation of swooping down the hill like he normally would. Ayla could get hurt skiing out of control like she was and not remembering how to stop.
He reached her and widened his stance, skiing in behind her and sandwiching her skis between his, putting his poles in his left hand, and wrapping his right arm around her from behind.
“Jace!” she cried out.
