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Gracie shook her head. “I’m good. Thank you so much, Henry.”
“Sure thing. Kate is going to be so excited to have you. She hates being the only girl.”
Gracie considered she would be living with three men. “Please tell me the house isn’t like a fraternity.”
“It’s not.” Henry chuckled. “Kate made a chore chart for us, and we are all too afraid not to put the toilet seat down if that’s what you’re worried about.”
Gracie laughed. “Tell Kate I’ll help enforce those rules.”
After she was dressed to ski, she and Leo made their way outside. Her skis were heavy on her shoulder as the two walked to the chairlift. As she clicked her boots into her bindings, Gracie said, “Henry told me you’re invited to Christmas dinner at his house. Are you going to go?”
“I’m planning on it. Are you going to be there?”
“Yes.” She smiled at him as they got in line for the lift. “We’re going to spend Christmas together.”
“The first of many, Gracie.” He tapped her ski pole with his. “Because I know you’re my forever.”
Her heart soared, and she took a deep breath as the love she felt gushing out of her heart made her feel as if she were about to levitate. She did want to spend the rest of her life with him. “Leo—” She shook her head as she laughed at herself. “I think you’re my forever, too.”
CHAPTER10
Leo
A metal chairrattled as it swung around the bull wheel at the top of the beginner lift. He and Gracie had been tasked with a catch-and-release duty. Those learning to ski and snowboard often fell when getting off the lift, and to keep things running smoothly, two courtesy patrollers would rush in to help the beginners get to their feet and out of the way for the next chair full of people.
They’d been blessed with another sunny day and moderate temperatures, and Leo was itching to take his coat off when he said to Gracie, “We got a good morning to be doing this.”
“I know,” she said. Another chair swung around as two snowboarders slid down the exit ramp and over to the right toward the trail with ease.
Leo had never spent Christmas away from his family, but because he was working at Sugar Mountain, this year he would. Truthfully, while he’d miss his parents and his sister with her mate and five kids, he had spent the last few years feeling melancholy over wanting a mate and children of his own. The idea of spending any time he could with his true mate this holiday more than made up for missing Christmas with his family.
Although, he did wonder why Gracie wasn’t spending Christmas night with her mother. He spied two women about to get off the chair. One had a death grip on the side bar while the other had her poles pointed forward as if she were in a starting gate for a race. Gracie spoke softly. “Here we go.”
The lift attendant in the booth next to the ramp saw trouble too, and he hit the button that slowed the chairlift down. It didn’t make much difference for the women, because they both pushed off the chair to slide forward and managed to tangle themselves together by the time they got to the bottom of the slight incline of the exit ramp. Skis popped off, making the attendant stop the lift, and Gracie and Leo stepped in to help the women put themselves back together.
“Are you two going to be okay?” Gracie asked them. Like Leo, she must have thought the women had decided to teach themselves how to ski. “You’d be amazed what a beginner lesson can do, and we have one starting soon.”
The woman in the purple helmet smiled at Gracie. “We may take you up on that. Let’s see how we do getting down the trail first.”
“Can you stop on those things?” Leo asked.
“Yup,” the second woman said. She was the one who had held her poles out when getting off the chair. “Just snowplow.”
Leo respected her confidence, even if he believed it wasn’t going to help her much. “Yes,” he said, “but remember, there’s no shame in falling down if you start going too fast or are about to hit someone else.”
The two women laughed, and the one with the purple helmet said, “At least we’ve got that part down. Thanks for your help.” She pushed off with poles to begin moving.
Gracie groaned when the woman fell on her first attempt at a turn. Her friend quickly joined her, but they were laughing as they got up to regroup. “Those two are going to be very sore tomorrow,” Gracie said.
“Think they’ll take a lesson?”
“Purple helmet would, but white helmet? Not a chance.”
Leo chuckled. “You’re probably right.”
Gracie and Leo spent most of their morning picking up small children and setting them back on their feet, and they watched as the two beginner women bungled their way into learning to turn their skis as well as riding the chairlift without trouble. When they managed to get off the lift without falling, he and Gracie cheered for them.
As the two skied away, Gracie said, “You’ve got to admire their perseverance. I’d be drinking hot chocolate by now.”
