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“Yeah.” I did. My chest had that expanded feeling again, as if I were floating through the air. We did the same slope again, and on the third ride up the mountain, he asked, “You ready for something harder?”
I shook my head. “Not a black diamond.”
“Blue?”
That was the medium hill. I could probably handle that. “Okay.”
“You trust me?” he asked.
Smiling, I said, “I told you I did.”
He lifted my hand and kissed me. Even through my glove, I felt the heat of his mouth and the meaning behind his gesture. He was patient, and he believed in me. It gave me the confidence to tell him. Tonight. Before anything else happened between us.
On the blue slope, we went side by side so we could race. It was exhilarating. We shouted to one other, challenging each other as we sped down. I took a sharp turn and immediately lost my balance. There was no time to bend my knees or compensate. I landed with a thud, and my legs tangled up in my skis.
I panicked, thinking Sam had kept going and hadn’t seen me.
CHAPTER15
SAM
When I saw Alice go down, my heart stopped. I checked to make sure I could stop without tripping anyone else up, took off my skis, and carried them up the hill to where she was lying in the snow.
Dropping my skis next to her, I asked, “Are you okay?”
She squinted up at me. “I’m fine. Just embarrassed.”
I held out a hand, helping her to stand, which was awkward with the skis. “Don’t be. Everyone falls.”
She brushed the snow off her pants. “You didn’t.”
“I’ve been taking it easy.” It wasn’t fun to ski with someone who went ahead of you. “As the youngest in my family, they were always racing ahead of me, and I wanted to catch up. I became adept at falling.”
“I like hearing about your family. They sound fun.”
I thought back to my childhood, which was chaotic with three boys, my parents always yelling at us to stop jumping off something or another, or to stop wrestling. It was wasted effort on their part. As soon as they left the room, we were back at it. “It was.”
“Mac was funny. I’d like to meet the rest of your family.”
I scowled. “Don’t tell him that. He already thinks he’s the funniest.”
“He’s not?”
I gave her an injured look. “I’m clearly the funniest.”
She nodded, as if pretending to consider the idea. “Mmm. Maybe because of Maggie.”
“There’s no ‘because of Maggie,’” I grumbled.
She laughed again, and it was the best sound. Skiers went down the mountain around us, steering clear of where we stood, so it felt like we were in our own world.
“You want to continue down the mountain before there’s a collision?”
“See you at the bottom,” she called as she used her rods to push off. I scrambled to get my skis on, pumping my arms to catch up. By the time I got to the bottom, she was doubled over laughing, like she couldn’t help herself.
I grinned. “Did I do something funny?”
“I left you in the dust—or maybe snow is the appropriate saying.”
