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Usually, snow season was a joy.
The youngsters would start shakily and knock-kneed, but after a few weeks be able to hold their form and take on the beginner slopes. We only had a few short months of good snow in the mountains before the melt came and we shifted our offer to other outdoor sports. Mountain boarding, orienteering, trail biking, paragliding, and even guided walks in spring through to autumn.
I loved being out in the fresh air, but all day I’d sensed someone watching me. Likely my imagination, and I’d even gone inside to change my skiwear, swapping out the neon blue for a brilliant pink.
I still couldn’t shake the feeling.
It stalled me in my plan to take on the slopes myself. Usually, I’d be getting in a few decent runs before my next booking, but what if someone sideswiped me? Took me out and somehow spirited me away? I’d never once been afraid out here before, and the sense was new and deeply awful.
“Hey, birthday girl.” Arms wrapped around me from behind.
I twisted into my sister-in-law’s hug. I hadn’t seen her all morning, though she and Gabe, my brother, had talked to me on the phone last night, both worried about what had happened.
Not how I’d anticipated turning twenty.
Effie released me. “All okay?”
I shrugged. “Normal as. No one’s tried to smash up my snowboard, at least.”
She dipped her head at the snowboarding centre. “Lennox has been keeping an eye on the slopes. He’ll pounce on anyone suspicious.”
I followed her gaze to the wraparound windows of the centre’s top station café. Earlier, the huge, gruff owner had waved to me from a booth by the glass, his laptop open on the table in front of him. I figured he’d chosen to work there for the day, but now I knew different.
I turned back to Effie. “Did you ask him to watch me?”
She shrugged. “He messaged this morning to say he’d be there.”
I was going to fake complain about everyone being overprotective, but Effie’s hand drifted to her belly. Someone called her name, and she twisted to respond.
I had the sudden, stark instinct of getting her away from me.
If I was a hazard, I couldn’t put her in danger. My sister-in-law was tough. She had a sleeve of awesome china-blue tattoos and feared nothing. She’d protected me in the past, and I’d done the same for her. But everything changed if there was a baby involved.
A gaggle of youngsters left the centre, a few peeling away from the group to approach me.
The ringleader was Bridgette, my teenage nemesis. Thankfully not mine to handle today.
“Oh look, it’s Little Miss Famous,” she uttered with a curled lip.
I planted my hands on my hips. “Glad I saw you. If anyone messages you to ask who I am or where that video was taken, don’t reply. And take down anything with your school badge on for both our sakes.”
“Are ye really trying to tell me what to do? I came over to say that ye owe me.”
“Owe you what?”
She pouted. “That account is monetised under Ma’s name. Deleting my video literally cost us money.”
“Yeah,” jibed one of her friends. “Pay up, bitch.”
Effie whipped around. “Hell no. Who are ye girls with?”
Instantly, Bridgette’s pack scuttled back to the group, the injured party herself giving me one last glare before turning up her nose and joining them. Effie started in pursuit, but I paused her.
“Don’t mind her. She’s just butthurt that I told her off. Listen, I’m going to relocate my birthday celebrations to my apartment. We’ll have cocktails, or mocktails, and celebrate there.”
She tilted her head, giving me an appraising look, probably at the mocktails comment, but then smiled. “I’ll pass around the message. See ye tonight.”
She left, and I made a mental note to talk to Bridgette’s mother. But before then, I had work to finish up and a party to relocate.
