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Jane clattered her fingers over the keyboard. She stopped. She narrowed her eyes at the screen and twisted her lips.
Gabriel just kept stiffening, beyond the limits of normal human stiffening. Maybe he’d died of minor frustration and social antipathy, and his corpse was entering rigor mortis.
“I apologize,” Jane said, “but it seems there’s been a double booking. Your skis are currently being used by someone else.”
If we couldn’t ski, that wasn’t really so bad for me. It meant getting to sit around in a fancy lodge sipping hot chocolate and gazing through the towering windows at the snowy landscape.
But if we couldn’t ski, Gabriel was going to do more than have a corpse-like conniption. He’d die for real. Maybe. Probably.
Whatever he did, he’d make sure I didn’t get to enjoy my snow bunny day lounging in the lodge.
“Get us another set,” Gabriel said. “Fix this.”
“Oh, well, most people bring their own equipment. The lodge only keeps a couple of sets to rent, and if you didn’t reserve them in advance, there’s nothing I can do to help you. You can head into Boarsville and purchase your equipment.”
Gabriel scowled. “But wedidbook them in advance.”
“I know. I apologize for the inconvenience. There’s nothing I can do.”
Gabriel turned and stalked away.
I followed after him. “It’s fine. We’ll read the packets, and most of the people who would want to talk to you will be out skiing anyway, so this just means we have extra time to prepare before they get back.”
“You can go tubing,” Jane called after us. “Take the purple lift.”
“Perfect,” I told Gabriel. “Let’s do that.”
He grumbled as we stepped back through the front doors.
I followed him around the side of the building. The snow was crazy with people. They were crashing into each other on a mostly flat hill, flying down an actual mountain side, and standing around chatting.
Gabriel kept walking, ignoring everyone, like he knew where he was going.
“Have you been here before?” I asked.
“No.”
Down past all the skiers and snowboarders, Gabriel finally stopped walking, beside a lift with purple pods. The pods didn’t stop when they reached the bottom of the hill. Instead they turned in a small U, and headed straight back up.
“Let’s go,” Gabriel said.
“Do they expect us to jump on it?While it’s moving?”
“It’ll be fine,” he said. “I won’t let you get hurt.”
As if he could control the freaking universe. “I didn’t say I was afraid.”
“I didn’t say you were either.”
I wanted to stick my tongue out at him, maybe kick him in the ankle, too. Instead, I followed him to a flat people-loading area.
We lined ourselves up. A little pang of nervous excitement flitted through my bones. I watched the pod approach.
“Ready?” Gabriel asked, his expression actually weirdly concerned.
“I was born ready. I think it’s you who’s sc—” My biting insult was cut short by the pod smacking into the back of my legs and scooping me onto its little bench.
A bar snapped over us and we lifted off into the air.
