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“You could.” Jace was studying her with those soulful brown eyes.
“No, I couldn’t.” Her shoulders deflated. She turned back but kept studying the view of the mountainside. She wanted to study his beautiful eyes and beg him to let her live here, get to know him, date him, ski with him, but that would never happen. She had too many responsibilities and that idiot Bryan bugging her. She couldn’t involve Jace in that mess. She had to somehow keep those people from killing Bryan and keep him from forcing her into something she didn’t want to do. She was getting uneasy about what Bryan might be capable of.
Looking around at the beautiful scenery and the beautiful man by her side, she knew this was the farthest thing from reality.
No, she couldn’t even imagine staying here with Jace. He seemed like the most trustworthy stud of a man she’d ever met, but she didn’t know if that was reality either. She decided to stop stewing about any of it and enjoy each moment of this dreamlike day.
Reality, Bryan’s awful mess, not trusting any handsome man, responsibility that made her shoulders hurt, and her dry, ugly desert home would be a nightmare to return to come Monday.
ChapterSix
Jace worried Ayla would crash coming off the lift. He took her elbow and she straightened and luckily they glided down the steep slope from the lift together. She’d reacted amazingly well with the debacle of falling as she was getting on, but he feared if she kept having scenes like that, especially with the rude comments about her clothing and being a newbie from the lift line, he’d lose her to skiing and quick. Her coat and ski pants didn’t match and were completely out of style, but that wasn’t her fault. It was all he could find close to her size in the lost and found. The other coat and pants must not have fit right. Apparently, women did a much better job of not leaving their high-quality ski coats and pants behind than men and children did. He’d wanted to defend her a lot more fiercely than he had in the ski lift line. Since when did the chill, awesome people in his valley care about looking perfect on a ski slope or waiting a minute because somebody fell in line?
Luckily Ayla had seemed to recover quickly, enjoying the ride up and the beautiful view. He’d brought her to the most mellow green circle/beginner run on his mountain. It was long and sloped gently and they could get away from the crowds. If she wasn’t comfortable by the end of this run, he’d failed at teaching her and she had no future as a skier. He wanted the opposite.
One problem that he hadn’t told her and didn’t really want to admit to himself—he’d been a nationally-ranked downhill skier ten years ago, could execute as many tricks as Hudson Delta with big air, and was an ideal instructor for advanced skiers looking to improve their speed, technique, or ability to do tricks. He hadn’t taught a new skier in years. Ammon or their employee Holly took all the newbies as the advanced skiers wanted only him and were willing to pay his higher price for lessons. Teaching a beginner would be like old hat though, right?
“Hold on to my pole,” he instructed, lifting it to her, “and I’ll tug you the right direction as I teach you how to turn, control your speed, and stop.”
“Okay.” Her face was scrunched up in a cute way as if she were concentrating.
“Don’t worry,” he told her. “Skiing is natural. You’ll get the hang of it quick.”
She didn’t look so certain, and he heard her mutter, “I’ll give you natural,” under her breath.
He smiled.
He slowly directed her toward the long, easy slope. Locals and out-of-towners sped by, many of them calling to him. He returned the greetings but focused on Ayla and getting her away from the crowd where she wouldn’t worry about someone watching her, what she was or wasn’t wearing, and they could be alone. They finally got behind a thick patch of forest on the gentlest slope his mountain boasted, and away from the rest of the skiers heading for the blue square/intermediate, the black diamond/expert runs, or more likely the trees on this fresh powder day. His friends and brothers would’ve been stunned he was wasting fresh powder teaching someone to ski. Ayla was worth it.
He flipped around to go backwards on his skis and Ayla’s blue eyes widened with delight. “Wow. That was cool. When are you teaching me that?”
He laughed easily. “Next run for sure.” He held on to the pole she was grasping tightly. “Okay, now we’re out away from the crowd and have room to learn. Let’s start with the pizza.”
“Pizza sounds good. I missed breakfast.”
“Are you hungry?” He wanted to take care of her in every way.
“I’m teasing, I ate a granola bar. I want to learn to ski.”
She was perfect to him. He grinned. “I was a little slow on the joke. I’ll get you pizza for lunch.”
“I’m holding you to that.”
She winked and then gestured. “Okay, teach me, oh revered instructor.”
He laughed then proceeded to instruct her how to put her tips together to go slowly down the hill. When she got the hang of that he moved on, teaching her how to turn back and forth by putting pressure on her downhill ski, softening her knees, leaning toward the downhill, and naturally turning.
She followed his instructions, but she was using her grip on his pole and his guidance to turn her instead of her own hip and knee movements and shifting of body weight. They practiced it quite a few times and she started leaning and at least bending her knees. He thought she was getting the hang of it.
“Okay. Let go of the pole and try it on your own.”
“What? No way. I’ll tip over. The pole’s stabilizing me.”
He smiled. “You’ve got this.”
She gave him a grimace of a smile, but she let go and he talked her through turning, stopping, and how to pick up speed or slow down, or use the pizza when she got in trouble. She was improving with each movement, and he had hope she would become a skier some day.
The slope’s grade steepened from a mellow ten percent to about twenty percent. It was only a fifty-yard stretch, but Ayla’s eyes widened as her speed increased. “This is too steep!” she cried out, picking up too much speed and shooting away from the middle of the groomed trail and toward the trees.
