A second later, the back door burst open. “Let’s decorate a tree!” he exclaimed, rushing to MJ. “Did you save the star for me, Grandma?”
She hugged him and kissed his head, straightening his little glasses. “I sure did, Benny. Where’s your mommy?”
“In the ski shed. Nicole asked her to work this afternoon.”
“Oh, that’s right,” Cindy said, remembering that Nicole was going to try skiing again, this time with Brianna. She’d asked Cindy not to mention it to Jack, hoping she could surprise him with good news when she finally got her ski legs back.
“Can I see the tree?” Benny pleaded. “I heard it’s huge!”
“It is that.” MJ got up, scone, tea, and investments forgotten in the face of her darling grandson. “I’ll be right back, Cin.”
“Take your time,” she said. “I’ll finish this scone and send a text to Henry. Benny, don’t let her do haphazard decorating.”
“I don’t know what that means,” he said in his boyish voice as they walked off.
“I don’t think I’ve ever heard you say those words.” Cindy laughed. “Just look at the tree and you’ll know.”
She heard their laughter and chatter as they walked back to the great room. Cindy sat for a moment in the quiet, picking up her phone to text Henry. The conversation had gone well, and she was one step closer to getting all she’d ever wanted—security.
Just then, she heard the sound of bells and looked outside.
There, Jack was bringing in a sleigh full of happy riders—wearing his full 1800s regalia, top hat and all, making the event memorable and Instagram-perfect.
Even from here, he looked handsome and dear and familiar and wonderful, and that same old ache filled her whole body.
So maybe security wasn’tallshe wanted in the world. Part of her—a big, emotional, romantic, lonely part of her—wanted a second chance with Jack Kessler.
For reasons that made absolutely zero sense, Nicole found herself once again standing in the shadows of the Snow Park Lodge at the base of Deer Valley, ski boots pinching and stomach churning.
Whydid she keep agreeing to this?
She could have just stayed at Snowberry to help Mom and MJ decorate the tree, but she didn’t want to bail on Brianna, especially after Gracie had agreed to cover for them at the shed for a couple of hours so they could go afternoon skiing.
Knowing that today would be “the day,” Nicole had laid in bed that morning staring at the ceiling and asking herself if she was out of her mind.
And yet here she was…trying again. Terrified, sweating in the chilly weather despite the bright pink jacket she wore, vibrating from head to toe.
“I really think today is going to go better than with your dad.” Brianna bounced slightly in her ski boots. Her cheeks were rosy from the wind, but she hadn’t even zipped up her jacket—a blinding neon blue—as she took in the action on the snow-covered base of the mountain.
Nicole gave a weak smile, pulling on her face covering. “I appreciate your optimism, Bri. But optimism never got a chicken down the mountain.”
“You’re not a chicken!”
“Tell that to my stomach—the one that’s about to hurl.”
Bri laughed, tossing a thick blond ponytail behind her shoulder as she buckled her helmet. “No one is going to hurl.”
Nicole wasn’t so sure.
“Come on.” Brianna held out her gloved hand and pulled Nicole to her feet, jutting her chin toward the rack where the skis waited ominously for their death slide. “We’ll take Carpenter up, and I swear we can stick to Success. It’s a super mellow green run.”
“No bunny hill?” She swallowed a lump of nerves that rose in her throat. “The Snowflake lift looks awfully inviting.”
Brianna shot her a look and pulled a pair of goggles over her eyes. “I don’t do bunny hills, Nic, and neither should you.”
Nicole groaned audibly as they pulled their two sets of skis and poles off the rack and plopped them into the fluffy snow.
Despite the fact that she hadn’t skied in nineteen years—not counting one run down the bunny hill with Dad—Nicole knew every run, trail, and lift in Deer Valley. In all the surrounding resorts, too.
