They walked on, pausing at a beloved book store, then a jeweler that filled a window with sparkling diamonds.
“So, how did you end up doing ski patrol?” she asked. “Was that always the dream job?”
He thought about it for a minute, an expression passing over his face that she couldn’t quite read. “Well, I’ve been skiing sinceI was little, but I tried the nine-to-five thing after college—I worked in a mortgage company, if you can believe that.”
She laughed. “Not in character at all.”
“Amen. I wanted to crawl out of my skin, so I took the EMT basic training and honed my ski skills even more, and got the job, which I’ve had for about six years. In the off-season, I’m a firefighter for Summit County.”
She drew back, slowing her step.
“What?” he scoffed at her surprised reaction. “You thought I was a total party animal ski bum who probably did mountain bike tours in the summer.”
She laughed. “I admit…I wasn’t expecting a firefighter. It’s so…heroic.”
That expression crossed his face again, but disappeared when he smiled and pinned those achingly blue eyes on her. “Don’t be fooled,” he said, slightly haltingly. “Not a hero.”
“A firefighter and EMT?”
“Basic EMT. Not that impressive in the world of first responders. But I am midway through paramedic training, which is about two thousand hours of schooling. That’ll really help on the slopes because paramedics’ pay is well above mine. Now, I just stabilize and transport non-criticals.”
“And as a firefighter?” she asked. “What do you do?”
“Fight fires,” he joked. “Well, they use me as an EMT a lot, but I’m on the engine crew, standard shifts. I’m only on duty in the summer and fall when the wildfires are an issue, and when I’m not doing that, I’m in school, or taking care of…you know, life.”
She studied him, completely shifting her very wrong first impression. “I really did think you were a partying ski bum.”
“Well, patrollers are known to like to party after shift, so it’s a fair mistake. But I never really was like that. And now? I’m thirty, so…ouch.”
He spotted an empty bench on the corner, brushed off and just waiting for them. Guiding her there, he glanced down. “What about you, Nicole?”
“Two more years until thirty, so no ouch.”
He laughed. “I mean, what’s your deal? You manage a ski shop, your dad’s a legendary skier, and the only two times I’ve seen you on the slopes—they were bunny and you were down. What’s, uh, wrong with this picture?”
She let out a noisy breath as they sat, crossing her suede boots in front of her. She never liked telling the story. It never got easier or funny or less like a genuine brush with death.
But with him? For one thing, he’d know exactly what she was talking about. For another, well…he was protective by nature, so she trusted him.
“You know, when your dad is Flying Jack Kessler, skiing is not a hobby. It’s a biography,” she started.
He smiled a little, a flicker she liked. “I did put that together.”
“And when you’re nine and you’ve inherited his speed and fearlessness and low center of gravity, along with…I’m quoting him now, ‘fast twitch muscle dominance and trunk stability’—”
“You’ve got an Olympian in the making.”
She laughed softly, having heard all of that so many times. “Not quite at nine, but the hopes were there. Except there was this tree well…” She looked hard at him. “And that nine-year-old went face down into suffocation and near death. After that, I was just one scared little girl who refused to put skis on until”—she closed her eyes—“last week.”
“Oh, wow,” he whispered. “That’s…wow. I’m sorry.”
She nodded, throat tightening. “There’s really not that much more to the story than that,” she said. “It was a bad, bad day. I was with my dad, getting the old Kessler push to go faster, farther, and off the well-groomed trail. I thought I was invincible.”
“The biggest mistake on skis.”
“No kidding.” She swallowed, closing her eyes and seeing the white powder, the green trees, soaring on her skis until…she wasn’t. “The minute I went under, it felt like the mountain was eating me alive, like a mouth closing over me.”
He sat very still, listening and letting her continue.
