My pulse quickened as he looked at me. Blake was a person who could maintain eye contact, and I wasn’t used to it in the least.
“I certainly can’t.” My voice lowered, and I looked away, not ready to explore outside of this conversation while I was standing in front of everyone I knew. Blake pulled out my chair, and I took a seat as he sat down next to me. The server came over to us the instant we sat down.
“Two chicken pastas, then?” I looked at Blake, and he nodded in reply.
Somehow, he and Mickey were already discussing spring baseball fantasy league picks. I excused myself to wash up. I couldn’t believe what had just transpired. A perfect stranger just made me look a lot less pathetic in front of myex and his gorgeous new girlfriend—a stranger that I’d now met two times before.
Chapter 6
When I returned to the table, the kids startedshuffling out to check out the basement movie room and arcade. Mickey and Tamara decided they would go with them.
“We can’t leave them unsupervised, Mick.” Tamara nudged Mickey.
“But they are both in their thirties,” Mickey razzed us, pretending that his wife was referring to Blake and I having lunch together and before they left, Tamara winked at me. I knew she would expect a full recap of this exchange the moment we were done, so I smiled back at her.
Our conversation took off like a rocket. Blake had questions about the youth group, and I filled him in on the bonding retreat that I was blessed to join. When the food arrived, it triggered other discussions for him and before long,I was sharing my childhood fear of tomatoes and my preference for how eggs should be cooked. But I had questions too, and I it wasn’t long before I started firing them off, so I started as politely as possible.
“Tell me about you.”
“Shall I start from the beginning?” He ran his fingers through his wavy auburn hair. “I am here for a guy’s ski trip. My buddy who made the wisecrack about your names rhyming, that’s Timothy. This is technically his bachelor party. He is marrying his fiancé, Courtney, on Valentine’s Day. Isn’t that cute?” As he smiled, I saw a sincere twinkle in his eye. Itwascute. “I live in Denver. I’m thirty-two years old, never married, and I would like three children. What a weird question to ask someone you just met.” He cracked up laughing, knowing full well Idid notask him that.
“So, you must come here often, then. What is it, four hours away?”
“About that, yeah. I come up here occasionally. I was here a few weeks ago to scope out which place to stay for this trip; hence, our brief, but magical encounter playing Chopsticks.”
He winked at me again, and I felt all the signals in my brain misfire. That guy wassmooth—so much, in fact, that I nearly forgot about his relationship status.
“And… your girlfriend?”
He squinted his eyes together in confusion.
“The bartender.”
He slowly nodded before bursting into laughter, recalling the exchange. “Ah, no, definitely notmy girlfriend. That would be fifty shades of weird and probably illegal.”
My eyebrows raised at his laughter, anticipating his explanation for what was so funny.
“That is my cousin, Sheila. We are only a month apart in age. Sheila’s always been like a sister to me. She just moved here for the season, and before that, she lived with Sasha, Timothy’s fiancé, in Denver. She’s the hugging type, and now I can’t wait to tell her someone thought we weretogether. I bet she will never do it again. I am about as single as it gets.” He was cracking up left and right.
“Is that so?” Though I still wasn’t sure where this exchange was leading to, I was glad to know he didn’t have a girlfriend.
“Yes. I haven’t had a relationship in a long time. Between life and work, I don’t know… I guess I haven’t really been looking.”
We continued to talk and despite my best efforts to do a deep dive on just why that gorgeous man was single, before I knew it, the conversation shifted back to me, and I had told him everything: about getting dumped, turning thirty, and learning how to ski at my therapist’s suggestion; about getting fired after my design for the new Sage Mountain Airport lounge got rejected by my boss, and how she had called it “cliché,” and how hurtful that had been.
It seemed like he wanted to say something when I finished spewing out my life story, but he remained silent. The conversation fell flat, but the chemistry between us was palpable. It was right then when I saw I was ten minutes late for the second half of my ski lesson.
“Shoot. I better go. It was great chatting with you and thanks again for saving me back there. I’ll see you on the slopes, if Tara will still have me, that is!”
“I hope to see you again, Claire.”
My cheeks flushed, and I felt myself lingering. Truthfully, I would ditch Tara in a heartbeat to spend moretime with that man, but I wasn’t there for that. I was there for the commitment I made to skiing and for the grace of God that Mickey invited me there to ski for free. And because of that, I was there representing my church. I was about to kneel in prayer for the strength to walk away when my phone rang. Mickey was wondering where I was.
“Uh oh. I need to go. See you later, Blake.” I tore out of the Peaks Lounge, racing until I made it back to the fireplace. The group was nowhere to be found. Then, I realized they wouldn’t be waiting for me in the lobby. I ran down the stairs to the ski boot room where I found my entire group dressed and geared up. I shook my head in shame.
“It’s not what it looks like, guys. I totally lost track of time while I was, umm…”
“Mhmmm.” Mickey dramatically crossed his arms and shook his head. “Kids, this is what not marrying your high school sweetheart amounts to. The first good looking guy with fantastic taste in baseball that you romantically run into at a ski resort, you forget all about why you’re here in the first place…”
