“Oof!” Maisy falls back onto her ass, snapping my attention back to our lesson.
“Ready to try again?” I ask after she’s pushed herself back up. “You’re not distributing your weight enough.”
She lets out a frustrated growl and rips off her gloves, the ones I gave her, and throws them to the snow.
“This shouldn’t be so hard!” I walk over to the gloves and bend down to pick them up. “I’m a pro skier, my brother runs a god-damn ski lodge, and I’ve been surrounded by snowboarders my entire life. This should be easy for me.”
I stay crouched, staring down at the gloves as I try to find the right words.
“It doesn’t matter that you’re a pro at a similar sport, or that your brother owns a ski lodge, or that you’ve been surrounded by snowboarders your entire life,” I say, standing up and walking over to her. “You’re still learning something new, and learning a new skill isn’t supposed to be easy. That’s what makes it feel so rewarding when you finally get it right, Mais.”
She doesn’t say anything as I gently take her hands and slide the gloves back onto them, but I see the fire return to her eyes and I know my words resonated with her.
“Let’s go again, and I’ll guide you this time. Okay?”
She nods and gets into position, still making the same error as before. I walk over to the board I brought for this lesson, clipping my boot into it, and sliding the board over to where she is before clipping my other boot in once I’m behind her.
Gently, I reach over and place my hands on either side of her waist, feeling her tense instantly.
“Relax your body,” I say, waiting until she listens before I correct her posture. “Let’s try and carve down to the green flag all the way down there.”
She gives me a short nod and we start, my hands on her waist the whole time. I feel her shifting her weight early and then late as we move into the curve of the carve together, but I correct her each time and slowly she begins to do it herself.
“There you go,” I say, unable to keep the pride out of my voice as she does a perfect carve when I let go. “You’re doing it!”
No sooner are the words out of my mouth before she falls, not giving me enough time to avoid her. I fall on top of her, catching myself before my face collides with hers.
“I’m so sorry,” she whispers, her big blue eyes staring up at mine.
“We’ve really got to stop finding ourselves in this position,” I say with a grin. “Someone might report us to your brother for inappropriate mountain behaviour.”
I expect her to snap at me for being obnoxious, but instead, Maisy does something that absolutely catches me off guard.
She hits me with a snowball.
“You did not just do that,” I say, watching as she tries to bite back a grin of her own.
I reach back, unclip my boots from my board, and sit up on my knees.
“I hate to break it to you but?—”
I don’t let her finish as I throw a snowball directly at her face. Her mouth drops open, and she stares at me shocked before I see the glimmer of competitiveness sparkle in her eyes.
“Maisy,” I say in a warning tone as I stand to my feet, watching as she unclips her boots from the board. “Maisy, you don’t want to do this.”
“Do what, exactly?” she asks innocently while gathering a pile of snow and shaping it into a ball.
“You know that your aim sucks,” I taunt, grabbing my own handful of snow and shaping it fast.
I watch her twist to the side and rear her arm back before she whips the snowball directly at my head. I duck just as it whizzes over my helmet.
What the fuck?
I slowly stand, jaw on the ground as I stare at her smirking back at me. “Correction,” Maisy says, picking up another handful of snow. “My aimsucked. Past tense.”
She throws another one, and this time it hits me square in the shoulder. I whip mine at her, but she jumps out of the way just before it hits her.
“Okay, Hart.” I nod, feeling the competitiveness flare to life inside of me as I gather more snow. “You’re on.”
