“So, Juliet, where are we headed to first?” Kylen asks as we climb the stairs. “I know you want to go ice skating really badly.”
“I do. How do you feel about it?”
“I haven’t gone in a long time, and I can’t say I was good at it, but I’d love to go with you.”
I feel all warm and fuzzy inside. “Thanks. But we can do another activity first, one you’ll enjoy better.”
“You sure? I don’t mind.”
“I’m worried I won’t want to leave once I get there,” I admit. “So it makes sense to do something else first.”
“Ah. Got it. So…snowtubing?”
“Okay.”
The shuttle is set to arrive in twenty minutes, so my friends and I quickly get dressed and meet the guys outside. Kylen’s friends are joining as well, but they stand far away from us, as though they want to give us total privacy. My friends seem to be doing the same.
The shuttle arrives right on time and then transports us to the location. I’ve gone snowtubing before, but it’s so much more exciting to experience this with Kylen. He and I take single tubes and make our way up the mountain.
“Want to race?” he asks me.
“Sure.”
We settle down in our tubes and, after counting to three, we launch. It’s obvious that Kylen has more of a chance at winning because he’s heavier than me and is sliding much faster than me, but it’s fun either way. Kylen lifts his arms above his head and yells, “Woohoo!”
With a smile, I raise my arms above my head and cry out, too, feeling free like I did when I looked out the window earlier today. Kylen reaches the bottom way before me, but when I do, he wraps his arms around me and lifts me in the air with such power that I’m airborne for a second before my boots hit the snowy ground.
“That was awesome!” I say. “Let’s go again.”
This time, before Kylen launches off, he reaches over and holds out his hand. I smile as I place mine inside. We count to three again and launch. Holding his hand like this as we slidedown the mountain feels so incredible. It’s almost as if we’re telling each other that we’ve got each other, no matter what. We’ll never let go.
He’s kind of pulling me along because he’s moving faster, and that leads me to have such a fun ride that I can’t help but cheer the entire time. Kylen chuckles and yells, “You’re cute, do you know that?”
I freeze for a second, but then I yell back, “You know you’re cute, too?”
He winks. “Not as cute as you.”
Oh my gosh. We are totally flirting with each other.
I don’t have a chance to linger on that for too long because we reach the bottom of the mountain with such force that I nearly topple over in my tube. Thank goodness that Kylen didn’t let go of my hand.
He quickly gets out of his tube and helps me out of mine. “Are you okay? I thought you would have for sure flipped over.”
“I’m okay,” I assure him. “Thanks to you. You’re like my hero.”
He raises his hand and pushes up my beanie that’s falling into my eyes. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but I like being your hero.”
“I like it, too.”
The smile on his face is so sweet and warm that it once again melts my insides. “Do you want to try a double tube?”
“Sure! That’ll be fun.”
We reach the top of the mountain with our blue double tube and sit in it, with me in the front and him in the back. Even though I can’t see him, I once again feel protected by his close proximity.
We cheer as we slide down the mountain, with Kylen yelling at the top of his lungs. That makes me laugh. When we reach the bottom, he once again lifts me out of the tube, but this time,he wraps me in his arms and says, “I’m having so much fun with you. I wish we could spend every single second of every day together.”
I look into his eyes and see how sincere they are. I’m about to respond, but an attendant shouts at us to clear the area so the next person won’t crash into us. Kylen takes my hand in his and leads me away from there, his other hand lugging the tube.
