‘You’ve got slim skis,’ she pointed out.
‘But big feet,’ Luc countered.
‘Very big feet,’ she agreed, tensing as they started to move again.
Stacey’s throat dried as she stared down the abyss. Her job had taken her to some surprising places, but nothing like this. Only desperation to know if she was pregnant, and to see the team again so she could get the final plans for the party under way, could make her grit her teeth and carry on. Was this her preferred method of descending a mountain? If Luc hadn’t been involved, her answer would be a firm no.
Nothing about being with Lucas is normal.Get used to it, her inner voice advised.
And she did. After the first few frightening drops, shimmies and turns, Luc tracked across the entire width of the slope, before stopping to make sure she was okay to continue. ‘Enjoy it,’ he urged. ‘This is the closest you’ll come to flight without leaving the ground.’
She forced a laugh. ‘Please don’t leave the ground. I saw those drops from the gondola before the storm closed in.’
‘Don’t worry. I ski this slope several times a day when I’m here, so I know it like the back of my hand.’
‘How often do you look at the back of your hand?’
He laughed and they were off again, though not straight down as she had feared, but swooping from side to side in a rhythmical pattern she could almost get used to, if she could only close her mind to the fear of what seemed to her to be a controlled fall down the mountain.
‘Relax,’ Luc murmured against her cheek the next time he brought them to a halt. His mouth was so close they shared the same crisp champagne air.
‘I want to trust you. Honestly I do. I trusted you with my body, so it should only be a small step to trust you with my life, shouldn’t it?’ Her laugh sounded tense, even to her, and Luc’s expression was unreadable.
‘There are no small steps up here,’ she observed with a twist of her mouth. ‘It’s all giant leaps and furious speed, and I don’t get how you do it while I’m standing on the front of your skis. It’s a miracle I don’t quite believe in yet.’
‘Just believe I’ll keep you safe. That’s all you need to do,’ Luc told her with an easy shrug. And with that they were off again, skimming down the slope.
Surprising herself, Stacey found her confidence gradually growing as she got used to the speed. It helped that Luc made regular stops ‘to check she was still breathing’, as he jokingly put it.
‘I’m tougher than I look,’ she assured him.
‘No mistaking that,’ he said.
No mistake at all. With Luc’s body moulded tightly to hers, she wasn’t skiing, she was flying, and with the wind in her face and his heat behind her, the experience was wonderful, magical. There was silence all around, apart from the swish of skis on snow, and not one other person on the mountain to disturb the solitude. It was just the two of them, equally dependent on the cooperation of the other. ‘I can see the houses in the village,’ she called out at last.
Luc cruised to a halt. The mist had cleared, and the snow had stopped falling, leaving the sky above an improbable shade of unrelieved blue. ‘Suddenly, I feel optimistic,’ she exclaimed excitedly, turning to look at him.
‘Me too,’ Luc agreed in more considered tone. ‘This is perfect weather for the party.’
The party.Something went flat inside her. She didn’t want to be reminded that her whole purpose in being here was to arrange a party for Luc. But those were the bald facts. He was thinking ahead, while she was guilty of living in the moment.
‘If only the gondolas were running,’ she remarked, staring up in a failed attempt to distract herself from the hurt inside her. They were halfway down the mountain, but there was no sign of any small cabins bobbing along. ‘I would have thought that with the return of reasonably good weather they’d be running by now.’
‘Wind damage,’ Luc explained, following her gaze before tightening his grip around her waist and setting off again. ‘Each part of the system will have to be thoroughly checked before they’re operational,’ he yelled in her ear.
‘But your guests…’
‘Don’t worry,’ he shouted back. ‘I’ve got an idea to transport them up the mountain.’
‘I’m intrigued.’
‘And I’m hungry. Are you up for going a bit faster with no stops until we reach the village?’
‘Yes!’ Stacey surprised herself with how much she wanted this. Testing herself with Luc at her back was easy. She felt so safe with him, and happier than she had been in a long time. Whatever the future held they’d have much to celebrate. And if that future didn’t promise to be exactly conventional, the prospect of maybe having a child to crown that happiness was a precious gift she looked forward to, no matter what.
There was no point thinkingif only, Luc reflected as he slowed at the approach to the nursery slopes bordering the village. He’d done too much of that.If onlyhis parents had lived to see how successful his brothers and sister had become.If onlythey could share his good fortune. And now,if onlythey had lived to see their first grandchild. Wherever he was in life, and whatever the circumstances, the guilt he bore sat on his shoulder like an ugly crow waiting to peck out his happiness.
Stacey whooped with exhilaration as he slowed to a stop, then she noticed his expression and asked with concern, ‘You okay?’
