It was a fair question, but she didn’t like the answer. “You didn’t bring anything to cut it down with?”
“Sure, I did.” Unsheathing a small knife from his back pocket, Buddy smiled. “I brought this. And I brought you.”
She groaned. That didn’t feel like a viable solution. “What other options do we have?”
“I can get on your shoulders, but I’m six-three and two-hundred pounds, so unless you’re a champion in weightlifting, it might be a struggle.”
The only thing Rachel was currently a champion in was turning as red as a holly berry. Her cheeks flamed with a blush that had her loosening her scarf.
“Fine. I’ll get on your shoulders.”
“I promise I won’t drop you,” he assured, crouching down. “That only happened once. And don’t worry, her nose healed just fine.”
Rachel’s snow boots rooted in place.
“I’m kidding.” He waved her closer and snickered a low laugh. “Come on. Hop on up.”
She sucked in a confident breath, but the cold air only tightened her lungs and burned her chest. What did she have to lose? Reaching deep for motivation, she hiked one leg over Buddy’s broad shoulder, then the other. She wasn’t sure why she was altogether unprepared for his hands to reach up to clasp onto hers while he gently pressed up to full height, but even with her gloves as a barrier, Rachel’s palms sweat.
“How you doing up there?” His head tilted back just enough to catch her gaze but not set her off-balance.
She gulped. “Air’s a little thinner.”
He chuckled, then shuffled across the snow toward the pine tree, each shaky step forward making Rachel wobble from her perch atop his shoulders. She clamped her hands harder around him.
“I will not let you fall.”
“I know.” She nodded, but abruptly stopped when the slight movement made her sway.
She’d never been much of a tree hugger, but once that evergreen was within arm’s reach, Rachel released his grasp and shot her hands up over her head to cling to the closest branches. The action anchored her slightly, but her stomach still felt as though she was on a sailboat, tossed around in tumultuous waters.
When Buddy also transferred his grip to her ankles, Rachel gasped.
“See that right there?” he indicated with a tip of his chin.
“Right where?” She scanned the tree.
“Right in front of you. The part that looks a little different from the rest of that branch.”
It all looked the same to her. In fact, everything on this mountain looked the same, a winter wonderland full of snow-dusted conifers and fresh-powder peaks. Rachel wasn’t even sure how Buddy had known which route to take down the hill. It was all a sea of indistinguishable white.
At one point in time, she’d known her way around Snowdrift. Knew the scenery hidden under the blanket of snow that cloaked the landscape for months at a time. But years away removed that familiarity, and it was as though the veil of snow tucked the memories beneath it too.
“Do you see what I’m talking about?”
Rachel drew herself out of the nostalgia and set her focus on the task at hand. The sooner she could identify the mistletoe, the sooner she could get her feet back onto solid ground and off of the sturdy shoulders of the man that had her heart ticking much too quickly for her liking.
“All I see are some clusters of greenish-orange needles, but nothing that resembles mistletoe.”
“That’s it.”
She blinked. “Thisis what you brought me all the way down this mountain to see?” She reached for the ugly barbs and touched them with the tip of her glove.
“Cut some off and I’ll make sure it’s what we’re looking for, but that should be it.” Holding onto just one ankle with a firm grip, Buddy passed off the knife with his other hand. “I told you it looked different from what you’re used to.”
Yeah, no kidding. It looked like a clump of grass clippings. Swallowing down her disappointment, Rachel angled the knife’s serrated edge along the woody stem and began to saw back and forth. Even though only her arms moved, her entire body shifted with the effort, and Buddy slid his large hands further up toward her knees to lock her in place.
“You good?”
