“I know, I know,” I say. “Heels apart.”
“Glide straight. You don’t need to turn on the bunny hill,” he goes on. “And remember, the wider the pizza slice, the–”
“I got it, I got it!” I say, and while I am still shaking in my boots, the idea of him having an edge on me pisses me off. I’m ready to put the mountain between us, even if it is just a hill.
I take a deep breath and push off. A screech leaves my mouth as I start to sail.
“There you go, you got it!” I hear Gavin say behind me. And for a minute, I believe I really did get it.
For a minute, I am shooting down the hill, the crisp wind in my hair and the world below me. I let out a whoop of victory, reveling in all the ways I can rub this in his face when I reach the bottom. Suddenly, I realize just how quickly I am coming to the bottom. At the bottom there are about a hundred people just hanging out. Most of them are children who apparently weren’t told not to play where people who don’t know how to turn are coming in hot off the hill.
What did he say about stopping again? The smaller the pizza slice, the faster the slow down? No. The larger the pizza…
Crap.
I am in full-blown panic mode as I near the crowd of people. I’m unable to figure out the pizza sizes and what they have to do with my feet, so I resort to flailing and yelling.
“Out of the way! Look out!” I scream before losing my balance and landing face-first in a soft fluff of snow.
“Charlotte? Charlotte!” Gavin’s voice is muffled because I’m literally stuck cartoonishly in the mound of snow. But a moment later, I am being lifted out.
“Are you okay?” he asks.
“You know, I’ve never been much of a pizza fan if I’m being honest,” I say with a small, delirious smile.
Chapter 27
Gavin
“You really don’t haveto do this,” Charlotte protests as I carry her from the snowmobile to her cabin. She took a nasty spill on the slope, well, the bunny hill, and while it seemed like a soft landing, I do feel like it was my fault. I was the one after all who encouraged her to slip on a set of skis in the first place.
“You were limping when you got up,” I say as I turn sideways to get through the door. She’s a tiny little thing, but ski boots are rather bulky, making it hard for her to bend her legs.
“Well, it is kind of hard to walk in skis,” she tells me. “Seriously, Gavin. Josie should be back from the slopes soon, and if I need anything, she can take care of me.”
“Josie?” I ask, setting Charlotte down on the bed. “Pretty sure I saw her and Jordan heading off to the brewery. From the looks of it, she’s going to be gone for a while.”
“You don’t know Josie,” she laughs.
“Yeah, but I know Jordan. He’s my son’s slickest friend,” I laugh, and Charlotte’s eyes widen. “But he’s a nice guy too, don’t worry.”
“Right,” she rolls her eyes. “You were supposed to be a nice guy too, and look what happened with us.”
I can’t help but grin at that, and I sit down on the bed with her. “I never claimed to be nice.” I tell her, crawling closer to her.
“What are you doing?” she whispers through a smile. “Someone is going to see.”
“You think people are peeking through the windows now?” I ask.
“I’m just saying. Ben is here, and it’s just not a good idea to…What are you doing?” she asks as I get off the bed and close the blinds.
“Giving us more privacy,” I say.
“Gavin! We can’t fool around!”
“Who said anything about fooling around?” I ask, crawling back on the bed and lying on my side to face her.
“Really?” she asks. “You have no ulterior motive whatsoever right now?”
