My throat strains at that, and I nod in response.
“You want to grab a cup of coffee?” he asks.
“I think I’m going to shower,” I say, thumbing towards my cabin door. “Long day ahead of us.”
“Yeah, Holly said we are doing dance lessons,” he says, and I laugh.
Then I turn to go inside, but just as I push the door open, he stops me. “Aren’t you wearing the same thing you had on yesterday? At the slopes?”
I stop, look down, and don’t know what to say.
“I…uh…”
Ben grins. “I heard there was a bonfire last night and a couple people got lucky. See? Getting back on the saddle isn’t so hard, is it?”
“I…yeah…”
“What happens in the mountains stays in the mountains.” He chuckles and walks away.
Jesus Christ.
If he only knew.
* * *
“She should be here any moment,” Charlotte says, smiling at the wedding party. We are back in the event room, but all the tables have been moved out of the way to make room for dancing. “She just messaged me last night and said she might be a little late.”
“Why do we need a choreographer again?” Jordan asks, taking Josie by the hand and spinning her around, then pulling her back towards him again. “Some of us can dance just fine.”
“We need it choreo’d because we are doing specific dances,” Holly explains. “The bridesmaids and groomsmen together, mother daughter…”
“Father son,” I say, putting my arm around Ben.
“Yeah, you might not wanna hold your breath on that one,” he says, and everyone laughs. Everyone except Charlotte, that is. Her face has sunk like an ice cream cone in summer heat as she stares at her phone.
“That’s her now,” she says with feigned, forced optimism. “I’m just going to take this outside.”
Luckily, no one seems too worried, but I follow Charlotte out anyway because I know better. Plus, I’m curious.
“Crap. Crap, crap, crap,” she mutters as she paces in front of the fire pits.
“Is that PG swearing I hear?” I ask as I approach her.
“She’s not coming,” Charlotte blurts out.
“Who’s not coming?” I ask. Charlotte is wearing jeans that give her an ass that won’t quit. And her sweater is low-cut enough in the front to showcase the fact that she has a very nice set of tits. The girl’s gotta be wearing a push-up, because damn. All that to say, I am a bit distracted from what we are talking about.
“Ramona’s not coming. The choreographer. She just flaked on me, and we are supposed to have that room of people dancing in sync in a couple of days! Now, we have no choreographer and weare in the mountains, so I can’t just pull another choreographer out of thin air. By the way, the air up here really is thin, isn’t it? I can’t breathe,” she gasps, pressing her hand to her chest.
“Whoa, whoa,” I smile, stepping closer. “It’s going to be okay. It’s not a crisis; we can figure something out.”
Before I can put an arm around her for reassurance, Charlotte pulls away and starts pacing again, this time with more flailing action. “Itisa crisis! What are we going to do?”
“Surely you’ve dealt with things like this before. People not showing up or having to rearrange things,” I say.
“I have, but I’m usually not in the middle of nowhere. This is my first destination wedding,” she admits, biting her lip in shame. All I want to do is kiss her, but I don’t. I won’t. I can’t.
“Listen. We’ll figure it out. If there is anything Holly and Ben are, it’s flexible. We’ll just…do the Thriller dance or something,” I say.
