Noah laughed. “Jessa, why don’t you head back down to the resort and get yourself a plate of nachos?”
She pursed her lips and looked at Megan. “I don’t want to ditch her up here.”
Megan laughed. “Honestly, Jessa, I’ll have a lot more fun not having to chase you screaming down the mountain.”
Jessa rolled her eyes. “Okay. Okay. I see when I’m not wanted.”
Noah moved closer to her and put his arm around her waist. “Think of it this way. You can get off the mountain and eat nachos. Megan can get a few runs in. And I can do my job without worrying about you dying in a ditch. Win, win, win!”
Jessa giggled. “Well, when you put it that way, fine. Have fun, Megan. Noah, be my escort?”
“My pleasure.”
“Don’t go fucking in the woods, you two,” Megan said. She pushed away from them.
“We already have,” Jessa called back as they moved to ski down the mountain at a slower pace.
Megan snorted and fixed her goggles back over her eyes before pushing herself forward down the mountain. She carved down to the bottom of the run and skidded to a stop just before the ski lift. Since Jessa had left, Megan decided to try an intermediate run.
She sat on the lift and let it carry her up the mountain while she looked out over all the skiers and snowboarders below her. The air was chilly but crisp, and she relished the feel of the soft snowflakes landing on her face. While she wasn’t fond of the cold weather, being here was an exception.
When the ski lift deposited her at the top of the mountain, she skied to the left until she found a run labeled with a blue square. She pushed herself off and skied down, carving across the run, taking in the fresh air. This was her happy place—skiing and the fresh smell.
She made it down the run easily and decided she needed to push herself harder. She skied over to the lift and took it back up, working her way across the top until she found a run labeled with a black diamond.
“Here goes nothing,” she said to herself before gliding forward. She carved back and forth, enjoying the feel of the powder spraying up around her.
She wasn’t sure what took her focus off her skis, but Megan turned her head to look over at the side of the run in the bank of trees when she swore she saw a flash of red of Noah’s coat and the purple pattern of Jessa’s. Her eyes widened, and she clipped the edge of her ski. Her heart stopped temporarily as she swore her life flashed before her eyes when she hit the ground, expecting pain to shoot through her. She skidded several feet down the run before coming to a stop. Too stunned to move, she lay there breathing heavily. Her body was sore, but not nearly as pained as she expected. She stared up into the sky and said aquick thank you for all the snow coming down that undoubtedly softened her fall.
“Are you okay?” A ski patroller wearing a red coat, who she quickly realized was Jeff, leaned over her. He reached a hand down and pulled her to her feet.
“I think so,” she said. “You saw that?”
He bit his lip to contain his smile, which he was doing a poor job of. “I did.”
“Great.” Megan looked around and back up to where she thought she saw Noah and Jessa. “So how often do people have sex in the woods?”
“Uh.” Jeff’s eyebrows furrowed, and he scratched the back of his neck as his face slowly turned red. “It’s frowned upon, if that’s what you’re asking.”
Megan burst out laughing. “No. No, I’m not suggesting we have sex.” She gestured toward the mountain. “I swear I just saw Noah and Jessa.”
Jeff rolled his eyes. “It wouldn’t be the first time. Those two are rabbits.”
“Seriously?”
He nodded. “Where did you see them?”
“Up there.”
“Want to go on an adventure?” Jeff asked.
Megan laughed. “Is it pervy of us to go check?”
He shrugged. “Honestly, the way I see it is that they are close enough to the run that you saw them, which means other people will too. Plus, it looks like you lost a ski up there anyway, so we need to go get that.”
Megan looked back up the run to where her ski sat in the snow. He had a point. Megan collected one ski and her poles, walking back up the mountain with Jeff, who was also packing his own. When they got to her other lost ski, she looked around.
“Looks like I ate it about there,” she said, pointing to an area where her ski had clearly dug into the snow. A few more skiers came down the run, flying by them. “So they’re in the woods right up there.”
