I wiggled my toes around in the rented ski boots. They were a little squished, but I could still feel them. That was good. My skis swayed back and forth. I practiced getting them into position before the lift reached back to the top of the mountain.
I turned around and waved at Tate behind us.
“I can’t believe Tate brought us on a surprise ski day. Did you know about this?” I asked Ruby.
I could barely see my sister bundled up under all of her gear.
She shook her head. “I told you. I found some ancient skis in that shack behind the house, and then Tate asked me when your next day off was. That’s it. I had no idea.”
“Uh-huh, you didn’t convince him that he needed to take us skiing? What did you say to him, exactly?”
“Kenzie, chill out. I did not pester Tate to take us skiing. He asked if I skied. So, duh, I told him I ski-boarded and that you skied. I may have mentioned that I hadn’t been skiing since last year’s school ski day, but I didn’t do anything.”
I didn’t know if I believed her. I knew how persistent Ruby could be. I wasn’t mad about it. I liked skiing too. The biggest part of my concern was that I let Tate convince me that skipping a day of school wouldn’t hurt Ruby’s grades. It was just one day. There was no way I was going to go skiing without her, so I gave in.
The lift got close to the top. I focused on getting my skis facing forward. I didn’t want to be that person again. I had already fallen flat on my ass the first time I tried to get off the lift today.
I had successfully entertained Tate and the guys running the lift when I slid from the chair to my feet to my butt and couldn’t stop laughing. I didn’t want to fall again. My ability to be the cool ski bunny was shot. Falling negated the image. I was far from cool and graceful.
I was the fat, clumsy chick. I had to own it. It was so embarrassing. I used to dominate on this mountain. I was on it every week my junior and senior years of high school. I was that jerk child who labeled other skiers as slope bunnies and clumsy chicks.
My fat butt… well, I always had extra padding for falling. That wasn’t my issue. It was the falling. I didn’t want Tate to see me as some pitiful, untalented idiot on skis. And I hated that I was basically handing Ruby all the fodder she would need to harass me for the next ten years.
She was graceful and smooth. She boarded, on snow and on wheels, better than she walked.
My first run down the mountain had been slow. There was muscle memory buried in the depths of my thighs that needed reawakening. Ruby literally lapped me, sliding past me a second time while I was still winding my way down.
Tate went even slower than I had. At first, I thought he was new on the slopes. No, he was trying to be nice.
Jerk.
“Second time’s a charm,” I said as I watched the approaching dismount. I pulled my goggles over my eyes. With a little hop, I was out of the seat and on my feet.
The guys running the lift had their hands out to help. I grabbed onto the guy’s offered hand. “You got it,” he said.
I slid out of the way and waited for Tate.
“See you later!” Ruby called out as she landed on her board and leaned into the slope. She was off like a shot, zigzagging around other slowpokes like me.
Tate dismounted like some kind of Olympic athlete.
“Are you ready?” he asked.
“Are you going to mock me all the way down again?” I lifted my goggles and glared at him.
“I wasn’t mocking you, Kenzie.”
“You totally were. You kept going super slow and just stayed behind me.”
He laughed. “I was enjoying the view.”
I looked around at the trees and the snow and the side of the mountain. The sky was a beautiful clear blue color. He was right, it was a really pretty day.
“It is beautiful out here,” I agreed.
“I wasn’t talking about the scenery, Kenzie. Your ass in those snow pants is a sight to behold.” He leaned over, smacked me in the butt, and then went swish-swish-swish down the slope like he was born on skis.
Mocking me.
I no longer went swish-swish. My thighs couldn’t remember. My knees didn’t want to stay bent. I went groaning and complaining. This was harder than it should have been. Especially when I used to be really good at skiing.
I was the slowest person on the slope, being passed by kids barely big enough to walk zipping past me on their triangle-shaped trainer skis. I didn’t want to even think about the kids on the snowboards. They all looked like munchkins from the ‘merry old land of Oz’. It wasn’t fair.
I pouted my way down the slope, wiping my cold nose on the back of my sleeve.
Tate in his mountainous glory of height was easy to spot at the bottom of the slope. I eased up close to him, too aware of how awkward I was when he grabbed my arm. Five years earlier, I would have snow plowed right up to him and sprayed him with powder.
“Where’s Ruby?”
“She’s on her way back up. You doing okay?” he asked.
“It was easier the last time I did this. How come you’re so good?”
“I grew up skiing.”
“I did too, but I’m out here like somebody’s grandma, afraid to fall and break a hip. You took off like some downhill speed demon.” I might have whined a little too much. I was trying to joke, but it came out all wrong.
Tate didn’t exactly stick out his tongue, but he placed the tip of his tongue against his upper lip as he leaned in close. He let out a heavy breath. “Kenzie, sweetheart. You aren’t exactly all that active.”
I rolled my eyes. I put my hand on his chest and pushed him away. “I walk. Are you saying I’m fat?” I mastered the teasing tone I had been trying for.
Tate looked me up and down, and I swear he swiped drool out of the corner of his mouth with his thumb. I felt that look in my core as if he had scanned me with his hands and not his eyes.
“You say fat, I say delicious. I meant no insult to your shape, which I find extremely beguiling, but rather to the strength of your muscles. We can go slow, and hopefully, you’ll want to come skiing again with me. Build up that strength.”
“Are you flirting with me?” I asked.
“Hell yes, I am. I didn’t bring you out here to cause you any kind of physical or mental distress,” he said.
“No? Then why did you bring us skiing?”
“To show off. You grew up on and off these slopes. I can’t imagine that you would want a man who didn’t know how to ski.”
He had a point. But skiing had fallen off my list of what was important five years ago. I never thought I’d have an opportunity for it to become important to me again.
“I think I can take it one more time,” I admitted, looking up at all the skiers making their way down to the rest area where we stood.
“Shall we?” Tate escorted me to the lift.
The ride up was easy, fun. Tate made me laugh.
“So, you brought me out here to show off. But did I pass your test? You can ski, yay. But apparently, I can’t anymore. Does that score me lower on your tally sheet?”
“Kenzie, you are already perfect on my tally sheet.”
I laughed. “This mountain air is making you delusional.”
“Not delusional, but I am looking forward to snuggling under blankets with hot chocolate after we get home.”
“Are you forgetting there’s a thirteen-year-old who will be in between us?” I pointed out that Ruby would be there.
“Is she clueless, or purposefully acting like a chaperone?” Tate asked.
“A little of both.”
About halfway down, Ruby passed us again.
“Wait up!” Tate called before jumping and gaining speed.
He waited for me a few hundred yards down hill. “I told her this was your last run and to go ahead and do another run if she wanted, but to meet us in the lodge when she was done.”
“Don’t you want to do another run with her?” I asked.
“I’m showing off for you, Kenzie. That means after displaying my skills on the slopes, I have to get you hot chocolate by a fire. That way, you know I’m a package deal.”
“You’re crazy, Tate. You know that, right?”
He guided me down to the lodge, staying with me the whole way when I knew he wanted to go faster downhill. I knew I would have wanted to go faster.
“You losers ready to go already?” Ruby found us about an hour later in the lounge area of the lodge. I had my stockinged feet propped on a footrest and my hands wrapped around an almost empty mocha.
“That was not one more run,” I pointed out.
“So I went twice.” Ruby shrugged. “Sue me.”
“I’ll make you clean the kitchen after dinner,” I said.
“You can clean my kitchen. Dinner at my place,” Tate said. “Let’s go turn your gear in.”
I watched as they walked back to the rental office. Even though I felt physically unable to keep up, I really enjoyed today. It felt like what life used to be like and not what my life had become, all work and worry.
