have been knocking together if she wasn’t wearing so many layers.
She wouldn’t let this fear rob her or her son of the memories they might build together. The past two years had been about finding the requisite courage to tackle the next thing. Going back to work. Christopher’s first birthday without his dad. Facing their wedding anniversary on her own.
This was a small thing. And anyway, it helped to know Ethan was there.
“Let’s go,” she said, hoping he didn’t hear the quaver in her voice. “This will be fun.”
“Yay!” Christopher did a little shuffling dance around her and she had to laugh. This was why she could tackle her fear. She didn’t want to raise a timid child who never wanted to try new things. The only way to ensure that was to show him by example that she wasn’t afraid.
Ethan led the way to the attendant at the bottom of the lift, a young man with blond dreadlocks and a goatee. “Hi, Mr. Lancaster,” the guy said, with a sort of awed reverence in his voice.
“Evening, Luke,” he answered with a smile. Abby could tell the kid hadn’t expected the big boss to know his name. “This is our first time. From what I understand, we can choose the speed of both our tube and the run we pick at the top, right?”
“Correct. The faster tubes are the yellow ones. Blue ones are slightly slower.”
“Three blue tubes, then. Thanks.”
“Coming right up.”
The kid went to a pile of tubes and came back with three blue ones. “You know what to do from here?”
“Walk us through it, why don’t you,” Ethan suggested.
“Sure thing. See that big tube right there with all the lights on it? There’s a moving sidewalk inside it that will take you up the hill.”
“Like a magic carpet?” Christopher asked.
Abby had to smile. Right now the Disney movie with the magic carpet was his absolute favorite.
“Just like that, bud,” the guy said with a grin. “We even call it the magic carpet. Except you’re all standing on the same magic carpet and it’s only going to one place, the top of the hill. Hold your tubes on the lift in front of you. Once you get to the top, you just step off and my pal Becky will be there to direct you to the run you want, which all depends on how fast you want to go.”
“Slow,” Ethan said at the same moment Christopher said “Super fast.”
“You can work that out at the top. That’s all you need to know. You can go down as many times as you want. Especially when you’re with the boss who owns the whole mountain, right?” he said with a grin toward Ethan.
She supposed that did carry a few privileges.
“All right,” Ethan said. “Thanks for your help, Luke. Say hi to your mom for me.”
“I’ll do that,” he said, still sounding a little awed.
“Do you know all your employees’ names?” Abby asked as they headed toward the large tunnel illuminated by red and green neon lights.
“I should. But not even close,” he said. “Luke’s mom has worked at the front desk at the main Lancaster Silver Bells hotel in town since before I was a kid. Jolene is kind of a fixture.”
“That’s nice,” Abby said, her nerves jumping again as they approached the tunnel.
Ethan gave her a careful look. Could he see her fear written on her face?
“How about this, Christopher,” he said. “I’ll hold your tube and take it up for you while you hold your mom’s hand.”
“Okay,” her sweet son said happily, holding out his mitten for her. She grasped it tightly. Holding her tube in front of her with the other hand, as Luke had instructed, she stepped onto the moving sidewalk, which made a gradual ascent up the side of the mountain.
Once they reached the top, they were met by another attendant in the same official ski-resort jacket.
It was much easier to focus on her than on how far they had to tube down.
“Hi, Mr. Lancaster.” The young woman at the top of the lift was obviously expecting them, probably warned by her cohort below through the two-way radios they carried. “How fun to see you up here!”
“Hi, Becky,” he said courteously. “How have you enjoyed working up here on the tubing hill?”
“It rocks.” She beamed, her long braids beneath her beanie swinging. “Seriously. Everybody’s having so much fun. You and Mr. Navarro were so smart to put this in.”
“It was all José’s idea,” Ethan said.
Despite her