were up. I leaned back as he pushed up the safety bar, and we both scooted forward, and zoom, we were off. I wobbled a little as I skidded to a halt with far less grace than Archie, who skidded to the side like an expert. He and Jake were pretty awesome to watch on skis. I hadn’t really gotten to see Ian in action yet, but I was waiting.
One by one, the others joined us. Coop was a damn natural. I stuck my tongue out at him as he slid to a stop and turned so he landed right next to me. He chuckled and then wrapped a hand around my nape and kissed me.
For one second, my heart stopped and alarm rang through me. We’d been so careful about public displays, and then it fell away as his lips firmed against mine. He gentled the kiss only when I relaxed and sighed into it.
“If they weren’t both green, I’d leave them,” Jake drawled with more amusement than anything else.
A faint snap pulled my head back, and I glanced over to find Ian aiming his phone at me and Coop. “Just adding it to the collection,” he explained, but the smile on his face and the ease around us relaxed me even more.
“Hopefully, I don’t look like I have fish face.” All four of them laughed at me, and Jake cut close to give me a kiss and then he tugged the neoprene out of my pocket and secured it over the lower half of my face before setting my goggles where they needed to go. “I do know how to dress myself.”
I wasn’t really that irritated, but the habits they’d formed while I’d been hurt seemed to only be getting stronger. He messed with my knit cap and then winked at me. Ass. “I’m doing this to save us from the distraction hazard.”
“Her lips are a hazard?” Ian’s dry tone had me snickering. We also had other skiers moving around us as they came off the ski lift, but our little group didn’t get more than a few passing looks. Nobody here cared, other than we were kind of in the way.
Coop opened his mouth, and I stared at him. He gave it a beat and then closed it with a shake of his head. “Nope. That’s a trap.”
That made me laugh my ass off.
It took us another good minute to sort ourselves out. The green felt a lot steeper than the bunny hill, and I could see the other swerve away from the trail we were going to follow, and that just made my stomach hollow out.
“That’s a blue,” Ian told me. “We’re not taking you down there your first time.”
“Uh huh.” I didn’t say they weren’t taking me down there at any other time, either. We could save that argument for some time between nope, I don’t think so, and never. I was good with that.
It took us a minute to sort ourselves out. Ian took point with me, and Coop followed with Archie, while Jake showed off, moving back and forth between us like it was nothing.
When he started skiing backwards down the hill though, I considered slugging him. When Archie and Ian joined in on the antics, showing off, I let out a little sigh and Coop moved closer to me. We were zig-zagging lazily, and the other three were easily ten yards ahead of us. I couldn’t even stay irked at them, because they were being adorable.
All three of them kept glancing back to check on us, but Coop didn’t seem to be in anymore of a hurry than I was.
“So,” he said. “I believe you won earlier. Have you decided on your choice?”
I grinned, even if he couldn’t see it behind the mask. While I hadn’t been thinking on it, I had kind of decided. “Yep.”
“What will it be?” He eyed me, and I was torn between watching him as I spoke and paying attention to what I was doing. I was still getting used to shifting my weight inside the ski boots and not picking my feet up to move.
“I don’t know if I should tell while we’re up here.”
Our erstwhile escorts had pulled away farther with their clowning around. But I was doing okay, and Coop and I seemed to be matching pace really well.
“And can I say that this is tickling the hell out of me? How many times did we wish for real snow at Christmas?”