Christopher was going to fall. She clutched his arm so tightly, he scowled at her.
“Mom. That’s too hard,” he said.
To her relief, Ethan pulled down a safety bar and then reached an arm out and grabbed her arm. “I won’t let you fall,” he said quietly.
It was as if she had taken an instant anti-anxiety pill. Her breathing seemed to slow and she could feel calm wash over her. She could do this. Ethan would be there to make sure nothing happened to her.
Dismounting the chairlift at the top was a little tricky, but she managed to stay upright and didn’t humiliate herself.
Christopher skied off as if he had been doing this forever. She remembered Winnie saying that younger children often took to the sport far more easily than older people.
Ethan guided her over to the top of the slope. “This is no different from what we’ve been doing on the practice slope. Remember what I taught you. We’ll take it slow. Go ahead. I’m right behind you.”
Christopher didn’t wait—he immediately started down the hill. If she didn’t want her son to ski down this big mountain by himself, she would have to follow. She drew a deep breath and launched herself down the mountain.
This was no different from the tubing, she told herself. Except she was standing up on thin pieces of wood and trying to keep her balance at a high rate of speed.
She tried not to think about what she was doing. Instead, she leaned into the moment.
She wouldn’t believe it possible, but after the first four or five turns, she got into the rhythm of it. If she only focused just ahead of herself on the hill and didn’t look all the way to the bottom, she didn’t even remember that she was afraid of heights.
At the bottom, she almost forgot how to stop until she saw Christopher snowplow. Her son was a natural.
“So?” Ethan asked once they reached the bottom. “What did you think?”
Christopher seem to bubble over with excitement. “That was so fun. It was more fun than tubing. Can we go down again? Can we please?”
Ethan grinned. “I’m game for it. What about you, Abby?”
She wanted that feeling again, that heady sensation that she was leaving her troubles at the top of the hill.
“Sure. Let’s go again.”
He grinned at her, his teeth flashing white in the sunshine, and she felt a giddy hitch in her stomach.
Apparently, the man didn’t even have to kiss her to set off fireworks inside her.
She had worried things might be weird between them on this ski outing after the way things had ended the other night, with that intense, almost tender kiss and then the abrupt ending.
She shouldn’t have worried, with Christopher there. He treated Ethan like his new best friend, and his happy mood seemed to set the tone for the whole afternoon.
“Here we go. We’re almost to the top,” Ethan said. “Get ready.”
This was the part she didn’t love, that moment when a skier had to leave the relative safety of the ski lift to depend on his or her own hard-fought ability to stay upright on the snow.
She imagined there was probably a metaphor in that for her life, but she didn’t have time to figure it out before Christopher took off down the mountain again with a cry of glee.
“The kid is a natural,” Ethan said with a laugh when they all reached the bottom again.
“I was afraid of that.” Abby wasn’t able to keep the glum note out of her voice.
As she might have expected, he caught it. “Why is that a bad thing? I would have thought you’d be happy.”
“How often will I be able to take him skiing once we’ve resettled in Texas? Ski resorts aren’t exactly a dime a dozen there.”
“You can always come back to Silver Bells to visit Winnie and Lucy during ski season. You know Winnie would love to see you.”
Could she? Once she left town, would she feel comfortable coming back to visit? If she were only likely to see Winnie and the other Silver Belles, yes.
Once she left, she intended to do her best to forget about Ethan Lancaster and all these feelings he sparked in her.
After two more runs, her calves ached in the hard boots and she was ready to stop and go inside for a mug of cocoa to warm up, but Christopher’s enthusiasm hadn’t flagged yet.
At least he would probably sleep well that night.
“Can we go one more time?” he pleaded.
Ethan