“It backfires,” she retorted. The bet on a kiss that had started all of this hadn’t spurred her on to greater skiing glory. Or had it? She’d kept her head down and trained harder to prove he didn’t bother her. That his flirting couldn’t shake her. Maybe that was what she needed to do now. Put her head down and pretend he couldn’t affect her.
“I’ve got this.”
“You know,” he said, “it wouldn’t hurt you to admit that you can’t do it all on your own.”
“I don’t need an entourage to remind me— What is it exactly that they do for you?” she asked sweetly.
“Nothing. They are friends, not an entourage. Something that seems foreign to you.” He reached out and gripped her arm. “You have people who care for you, but you are always so afraid to let them in.”
“Let you in,” she said, jerking away. “That’s what you really mean.”
“True. Why is that?”
She stopped walking and looked over at him. He had put on a pair of sunglasses so she couldn’t see his eyes. “You scare me. You make me confused. I don’t really like it.”
“I don’t like it, either, but we are going to have to work together.”
“Why?” she asked.
“I’m the only person who knows you haven’t skied since your surgery, aren’t I?”
She nodded. When she got home she was taking that damned resolutions list off the fridge and adding “no drinking champagne” to it. Maybe if she hadn’t been drinking she wouldn’t have found him as attractive and confessed all sorts of things she should have kept to herself.
“Carter, please. Just let this go. I’ll figure it out and no one will have to know anything,” she said.
“I can’t.”
She sighed in frustration. “Why not?”
“Because you made me your New Year’s resolution and I’m determined to give you a year you won’t forget.”
“I was drunk when I said that,” she said. But despite her annoyance with him, his words made her feel warm like the sunshine on her face. There was more to Carter Shaw than she wanted to admit. Mainly because if she didn’t keep him at arm’s length she might do something foolish, like fall for him.
And it was foolish. Though she hadn’t seen him in person for the past two weeks, she’d seen him online on the gossip websites with a bevy of women at the Thunderbolt Energy Drink Extreme Winter Games as he’d promoted his upcoming professional debut in California. She knew that he was a player.
She had to seem like a novelty to him. And while she got that to him she was different, a challenge of sorts, how long would it take for that to wear off and for him to move on? She wasn’t being down on herself. She had plenty to offer a man, but not one like Carter. His expectations were based on a model of woman and a lifestyle that made hers seem boring.
“You weren’t drunk. If you want to pretend you were, then fine,” he said tersely. “I don’t know why I keep chasing after you.”
She didn’t know, either, and she wasn’t foolish enough to guess. “Thank you. I guess I’ll see you next week at our meeting.”
“Yes, you will.”
She walked away and admitted to herself that she was disappointed he’d let her go. She’d hoped that maybe he’d follow her. But she knew she’d have shut him down if he had.
She got changed in the locker room and, as usual, putting on her ski clothes brought out that little bit of sadness and fear. But she had a class to teach, and letting down her students wasn’t something she’d do.
Her first lesson went well, and instead of just holding her skis, this time she put them on and skied around a little bit while the kids met their parents for lunch. She was going to try to take a run after lunch.
The clock was ticking and she wasn’t about to let anyone else know her secret. It was time she conquered that fear and moved on. Then maybe she could figure out what to do about her attraction to Carter.
LINDSEY SURVEYED HER TEAM. She had Bradley Hunt, Lars Usten, Stan Poirier from Thunderbolt and two other executives from other resorts in the area. She had been practicing sledding every day on her little snow mound, as well as getting used to standing at the top of a slope and going down.
But she was nowhere near as ready to take on a downhill race as she’d need to be if her team was going to win. Beating Carter was important to her. She needed it. He had seen her flustered and flawed and she wanted to wow him.
“Okay, team, welcome to our first practice. I thought we’d talk a little about the skills each of you has and then decide how to proceed.”
“I’ll go first,” Lars said. The former world champion still skied every day, and he was in pretty good shape despite a health scare back in November. “I’m probably the biggest liability on the team since my heart attack at Thanksgiving, but I want you all to know I’ve been skiing every day and my runs are getting faster and smoother.”
“I don’t think anyone doubted you, Lars,” she reassured him. “I’ve always been in awe of your control while you’re on skis.”
“Thank you, Lindsey. Coming from you, that’s a compliment I’ll treasure,” he said with a smile.
He reminded her of her grandfather in a lot of ways. Except hers didn’t really like to ski. Lars was the kind of grandfather she would like to have.
“I’m more into sponsoring crazy athletes than actually doing the crazy stuff myself.”
“Sponsoring athletes is what you are good at,” Lindsey said.
“I’ve already sent an email to the committee agreeing to that.” Bradley grinned. “Oh, and by the way, I have a feeling my wife is going to want to compete against me.”
Lindsey rolled her eyes. “That would hardly be fair, since you just started skiing.”
“I know. I think that’s why she keen on it,” Bradley said with a laugh.
Clearing his throat, Stan added, “My wife, Georgina, is better than I am. She might want to go against someone like you, Lars.”
“This is all good to get out in the open, but let’s face it, we have to train to do our best times,” Lindsey informed the group. “Now, I suspect that Carter is going to want to go down on his snowboard, and I think the committee has agreed to let him. Does anyone else snowboard?” Tim and Paul raised their hands. She talked to them briefly, but frankly she didn’t snowboard so couldn’t really “coach” them.
Bradley left to take a call, and during the hour-long practice that followed, Lindsey spent most of her time writing down the times of the others and waiting for them to finish with various business calls. It was obvious this wasn’t going to be like training for an international event.
In addition to practicing, they’d sell tickets to the event, and each member of the team was to fund-raise. The group was breaking up when Bradley returned. Whistling under his breath, he was obviously in a good mood. Lindsey wished she felt the same. She was upset with herself that she hadn’t taken a run. Deep down she wasn’t even sure she could do it, but she knew she was going to have to. Either that or admit to everyone in this microcosm that she wasn’t the skier she used to be.
“Hey, I just got off the phone with a college buddy of mine who is an orthopedic surgeon for the military,” Bradley announced. “He mentioned that some of the vets who’ve been wounded overseas and lost limbs