her to the side and then down to the ground.
Screaming the whole time.
Once again Cam fisted his hand in the back of her jacket and hauled her upright, just as the skiers behind them dismounted their chair and nearly ran her over. Moving them both to the side, Cam waited for her to catch her breath. She was gripping the front of his jacket as if her legs weren’t quite steady.
He knew the feeling.
Her ski cap had slid down over one eye, her glasses were askance, but she looked up at him and shot him a wry smile.
And absolutely melted his heart.
“I promise, I’m better at the rest,” she said, and blew a strand of hair from her face.
There wasn’t a woman he knew who could make the best of every situation and keep a positive attitude, including Annie, whom he’d loved since the beginning of time. Quite simply, he’d never met a woman like Katie. Ever. “You okay?”
“Physically, yes. Mentally? The jury’s still out.” She straightened her cap. “Okay, let’s do this. Let’s see this run you’ve got in mind.”
“Mt. Easy.”
“Mt. Easy?” she repeated.
“It’s the bunny slope.”
“You don’t think I can do this.”
“Listen, Mt. Easy is a very nice run, and—”
“You really don’t think I can do this.”
“Okay, let’s just say I want to be sure.” For both of them.
She lifted her chin. “You know what? Bring it on, hotshot. I’m going to show you what I’ve got.” She turned herself and started poling toward the face of the mountain, which happened to be an expert-only run. He should know, the trail was named after him.
“Katie.”
“No, I’ve got this. I’m going to show you what I’m made out of, Cameron Wilder, holder of all the world titles, I—”
“Katie.”
“I really can do this, you know, I—” Her breath left her in a whoosh when she got close enough to look down at the 2,000-foot steep, moguls-as-high-as-a-house run.
“That’s a double diamond,” he told her. “It’s called Wilder Way.”
She stopped so fast her cap slid into her eyes again. “Okay, you know what? Maybe you should lead.”
Katie survived skiing in no small part thanks to Cam, who looked like poetry in motion on his board. She could have watched that long, lean, tough body move all damn day, but that wasn’t conducive to staying upright on her skis. He encouraged her to make the best of the slopes, correcting her dubious technique when she asked, but he let her have her adrenaline rush, which she did in spades. Hitting the hills with the wind in her face and some questionable speed beneath her skis turned out to be the most exhilarating thing she’d done in a long time.
“So,” he said when it was all over and done as they pulled up to the lodge. “Was that good for you?”
Her heart began to hammer because she thought—hoped—she knew what was going to come next—them. “It was the best time I’ve had here yet.”
“I’m thinking we can top it.” He shut off the Sno-Cat and turned to her, one arm on her head rest, the other sliding over her belly to hold her hip, crowding her a little, which she happened to like.
She crowded him, too, leaning into him. “What did you have in mind?”
With a low laugh, he nuzzled the curve of her neck, which pretty much sizzled her brain cells and melted her bones into mush. He began working his way up to her jaw, coaxing her into a heated bliss as he made his way to her mouth, when he went still.
She opened her eyes.
His were opened too. Not on her but on something behind her. Craning her neck, she locked gazes with Stone outside the Sno-Cat.
“I need to talk to you,” Stone said to Cam.
“Busy here.”
“Busier than you think. Your group showed up a day early for their cross-country ski into Glory Valley. Crossed wires, I guess.”
“Maybe you could take the trip.”
“I have something else lined up.”
“Yes,” Cam said, shooting his brother a meaningful look, “but it’s probably not as important as my thing.”
Stone just shook his head. “You’re up, dude,” was all he said, and walked away.
Cam let out a breath. “It’s a conspiracy,” he muttered.
“What?”
“I’m sorry, I’ve got to go lead the trip. After I kill my brother.”
With sex off the table, Katie headed inside the lodge. Annie was in the kitchen cleaning up after serving their guests chicken enchiladas. One look at her had Katie sighing—baggy jeans, a bulky sweater, and an apron that read: NEVER TRUST A SKINNY CHEF.
Though she’d rather be burning calories right now instead of consuming them, Katie got herself a plate. “Nice apron. What happened to your new clothes?”
Annie grated some more cheese for her. “You ever have a day that’s just a complete waste of mascara?”
“You don’t wear mascara.”
“It’s a good thing too. Today would have been a waste of it.”
“Annie, you’re on a mission, remember? Getting Nick to see you.”
“Yeah.” Annie stopped with the busy work and leaned back against the counter. “I’m afraid.”
“Of what, wearing clothes that fit you?”
“I’m afraid that he still won’t see me and then I’ll have to kill him. If you think I look bad in these clothes, think of how I’d look in prison garb.”
Katie laughed. “Look, I’ve seen the way Nick looks at you. He’s going to see you, I promise. Now remember, you’re as fierce as they come. Go show it.”
Annie arched a brow. “Aren’t you mighty.”
“Hey, I’m the Mighty Queen. Besides, you have to dream it to live it.”
“You dreamed about running an office out in the middle of nowhere?”
“I dreamed about living my life to its fullest. Balls out.”
“You don’t have any.”
“It’s a euphemism.”
“Yeah, I don’t think I’m as optimistic as you.”
“Maybe you ought to try that too.” Katie wrapped some extra cheese in a napkin for Chuck and stuffed it into her pocket, determined to win him over yet.
It was snowing. Light, plentiful flakes drifting through the air with a silent beauty, stacking on top of the already snow-ladened landscape.
The bushes didn’t rustle.
Back in her cabin, Katie stood at the door and called for the scraggly cat. When he didn’t come, she left the cheese out on the doorstep. She put on her pj’s and looked at herself in the mirror. Men’s boxers and a cami. Not exactly Victoria’s Secret material, but it was all she had. She tried to keep her eyes open, listening for Chuck, listening for Cam.
Neither came.
In the morning, she woke up sore and stiff from her foray on the mountain. Walking like an old woman, she opened her door and checked for the cheese.
It was gone, probably courtesy of the fat raccoon waddling off her porch. “Hey, that cheese wasn’t for you!”
The big guy actually stopped and craned his neck, giving her a look that had her letting out a startled squeak and slamming the door. She showered and dressed, then tentatively opened the door again.
No raccoon.
No Chuck either…
But lots of fresh snow. She made her way through it, which someone had thankfully shoveled from her path all the way to the lodge’s front door. She went directly to the kitchen, where Annie shoved a plate of food and a hot mug of coffee into her hands.
“The guys got stuck on the pass last night,” Annie said. “Trapped there by the storm.”
“Are they okay?”
“They’re boys. They love that stuff.” Annie looked at her speculatively. “You didn’t tell me you skied with Cam.”
Katie blinked. “I thought you knew.” She paused at the look on Annie’s face. “Is that okay?”
“He hasn’t been on his snowboard since his accident.”
Katie went still, then sank to a chair. “He hasn’t?”
“No.”
“But…I’ve seen him go off with his board.”
“Apparently he never has been able to actually use it. Until yesterday, with you.”
“My God.” Why hadn’t she known that? “I had no idea.” Her mind raced back to being in his office. She’d been sidetracked by their chemistry, and then in the Sno-Cat she’d been caught up in her nerves. But just before the lift, she’d sensed something from him, and then she’d been distracted by Heidi, and…and dammit. He had seemed just a little off, but then she’d fallen from the lift. “I should have asked.”
“He probably wouldn’t have said. He’s too damn proud for his own good.” Annie shook her head. “Right after the accident, he wasn’t healthy enough to get back on a board, and then when he was, he left. Just took off. Now he’s back, and he’s running trips, but never the downhill trips. Stone’s done them all.”
“Yeah, I noticed that.” She thought back to how careful he’d been with her on the mountain, how perfectly kind, never letting on to what must have been a hugely emotional thing for him, and she felt like crap. “I stopped the whole lift. My first time up the hill, I fell off at the end. I was just so nervous, and he…he was so sweet. I feel so ridiculous now, given what he must have been feeling.”
“And he never let on?”
“No, he was steady as a rock.”
“No limp?”
“A little, the usual, but he didn’t seem like he was in pain.”
“Well, that’s good then.”
“How exactly is that good, him keeping in his feelings?”
Annie looked taken aback. “Keeping in his feelings? What does that have to do with anything? If he did fine, he’s over it.”
Katie was beginning to understand not just where Cam had gotten some of his reticence from, but also what Nick was dealing with. “It helps to talk out stuff, Annie. He might have gotten ‘over it’ a lot sooner than a whole year if he had.”
Annie shook her head. “You weren’t here, so let me tell you how bad it was. Three surgeries. After the first one he got an infection that nearly took his leg. The doctor told him to get used to a wheelchair. Cam proved him wrong, but it was a month, one long month before he could walk, and then when he could, he still had to give up his entire life.”
“I understand. It was awful, tragic. But, Annie, why was boarding his entire life?”
“I—” Annie stopped. Blinked. “You know, I never saw a problem with that until just now.” She sank to a chair and stared out the window. “All this time I thought I was doing him a favor, babying him, letting him not get back out there. Letting him not talk about it…I thought it was for the best, not forcing him into anything.” Her eyes were shiny when they met Katie’s. “Damn.”
“Well, he got out there yesterday. And looked like he was born to it, I might say. He was amazing.”
Annie smiled. “He was born to it. Growing up, if he wasn’t being worked into the ground by his father, he was on the slopes. Once I got him, he lived on that mountain.”
“He was lucky to have you.”
“Hell yeah, he was. Did you ski his namesake, Wilder Way?”
Katie let out a little laugh. “Uh, hello, remember me, the woman who stopped the lift? We stayed on the bunny slopes.”
Annie choked on that. “The bunny slopes?”
“He said that it was good practice for him.”
“Honey, that boy used to heli-ski into places that would make your hiney twitch, where even the photogs wouldn’t go to catch him on film, and then he’d huck himself off cliffs. For fun.” She shook her head. “Practice. Good Lord, he must have it bad.” She slid her gaze over Katie. “And so do you. Jesus.”
“You think he and I would be a mistake?”
“Are you still leaving?”
“Yes.”
“Then, yes, it would be a mistake. For both of you.”
Chapter 13
Stone and Cam didn’t get home that night either. The storm caught a group of skiers off guard near Mt. Bliss, and the guys joined the Search and Rescue team to help locate two missing skiers.
Katie slept in her warm bed and thought about Cam out there on the mountain, out in the elements. Not only surviving but trying to help others do the same.
And she’d been so proud of herself, being so “risky” here at Wilder. She didn’t have a clue. She fell asleep determined to reach even deeper for more.
Balls out.
The next morning, she went to the lodge, grabbed some food, then went upstairs to her desk, pulling out a napkin-wrapped piece of bacon from her pocket. She flipped on all the lights, got down on her hands and knees, and searched under each desk. “Here, kitty, kitty…”
But there was no sight of the scrawny cat masquerading as an ostrich baby, so she sat at her desk and got to work, only to nearly fall over a few minutes later at the rustling beneath her. Slowly, she bent low and found two huge green eyes staring at her. “Chuck,” she breathed, “you came.” She unrolled her napkin, holding out the bacon.
His little nose wriggled as if he couldn’t quite believe it. His fur was rumpled and clumpy, and there was a bald patch behind an ear. His tail was permanently bent to the right. Clearly, he’d been through hell, and he absolutely broke her heart. “Come on, sweet thing. You know you want it…”
Gun-shy, he continued to sniff at the bacon but wouldn’t take it out of her hand. Caving, she set it at his feet. “There—”
It vanished so fast she got dizzy. Smiling, she leaned in to pet him, but he let out a low sound from deep in his throat and dashed out from beneath the desk, disappearing as fast as the bacon had.
“Watch your fingers with that one,” Stone said as he came up the stairs, looking as big and bad as his brother always did. Bigger, actually, and just as tough and impenetrable. He was the sort of guy who could be dropped anywhere on the planet and manage to survive.
And yet he didn’t make her knees knock together like Cam did.
“You good?” he asked.
“That should be my question to you. You find the lost boarders?”
“Cam did, actually. Apparently, wayward boarders think alike.” He flipped through the mail, then looked at her. “And before you die of curiosity, he’s still in town, talking to the police for the report.”
“Is everyone all right?”
“Uh-huh, he’s all in one piece and fine. Since that’s what you were really asking.” Looking amused, he tossed the mail back down. “So I hear you got him out on the mountain.”
She sighed. “You talked to Annie.”
“Yeah, but I already knew. Small town,” he said with a shrug. “I call it Mayberry with Attitude. Everyone knows everyone’s business and are all up in it.”
“Are you going to warn me off him too?”
“Nah, he’d try to kick my ass, and then I’d have to kick his, and then Annie would want in on it. It’d be a whole ass-kicking thing….” He set an envelope on her desk.