Four Nights to Forever (3 page)

Cassie tsked. “We’re here to ski.”

“
I’m
here to ski.” Karen pointed to herself, ski mittens and all, while adding pursed lips to her suggestive eyebrow raise. Her correction left him curious about what she thought Cassie was here to do, but Cassie rolled her eyes at her friend again.

“Let’s get up the mountain and get skiing, then.” Ignoring Karen’s insinuation seemed like the best—maybe only—option for now. “Grab your skis. We’ve got a bridge to cross and some stairs to climb before we get to the lift.”

By the end of the week, no matter who had come here to ski, both women would be too tired to do anything other than flirt halfheartedly, if that. Though, he thought with a glance over his shoulder as he led the women to the lifts, he hoped Cassie wouldn’t be too tired for full-wattage smiles.

‡

C
assie hefted her skis onto her shoulder and followed Doug onto the bridge, Karen trailing behind them. She didn’t have her skis on yet, but Snowdance already seemed like a harder mountain than she’d expected. The website hadn’t mentioned anything about playing Frogger with skiers zipping over the bridge and rushing to get back on the tram, or steering clear of the packs of kids trudging along the right side of the bridge with her, who also followed a blue-coated ski instructor.

But what a mountain.

And what an instructor . . .

She had no idea how old he was, but he certainly wasn’t forty-something. And she felt a bit like a lecherous old women because she was wondering if he was even
thirty
-something. Like most skiers, all that time in the sun and wind meant his cheeks were tanned but the skin around his eyes was still pale. That reverse-raccoon tan made younger men look older and older men look younger. In Doug’s case, the pale skin highlighted playful, intelligent brown eyes and the tan made his lips look extra pink. And the pink made them look softer than they probably were, given how much time he spent outside.

There was no way she was going to kiss him and find out, though, as handsome and alluring as he was. She looked to the skiers darting past them on the left. Better to look for her fling among those men, even if they didn’t have as nice a line to their eyebrows or a voice that would inspire such confidence if they promised her she’d be a hotshot.

Hotshot.
She controlled a snort.
Riiight.
A true “hotshot” would figure out how to ask if he was married. She just felt out of practice . . . and not just when it came to skiing.

The small child who darted around her and raced up the stairs in his ski boots with more coordination than she had in sneakers didn’t make her feel any more confident. The three men she’d dated since her separation had been comfortable enough. But Doug would be exciting, and she wasn’t sure she was up for exciting anymore.

“You weren’t kidding about the stairs,” Karen said from behind her. Cassie looked up the small hill where what looked like a flight and a half of stairs had been carved into the snow. At the top, skiers and boarders were dropping their gear onto the snow, strapping in, and taking off, the children with whoops of joy and the ski instructors yelling directions after them.

“No. But these will feel like the hardest part of your day. Until we finish, that is. Then you’ll sit down to take off your boots and not be able to get back up,” Doug said with a wicked smile. “I’ll go up first to get my skis up there, and then I can come back to help if you need it.”

Cassie shook her head, and Doug climbed the stairs with almost as much ease as the small child had. Of course. He skied for a living. He was probably in great shape, probably had powerful thighs and muscular arms that would tense and flex when she put her hands on them . . .

No
, she told herself.
He is off-limits.
Go for someone safer.
Which was a stupid thing to tell herself, since she wasn’t sure she had the guts for a vacation fling at all, even with a safe, older businessman. It was a definite no, though, with the hot, young ski instructor and his great butt. Skiers always had great butts, something that she confirmed as she trudged up the stairs behind him, staring at his gray pants.

She was three-quarters of the way up the stairs when Doug dropped his skis on the snow and headed back down. “You’ve got it,” he said with a smile as he passed her. She was tired, light-headed from the altitude, and her skis were digging a canyon into her shoulder, but she straightened her back and finished the last of the steps.

Doug believed she could be a hotshot. And a hotshot could at least make it up the stairs, even if she was short of breath at the top.

“Thank you for the help,” Karen said between huffs as she leaned on her poles, watching Doug plop her skis in the snow next to her at the top of the hill. “Cassie and I could definitely use a good strong man around for a week.”

“No problem. The altitude gets lots of people. It’ll be easier tomorrow.”

“Are you sure it’s the altitude and not the cute instructor?” Between the sun and the glare from Karen’s goggles, Cassie couldn’t see her eyes, but she knew her friend had winked by the exaggerated way her cheek lifted up.

“The men generally pretend to be fine. Only the women admit to being breathless . . . and they’ve only ever mentioned the altitude.” His response was light and airy, but his cheeks had flushed under his tan, as though Karen had embarrassed him. It was adorable and made him look even younger.

“They’re probably all young, single, and too shy to flirt.” Karen’s comments described Cassie to a
T
, except for the young part. “But I’m married and older than you. Cassie’s divorced, which is the only reason she’d blame the altitude.”

Doug’s head snapped over to look at Cassie, and there was no question that the red on his face was a blush and not just a chill in the air.

“Right, let’s get going,” he said with a wide smile.

He wasn’t the only embarrassed one. Karen was laying it on a little thick. When they were on the lift, Cassie would tell her to back off. She doubted she’d get up the confidence to flirt with Doug as it was, and there was
no way
she would if Karen’s comments kept making her feel self-conscious. Better to click into her skis and work on feeling like a hotshot again.

On the slopes, of course. For the other ways, well, Snowdance didn’t offer
those
kinds of instructors.

Snow dusted the air when Doug clapped his gloves together. “Snowdance lift is down this cat track, to the left. Follow the line of people. I’ll be behind you and meet you there.” Karen must have embarrassed him more than Cassie had thought because he said the words while still looking only at her. “I’ll be evaluating your skills, so make sure you impress me.”

“I’m leaving it to Cassie to impress you,” Karen said, slipping her mittens into the straps of her poles. “I’m just going to try making it to the lift without falling.”

The helmet and goggles might have hidden the subtleties of the admonishing face Cassie shot her friend, but Karen didn’t miss it. She simply smiled back at her with the innocence of a three-year-old.

“I’ll save impressing you for the end of the week.” Cassie’s response was weak, but she had to say something to cover her own embarrassment.

“I expect to be impressed by you, Cassie.”

Karen’s mouth opened with pleasure at Doug’s comeback, but Cassie refused to read too much into it. He was young and cute and probably flirted with all his students. Part of being a good ski instructor was helping his students be relaxed and comfortable, and making them amenable to his lessons.

“So get going,” he said with a nod of his head, and Cassie found herself shoving her gloves into her pole straps and trying to remember everything she had ever known about skiing twenty years ago. She slid her right ski forward, then her left ski, and then she was gaining momentum. She remembered how to plant her poles, and her knees seemed to know instinctively when to bend.

She picked up enough speed on the short downhill to pass a couple of people, and she even did a quick hockey stop at the bottom of the lift with a big smile on her face. Maybe Doug wasn’t impressed with her yet, but she was already amazed with herself.

Karen and Doug got to the lift soon after, and Cassie lined up with her friend, poling herself past the ropes in line with several groups of children and ski instructors until they were next. With their boots centered on the
WAIT HERE
sign in the snow, Karen scooted back, past Doug. “I never get to be on a chairlift alone,” she said.

There was rustling behind Cassie. The lift attendant scowled at her as one chair went by empty while Cassie slowly realized what Karen was doing and why. As she was about to scoot forward and share the chairlift with her embarrassment—and
text
Karen to lay off, since she couldn’t tell her on the lift—Doug slid up next to her, his lips curved in wry amusement.

In silent acknowledgment of having been set up, they glided forward to the
STOP HERE
sign in the snow. “Remember what to do next?” Doug asked.

“I hope so,” Cassie replied, her poles in her left hand while she looked over her right shoulder and tried to time when she sat down with when the cold foam padding of the chair was actually under her butt.

“Here ya go,” the liftee said as Cassie bent her knees, and suddenly her feet weren’t touching the snow anymore. Gravity pulled at her heavy boots and skis, stretching out her ankle joints in a way that she hadn’t experienced in decades. It was both weird and wonderfully familiar.

With her gaze still over her shoulder, Cassie saw that Karen had acquired a chairmate. Her friend and a young boy—Cassie guessed he was seven—were sliding up and preparing to sit down. Karen waved once quickly, before grabbing the armrest as the attendant helped the child into the seat next to her. Cassie waved back, then turned her attention to the man sitting next to her.

Do I even remember how to flirt with a man? And, God, a possibly twenty-something man, at that?

She’d remembered how to plant her poles, so maybe flirting wasn’t so beyond her. Hell, it had been longer since she’d skied than flirted with a twenty-something man, even if that man had been Tom.

Start with a question. Be interested.

“This lift is mostly full of kids.” She bit her lip and looked over the side of the chair at the lone skier on the run under the lift. She’d neither asked a question, nor seemed interested. Or
interesting
. She definitely needed practice. She didn’t have to be a hotshot now, just by the end of the week.

He didn’t answer until she’d pulled her attention away from the skier, who was now out of sight. When she looked at him, he was smiling. An easy, attentive smile. Practiced from thousands, maybe millions, of trips up this lift with nervous skiers.

“The ski school’s intermediate area is off this lift, and anyone else who’s using it is trying to get to another lift higher on the mountain.” His smile narrowed into something less rehearsed and more sincere, and she realized she was selling herself short. Maybe he had lots of practice talking to students, but he was sharing the lift with her now and the smile was for her.

Cassie swung her feet, enjoying the freedom of the air below her. She cleared her throat, uncertain what to say next. She wasn’t really surprised when honesty rather than flirtation came out. “I’m sorry about Karen, by the way. She has this
vision
of my vacation, and I think you play a starring role.”

His goggles still covered his eyes, and she was left to judge his reaction by the set of his lips and the flush of his cheeks. “It’s okay. This is better actually. Being single, I’ve had to politely turn students down before, and at least now I don’t have to. You, I think, are just here to ski.”

Single?
No, she couldn’t cling to that piece of information. They were just talking, nothing more. Especially since he’d also told her that he was relieved he didn’t have to turn her down. Just as well. She hadn’t gotten her hopes up, but now at least she could flirt without consequences. Practice for the less interesting, certainly less attractive forty-something businessman in her future.

“And sit in the hot tub with something alcoholic,” she said, smiling and trying to communicate playfulness in the tone of her voice.

His shoulders bounced as he chuckled. “You and everyone else staying in those high-rises along Canyon Road.” He cocked his head at her, and for a brief moment, the glare on his lenses disappeared enough for her to see pleasure in his eyes. “You’ll need a good soak tonight. Your form going down that short slope was fine, but you’ll probably be sore. It will only take a few tweaks over the course of the week before you’re that phenomenal skier again, like I promised.”

She wanted to crawl onto his lap and stay there until the confidence he felt in her soaked through to the marrow in her bones and knit together with how good she already felt to make her unbreakable. Since that would be creepy, she only said, “You’re right. It was just like riding a bike. Hopefully sitting in a hot tub will be the same.” She smiled up at him, not resisting the temptation to hide the gap in her teeth. “It’s been a long time since I’ve done that, too, but I’m hoping my form is still good.”