Chapter 10 #2
The sound of her name in his voice was enough to make her cheeks burn, even in the cold. She held up her hands. “Okay, but I cannot be held responsible for any injuries that might occur.”
He was already pushing off toward the run.
Even though Simone had skied a handful of double blacks before, her stomach still plummeted faster than her phone had from the chairlift as they approached the top of the run.
The slope was so steep that from a few meters away, they still couldn’t see past the lip.
This was less of a hill and more of a cliff.
There were only two other skiers on the slope ahead of them, both of them apparently experts, judging by the GoPros on their helmets—and even they had to stop a few times to strategize their next moves.
“Well, shit,” Ryan said.
“You can still turn back if you want.”
“I’m not letting you do this alone.”
“Are you sure?”
“I’m sure.”
“Okay.” Simone surveyed the path of the chairlift. “My phone must have fallen somewhere over there.”
Simone needed maximum visibility if she was going to make it down this run alive, and she didn’t appreciate the way the wind was lifting the powder off the ground and blowing it into her goggles.
“Argh!” She shook the snow out of her eyes.
Her pulse pounding, she inched her skis farther and farther over the edge, until her weight shifted and she tipped onto the slope.
The next thing she knew, she was skidding down the hill sideways.
She let out a string of curses under her breath.
Her form was terrible, but she didn’t want to attempt a single turn, scared of what would happen if her skis faced downhill for even a fraction of a second.
She transferred as much of her weight as she could onto her uphill ski, and finally came to a stop about a quarter of the way down.
Her heart was jackhammering and she was out of breath, even though the whole thing had lasted about five seconds.
She glanced up the slope at Ryan, who was tackling the hill… not as gracefully as usual, but with considerably more control than she’d been able to muster.
“You should have led the way,” she said when he reached her.
He planted his poles in the ground. “I wanted to be able to see you.”
Refusing to let his words remind her of the sex dream, she skidded and sidestepped the rest of the way to the trees where her phone had fallen.
Ryan followed, keeping watch over her. Once they were both there, they took off their skis and leaned them against some sturdy-looking trees.
What a relief it was to dig her boots firmly into the snow.
Ryan took off his helmet and shook out his hair.
After two days of skiing, there was color on the tops of his cheeks and the tip of his nose.
Simone led the way into the trees.
“Peaceful,” Ryan mused.
It was. They’d stepped off the mountain and into a winter wonderland, population: two.
The branches overhead provided shade and shelter from the wind, and the snow was untouched, save for the footprints they were now making.
They looked up as they trekked through the snow, trying to determine exactly where the phone would have fallen.
They stopped when they were underneath the chairlift.
“I guess this is where we should look,” she said.
Scanning the area, Simone already felt hopeless. Her phone could have tumbled into any of a hundred snowbanks or tree wells. Ryan tried calling her number, but Simone was pretty sure her phone had been on vibrate, so even if it was still functioning, they wouldn’t be able to hear it.
“Oh!” she suddenly exclaimed.
“Did you hear it?”
“No, but I just had a thought. Can I log into the Find My Device thing on your phone?”
“I don’t know. I’m pretty basic when it comes to tech.” He passed her his phone. “Wanna try?”
“It’s worth a shot.” When she glanced at his screen, she grinned. “Of course your wallpaper is mahogany in high-def.”
“It’s maple, actually.”
“Is that your favorite?”
“It’s hard to pick a favorite. I like different woods for different projects.
But visually, I like that one a lot.” He nodded at the wallpaper.
“See how it’s all wavy? Like flames, almost?
It’s called curly maple. Happens when the tree has some kind of weird growth pattern that compresses the wood fibers.
It’s cool, ’cause what started as a problem turns out to be something really beautiful. ”
Kind of like us, she thought.
She was getting way too distracted. “That is cool,” she said quickly, pulling up the search bar. She found the app, plugged in her credentials, and let out a gleeful yelp. “It worked!”
“What now?”
“Let me see. Looks like I can press this ‘play sound’ button, and my phone will ring, even if it’s on silent.” She pressed the button, and they listened intently. Nothing. “That’s assuming my phone isn’t totally broken,” she added, already deflating.
“Maybe we’re just not close enough to hear it. C’mon.”
“We should try to be quiet,” she whispered.
“Good thing we’re wearing ski boots.”
She snorted. There was no clunkier footwear on earth. She followed him deeper into the woods, stepping directly into his deep footprints to minimize the crunching of snow.
After twenty minutes, they still hadn’t heard anything.
Ryan stopped walking, so Simone did the same.
She planted her hands on her hips and sighed.
“I feel like we’re doomed. I should prob—” She was about to suggest she look into buying a new phone in town, when Ryan held up a gloved hand, cutting her off. “What is it?”
“Do you hear that?”
Perking up again, she strained her ears. All she could hear was the wind and the groaning of branches.
“Listen,” Ryan whispered.
“I still don’t hear it,” she whispered back. She should probably get her ears checked.
Without warning, Ryan took off through the trees, boots crunching through the snow. Then, like a snow leopard who’d been stalking his prey, he dove to the ground, dug around, and raised his fist in the air. Simone gasped. Clutched in his glove was…
“MY PHONE!”
She turned off the tracking alarm and raced toward him through the ungroomed woods.
Running on uneven ground was hard enough, but it was even harder when you were in ski boots.
She was an arm’s length from Ryan when she tripped and fell into his chest, sending them both tumbling down into the snowy hollow beneath a spruce tree.
For a split second, there was silence.
Was he hurt?
“Oh my God, Ryan, I’m so sorry—”
Ryan cut her off with a snort of laughter—a low rumble that made her insides turn warm and liquid. “What’s so funny?!” she demanded.
“You looked”—he was straight-up gasping for air—“like a flying squirrel.”
The next thing Simone knew, she was cackling, her other worries temporarily forgotten. “I was excited, okay? You can’t judge me.”
“Oh, I’m not. It was one of the greatest things I’ve ever seen.”
She wanted to swat him on the arm, except her own arm was somehow pinned behind his back.
That was when it dawned on her, fully, that she was tangled up beneath a spruce tree with the man she’d thought about kissing last night.
Her nose was inches from Ryan’s neck, which smelled musky and warm, the aroma mixing with the evergreen scent of the spruce tree to create something masculine and soft at the same time.
“We should probably find a way to get out of here,” she said.
Ryan climbed out of the tree well first, then turned around and offered her a hand, which she had no choice but to take, given the challenge of escaping otherwise.
When they were both on their feet again, they passed each other their phones.
Simone’s screen was shattered so badly, it looked like three centuries of cobwebs had accumulated on it, but when she tapped the ruined glass, the phone still lit up behind it.
“Oh my God.” An incredulous laugh bubbled up from her chest. “I can’t see a single thing, but it works!
” She would have to leave a five-star review for her rainbow protective case.
“I’ll have to see if there’s a tech place nearby that can fix my screen.
Shoot, I just realized I can’t even look it up. ”
Ryan led her back toward the slope. “C’mon. Let’s get down this hill, and then I’ll take you wherever you need to go.”