Chapter 9
NINE
STERLING
Maisy is different today. We’re back on the mountain for another lesson, but instead of the snappy, sarcastic Maisy that I’m used to, she’s quiet.
I want to believe her when she says it’s just the hangover, but I know her well enough to know it’s because of what happened between us when we got home last night.
She went in for a kiss, and honestly if she hadn’t been drinking, I would’ve let her. I would’ve pulled her body flush against mine and poured everything I had into that kiss. I’d show her just how much I want her. How much I never stopped wanting her.
But I’m not like that.
I won’t take advantage of someone who isn’t sober enough to make smart decisions. And after everything Maisy said when she broke up with me three years ago, kissing me definitely wouldn’t have been a smart decision.
“Oof!” Maisy falls back onto her ass, snapping my attention back to our lesson.
“Ready to try again?” I ask after she’s pushed herself back up. “You’re not distributing your weight enough.”
She lets out a frustrated growl and rips off her gloves, the ones I gave her, and throws them to the snow.
“This shouldn’t be so hard!” I walk over to the gloves and bend down to pick them up. “I’m a pro skier, my brother runs a god-damn ski lodge, and I’ve been surrounded by snowboarders my entire life. This should be easy for me.”
I stay crouched, staring down at the gloves as I try to find the right words.
“It doesn’t matter that you’re a pro at a similar sport, or that your brother owns a ski lodge, or that you’ve been surrounded by snowboarders your entire life,” I say, standing up and walking over to her.
“You’re still learning something new, and learning a new skill isn’t supposed to be easy.
That’s what makes it feel so rewarding when you finally get it right, Mais. ”
She doesn’t say anything as I gently take her hands and slide the gloves back onto them, but I see the fire return to her eyes and I know my words resonated with her.
“Let’s go again, and I’ll guide you this time. Okay?”
She nods and gets into position, still making the same error as before. I walk over to the board I brought for this lesson, clipping my boot into it, and sliding the board over to where she is before clipping my other boot in once I’m behind her.
Gently, I reach over and place my hands on either side of her waist, feeling her tense instantly.
“Relax your body,” I say, waiting until she listens before I correct her posture. “Let’s try and carve down to the green flag all the way down there.”
She gives me a short nod and we start, my hands on her waist the whole time. I feel her shifting her weight early and then late as we move into the curve of the carve together, but I correct her each time and slowly she begins to do it herself.
“There you go,” I say, unable to keep the pride out of my voice as she does a perfect carve when I let go. “You’re doing it!”
No sooner are the words out of my mouth before she falls, not giving me enough time to avoid her. I fall on top of her, catching myself before my face collides with hers.
“I’m so sorry,” she whispers, her big blue eyes staring up at mine.
“We’ve really got to stop finding ourselves in this position,” I say with a grin. “Someone might report us to your brother for inappropriate mountain behaviour.”
I expect her to snap at me for being obnoxious, but instead, Maisy does something that absolutely catches me off guard.
She hits me with a snowball.
“You did not just do that,” I say, watching as she tries to bite back a grin of her own.
I reach back, unclip my boots from my board, and sit up on my knees.
“I hate to break it to you but—”
I don’t let her finish as I throw a snowball directly at her face. Her mouth drops open, and she stares at me shocked before I see the glimmer of competitiveness sparkle in her eyes.
“Maisy,” I say in a warning tone as I stand to my feet, watching as she unclips her boots from the board. “Maisy, you don’t want to do this.”
“Do what, exactly?” she asks innocently while gathering a pile of snow and shaping it into a ball.
“You know that your aim sucks,” I taunt, grabbing my own handful of snow and shaping it fast.
I watch her twist to the side and rear her arm back before she whips the snowball directly at my head. I duck just as it whizzes over my helmet.
What the fuck?
I slowly stand, jaw on the ground as I stare at her smirking back at me. “Correction,” Maisy says, picking up another handful of snow. “My aim sucked. Past tense.”
She throws another one, and this time it hits me square in the shoulder. I whip mine at her, but she jumps out of the way just before it hits her.
“Okay, Hart.” I nod, feeling the competitiveness flare to life inside of me as I gather more snow. “You’re on.”
“Have you no shame?” Levi says, his tone annoyed as he escorts me and Maisy away from the ski hill. “I can’t believe I got called by the ski patrol because my best friend, who’s an instructor at this resort might I remind you, and my sister were having a military grade snowball fight.”
“Maisy started it,” I mutter as he takes both of our boards along with my ski-lift pass.
“Did not,” she argues, narrowing her eyes at me.
“I don’t care who started it,” Levi says, giving us both a stern look. “No more boarding for the day. I’ll give these back to you two tomorrow. Tonight, I want you guys to think about what is and isn’t acceptable mountain behaviour.”
“Yes, Dad,” Maisy salutes Levi before walking off.
“I hate when she calls me that,” he mutters to me, watching as she goes. “Especially when she knows she did something wrong.”
“Don’t worry,” I say, patting his shoulder. “It won’t happen again.”
He sighs, tearing his eyes away from her and looking at me. “Keep an eye on her, alright? I don’t want her doing anything reckless with all this free time.”
Reckless? That doesn’t sound like Maisy. But I just nod and wave him off as I jog to catch up to her.
“Wait up,” I say just before reaching her. “I need to go to the gear shop for a sec before we head back to the chalet. Want to come with me?”
She stops walking and turns her head to look at me. “You want me to come shopping with you?”
“Yeah.” I nod. “I do.”
“Okay.”
“So what exactly are we looking for here?” Maisy asks, skimming the racks of multicoloured goggles.
“New gloves for you.”
That grabs her attention, and she spins to look at me. “What’s wrong with the ones I’m using now?”
I try and fail to bite back my smirk as she follows me to the wall of gloves.
“Well, for starters, they’re mine.” I see the faintest pink creep onto her cheeks. “And I’m sorry to inform you that it’s very obvious they are too big for your hands.”
“Right,” she says, drawing out the word.
She turns her attention to the gloves for a few minutes before settling on a pink pair identical to the ones she lost. I take them from her hands and walk over to the cashier, paying for them quickly before she has a chance to pull her credit card out of her wallet.
“I could’ve paid,” she mumbles, taking the new gloves from me.
“I know,” I reply, watching as she removes my gloves and hands them back to me before sliding on her new pair. “How do they feel?”
“Like they fit.” She shrugs, but I don't miss the longing look she gives mine as I slide them into my jacket pocket.