Chapter Three #2
“Doug probably won’t like it, and Marlena certainly won’t.”
“I think I can sell it to them.” He smiled, and she felt the full force of his charm. Yes, the handsome Irishman with the sexy brogue could probably sell ice in Siberia.
“I’m about ready for lunch,” he said.
“That sounds good. I’ll take you to my favorite place.”
She led him to a food truck parked just off the resort’s main plaza.
The blue and white truck flew a Greek flag and advertised gyros, spanakopita, moussaka and other Greek specialties.
A dark-haired young man with a red bandana around his head greeted Nina with a wide smile.
“If it isn’t my favorite ski patroller! How are you today, beautiful? ”
“I’m okay, Derek. How are you?”
“I’m great. My view today is even better, since they hung one of your banners right by the truck.” He indicated the banner with Nina’s image that fluttered across from them. “That’s a great picture of you.”
Nina frowned at the banners that ringed the plaza. “I don’t know why they thought they had to have so many,” she said.
“They definitely class up the place.” He leaned out the window, elbows on the sill. “The usual for you today?”
“Yes, thank you.” She turned to Liam. “What will you have?”
“I’ll have a gyro, and I’ll try the moussaka.”
The smile had fled from Derek’s face. He studied Liam, brow furrowed. “The two of you are together?”
“This is Liam,” Nina said. “He’s taking video and photos for the resort’s new marketing campaign.”
Derek straightened, his face serene once more. “Oh. That’s cool. I’ll have that order up for you in a few minutes.”
They moved to a picnic table a few feet away. “He wasn’t too happy when he found out we were together,” Liam said.
“Derek? Don’t be silly. He’s just a friendly kid.” She settled on the picnic bench, and he sat beside her.
“A kid who has a massive crush on you,” Liam said.
She glanced toward the order window in time to see Derek quickly look away. So maybe he was a little bit starstruck. He’d never been anything but friendly and respectful. “He’s harmless, I’m sure,” she said.
A small voice in the back of her mind reminded her that she had once said the same thing about Aaron Nicholson, who had originally come across as simply another fan.
But Derek was different. She only saw him when she ordered lunch, or very occasionally when he was skiing. He certainly wasn’t stalking her.
“I wish I could have convinced Marlena and Doug to take down these banners,” she said. “It’s too weird, having my picture staring back at me wherever I look.”
“We could come back after dark and cut a few down,” Liam said.
She couldn’t tell if he was teasing or serious. “No vandalism for me,” she said. She started to reach for her drink, but froze, a chill dancing up her spine.
She looked around for whatever had caused the sensation. “Is something wrong?” Liam asked.
She shook her head, but continued to study the people around them.
“Something has upset you,” Liam said.
“Order for Nina,” Derek called.
She hurried to collect the food, then returned to the picnic table. Liam accepted his food from her, his gaze still fixed on her. “What’s going on?” he asked.
“It’s probably nothing. I just… For a moment there, I felt like I was being watched.”
“Derek’s been keeping an eye on you.”
“It wasn’t like that,” she said. “This was more…menacing.” The word sounded melodramatic. Was she overreacting?
“You’re the type of person others notice,” Liam said.
“This is different.” She looked around again but saw no one paying obvious attention to them. She waited for him to say it must be her imagination, but he didn’t.
“You’ve felt this before and it wasn’t nothing,” he said.
“Right.” She stared down at her gyro, her appetite vanished.
“I’ll keep my eyes open and let you know if I see anyone acting suspicious,” he said.
“Thanks. And really, it’s probably nothing.” Though her gut hadn’t been wrong in the past.
He ate his meal and half of hers, and talked of the footage he had filmed that morning and ideas he had for how to use it for a series of social media short ads and a slightly longer feature. But his eyes remained sharp, checking their surroundings.
When they had finished eating, he collected their trash and stood. “Let’s get some non-skiing footage,” he said. “Take me on a tour of the village and talk about what SkyCrest offers visitors, and why you’re an ambassador here.”
“All right.”
The camera on, she slipped back into model mode, standing straight, smiling warmly, pointing out the tubing hill and the ice skating rink and a bandstand where local groups played every Friday and Saturday evening. A girl and her mother approached. “Are you Nina Rose?” the girl asked.
“I am.”
“Could I have your autograph?”
Nina pulled out a marker she kept for this purpose and scrawled her name and sketch of her namesake flower on the girl’s helmet. “We’re big fans,” her mother, a petite redhead, said. “We were sorry to see you leave the U.S. team. Do you think you’ll ever go back?”
“I’m really happy here at SkyCrest,” Nina said. “Enjoy your time here.”
When the girl and her mother had moved far enough away, she dropped the smile. “You look tired,” Liam said. “We can film more tomorrow.”
“No, I want to get as much done as we can today,” she said.
“I’ve got a lot of good footage already,” he said. “If you can give me one more day tomorrow, I think I’ll have enough footage for what Marlena and Doug are looking for. Then I’ll spend a couple of days editing and run it by all of you.”
She checked the clock on the tower at the center of the ski village. It was after 3:30 p.m. Lifts closed at four. “I had no idea you would finish that soon,” she said. Her disappointment surprised her—not dismay at being done with filming so soon, but at being done with him.
He grinned. “You once said I was a fast worker.”
Her face heated with the memory of when she had made that comment—after her first night in his bed.
He waved goodbye and headed toward the Sheraton, and she returned to ski patrol and collected Sky, then walked to her Subaru in the employee lot.
On the drive home she let the events of the day play out in her head: skiing before the slopes were open, Liam her only observer; helping with the man with the broken leg; that sensation of being watched in front of the food truck.
And Liam by her side, warm and familiar and yet so apart from her.
She pulled into her garage and let the door close behind her, then leaned her head back and closed her eyes for a moment, weariness pinning her to the seat.
She’d go in and have a shower, then make soup for dinner.
Comfort food. She’d settle in to the book she was reading and not let herself think about anything else.
Sky’s whimpering made her open her eyes again. “I know,” she said. “Time for your supper.”
She made her way into the house through the kitchen and dropped her backpack on the chair by the door.
Shoes and coat off, she stretched and turned to head to the bathroom to start the shower.
But something wasn’t right. The room felt…
wrong. Heart rate speeding up, she looked around.
Nothing was disturbed. Nothing was out of place. And yet…
A square, dark shadow fell across the tile in the entryway—a space usually flooded with low light at this time of day. She turned and saw that something clung to the glass of the window by the door—a small rectangular shape.
She hesitated, then told herself she was being silly. It was probably an ad for pest control, or a note from the homeowner’s association. She opened the door and leaned out to pluck the envelope taped to the glass.
Door closed and locked once more, she turned over the envelope. Plain. White. Blank, but sealed shut.
She walked to the kitchen and fished a butter knife from the drawer and used it to open the envelope.
She recognized the handwriting before the words on the page registered, and she began to shake. Hello, Nina, darling. It’s so good to see you again.