Chapter 19
Instead of a bone-crushing smash into the concrete, Dell came to in the middle of a ski slope. The fresh air hit her lungs
like a pine-mint blast. The sky was bluer than blue, topped only by Lake Tahoe thousands of feet below glinting like a sapphire.
And in her arms: Cole.
“Oh my God, it worked!” she said, and looked up at him.
“I knew you could do it,” he said with a smile warm enough to melt the snow.
Dell went to kiss him again, but the sound of a panicked voice stopped her.
“Look out!” a man called as he came speeding down the hill beside them.
They both turned in time to see the man plow into a woman and knock her flat on the snow. Dell shot Cole a knowing grin.
He winced in shame. “I’m still sorry.”
“I will forgive you if you help me save both our lives right now,” she said, and made her way toward the pile of tangled limbs,
which was the two of them, alive and clueless.
“We’d better hurry,” Cole said.
They approached their living selves as alive-Cole kept apologizing and awkwardly trying to find a grip on the slanted, frozen
ground.
“This is even more awkward to watch than it was to experience,” Dell teasingly muttered.
He playfully smirked at her and dodged the ski his alive-self swung in the air trying to stand. “See you on the other side?”
“See you,” Dell said. She approached herself with a tingling thrill she was about to have her body back. The transition was
much easier than with any other host. There was no convincing to be done; she simply slipped in like a hand into a glove.
In the next instant, Cole was pinning her to the snow, staring down at her through his goggles. His face bent into a smile.
“Hi. I was only like eighty percent sure that was going to work.”
The sound of his voice sent Dell’s heart—her real, live, beating heart—soaring. “Eighty?!” she said with a gasp. “What was
the other twenty percent? We were going to smash into the ground back there?”
“It was a possibility. But look! I smashed into you instead.” He kissed her cheek and tried to push himself up, but Dell threw
her arms around him.
“You can smash into me any time you want.” She pulled his mouth to hers and let the searing kiss melt her into the snow.
They made out for half a minute before Dell remembered on this day the first go-round, Jason was coming down the hill right
behind her. Sucking the lips off the stranger who’d plowed into her would be hard to explain to him.
“I can’t believe no one else will remember what happened,” she said to Cole once she pried her mouth loose from his.
Cole looked at her with a purse of his swollen lips.
“Good point. We’re going to have to act like we just met.
We’re also going to have to act like I’m still terrible on skis and need your help getting up.
” He went to get up and moved like an uncoordinated windmill, swinging his skis like propellers over her head and nearly decapitating her.
Dell laughed. “This doesn’t seem like an act. Here, how about we take them off and try to stand up?” She used her poles to
unlock her boots and placed her skis perpendicular to the hillside so they didn’t go sliding away.
Right then, a spray of powder dusted them as someone uphill slid to a stop. “Holy shit, D. Are you okay?” Jason asked. He
whipped off his goggles to get a better look at the pile of tangled bodies before him. “That looked like it’s going to leave
a mark.”
In the shape of Italy, Dell gleefully thought to herself.
“Yeah, it will. But I’m okay.” She pushed herself to stand with a grunt.
“Good. Bro, you need to learn how to stop,” Jason said, and nodded at Cole still splayed on the snow, trying to stand.
Just in case, both Cole and Dell waited a beat to see if Jason recognized him. When he didn’t, Dell cast Cole a look that
said Play it cool.
“I know. I am truly so sorry,” Cole said. “Please, let me make it up to you. If you’re injured, I’ll refund your lift ticket.
Or I’ll pay for your lunch. Or at least let me buy you a drink.”
“Hold still,” Dell commanded, and shoved her pole spoke into the boot lock on his lower ski so he didn’t send himself flying
down the hill again.
“Thank you,” he said when she got it and the other unlocked.
He stood with a wobble and gathered his equipment.
Even though she could see only his nose, mouth, and chin given his goggles and helmet, Dell could tell he was blushing.
A hazy glow came over his face when he yanked his goggles off, and she thought of what he’d told her about falling in love with her the day he crashed into her on the slopes.
It was there in his eyes now, the same as it had been on the rooftop before they jumped.
The urge to tackle him and kiss the breath right out of him hit Dell like an avalanche. “I’m Dell,” she said instead, for
Jason’s sake, and held out her hand. She pulled her glove off, wanting to feel his skin.
“Cole,” he said when he too pulled his glove off and slipped his hand into hers.
She felt everything in his grip. The past, the future. His pulse dancing with hers. The skitter of butterflies filled her
chest, and a smile broke out over her face.
“Nice to meet you, Cole. I think I will take you up on that drink.”
“Okay,” he said with a knowing smile.
“I hate to interrupt this lovely scene, but we might want to move before we all get plowed over out here in the middle of
the hill,” Jason said, indeed interrupting the moment Dell and Cole were having.
Dell looked uphill to where he stood right as another spray of snow dusted them.
“Cole, are you all right? I saw that from the top of the hill. You nearly killed this poor woman!” the newcomer said.
Cole almost fell over again. “Matty!” he blurted. “It’s been so— I haven’t— What are you—?” He started to climb up the hill
with his arm out like he meant to hug him.
Matty reeled back in confusion. “Did you hit your head or something? I was right behind you.”
Cole shook himself and softly smiled. “Sorry. Yeah. Just a little rattled.” He held a hand to his head as if to clear his mind. “This is my best friend, Matty,” he told Dell and Jason. “We teach at the same school. He’s here for the bachelor party too.”
Of course, Dell thought. To Cole, he hadn’t seen his friend in ages, and based on what he’d said to her about wishing he had a best
friend like Jason, he must have forgotten him. It warmed her heart to see the smile on his face. She didn’t remember Matty
from the first time this happened, but maybe that was because their interaction had already lasted longer than before.
“Hello,” Jason said to Matty. Dell sensed a note of flirtation in his voice.
Well, maybe we’ll change multiple lives today, she thought to herself.
“How about we all go for a drink in the lodge?” she suggested. “I think I need to ice my leg anyway.”
Cole lurched at her in concern. “Oh gosh. You do? Should I call ski patrol? I could try to carry you, but I think that would
only result in more injuries getting down the hill.”
Dell put a hand on his arm. “It’s okay, Cole. I’ll be fine. As long as you keep me company in the lodge for the rest of the
day.” And don’t crash into a tree and die, she added in her head.
The smile he gave her was positively devastating. She would have melted if she hadn’t been surrounded by a frozen landscape.
“With pleasure,” he said.
“Well, then, let’s not waste any more time out here,” Jason announced, and sped off down the hill. Matty was quick to follow.
Dell took her time, not only because her leg really was throbbing—one thing about the past hadn’t changed—but because she
couldn’t believe their plan had actually worked.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Cole asked her.
“I’m great,” she said with a genuine smile.
He gazed back at her with such warmth, such tender concern, she knew she’d made the right choice in trusting him. But it hadn’t
really been a choice. Fate had brought them together, and it took the second time around for her to see it.
It was him. The thing in her life she’d been missing all along, even when he’d been all but dropped on top of her. Her eyes
were open now, and she loved what she saw.
“Op, you’ve got a snowflake on your eyelash there,” Cole said.
Just like in her vision, he reached out and gently pulled it from her lash.
“One of a kind,” he said with a soft smile.
Yes, you are, she thought.