This might be her dad’s resort, and he technically might be her boss, but that didn’t mean she was going to fall all over him. He’d hurt her mother badly. And even though her mom had been the one to convince her to come back to the lodge and work after she graduated from medical school, she didn’t forgive him for his transgressions any more than she’d forgive Robert or her two other exes.
It was exactly why she’d sworn off men. And if she could just get past man number five and move on to the next guy, she’d officially win her bet with Ellory.
Should be a snap.
She leaned on the rail and surveyed the line of chairs on the ski lift.
Speaking of bets, she spied Jack about halfway up the mountain. His safety bar had not been pulled down, making her frown. She’d have to add that to the lesson.
She sucked down a deep breath as he drew closer. She’d just about convinced herself that he wasn’t as good looking as she’d thought he was yesterday. But he was. Even from this distance. With streaky brown hair that was in need of a cut and those broad shoulders, he pretty much filled the chair. She’d have to tuck herself under his arm to fit on there with him if they ever rode up together.
The image made her swallow. Silly. You’re here to teach him to ski and put a notch in your … Hmm, what should she notch, since she had no intentions of sleeping with him or any other of her dates?
Her skis, that’s what. Okay, so he’d be one more notch in her skis.
He slid off the chair with lithe grace that had been lacking yesterday when he’d smacked the ground and slid to a halt. How that must have cost him in the ego department. Except he just stood there.
“Slide over here.”
He glanced over and saw her then eased down the hill to meet her, a little less shaky than he’d been yesterday.
She had a feeling he’d be a quick study when it came to skiing. Well, whether he was or wasn’t, it didn’t matter. This would be his one and only lesson with her—a favor for saving her from Robert’s pestering. Tomorrow he’d be on his own.
“Hi.” He pulled a hat down over his head, juggling his poles as he did so.
At least he’d remembered to put his skis on before getting on the lift. She checked out his eyewear, nodding at the item in his hand. “Did you get those here at the resort?”
He glanced down at them. “Yes, why?”
“Just wondering. Don’t want you to get snow blindness.”
His brows went up, but he didn’t question her comment.
“You ready?” she asked.
“I have to admit I thought about standing you up.”
Interesting. He had seemed a little skittish at the bar yesterday.
“Yeah? Well, I’d have had to come and track you down.” Ellory had spied Jack from across the room yesterday after her encounter with Robert and claimed that this time she was going down hard. This one was just too yummy for her to resist.
Oh, she could resist him all right. He was just one more guy. In fact, it was quite liberating to be with a man and know there was no future in it. She didn’t have to worry about whether or not she’d have to watch her words or get all prettied up.
The time she’d spent in front of the mirror this morning had been strictly about personal grooming. She’d do that for anyone. No need to send people scurrying for the nearest exit with her morning rat’s nest and dark undereye circles. And her lips were chapped from the cold, so of course she’d had to put on something to soothe and protect them. The fact that it had a little dab of shine was just a coincidence.
He smiled. “I guess it’s a good thing I showed up, then.”
“Absolutely.” Luckily, Robert was off this morning, so one of the other instructors was working with a small group of newbies. She could have sent Jack to the class, since her professed reason for meeting him was because her ex might do or say something she would end up feeling badly about. But since she’d told Ellory he was man number five …
Really, who would know she didn’t meet him?
Ellory, for one.
Yeah, and why was that? Because she couldn’t tell a lie worth a damn.
“So, let’s start with your skis. You got them on, but it’ll help if you know how to click in and out of them quickly.”
She gave him a quick lesson on doing just that. Once they were back on, she had him face the bottom of the hill, but with the fronts of his skis pointed toward each other.
“I’m sure Robert showed you, but once you start out, you’re going to want to stay like this. Think of it like a wedge of pizza, only made with skis instead of food. If you keep your skis completely parallel to each other, you’ll pick up too much speed, as you found out yesterday. So wedge them just a bit until you get the feel of your angle and speed.” She pulled her goggles down over her eyes. “Let’s do a practice run. I’ll go first and you follow me down, trying to imitate my movements.”
He muttered something that she couldn’t quite catch before she used her poles to push off. A hard swish behind her said that he’d done the same thing. She concentrated on going as slowly as possible, not an easy task when you were used to zipping down difficult slopes at top speed. Her father had had big plans for her after she’d won several competitions, plans she’d thwarted when she’d decided to become a doctor. What father in his right mind was disappointed when his child decided to become something other than a professional athlete?
Hers.
Then again, he’d disappointed her as well.
She’d changed courses right after her parents had divorced, and, yes, maybe it had been partly to get back at him. But she loved being a doctor, even more than she loved the slopes and the snow. Jack had talked about surfing. The ocean didn’t appeal to her at all. She was a mountain girl through and through. She didn’t think she even owned a bikini other than the underwear kind.
Jack came up beside her, showing a pretty good sense of balance. And every time she changed the angle of her wedge, he imitated her. Out of nowhere came the thought that it might be worth a trip to the ocean just to see him up on a surf board, that streaky hair of his catching rays of sunlight.
He hit a mogul and wavered for a second or two, the tips of his skis wiggling back and forth, but he caught himself. His speed increased fractionally and Mira let off her brake and matched him. “Good job!”
His face was a mask of concentration, so she wasn’t even sure whether he’d heard her or not. At that moment someone passed them on the left at a much quicker pace—which wasn’t all that difficult, considering she and Jack were creeping along.
Two more people went by.
Mira was concentrating so much on the man beside her that she almost missed the screams from the pair of teens who’d just passed them. They’d gotten too close, and the left ski of the girl closest to them had overlapped the other girl’s. Both were struggling to remain upright.
“Move away from each other!” Her training kicked in, knowing if they didn’t get their skis apart one or both of them would fall.
They either didn’t hear her or were too panicked to do what she said, because they were still tangled. Then one of the girls shoved the other one, maybe to try to push off her and get away. Instead of working, the girl who’d been shoved careened sideways, taking her friend with her. They fell down hard, landing in a heap in the middle of the slope. The girl who’d pushed the other one sat up laughing, but her giggles soon faded when she saw the other teenager lay still in the snow.
Every muscle in Mira’s body went on high alert as she drew closer and saw the girl’s right arm sticking out at an odd angle.
The