After Midnight (10 page)

10

L
INDSEY
SURVEYED
HER
TEAM
. She had Bradley Hunt, Lars Usten, Stan Poirier from Thunderbolt and two other executives from other resorts in the area. She had been practicing sledding every day on her little snow mound, as well as getting used to standing at the top of a slope and going down.

But she was nowhere near as ready to take on a downhill race as she’d need to be if her team was going to win. Beating Carter was important to her. She needed it. He had seen her flustered and flawed and she wanted to wow him.

“Okay, team, welcome to our first practice. I thought we’d talk a little about the skills each of you has and then decide how to proceed.”

“I’ll go first,” Lars said. The former world champion still skied every day, and he was in pretty good shape despite a health scare back in November. “I’m probably the biggest liability on the team since my heart attack at Thanksgiving, but I want you all to know I’ve been skiing every day and my runs are getting faster and smoother.”

“I don’t think anyone doubted you, Lars,” she reassured him. “I’ve always been in awe of your control while you’re on skis.”

“Thank you, Lindsey. Coming from you, that’s a compliment I’ll treasure,” he said with a smile.

He reminded her of her grandfather in a lot of ways. Except hers didn’t really like to ski. Lars was the kind of grandfather she would like to have.

“I’m more into sponsoring crazy athletes than actually doing the crazy stuff myself.”

“Sponsoring athletes is what you are good at,” Lindsey said.

“I’ve already sent an email to the committee agreeing to that.” Bradley grinned. “Oh, and by the way, I have a feeling my wife is going to want to compete against me.”

Lindsey rolled her eyes. “That would hardly be fair, since you just started skiing.”

“I know. I think that’s why she keen on it,” Bradley said with a laugh.

Clearing his throat, Stan added, “My wife, Georgina, is better than I am. She might want to go against someone like you, Lars.”

“This is all good to get out in the open, but let’s face it, we have to train to do our best times,” Lindsey informed the group. “Now, I suspect that Carter is going to want to go down on his snowboard, and I think the committee has agreed to let him. Does anyone else snowboard?” Tim and Paul raised their hands. She talked to them briefly, but frankly she didn’t snowboard so couldn’t really “coach” them.

Bradley left to take a call, and during the hour-long practice that followed, Lindsey spent most of her time writing down the times of the others and waiting for them to finish with various business calls. It was obvious this wasn’t going to be like training for an international event.

In addition to practicing, they’d sell tickets to the event, and each member of the team was to fund-raise. The group was breaking up when Bradley returned. Whistling under his breath, he was obviously in a good mood. Lindsey wished she felt the same. She was upset with herself that she hadn’t taken a run. Deep down she wasn’t even sure she could do it, but she knew she was going to have to. Either that or admit to everyone in this microcosm that she wasn’t the skier she used to be.

“Hey, I just got off the phone with a college buddy of mine who is an orthopedic surgeon for the military,” Bradley announced. “He mentioned that some of the vets who’ve been wounded overseas and lost limbs have a winter sports team.” He paused. “I was wondering what your thoughts were about getting them involved. He gave me the number of their team captain.”

“I love this idea,” Lindsey said.

Everyone else agreed, too, so Bradley sent a group email to the other committee members.

“Once we get everyone’s acceptance, maybe you could liaise with him, Lindsey?” Lars asked. “I think we’ve all proved you can take the executive out of his office but you can’t make him stop working.”

She laughed, as she was sure he’d intended. “No problem. I have time between classes to make a few calls.”

“Perfect. Let’s meet back here next week, and if anyone needs any pointers or one-on-one coaching, I’m available.”

The group left, and she walked to her office at the back of the ski rental office aware of the fact that she was a total fraud. She wondered how she was going to get over this. How was she going to make herself ski when it was the last thing she thought she could do?

Right now, sitting in her office, looking up at the mountain, she felt dread and fear. She should just confess and stop trying to be something she used to be.

“Knock, knock,” Carter said from the doorway. “Got a minute?”

Definitely.
Her breath hitched as their eyes met and held. She’d rather spar with him than dwell on her own inadequacies. “Sure. Come to tell me that your team isn’t up to snuff? Mine is great.”

“Ha. Mine is pretty good, too. Elizabeth can really ski, and I was surprised that Georgina could, as well. Don’t tell either of them. It’s just that they never talked about skiing.”

“I know what you mean. I’ve got two snowboarders and I’m not really sure how to handle them. But they are pretty good. Not you good, of course, but still, they’ve got some skills.”

“It’s hard to be as good as me,” he said with that big sexy grin of his.

A shiver of awareness skittered down her spine as she gazed into his blue-gray eyes. It had been days since she’d been alone with him, and instead it felt like years. Everything about him turned her on. His disheveled hair, his baggy snowboarding pants, the spicy scent of his aftershave. New Year’s Eve had whetted her appetite, and she wanted more of Carter Shaw. And right now flirting and playing with him felt safe.

* * *

C
ARTER
FOUND
IT
harder and harder to keep up the casual pretense he’d cultivated around Lindsey. He missed her. He physically ached for her and wanted to do whatever he could to get her back into his bed, but she was setting the limits, and right now that meant taking it slow.

Sitting in the small office and smiling when what he really wanted to do was to pull her into his arms, run his fingers through her long, silky blond hair and kiss her until she was panting. But that wasn’t going to happen. He was pursuing her but didn’t want her to know it. He needed to keep up appearances. And that was exactly what he intended to do.

“It is hard to be as big as your ego,” she said glibly. “I wish I had a tenth of it.”

“What do you need it for?”

“I have to ski at our event in the middle of February, Carter. I haven’t done anything but slide down a mound of snow since I crashed last year in Sochi. What am I going to do?” she asked.

Looking as though she had the weight of the world on her shoulders, she walked around her desk and sat on the edge of it, right in front of him. He saw a hint of vulnerability in her eyes. She needed him. It felt good. Stroked his ego. And she’d probably never let him live it down if he let her know.

“Take a run with me.”

“I don’t even know if I can. You saw me on the snow pile. I was shaking like an idiot up there. If I was on skis—”

“I’ve got an idea,” he said.

“I doubt it would work.”

“My last one did,” he said, bragging just a little, but also making a challenge out of it. He knew how she was. She’d rise to the challenge.

Lindsey sighed impatiently. “Fine. What’s your idea?”

“Just a ride down the mountain in a toboggan.”

“I don’t know.”

“I’ll be with you,” he said gently. “You know, like I was at the snow mound.”

She watched him with wary eyes, and he ached that she had lost her faith in herself. He vowed he’d do whatever he had to do to help her get it back.

“Would we go here at the lodge?” she asked.

“Yes. We could even say we are checking it out for an event for our nonskiers. I’ve got two of them.”

“I didn’t get one. Maybe we can swap one of my snowboarders for your nonskier. It’s always weird to me when people live and work this near the Wasatch Range and they don’t ski.”

“Me, too,” he admitted. “I can see it in Cali because there are so many other sports that people can do, but here? It’s pretty much ski or snowboard. Or, at the very least, ice skate. Speaking of which...you ever try that?”

She shook her head. “I’m not that good at it. Plus, my coach used to like me to focus on my sport.”

“Good idea. My coach said something similar but I did it anyway.”

“Rebel.”

“You know it,” he said.

Lindsey bit her lip, then turned to stare out the window before finally looking back over at him. “I wish I had your courage.”

“You do have it. But in your own way. You are a rebel when you need to be. I’ve seen you when you pass through the gates for the downhill. You look very fierce.”

He had never mentioned it, but the first time he’d noticed Lindsey was after her run. She’d broken the world-record time. He’d been so turned on by her he hadn’t known what to do. She hadn’t been his kind of woman, but then suddenly his body had been, like, hell yeah, she is.

“Thank you, Carter. You know, for an egomaniac, you say some really nice things,” she said, tipping her head to the side to study him.

“I’m not as ego driven as you think I am.”

“Really? You’re not going to convince me.” She checked her watch. “But I can probably take off in about an hour if you want to try the tobogganing idea.”

“Great.” He was shameless where she was concerned, using her love of skiing and her need to be back on her skis as a way to keep him by her side. He wondered if she would still be talking to him after their night together if it wasn’t for the fact that she couldn’t get back on her skis.

It was humbling, and he didn’t like the way it made him feel, so he treated those feelings the way he usually did. He shoved them so far down he could pretend they didn’t exist.

“I’ll go to the concierge and make sure we can get on there and then come back in an hour,” he said. It would probably be a good idea to give her some space so she could miss him.

“Okay. Thanks, Carter,” she said.

“For?”

“Just being a friend.”

Friend. Ugh. He wasn’t about to let her relegate him there. Glancing over his shoulder to make sure no one was nearby, he closed the gap between them and pulled her into his arms. Then he gave her a hot, hard kiss. “We’re more than friends, gorgeous, and don’t you forget it.”

He strode out of her office without looking back, mainly because he didn’t want to seem as if he wanted to know how that kiss had affected her when it had shaken him to his core.

Carter knew he was playing a dangerous game with her. That he wanted something from her that she might give him, but he was trying to keep her from even knowing he wanted. He shook his head and thought of what a sap he was. He wanted to be more than friends and more than lovers, but had never in his life been successful at making any kind of relationship work.

Even his coaches had been short-term before they’d thrown their hands up and walked away. He just wasn’t good at making things last. Usually that didn’t bother him, but the thought of being short-term in Lindsey’s life simply wasn’t acceptable.

* * *

C
ARTER
SENT
HER
a text telling her he’d meet her at the top of the toboggan run just after lunch. She had one more call to make, to the staff sergeant from Marietta, Montana, that Bradley had told her about.

Lane Scott was one of the men who had been part of the paraplegic ski squad. She’d heard he had recovered and was now running his family’s ranch with his brothers.

“Hello, ma’am,” he said, his voice deep and strong.

“Good afternoon, sir. I’m Lindsey Collins, the ski pro at the Lars Usten Resort in Park City, Utah.”

“The same Lindsey Collins who broke two world records?” he asked.

No, she thought, not anymore. But she couldn’t say that to him. “Yes, I am. I’m calling today because the resorts in Park City are participating in a charity event to get more kids out on the slopes, especially those who can’t afford it. We’re doing a kickoff event in mid-February and we were hoping some of you military guys might want to join us in the exhibition event.”

“Mid-February? I think I can make it. It’s not like I have to be in Marietta on Valentine’s Day,” he said good-naturedly. “What kind of event is it?”

“Well, I’m captaining one team and snowboarder Carter Shaw is the captain of the other one. We have local celebs and executives from the different resorts on our teams and we are each raising money for the fall event as well as getting some press for it.”

“Sounds interesting. Where do my men and I fit in?”

She took a breath. “Well, your team was brought up because we know there are some kids in your situation that might not be aware they can still participate in sports. No offense. I hope you understand how I meant that...” She was feeling flustered because she wasn’t sure if she’d phrased her comments right.

He chuckled. “I get it. A lot of people see losing a limb or two as the end of their outdoor life. I’d love to participate, and I think I can get one or two others to do it, as well. If it’s okay with you, we’ll just be a part of your two established teams. No need for us to be singled out.”

“That sounds great. I’ll text you my email address. Just send me your details and I’ll get you all set up with the committee so you can be up-to-date on the plans. They’ll assign you to a team.”

“I hope I get to ski with you,” Lane said.

“Me, too. I’ll put in a good word. Thanks, Lane.”

“Thank you for thinking of us,” he said.

Lindsey hung up the phone and was moved by the fact that Lane and his buddies hadn’t let an injury slow them down. She was going to use their courage to motivate herself. And in all honesty, she was fine. So why was she struggling so hard to get back on the snow?

Once Lane’s information came through, she forwarded it to the committee and then headed out to meet Carter. As she walked up the trail to the toboggan course, she put on her sunglasses and applied the lip balm of the company that used to sponsor her.