Love on the Lifts (8 page)

T
here are some things in life that you simply expect.

Like when it snows, you'll get cold, and when you're at the beach, you'll get wet, hot, and sandy. You expect to get gifts at Christmas and presents for your birthday. You expect the sun to come up in the morning and the moon to come out at night. You expect your brother to get on your nerves and your best friends to stick up for you.

You expect life to throw some disappointments at you. You hope it'll throw a few surprises your way.

Joe's kiss was a surprise. Totally, absolutely.

Not so much that he was kissing me. I think in the furthest, farthest corner of my mind, I
suspected that he might really like me. That I was the girl he was interested in, the one he'd asked to the movies, even though he'd said it wasn't a date.

So the fact that he was kissing me wasn't that much of a surprise.

What was a surprise was how very good he was at it. At moving his mouth over mine until I wasn't thinking about anything or anyone. I'd been kissed before. I wasn't a complete novice at dating, but Joe took kissing to a whole new level. It was hot and intense, and I imagined the snow around us was probably melting.

And that was fine with me, because I was melting, too, melting right into his arms.

Through the passionate haze, I heard distant voices—not Brad and Cynthia—and a door slam shut.

Joe must have heard it, too, because he pulled back. All I could do was stare at his shadowy face and wonder what he was thinking. If the kiss had been as overwhelming for him as it was for me.

Light suddenly surrounded us as someone inside hit a switch in the living room, and I
was vaguely aware of the back door being slid open.

“Hey, what are you guys doing out here?” Leah asked.

“Counting stars,” Joe said.

I was certainly seeing stars. I was downright dizzy. And breathless. My lips were tingling.

“Is the party over?” I asked, stupidly.

“Yeah.” Leah stepped out onto the deck and gazed off in the direction of Cynthia's condo. “Are they in the hot tub?”

“Yeah.”

“That's insane. It's freezing out here.”

No, it wasn't. I was quite warm, as a matter of fact.

“Joe was thinking about getting in ours,” I said, inanely, anything to deflect attention away from the fact that I might be swaying.

Leah stared at Joe. “Are you nuts?”

“Thought it might be interesting.”

How could he sound so normal? Like the kiss hadn't affected him at all? Maybe it hadn't. Maybe, like my crush on Brad, it was all one-sided.

“What might be interesting?” Sam said, as
he and Allie stepped outside.

“Joe was thinking about getting in the hot tub,” Leah said.

“Hey, I'm game if everyone else is,” Sam said.

“I didn't bring a bathing suit,” I said.

“So? Underwear works just as well.”

Like I wanted my brother to see me in my undies. Or that I wanted to see him for that matter.

“It's too cold,” I said.

“Ah, Kate, you're no fun.”

We heard laughter coming from Cynthia's back deck.

Sam looked across the way. “Now, Cyn, she's fun. I bet she never sits on the deck bundled up in a quilt.”

Disgusted with my brother, I got up, the quilt still draped around me, my legs shaky. How could they be shaky when I'd been sitting?

“I'm going to bed,” I announced.

“You know, Sam, you can be a real jerk sometimes,” I heard Joe say once I was inside.

I was halfway across the living room before
Allie caught up with me. “Why didn't you tell us you were leaving the party? We spent half an hour looking for you.”

“I didn't get a chance to introduce you to Ian. I really wanted you to meet him,” Leah said, coming up to stand beside Allie.

I shrugged. “I just needed to get away for a while.”

“You must have seen Brad and Cynthia dancing,” Leah said.

“Yeah.”

The guys were coming in, too, and I so didn't want my brother to hear any of this.

“I'm going to bed,” I repeated. I leaned closer to my best friends. “And Operation Hook-Brad-Up-With-Kate?” Holding the quilt close with one hand, I sliced the other through the air. “It officially ended tonight.”

“Are you sure?” Leah asked. “Because I think—”

“I'm sure.”

“We'll find you a ski instructor tomorrow,” she promised.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Joe standing there, watching me, listening.

“Definitely,” I said. “Tomorrow Operation Ski Instructor for Kate begins. 'Night.”

I walked to my bedroom and closed the door. Getting ready for bed, I could hear the TV on in the living room, and whispered goodnights.

When I finally crawled into bed, I lay there staring at the ceiling, thinking about Joe's kiss. Something for the Kate-have-a-good-time fund.

Kate had definitely had a good time. So good, in fact, that I was slightly terrified. After my experience with Brad, I wasn't sure I could trust my judgment when it came to guys. But I did know one thing.

Joe was just as I'd surmised earlier: dangerous.

 

“So why would you tell Joe your boyfriend's name and not me?”

Aunt Sue was standing behind her counter at the shop, her morning mug of hot chocolate in one hand,
The Daily Tribune
spread before her. Over her reading glasses, she peered at me like I should have known the answer to the question.
“Gave you something to talk about, didn't it?”

“You told Joe and not me so we'd have something to talk about?”

“That wasn't the original plan, but it just came to me last night at the party.”

“So you're playing matchmaker now?”

She smiled mischievously. “No, Kate. I simply gave you something to talk about.”

“You know, we do okay on our own.”

Boy was that ever an understatement.

“That's good.” She went back to reading about the specials at the U-Sack-'Em.

“Did Joe happen to mention me last night while you were dancing?”

“Nope.”

I tried not to acknowledge the disappointment by sipping on my own hot chocolate. I guess she took pity on me, because she said, “He talked about you after we danced.”

“What did he say?”

“That's between me and him.”

“When did you get to be so contrary? You used to tell me everything. And now I find out that you were in love with some guy and you're playing matchmaker and you're keeping con
versations secret. You're no fun anymore.”

“Because I'm getting old.”

The thing I'd learned about older people was that they really no longer cared about impressing others. It made it difficult to bait them or to get your way with them.

“You're not getting old. Joe says you'll never get old.”

“Yeah, well, that's because he's young.” She looked back at the ad. “There's a special on steaks. Maybe I'll pick some up and cook a meal for all of you.”

“We're going to a movie tonight. Remember? Everyone's going. Like I told you last night, it's not a date, so you can come, too.”

“I've seen it. I'll have you over for steaks tomorrow.”

“Okay. But no matchmaking.”

“Wouldn't dream of it.”

But the look in her eyes said she was planning to do exactly that.

 

By the time I got back to the condo, Sam had his car warming up and everyone was clambering inside. Fortunately, I was already dressed
for the slopes, so I slid onto the backseat beside Leah, trying really hard not to look at Joe, who was sitting behind her.

We hadn't actually talked since he'd made his deposit in the Kate-have-a-good-time fund, and so I wasn't feeling exactly comfortable around him. I mean, what do you say to a guy who's delivered a kiss as smoothly as he had, a kiss you knew you'd never forget?

Especially if you were wondering if it meant anything.

Allie was in the front passenger seat beside Sam. Sam put the car into gear.

“Aren't we waiting for Brad?” I asked.

“Cynthia, bless her heart, has the sniffles,” Leah said.

“And Brad is staying with her today,” Allie said.

I supposed I should have admired him for that, but for some reason, he didn't strike me as a heating-up-chicken-soup kinda guy.

Not that it mattered. I was
so
over him.

“Oh,” was all I said, like his spending the day with Cynthia absolutely didn't faze me at all. Then I magnanimously added, “Sorry to
hear she's not feeling well.”

“I guess Operation—”

“Let's not discuss it right now,” I said, cutting off Leah and giving her a hard glare.

“Oh, right. Sorry.”

“Who's having an operation?” Sam asked, looking at me in the rearview mirror as he drove up the road.

“Sam, she wasn't talking to you,” I said.

“Someone's snappish this morning,” he said.

“I'm not snappish.”

“PMS?”

I ground my teeth together. Where was a snowball when I needed one? I settled back against my seat, folded my arms across my chest, and glared out the window, refusing to address his asinine comment.

“That's so chauvinistic,” Leah said.

“Hey, I've lived with her for seventeen years. I know the signs.”

“Apparently you don't,” I ground out.

“Whatever,” Sam said.

“How was your visit with Sue this morning?” Joe asked, leaning forward, his breath skimming the back of my neck.

With my cap pulled down over my head and my jacket zipped up tightly, I was surprised I had any exposed neck at all. But whatever I had, his warm breath found, sending shivers along my spine.

I glanced back at him. He was wearing a deep-blue ski jacket, so his eyes were almost blue. Amazing.

“Obstinate. She wouldn't show me which picture had Michael in it, so maybe we can stop by the shop before we hit the movie and take a look around.”

“Who's Michael?” Leah asked.

“The guy I told you about yesterday. The one she almost married. She told Joe his name.”

“So we're one step closer to solving the mystery.”

“What mystery?” Sam asked.

“When did you get so nosy?”

“Hey, you're talking about my favorite aunt here.”

“She's your only aunt.”

He chuckled. “Come on, Kate. What's up?”

Before I could say anything else, Allie told him the entire story.

“Huh, I wonder why she didn't marry him,” Sam said when Allie was finished.

“She won't say,” I said.

“Well, Kate, I'm sure you'll get to the bottom of it,” Sam said. “You're her favorite niece, after all.”

“At least I'm someone's favorite,” I grumbled.

“You're my favorite sister.”

I snorted. “Gosh, I'd hate to be your unfavorite. I might not survive.”

“Hey, Kate, you know I'm just teasing when I give you a hard time.”

“Yeah, right, and the teasing just keeps me laughing.”

“I
have to head to class,” Leah said brightly. She wiggled her gloved fingers at us. “I'll catch you guys later.”

“What's his name again?” I asked.

“Ian. I'll try to introduce you later.”

She walked away from us, a definite bounce in her step.

“I'll catch up with you later, too,” Allie said. “Sam is going to take me on another ski lift practice run, only this time I'm going to try skiing down one of the easier slopes.”

“I can take you on the ski lift,” I said, sounding almost desperate in my eagerness not to be left behind.

“That's okay. Sam's going that way anyway, and you should probably do a few runs on the
bunny slope, just to warm up since you missed yesterday.”

Before I could announce that I didn't need to warm up, she and Sam were trudging through the snow, heads bent toward each other, talking. Talking. Geez, it seemed like every time I looked at them, they were talking. I'd never known my brother to work his jaw so much. He was more of a cut-a-wisecrack-and-run-for-cover kind of guy.

I was sorta feeling like running myself, since I was now alone standing beside Joe.

“Well,” I said, clapping my gloved hands together, wondering where we went from here.

“Look, Kate, about that kiss last night…it was just a kiss. Nothing to get bent out of shape about.”

He and I definitely had a different definition of the word
just
.

Just a kiss was your grandmother pecking your cheek or your nervous prom date pressing his lips to yours so quickly that you weren't even sure they'd actually touched. Joe's kiss had been anything except
just
. It had left absolutely no doubt in my mind that our lips
were touching and he wasn't nervous. Nope, he'd been totally in control.

“I'm not bent.” Okay I was a little, not so much because he kissed me, but because he didn't seem to be of a mind to kiss me again. “Consider it forgotten,” I added, although I knew I wouldn't ever forget it.

“So we're back to being friends?”

How was I supposed to answer that? I'd just met the guy. He was Sam's friend…and well, I guess he was becoming mine. “Sure.”

“Then you want to buddy-up for the slopes?”

It would have been rude to say no when we were the only two remaining who hadn't buddied up with someone. Besides, it wasn't like he was an irritant like Sam.

I actually enjoyed talking with him. And we won't even go into how I felt about kissing him.

So I smiled at him and said, “Let's go!”

In order to provide support for the ankles, ski boots are pretty sturdy, with very little give, which makes walking in them difficult. So as soon as we got away from the arrival area, we snapped on our skis and headed for the bunny slope.

“I really don't need this practice session,” I said. “Skiing is like riding a bicycle. Once you've mastered it, you never forget it.”

“Yeah, but it's a good idea to warm up a little before you head for the more advanced slopes. Start the adrenaline rushing, the muscles primed and loosened up.”

I was peering at him through my tinted snow goggles. When the snow is pristine white and the sun hits it just right, it can be almost blinding. I'd had more than my share of headaches from not protecting my eyes from that light.

We trudged up to the top of one of the bunny slopes. There was a short line of people waiting their turn to go down it. On another slope, I could see Leah with Ian. Alone.

“Wonder where the rest of the class is?” I mused.

“Actually, he mentioned at the party last night that today was his day off,” Joe said.

Which I might have known if I'd hung around the lodge and been a little friendlier with everyone.

I looked over at Joe. “Oh? Is he giving her private lessons?”

He grinned. “I think so. But the lessons may have started last night. They were pretty together at the party.”

“Yeah, I saw them. I just didn't realize that…” I shook my head. “Doesn't matter. I'm happy for her.”

And I was. I really was. I wanted my friends to find love. I wanted them to have an unforgettable time on the slopes.

I was actually beginning to wish that I hadn't spent my first couple of days mooning over Brad. If I'd been here yesterday, I might have found myself with a guy today.

Even as I thought it, I realized that I was with a guy. A fun guy. A nice guy. A hot guy.

While I'd been busy watching Leah, the girl in line behind us had started talking with Joe. I couldn't hear what they were saying, but they were both smiling. I felt my stomach lurch with the realization that I might lose him, too.

Joe turned back to me, his smile still in place.

“Someone you know?” I asked, pleased that my voice sounded pleasantly interested.

“Not before five minutes ago.”

I decided to be magnanimous. “If you want to hang out with her—”

“I don't.” He nodded. “You're up.”

“Up what?”

His grin grew. “Your turn on the slope.”

I laughed. “Oh, right. Did you want to go first?”

“Sure.”

He got into position, adjusted his goggles, put the tips of his poles into the snow, and shoved off.

He arrived at the bottom of the bunny slope before I even took a breath. Okay. He really did know how to ski. He was standing down there looking up at me. And my nerves were rattled. It had been a year since I'd done this.

The bunny slope was nothing more than a small mound of snow, a starting point for learning the basics. No big deal. I could do this.

I took a deep breath, put my poles into position on the snow, bent my knees, shoved off—

Moving fast with nothing around you is an awesome experience. Even on the bunny slope. The air was cold and whistled by my ears, rushed over my face. There is always a thrill,
no matter how many times I ski down a slope. A pitting of my balance and my skills against nature.

Heavy thoughts. But I loved the sensations. The sense of accomplishment.

At the bottom of the slope, I turned my feet so my skis angled slightly, slowing me to a stop in front of Joe. He was grinning.

“You're good.”

His praise pleased me more than I thought possible, and I tried not to let it go to my head. It probably had something to do with the battering I'd taken from Brad, even though he hadn't meant to batter me. I was just so not on Brad's radar that he hurt me without meaning to.

“Not as good as you,” I said, wanting to return the compliment.

“Don't kid yourself. I had yesterday to practice. Now, let's go have some fun.”

And we did have fun. We started on the easier slopes, which like the bunny slope meant we trudged up to the summit, then skied down. Unlike the bunny slope, I didn't have to wait for the person in front of me to reach the bottom. I just let them get started…or not. It
depended on the width of the trail that I was skiing down. It was always the responsibility of the person behind not to hit the person in front. Just like driving a car.

Only it wasn't always quite as easy to guide your speed. And you had to call out if you were rapidly approaching someone, so they'd know not to swerve over in front of you.

And
swoosh!

Past them you'd go.

Sometimes you can even race.

Which is what Joe and I started doing after a while. It was amazingly frustrating, because he was really good and he took the competition really seriously. Weaving in and out among a random tree or over a lump of snow that he didn't like the looks of.

I wasn't bad, myself, but I certainly wasn't as good as he was. No matter what he said or how often he complimented my skills.

“Ready to try something a bit more challenging?” he asked, after we'd been at it a couple of hours.

I grinned broadly. “Like Devil's Peak?”

It was the tallest slope that you could reach
using the ski lifts. There was actually a cable car that went up the deepest slope, to the highest peak. But the skiing up there was for the really experienced skiers.

“I'm game if you are,” I said.

We headed for the lifts that would take us to the top of Devil's Peak. The chairs on the ski lifts move constantly. We stepped onto the loading platform, just the two of us. A chair swung around and we sat on it while it kept moving forward. There's always this little jerky motion that makes me feel like I might topple out of it.

But somehow I always manage to stay on.

Our skis were on, our feet dangling. I held onto my poles with one hand, onto the ski lift chair with the other.

“I love riding the ski lift,” I said.

“Yeah, me, too.”

“You can see so much.” The ground moving farther and farther away as you went higher and higher toward the summit.

I glanced around at everything surrounding us, the snow-packed trail, the line of trees that ran up either side of the slope, the skiers skiing down, people walking at the edge of
the trees, people standing…

I leaned forward slightly. I'd recognize the pink coat with the furry collar and cuffs anywhere. “That's Allie,” I said, stunned.

“Looks like,” Joe said, his voice contained no real surprise, and I wondered exactly what I'd missed out on yesterday. Because she was standing at the edge of the trees, and she wasn't alone. She was with Sam.

Caught in a lip-lock that I thought might require the expertise of the mountain rescue team to break apart.

 

“I can't believe you were kissing my brother.”

Leah, Allie, and I were in my bedroom. It had been difficult, but I'd held my silence on the drive back to the condo. As soon as we got inside, I'd told them that we needed to have a serious talk. So we were all still bundled up and pretty cold. But this conversation couldn't wait.

Allie's cheeks had turned as pink as her jacket. “I can't believe you can't believe it.”

“My
brother
,” I said with emphasis, in case the snow had blinded her and she hadn't realized
exactly who she'd been standing there with. “I don't understand how you could kiss him! I mean, he's…he's—”

“Totally hot,” Leah interjected.

“
Please!
He is so not hot.”

“Oh, he's hot,” Leah insisted. “You just don't see it because he's your brother. But he is definitely a hottie.”

Dropping down on the edge of my bed, I stared at her, then stared at Allie. “You think he's hot?”

She nodded enthusiastically. “I can't believe you're this surprised. I've had a crush on him forever.”

Surprised? I was stunned. “Define
forever
.”

“Since I was a junior.”

I remembered how she'd offered to share her bedroom with him that first night…how breathless she'd sounded, and I'd stupidly thought it was because she was cold. I wanted to bang my head against the wall to knock some sense into myself.

“Oh my gosh. You really
like
him?”

She bobbed her head. “A lot.”

“Why didn't you tell me?”

“Because you think he's a jerk. But he's not. I know he gives you a hard time, but that's what brothers are supposed to do.”

“How would you know? You don't have any.”

She sat on the bed beside me. “He's funny, Kate. He makes me smile, and he has so much patience teaching me how to ski. And his kisses—”

I threw up a hand. “I don't want to hear any details about the game of tonsil hockey you were playing with him.”

I looked at Leah. “Did you know they liked each other?”

She smiled. “I suspected she liked him, but I knew Sam liked her. He almost knocked me down to get to the chair across from her at Pile It On Pizza.”

“You're kidding? I thought you manipulated the seating arrangement.”

“Nope. And he wouldn't let anyone else ride shotgun going or coming from the slopes yesterday or today. Front passenger seat might as well have Allie's name carved on it in gold. And they sat out in the hallway downstairs talking for most of the night.”

“About what?”

Allie shrugged. “Anything and everything. We have a lot in common and he's so interesting.”

Interesting? Sam?

I tore off my knitted cap and my hair tumbled around my shoulders, flying around in static-electrical wisps. “Brad said that Sam talked about me and Allie on the drive up here. I couldn't figure out why.”

“He's liked me for a while, too,” Allie said, wearing this dreamy smile.

This was too incredible to believe. How anyone, especially my best friend, could think my brother was boyfriend material was beyond comprehension. My brother! Clueless Sam!

“Kate seems to be speechless,” Leah said.

“That's an understatement,” I murmured.

“Try to see him from my perspective. He's totally—”

I held up my hand again. “Spare me, please. I will only ever look at Sam like he's my irritating brother.” Because that was exactly what he'd always be to me. I would certainly never contemplate him as hot. That was too gross.

I glanced over at Allie. “You'll always be my best friend, though. Even if I question your sanity.”

She grinned. “So we're all going to the movie together tonight, right?”

“Not me,” Leah said. “I'm meeting Ian at the Avalanche.”

The Avalanche was a little of everything: a sports bar with live entertainment.

“Sounds like you're serious about this guy,” I said.

“I'm getting there.”

“Which leaves me with no one,” I said. A total downer.

“Looked like you had someone last night…on the deck,” Leah said. “Or was it just an optical illusion that made it look like you were kissing Joe?”

I felt the heat rush to my face. I wasn't cold anymore.