She was so caught up in her speech that it took a few seconds for her to realize she’d just made a complete idiot of herself. Thankfully, just then the alarm on her phone went off.
She shoved her chair back. “I’ve got to go get Summer.”
Gabe stood, too, and grabbed her hand before she could run away through the restaurant and catch her breath.
As he pulled her into him, she could almost taste his mouth, knew she was going to give in to his kiss. But when they were only a breath apart, instead of taking her mouth with his, he simply said, “I’m the one who’s trying like hell to resist you, Megan.”
Just another half an inch and he could be hers. She could blame the alcohol, could claim that it had all been out of her control. But just as she was teetering on the edge of letting her walls come down to take what she so desperately wanted, she heard Summer call out.
“Mommy! Gabe!”
She stepped away from Gabe so quickly, she bumped into another table.
“Sorry!” she said to the couple without even looking at them and then she was turning to Summer. “Hey, honey, how was the sleigh ride?”
“Awesome! Did you guys have dessert already? I’m starved.”
After thirty mind-blowingly awkward minutes where both of them let Summer chatter about the kids she’d met on the sleigh ride, a couple of whom were from her soccer team, and all the fun things they’d done during the past two hours, they all finally left the restaurant. Megan felt like a wet dishrag that had just been wrung out. Hard.
They were almost away from the biggest—and most dangerous—temptation she’d ever faced in her life when Summer said, “What time should we meet you tomorrow morning for snowboarding?”
“How about ten a.m.?”
“Awesome!”
As Summer went running off to look for their room number and the elevator door closed on Gabe’s gorgeous face, a half-dozen words on the opposite spectrum from awesome were running on repeat through Megan’s mind.
If dinner with Gabe had nearly done her in, how was she going to make it through a whole day with him, in beautiful Lake Tahoe, in one piece?
* * *
By the next afternoon, when Megan had fallen over for the hundredth time, she lay in the snow laughing at herself. “If I had a white flag, I’d raise it right now.”
Gabe had dropped to his knees to help her up and as he lifted his goggles, she found herself looking into his smiling eyes.
“You’ve almost got it.”
“You’re a terrible liar.” She was too exhausted and surely bruised all over to do more than nod in the general direction of Summer, who was working on tricks at the far end of a ramp the ski resort had set up for snowboarders to play around on. “I’m afraid Summer is going to be the only snowboarder in our family.” She shot a nasty look at the board attached to the big boots she’d rented for the day. “I hope my skis will forgive me for cheating on them.”
He helped her up into a sitting position. Together they watched Summer go from trick to trick, a tiny whirl of energy on a snowboard that looked way too big for her.
“That kid of yours is a natural.”
“I know. She’s a natural at everything.”
Gabe shot her a look. “You don’t sound entirely happy about it.”
She bit her lip, knowing she’d already given too much away. And yet, for all the falling and cursing she’d done into facefuls of snow today, she’d truly enjoyed being with Gabe. Fortunately, it had been easier to ignore all the things her body was aching to do with him when they were bundled up in snowboarding gear and hats and goggles. She’d simply been able to let herself enjoy being with him. He’d been patient with her and Summer, had known just when to push Summer to the next step...and when to let Megan quit while she could still hobble off the mountain in one banged-up piece.
“She can be such a daredevil, always reaching for the thrill without always thinking about the ramifications of her actions.” She couldn’t stop herself from adding, “She’s the picture of her father. She got way more than her blond hair from him.”
“That’s funny,” he said softly, “because when I look at her, all I can see is you.”
She met his clear blue gaze on a surprised breath. “When she was born, she looked so much like him that I can remember wondering if anyone would believe I had anything to do with the little miracle in my arms. And then as she grew older and was always trying to climb a little higher and jump a little farther and go a little faster...well, I worry about her sometimes. Worry that she’ll end up pushing too far or too fast one time. Like her father did when his plane—”
The rest of the sentence was swallowed by her gasp as she watched Summer make a particularly bold move with her snowboard.
Landing triumphantly, Summer looked over at where they were sitting and waved. On a choked laugh, Megan gave her daughter the required thumbs-up.
Gabe reached for her hand, then. And even though they were both wearing thick gloves, she swore she could feel his heat through the layers of fabric and insulation.
“There’s a difference between risking smart and risking dumb. You raised her smart, Megan.” She couldn’t help but get lost in his eyes as he said, “And not all risk is bad.”
His words ran from her brain to the parts of her body that were suddenly screaming out for his touch again. She knew he was talking about Summer, about her fears as a mother...but what if that wasn’t all he was saying?