She’d had no intention of calling him to come over to fix her tire today, even though he’d offered more than once. Now she found herself going to find his cell phone number in her purse.
How, she wondered, had she gone from zero Sullivans in her life to three in a matter of days?
* * *
Five hours later, as they pulled up to the ski resort, Megan couldn’t stop thinking what a great idea this trip already was. During the drive from the city, they’d sung along with songs on the radio and then they’d finally had a chance to talk about second grade, everything from the teacher to Summer’s friends and even a little bit about boys.
While they checked in, Summer kept scanning the hotel, for what, Megan didn’t know. “Look,” she said when the man behind the check-in desk switched their room from the second to the first floor, then gave her the schedule of activities, “there’s a horse-drawn sleigh ride tonight at six.” It was late afternoon already, just about the time the slopes were closing and skiers were coming in looking exhilarated and exhausted from a day in the snow. “This is going to be so much fun.”
“Kids only, Mom.”
Megan frowned. “Oh. I hadn’t noticed that. Well, maybe they can make an exception for me.”
Summer didn’t say anything for a moment, but she scanned the lobby extra hard. At long last, Megan had to acknowledge that something fishy was going on. Hadn’t there been more than one sign that something was up?
“Summer, what aren’t you telling me?”
Her daughter pressed her lips together as though that would mean she didn’t need to say. Deciding she’d get to the bottom of things after they settled in upstairs, Megan was just about to pick up their bags and head to the elevator when she heard a familiar voice.
The same deep voice she’d been daydreaming about all day long.
“Megan? Summer?”
Oh God.
Now she knew what was up. Megan didn’t have time to shoot a glare at Summer before turning to Gabe.
“Hi.”
She was going to kill her daughter!
He was clearly surprised to see them standing there in the lobby. Just as surprised as she was.
Summer, on the other hand, didn’t seem the least bit surprised. Relieved was more like it.
“Hi Gabe!”
He turned his frown into a smile for her daughter. “Hey, pretty girl. You going skiing tomorrow?”
She nodded happily. “Actually, I’m hoping to learn how to snowboard.”
This was the first Megan had heard about it.“Do you know how?” Summer asked him.
Oh no, Megan could see where this was going. She tried to shoot Gabe a look to let him know he shouldn’t agree to anything right now, that even a yes was too much at this point. But he was already nodding.
“Will you teach me?”
No! You’re busy on your own winter vacation. There are plenty of professional snowboard teachers we could pay to teach her.
When Gabe looked up at her, Megan used every ounce of mental telepathy she could. He looked like he was trying to figure something out, like he was weighing facts before coming to a decision.
When he gave her a short nod, she nearly fell over in her relief that he understood.
“Sure I will.”
“What?” The sharp question was out before Megan could stop it. She turned to her daughter. “Gabe is not going to teach you to snowboard.”
“But he just said he wanted to!” Summer’s chin was out now, a picture of stubbornness.
Megan put her hands on her hips. “First of all, you didn’t even ask me if you could snowboard. And second—” She was about to lay into her daughter about organizing this whole “accidental” run into Gabe when it hit her just how much it would embarrass Summer.
Not that she was going to let her get away with it, of course. She just didn’t need to do it in front of Gabe. Or in front of the check-in desk for the whole hotel to hear about.
“Megan, I agree that Summer should have definitely asked you first if it was okay,” he said in a perfectly reasonable voice, “but if it is, I’d like to teach her how to snowboard.”
Summer practically glowed at his words. Megan hadn’t seen that glow since David had been around when she was a toddler. How she’d loved her father.
And that glow was the only reason Megan finally said, “Okay.”
She wasn’t prepared for Gabe to say, “What about you? Do you know how?”
“No.”
His grin was slow and way too powerful, if the way her heartbeat ratcheted up another zillion beats was anything to go by. He shouldn’t be looking at her that way after they’d agreed they’d had their very last kiss at her front door the night before.
They’d agreed, darn it!
“Want to learn?”
Someone had to be the voice of reason here. Someone needed to stand firm and think things through. But, oh, why did it have to be her? And why did he have to be such a ridiculously good kisser?
She forced the word “No” from her lips.
Only, for some reason, her repeatedly sharp replies weren’t having the right effect on him. He shouldn’t still be smiling at her, shouldn’t be nodding as if he knew exactly what she was afraid of. Not of learning a new sport, but of being with him all day. As if he knew she didn’t have it in her to tough it out and not give in to kissing him during a day on the slopes.
She shouldn’t have read it as a challenge. But her daughter hadn’t come by her personality by accident. Megan was just as stubborn. Heck, that stubbornness had been a large part of why they’d survived David’s death so well, why their transition from losing everything in the fire to getting back to living their normal lives had been relatively smooth.