Count Your Lucky Stars •CHAENNIE•

Chapter 17

"Okay, so you've got the wedge technique down. That's fantastic. The next technique you'll want to practice is the parallel turn, which is the complete opposite of the wedge. We call it the parallel turn because your skis are-"

"Parallel?" Jennie arched a brow, the sharp shrewdness of her gaze tempered by the garish green puffy coat she had zipped all the way to her chin, making her look a little like giant dumpling. A cute dumpling. A cute dumpling Roseanne very much wanted to kiss, but couldn't because they were in public and this was casual.

God, for a word that Roseanne usually associated with so many of her favorite things-her most comfortable pair of jeans, her favorite threadbare T-shirt that she'd happened to have borrowed from Jennie years ago and never returned, the restaurant down the street that had the best crab Rangoon she'd ever eaten in her life-casual was beginning to grate. She'd ban it from her vocabulary if she could, scrap it altogether.

Screw casual. She wanted the opposite of whatever that was. Complex? She'd take complex any day.

"Yeah, exactly." Jimin nodded. "Parallel turns are kind of the bread and butter of skiing. It's the ideal position for edging."

Jennie's brows rocketed to her hairline as she met Roseanne's eyes over Jimin's shoulder. "Sorry, come again?"

Roseanne lifted a gloved hand to her mouth, muffling her small snicker. Jennie's lips twitched, eyes sparkling with mischief as she met Roseanne's stare.

"Edging," Jimin repeated, and Jennie turned, staring at Jimin agog, the tip of her nose turning red and small flurries gathering on her dark lashes. "It's how you control your speed. By scraping the edge of skis against the snow, you can slow down. The harder you edge-"

Jennie snorted loudly.

"Is something funny?" Jimin frowned.

Jennie's lips pressed together and a bubble of laughter built in Roseanne's throat, Jennie's laughter catching. A tiny giggle escaped Roseanne before she bit down on the inside of her cheek.

"Nope," Jennie bit out, barely managing that one word before her chin quivered and her shoulders started to shake.

"Okay." Jimin looked less than convinced, but shrugged, moving on. "Like I was saying, the harder you edge, the more in control you'll-"

Jennie bent at the waist and burst out laughing.

A smile tugged at the corners of Roseanne's mouth, the sound of Jennie's unadulterated joy filling her chest with more than enough warmth to combat the freezing temps.

"Is she okay?" Jimin asked Roseanne, dropping his voice and leaning a little closer than strictly necessary.

Roseanne nodded and shuffled back to put a bit of distance between them, her legs hampered by the skis attached to her feet. It had been over a year since she'd been skiing and even then, she could count on one hand the number of times she'd been in total. Rusty was an understatement. "Jennie's fine. She's just-"

"Sorry, sorry." Jennie flapped her hands in front of her face and exhaled sharply. "I'm good. You were saying?"

Jimin frowned, staring at Jennie like she'd lost her marbles. "Why don't you head back up the magic carpet and try a parallel turn at the bottom of the bunny slope? Edge hard to stop, okay?"

The magic carpet was a conveyor-belt-style people mover that pulled passengers up a small hill so they could master the basics before moving on to more advanced terrain. The summit offered two such people movers-one that led up to a small bunny slope, and another that led to a slightly steeper hill for those looking for a more intermediary option. Still not advanced, by any means, but a longer descent perfect for practicing trickier turns.