The Notorious R(uth) B(arakat) G(rimaldi)

Chapter 25: Green Eyes for Everyone

"Oh my fucking god, Ruthie, watch out!"

There was no way she could have heard the words, or acted on them if she could, but Todd couldn't help but call out as he watched his daughter ski straight toward a boulder that was sticking out of the snow, clearly visible and marked.

Phil, who was standing next to him, turned just in time to see his daughter run into the boulder at a pretty good clip, drawn to it as though it were a magnet.

"Oh dear lord," Phil muttered as he and his husband both took off for their only child, ignoring all rules and etiquette about waiting one's turn and not skiing in front of others. They almost looked funny as they raced toward Ruthie, who had nearly, but not quite, sailed completely over the boulder, leaving her ski stuck upright in the snow.

Elliott, who'd been skiing next to her as her buddy and helper, was shouting as he bent over to unlatch his skis so he could run to where she lay. He plopped down next to her, calling her name. He pulled off his goggles and reached for her hand.

Her dads could see Ruthie pull herself using his grasp to sit up, and were marginally heartened. They arrived there around the same time as the woman from the ski patrol.

Ruthie was crying as Elliott cradled her head, freckled cheeks wet with tears. At least she was conscious.

"I fucking told you I couldn't ski," she said through her tears to the three men who loved her.

This made everyone, including the ski patrol EMT, laugh, which only made her cry harder.

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"I told you I couldn't ski," Ruthie repeated four hours later, her voice doleful.

She, her parents, and Elliott were looking at her calf, which was now encased in a fiberglass cast. The pretty pink color did nothing to cheer her up.

"Well, at least it's a simple, hairline fracture," Todd said, more to reassure himself than anything.

"Yes, and only the one bone, which is very lucky also," Elliott added.

"Never broken a bone, no opinion allowed," Ruthie informed them. "It hurts, you guys."

They were back at the cabin, where Ruthie was lying in relative comfort on the sofa. Amal and Clarence were very curious about the cast for about a minute, after which they only cared that one of the people they loved best in the world was supine on the sofa, complete with squashy blankets and pillows all around her.

"I'm sorry I asked you to ski," Elliott said, contrite.

"Oh, El, it's not your fault, I'm just being bitchy," Ruthie told him.

Phil and Todd had suggested ending the vacation early since Ruthie was disabled, but she'd nixed the idea, saying there was no reason why the three people who could ski and enjoyed it shouldn't continue to do it.

She pointed out to them that she, Ruthie, couldn't care less that she wouldn't be out on the slopes anymore.

"I'm not going to leave you and go off skiing all day," Elliott informed her. "I'll stay home with you.

"I'll stay home with her," he told her dads.

"That's stupid, they already bought your lift pass, it cost a fortune," Ruthie told him. "We'll all go to the ski place, and I can hang out in the lodge with my books and laptop and stuff, and you guys can pop in and say hello in between swooshing it up on the slopes."