Rising From the Ashes

16. Risks and Returns

“Tell me you’re finally ready for skiing, Nat,” Nick pleaded, giving me his best puppy dog-eyed look as he stood up from the chalet table, tugging on my hand impatiently. The table in front of us was littered with crumbs and several paper cups – we have been sitting in the ski lodge chalet for the past four hours as I complained of soreness and the cold, whizzing wind outside. Mike and Jasmine have left us after only half an hour to hit the hills, but, to Nick’s credit, he stayed with me for this long before he was finally bored of the wooden décor and constant refills of tea.

“Do I have a choice?” I chuckled.

He gave me a soft peck on the lips before pulling me up. “Nope, you don’t. How about this: if you go out and ski with me, I will try to cook dinner tonight.”

“Could I trust you not to burn down the kitchen?” I said, giving him a suspicious look as I pulled on my hat.

“No guarantees, but I will try my best.” He grinned crookedly. “Now come on, let’s hit the hills.”

By the time I strapped my skis back on, it was getting dark outside. Nick’s cottage was farther north than our town, and that combined with the early winter nights made our five PM exit from the chalet seem like the dead of the night. Light, fluffy snow was falling softly all around us, covering the trees slowly in a white blanket. As much as I hated skiing and the cold air that was currently biting at my cheeks, I had to admit the sight was beautiful.

I followed Nick to the lifts, my stomach aching slightly as I braced myself for another encounter with his ex-girlfriend. I had to admit that yesterday, he did not mention her at all after we left the lodge – for which I was immensely grateful, but the thought of a tall, curvaceous blonde around my boyfriend was not making me feel at ease.

“Nick!” Elise exclaimed when we finally approached the lifts with our passes clipped to our jackets, my hand firmly entwined in his. Her hair was curled into soft waves, an enticing sight even beneath her hat, and her eyes lit up when she saw the guy beside me. She seemed to ignore me completely as she gave him a toothy grin. “Took you a while to get here, eh? I was beginning to think you were avoiding me.”

“No, of course not!” Nick said, sounding apologetic enough to make me bite my lip in frustration. “Nat just wasn’t quite ready to get to the hills.”

“That’s a shame,” Elise replied, finally sparing me a brief look, “you don’t like skiing?”

“Not particularly,” I admitted, with a shrug of my shoulders. She seemed to be talking to me nicely enough, and I hoped that my answer would satisfy her enough to simply let us through to the lifts. Unfortunately, there seemed to be no customers behind me right now, meaning she could talk to us for as long as she wanted. “People tried to teach me a few times, butI never quite got the hang of it.”

Her eyes seemed to be trained back on Nick instantly. “Oh, I’m sure you’d be a good teacher. Remember when you taught me how to ski back in third grade?”

“Well, it wasn’t hard,” Nick admitted with a small smile, “you were a natural.”

“Remember how we always used to go up to the Black Diamond hill and race, and then our parents would tell us to get down before we got ourselves wrapped around a tree?”

“Yeah, your mom really worries too much.” He grinned. I felt almost shut out of the conversation as they began discussing old memories, with Elise flirtatiously batting her eyelashes and inching slightly closer with every word. “But yeah, of course I remember how I would always kick your ass.”

“I bet there’s no way you could win right now, not even if I gave you a head start,” Elise challenged, tipping her head to the side.

“That’s what you said every time, Lise,” he responded confidently, “but I’ve always beat you anyway.”