| |
WHEN ALL OF US SET off for the mountain’s peak, it didn’t escape my attention that Marcus Koch shot a sidelong glance at Blackwell as we pressed forward. And when we did, I heard him end his conversation, slip his phone back inside his suit, and start down the mountain at a leisurely pace.
Had he been waiting for us to begin? I wasn’t sure, but it seemed that way. And what was I to make of that?
“Let’s do this,” Brock said.
“Amen,” Madison said.
“Why do I suddenly feel paralyzed?” Blackwell said.
“Because shit just got totes to the real, Mom,” Daniella said. “But you’ll ace it. Just follow us. We’ll be right beside you. And with us beside you, what can possibly go wrong?”
“Are you serious?” Blackwell said to her. “With all of you around me, everything could go wrong. I’m expecting a goddamned avalanche. Just let me start out on my own armed with the few tips Jennifer and Cutter have given me. If I start to spiral out of control, I’ll just fall down on my back, as Jennifer suggested. Then I’ll get up again and start over—because right now, I’m once again filled with resolve. This mountain isn’t about to best me.”
The moment she said that, she pushed away from us and started down the trail.
“Shit,” I said. “Let’s move it, everyone. I don’t think she knows what she’s in for.”
“She doesn’t,” Alexa said. “She’s always so overconfident. But maybe this will give her the lesson she needs when it comes to that.”
“She could nail it,” Brock said as he cut in front of me. “Who knows? I mean look at her—she’s doing well.”
And I had to admit that she was. She was skiing from left to right and she was keeping her speed in check by keeping the front of her skis pressed into one another, but the moment the mountain took its first dip, Blackwell didn’t have the necessary skills to compensate for it, and she became unleashed.
With a shriek that was loud enough to catch the attention of all the skiers around us, Blackwell became an unhinged red flare shooting down the slopes.
“Turn in your skis!” Cutter shouted at her. “Cut left! Slow your momentum!”
“Fall!” I said as she picked up speed. “Just fall back and lay down!”
With an aggressive push, both Cutter and Brock broke away from the rest of us and hurried toward her.
“Help!” Blackwell cried out, her legs trembling beneath her as her pace quickened. “I’m going to die without seeing the spring/summer collection!”
With my poles, I dug in deep and gave myself a massive push so that I could pull in close behind Cutter and Brock. If she fell at this speed, she might injure herself. One of us needed to grab her by the arm and stop her short before that happened.
“What in the name of Chanel is happening to me!” she screeched.
And when those words rang out of her mouth, I saw Marcus Koch cut sharply to the left and stop abruptly so that he could turn to face her.
But it was too late for him.
Blackwell slammed straight into him with such force that they tumbled together down the slopes in a plume of powdery snow before finally slowing to a stop—with Blackwell firmly poised on top of the poor man.
Cutter, Brock, and I rushed to their side, with Madison, Daniella, and Alexa just behind us.
“Are you all right?” Koch asked her.
Their arms and legs were entangled. Both of them had lost their skis, goggles, and poles due to the accident. Their faces were so close to one another, and they were breathing so hard against each other that it was clear that the wrecking ball that was Blackwell had knocked the wind out of both of them.
“I’m so sorry,” she said. “My God—how awful of me.”
“Is it?” he asked with a disarming grin. “I mean, if two people were going to make a mess of it on a mountainside, at least we did it with style. Don’t you think?”
Blackwell didn’t respond to that. Instead, she said, “Did I hurt you?”
“I’m flat on my back with a beautiful woman on top of me. Believe me, I’m not feeling any pain.”
“And how am I to respond to that?”
“Maybe with a smile?”
“Please. People are watching. Paparazzi might be taking our photographs. We must untangle ourselves.”
“Paparazzi,” he said. “Should I know you?”
“I’m a legend.”
“Well, my mysterious legend, I think that getting out of this situation is going to be a bit of a challenge. Your right leg is hooked around my left knee in a weird kind of way. And I think that one of your bootstraps has somehow locked itself into one of mine. Are you able to remove it?”
“Well, of course I can. I’m fully capable of any task. Just maneuver your body to the left.”
“I can’t,” he said. “You’ve got me pinned. And since you do, you know, maybe we should just stay like this for a while and get to know one another better.”
“I hardly see that happening.”
“You’re a handful,” he said. “Not that I mind that.”
“You have no idea.” She raised an eyebrow at him. “And by the way, that should terrify you.”
“Sorry, but it doesn’t.”
“Then you should know that I eat cubes of ice for lunch,” she said. “So—consider that.”
“And yet you feel so warm against me. I wonder why that is...”
“If I feel warm against you, it’s only because I just tumbled down a goddamned mountain.”
“Hmmm,” he said, looking her in the eyes. “I wonder if that’s all it is...”
“Oh, bloody hell,” she said looking up at us. “We can’t stay like this forever. Cutter, Jennifer—somebody. Help us out!”
“You mean, before you get pregnant?” Daniella said.
Alexa actually giggled at her sister’s comment, which came as a relief considering how those two had been going head-to-head with each other since we’d left New York.
“You did not just say that,” Alexa said.
“I absolutely did. Look at them. I’ve experienced plenty of positions in my life, but I can tell you this with certainty, my dear little back-stabbing baby sister, that I’ve achieved nothing like what our mother and her apparent new suitor have managed to achieve—and for everybody to watch, I might add.”
And at that, Daniella started a slow clap.
“Brava!” she said. “Well done, Mother. Way to class up those slopes.”
“Daniella, please.”
“He looks good on you, Mom. Or should I say that you look good on top of him?”
As Brock and Cutter tried to free them from each other, I heard Marcus ask Blackwell, “Who is that?”
“My ridiculous daughter.”
“Your daughter? She must be in her early twenties. You look too young to have a daughter that age.”
“Well,” Blackwell said as Cutter tried to unlock their boots. “Thank you. How unusually kind of you. Even though I’ve likely just broken several limbs, I do try to take care of myself—as hard as that might be for you to believe right now.”
“Look, Barbara,” he said. “Since you nearly just took my life, you now officially must let me buy you a drink, if only to make amends. Meet me at the lodge tonight. Don’t say no. It’s just for one drink.”
“Oh, look—the oldest line in the book! And what if I’m married? Have you considered that?”
“Are you?”
“Actually, I’m not.”
“Divorced?”
“I hardly share my personal life with strangers.”
“So, you’re divorced. Been through one myself. I didn’t like it when I caught my wife cheating on me.”
Which is exactly what Charles had done to Blackwell. When Marcus said that to her, I saw something shift in her expression. For an instant, she seemed to assess him with new eyes.
“Just one drink—I promise,” he said. “I’m here alone. My own children are with their mother, and it would be nice to spend some time with someone interesting for once.”
“How do you know if I’m interesting? What if I’m dull and disappointing? What if I’m this kind of horror show off the slopes?”
“Yeah, I kind of doubt that.”
“Well, at least you’re intuitive,” she said.
“I read people quickly.”
“Is that so?”
“Actually, it is. I wouldn’t have asked you for that drink if I thought it was going to be a waste of my time. Not in me.”
“Shit is totes getting real,” Daniella said beneath her breath.
“There,” Brock said as he released whatever parts of their boots were hooked together. “You’re free.”
Then, in one swift, fluid motion, Marcus swept one foot beneath him, pressed down on it, and lifted Blackwell off of his body as he stood. He placed her gently in front of him with the sort of ease that suggested to me that this man was nothing if not muscular and fit.
“He’s Iron Man,” Alexa said.
“No shit,” Daniella said. “Did you see that? I know Mom weighs next to nothing, but still. It was as if she was weightless. Good God.”
“Are you all right?” Marcus asked her as Cutter brought over their skis and Brock delivered their poles and goggles. “Nothing sprained or broken?”
“I’m as healthy as Chanel’s bottom line.”
“You do have a way with words,” he said.
“You have no idea how I wield my words, Mr. Koch.”
“Please, since you have, after all, been on top of me, at the very least call me by my first name. In case you’ve forgotten, it’s Marcus.”
“Fine, then—Marcus. Thank you for cushioning my fall.”
“Is that what you call it?” He held up a hand before she spoke. “I’m joking,” he said. “I’m just glad I was there to help stop you, because you really could have hurt yourself. It’s still a long way to the bottom of the mountain, so be careful, OK?”
“After that scene, I’ll walk down this damned mountain if I have to.”
“And yet why do I feel as if you’re about to put on those skis again, and give it another go? I don’t know you, Barbara, but I can already tell that you’re no quitter. So, see you at the bar in the lodge at eight?”
“I never agreed to that.”
“You’ll be there,” he said as he lowered his goggles over his eyes. “I know you will. You have to come. We both know it.”
“How utterly confident of you.”
“That’s the thing,” he said. “I am confident, but not arrogant. I just want to share a drink with you—and after that blunder, you owe me that. So, I’ll see you tonight.”
“You must know that I am not to be had for the mere price of a mountain collision!” she said.
But when she said that, Marcus Koch had already swept away from us. Watching him ski down the slope, it was clear to me that he was an expert skier and had only chosen this slope in hopes of finding another opportunity to interact with Blackwell. He couldn’t have known at the time how that was going to turn out, but their mountain mayhem was what it was—and being the romantic at heart that I was, I had to wonder if it had happened for a reason.
After we got down the mountain and back to the house, would Blackwell agree to going to the lodge’s bar for a drink?
With her, one never knew.
