Total pages in book: 65
Estimated words: 59489 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 297(@200wpm)___ 238(@250wpm)___ 198(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 59489 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 297(@200wpm)___ 238(@250wpm)___ 198(@300wpm)
“I thought you were going to get beer or wine or something,” I said.
“Try it,” she said.
I took a sip.
“Oh, that is a lot of whiskey.”
“Hot Toddy,” she said. “Mom used to make them for me when my throat was sore and I was staying home from school.”
“How old were you?” I asked.
“Young,” she said. “But it helped soothe my throat, was warm and wonderful, and I slept like the dead twenty minutes later.”
“I bet,” I said. “This is really good.”
“It is,” she said. “You know what’s not good?”
“What?”
“Us at skiing,” she said.
I laughed.
“We are not experts,” I admitted. “But we have two more days here before we fly out to Chicago, then home.”
“And you plan on becoming an expert by then?” she asked, a grin spreading wide across her face.
“I’ll be an expert at something,” I said. “But I do plan on skiing at least once more.”
“Have at it,” she said. “And don’t think I didn’t catch that.”
“I was hoping you would,” I said, sitting back. “But yes, I want to try skiing again, if nothing else than I hate that it defeated me.”
“It didn’t really defeat you,” she said. “You got down the hill.”
I rolled my eyes. “Technically,” I said.
We each sat back in the large lounge chairs overlooking the floor-to-ceiling windows that peeked out over the mountain, sipping our drinks, her hand folded over mine. It was perfect, and much better than barreling down a mountain on my stomach.
The next morning, I was up before she was, and by the time she rolled over and noticed I wasn’t there, I was already dressed.
“You’re going to try it now?” she asked.
“Yep,” I said. “I figured I could see what I could do for the next hour or so, you could join me at the clubhouse, and when I am done embarrassing myself, we can have lunch and then retire here for the rest of the day.”
“Hmm, I like the whole retire here for the rest of the day part. And lunch at the clubhouse sounds good. But I would prefer my husband to not be either broken in half or an icicle when I do those things.”
“Want to come with me?”
I had a feeling I knew the answer, but I was surprised when she thought about it for a second, then threw the covers of the bed off her and stood up. Surprise turned into several other thoughts as she sauntered up to me, her incredible body swaying in the most eye-catching way possible. I already had gloves on, but I was seriously debating throwing them off just to touch her. If I did that, though, everything else was going to come off too.
“I want you to come with me,” she said, her lips just inches from mine. “If you know what I mean.”
I made a sound somewhere between a groan and a whimper.
“I do,” I said.
She grinned.
“Good, now go ski, and I will meet you at the clubhouse. Then I have lots of ideas as to how we could… retire here for the evening.”
Iwas starting to get the hang of it. It took a while, but there I was, going down the bunny hill, not falling. The not falling was the important part. I had done a lot of falling.
I had done enough falling that it eventually brought Kristen out, bundled as best she could be and holding a warm coffee in her hands to cheer me on and simultaneously make sure I wasn’t running into trees. I had only done that once, and it was a tiny tree. She still didn’t seem terribly pleased.
I was three quarters of the way down the hill when I realized I had made it. I had conquered the concept of skiing, and that meant I didn’t have to do it anymore.
When I got to the bottom of the hill, I scooted over to the chairs taking people back up the slope and sat down, relishing the view and knowing it was the last time I was likely to see it. I had much better plans for what I wanted to do when I got back to the cabin. They involved the sexy purple lingerie I’d watched Kristen put on before I walked out of the door and knew she was wearing underneath all those clothes. Somehow, despite all the big, bulky coats and hats and pants, just knowing she was wearing that was driving me wild.
As the chair dropped me off at the top of the mountain, I went to the ski rental lodge and dropped them off, then headed back for the clubhouse. Kristen wasn’t where I’d left her, so I figured she was inside getting another coffee or perhaps another Hot Toddy. I could go for one at that moment. Anything to warm up my bones.
I got into the clubhouse and saw a note on the chairs where we usually sat. It had my name on it. I opened it up and read the note in Kristen’s handwriting.