Chapter 6

6

K ids tore past her, throwing Candace straight on her ass. She grunted and sighed. Getting up and down on a flat surface while wearing skis was exhausting her, and her entire body ached. She scooted off to the side of the cat track and tugged off her glove with her teeth. She fished out her cell phone from the inside of her jacket pocket and clicked on the screen. Opening a text to her sister, she typed out a message.

I can’t find you, so I’m going to hit up the lodge for some hot cocoa. Have fun!

Jessica had sent Candace a message asking her to meet her on the cat track, so they could do a few runs together. But Jessica hadn’t shown. Candace half expected Jessica and Travis to be having sex in a secluded spot, forgetting all about their plans. So she didn’t expect a response. She dropped her phone back in her pocket and tugged on her glove. After several minutes of struggling, she finally got back on her feet.

And then someone plowed into her from behind, throwing her back onto the ground in a heap of arms, legs, and skis. The wind whooshed out of her when the other person’s elbow pressed into her stomach. The other person scrambled, attempting to untangle their limbs, but she laid like a deadweight, trying to gasp some air back into her lungs as people continued to ski past them without so much as an “are you okay?”

“Candace? Are you okay?”

Brent helped her sit up, but she could only shoot him a glare as she took a few deep breaths.

“I’m sorry about that. I didn’t see you when I was coming around the corner.” He reached forward and brushed some snow off her shoulder. “I may have been going a little fast.”

“You think?”

She struggled to stand, but he immediately stood with ease and grabbed her hands, hauling her back to her feet. Her ankle twinged with pain, and she cringed.

One of her skis had popped off and was lying a few feet away in the snowbank. Candace went to slide forward and grab it, but the pain almost buckled her leg under the pressure. She sucked in a harsh breath and clamped her teeth to refrain from crying out.

Brent moved forward and grabbed the ski, dropping it in front of her so she could attach her boot. She lifted her leg and dropped it onto the ski; the pain radiating when she pressed her foot down to attach it.

He seemed oblivious to the fact that she was hurting, but she preferred it that way. The last thing she needed was him making fun of her for getting injured on a cat track, despite it being his fault for her current predicament.

“Shall we continue?” he asked.

She waved a hand for him to go on. “I’m actually going to head to the lodge. Enjoy yourself.”

He looked her up and down. “You don’t want to ski anymore?”

She shrugged. “Not really. I’m just going to grab some hot chocolate and relax for a bit.”

He looked around as if he was weighing his options. She considered skiing past him and continuing on to the lodge, but then he’d realize she was injured. She needed him to leave.

“So, have fun!” she said, adding a cheery tone to her voice.

His eyebrows furrowed. “I’ll join you.”

“That’s really unnecessary. Go enjoy yourself.”

“I’m getting a little tired of skiing. I wouldn’t mind grabbing a drink at the bar.”

She stared at him. Why the hell would he want to spend time with her? They didn’t even like each other!

“Okay…” she drew out. This must be a joke.

He motioned for her to go first, but she shook her head.

“After you.”

“Ladies first,” he said at the same time, and then he laughed. “Candace, seriously. Go first. I’ll prevent anyone else from skiing into you, and I promise I won’t.”

“I don’t want you crushing me again.”

“It was an accident. You were around a corner.”

She glanced back toward the cat track and knew he was right. She stopped in a horrible place, and they were lucky no one had run into them yet. The problem was that if she went first, he would realize she was injured.

As if he knew she was about to protest again, he said, “Candace, I’m not moving until you do.”

Sighing, defeated, she used her poles to propel herself forward and winced against the pain. With her back to him, she knew he couldn’t see the torture she was putting herself through. But she had to get down the mountain somehow.

By the time the cat track came out to the next run, tears were stinging her eyes and her ankle throbbed. They were still a few runs away from the lodge.

Brent came to a stop next to her. The run was blue and would normally be easy enough for her to get down, but she knew it wasn’t easy enough for her ankle.

“Ready?” he asked.

“Go on ahead. I’m going to take it slow.”

He looked over at her as if he were studying her. “Do you want to find an easier one? I’m not sure if there are any green runs over here, but maybe there’s another blue that’s smoother.”

Why was he being so nice? And why was he insisting on sticking with her? She tried so many times to get him to just go ahead, but here he was, sticking by her side.

Like a fucking weirdo.

“No, this is fine.”

He waited and motioned for her to go. She sighed, exasperated.

“Brent. Just go!”

As if he suddenly realized what was going on, he pulled his goggles off his face and rested them against his helmet. “Did you get hurt?”

“No.” The lie wobbled on her voice.

He examined her, clearly not believing her reply. “Is it the ankle or knee?”

She looked back at him and considered what lie she could tell, but he would figure it out as soon as she tried to slide down the mountain on her ass the rest of the way. “My ankle.”

“How bad?”

Her shoulders sagged, defeated. “Pretty bad.”

“Do you think you can get down this run?”

“Maybe on my ass.”

His lips quirked briefly before he yanked off his gloves and fished into his pocket. He pulled out his cell phone and typed something in the search bar.

“Googling how you can get me down the mountain?” she asked, rolling her eyes.

He lifted a brow but didn’t respond. Finding whatever it was he was looking for, he clicked on the call button and held the phone up to his ear.

“Hi, yes, my name is Brent, and I’m currently on the east side of the mountain by the—“ He glanced up at the sign. “—foxtrot run. My friend is injured.”

She snorted. Friend. Right. He glanced at her and raised his eyebrows in question. She shrugged.

“Okay, thanks,” he said and ended the call.

“Who’d you call?”

“Ski patrol.”

Her eyes about bugged out of her head. “What? Oh no. I’m going to get down this mountain on my ass.”

She went to drop to the ground, but winced as soon as she put any pressure on her foot. He watched her struggle for a few beats before he grabbed her under the arms and hauled her back up to her feet, positioning himself next to her to take the weight off her ankle.

“As much as I’d like to watch you struggle down the slope, I can’t watch you hurt yourself more.”

His hand snaked around her waist. Even through the heavy coat, her body tingled to his touch. Traitor.

“So go on ahead, and then you don’t have to watch.” She smirked up at him, and he let out a loud laugh.

“Well, that wouldn’t be very gentleman-like.”

She snorted. “Gentleman my ass.”

He raised an eyebrow but didn’t respond to the comment. “Besides, I suspect me running into you probably made it worse.”

“It didn’t make it worse. It caused it,” she muttered.

As if she were driving a knife into his chest, a flash of pain shot across his face. “I’m sorry, Candy.”

“Candy?”

“It’s easier to say than Candace.”

“Yeah, okay.”

The buzzing of a snowmobile sounded in the distance and continued to get closer. Within a minute, the ski patrol was pulling up onto the cat track and approaching them.

“Did you call for help?” a man asked. His bright red jacket easily identified him as a member of the ski patrol, if the snowmobile wasn’t any indication. Another patrol person got off and fiddled with the gear on the backend.

“Yes, thank you for coming. I’m Brent. This is Candace. She seems to have injured her ankle, and I don’t think she’s going to get to the lodge without help.”

“I’m fine,” Candace said, giving them all a tight smile. She wasn’t fine, but she’d be damned if she was going to ride down the mountain with the assistance of the ski patrol.

“She’s not fine,” Brent stated matter-of-factly.

The man looked between them before settling on Candace. “I’m Noah. It’s okay to get help. It’s better than risking further injury to yourself. Let us take a look.”

With Noah on one arm and Brent on the other, they helped lead Candace over to the backend of the snowmobile where the female ski patroller was getting a sled-looking thing attached.

Candace raised an eyebrow and looked over at Brent, who was stifling a laugh.

“I am not riding down on that.”

Noah did little in surveying Candace’s foot, which was still inside her boot, except to ask if she could put weight on it. She couldn’t. Then he told her she needed to get on the toboggan, so they could transport her down to the lodge where the medical facility was set up with someone who could better treat her.

“I will slide down on my ass before I get on that,” she said.

“Ma’am, you are injured, and we can’t let you go down the mountain except on this,” Noah said.

Candace raised an eyebrow.

He continued, “You can put other guests at risk if you try to go down. Not to mention, you could hurt yourself further.”

He had a point. She knew he did. But giving Brent the satisfaction of seeing her strapped into the toboggan was not helping.

Brent covered his smile. “Candace, just do what they say. What’s it going to hurt? Very few people up here know you. It’s not like it’s going to end up on YouTube or something.”

She narrowed her eyes. “Now I’m expecting you will put it on YouTube.”

He laughed. “That’s tempting, but I don’t need your sister cutting off my balls.”

Candace laughed out loud in spite of herself. Jessica would be murderous if she knew Brent would attempt to hurt her sister—even if just by embarrassment. Travis wouldn’t stand to see his brother attempt to disrupt his bride’s big week, either.

“Okay. Fine. But no cameras.”

The ski patrollers looked at Brent, who raised his hands in surrender. “No cameras.”

The amount of stuff that was used to strap her into the sled was overkill. They stabilized her foot, which they said they needed to do to make sure none of the bumps would hurt her on the ride. They wrapped her in some blankets and strapped her to the sled, so only her face was visible.

Brent laughed, and she threw him the best dirty look she could. Before she could say anything, they were off. The ski patrollers mounted the snowmobile and rode at a snail’s pace along the cat track. Brent could easily keep up and skied along behind them, laughing the whole way.

She would never live this down.

Several minutes later, they finally arrived at the lodge. Brent got her skis from the ski patrol and told her he was going to go return them for her. She thanked him, and he disappeared. She was more thankful for the fact that she could sit in her embarrassment with no one else she knew seeing her.