Not that she was going to let her get away with it, of course. She just didn’t need to do it in front of Gabe. Or in front of the check-in desk for the whole hotel to hear about.
“Megan, I agree that Summer should have definitely asked you first if it was okay,” he said in a perfectly reasonable voice, “but if it is, I’d like to teach her how to snowboard.”
Summer practically glowed at his words. Megan hadn’t seen that glow since David had been around when she was a toddler. How she’d loved her father.
And that glow was the only reason Megan finally said, “Okay.”
She wasn’t prepared for Gabe to say, “What about you? Do you know how?”
“No.”
His grin was slow and way too powerful, if the way her heartbeat ratcheted up another zillion beats was anything to go by. He shouldn’t be looking at her that way after they’d agreed they’d had their very last kiss at her front door the night before.
They’d agreed, darn it!
“Want to learn?”
Someone had to be the voice of reason here. Someone needed to stand firm and think things through. But, oh, why did it have to be her? And why did he have to be such a ridiculously good kisser?
She forced the word “No” from her lips.
Only, for some reason, her repeatedly sharp replies weren’t having the right effect on him. He shouldn’t still be smiling at her, shouldn’t be nodding as if he knew exactly what she was afraid of. Not of learning a new sport, but of being with him all day. As if he knew she didn’t have it in her to tough it out and not give in to kissing him during a day on the slopes.
She shouldn’t have read it as a challenge. But her daughter hadn’t come by her personality by accident. Megan was just as stubborn. Heck, that stubbornness had been a large part of why they’d survived David’s death so well, why their transition from losing everything in the fire to getting back to living their normal lives had been relatively smooth.
Which was why there was no stopping her own chin from jutting out, and the words, “You know what, I’m sure snowboarding can’t be that big a deal.” Just like resisting him wasn’t going to be a big deal. No problem. She’d just shut down every part of her that was female, every cell connected to attraction and arousal, and she’d be fine.
A young woman started ringing a bell in the hall where the big fireplace was. “The kids’ group is meeting here for the sleigh ride in five minutes.”
Summer grabbed Megan’s hand. “Mom, please, can I go?”
She was still extremely upset with her daughter for orchestrating this whole trip just to see Gabe again. But it didn’t make sense to spend the next two days punishing her for wanting to be around the nice man who’d saved their lives.
Really, how could she blame Summer just because Gabe was irresistible to girls of all ages? Especially twenty-seven-year-old single mothers who knew better.
“Can you keep an eye on our things for a minute?” she said to Gabe, before taking Summer’s hand and heading over to the kids’ group leader. After making sure that Summer would be meeting her at eight o’clock, sharp, in the same spot in front of the fireplace, she gave her a kiss then headed back over to her bags.
And Gabe.
“You’re not going on the sleigh ride, too?”
“Kids only.” She gestured to their things. “Thanks for watching our stuff. I’m going to head up to my room now.” She’d order room service and buy a book on her e-reader. Something mathematical and dry. It would be a perfectly mellow night. She was really looking forward to it.
Seriously. It was going to be great.
“Have dinner with me, Megan.”
Having dinner with Gabe was the last thing she should do. Well, next to snowboarding with him tomorrow, anyway.
“Look,” she said in what she hoped was a friendly, normal voice, “we both know it’s better if we don’t.” When he didn’t look convinced, she said, “We agreed, remember?”
“I’m not going to kiss you in a crowded restaurant, Megan.”
She felt her breath go, tingles immediately landing on her mouth, with nothing but the word kiss from Gabe’s lips.
While she was still trying to figure out how to breathe normally, he continued, “And we both need to eat.”
“You must have friends you were going to see tonight.”
“Nope, they’re staying out for night skiing,” he said, and then, “We’ll talk. That’s it. And tomorrow we’ll have fun out on the mountain.”
As oxygen finally hit her lungs, she realized how crazy she was being. Especially since he was the height of sensibility, actually having to remind her that he wasn’t exactly going to throw her down on the table in a crowded restaurant and ravish her. Heck, he made it sound like the thought hadn’t ever crossed his mind. Just food and snowboarding, that’s all he was thinking about.
“Okay. How about we meet back down here in thirty minutes?”
“Thirty minutes sounds good.”
She was about to pick up the two small bags she and Summer had brought with them—their snow gear had all burned up in the fire and they were going to rent for the next couple of days—when Gabe grabbed them.
“I’ve got it,” she told him.
He said, “I know you do,” but he didn’t let go of her bags.
She supposed she could have seen it as some sort of macho move on his part. But, instead, she realized it was simply good manners.
He was heading to the elevators when she said, “I’m on the first floor.”
He frowned for a moment before nodding and following her to her room. She refused to let herself be nervous about being alone in her hotel room with Gabe for the split second it would take him to bring her bags in. He’d help her with her things, she’d clean up from the drive, and they’d have a nice, perfectly platonic dinner, followed by a friendly day out on the snowy mountain tomorrow.
Still, it was incredibly awkward the way they’d shown up at the very same ski resort he was at on the same exact day he was here. Somehow Summer must have found out about his holiday plans at the party last night. Megan was about to say as much when a group of loud teens shoved past them.
They were both inside her room a few moments later. It wasn’t a small room, but she couldn’t help but think it wasn’t big enough for her and Gabe both at the same time.
“The bed’s fine,” she told him, trying not to let her thoughts wander back where they’d been the night before, when she’d been unable to stop herself from fantasizing about what it might be like to share a bed with the hunky firefighter. She turned a too-bright smile on him. “I’ll see you downstairs in a little bit.”