“Sorry!” she said to the couple without even looking at them and then she was turning to Summer. “Hey, honey, how was the sleigh ride?”
“Awesome! Did you guys have dessert already? I’m starved.”
After thirty mind-blowingly awkward minutes where both of them let Summer chatter about the kids she’d met on the sleigh ride, a couple of whom were from her soccer team, and all the fun things they’d done during the past two hours, they all finally left the restaurant. Megan felt like a wet dishrag that had just been wrung out. Hard.
They were almost away from the biggest—and most dangerous—temptation she’d ever faced in her life when Summer said, “What time should we meet you tomorrow morning for snowboarding?”
“How about ten a.m.?”
“Awesome!”
As Summer went running off to look for their room number and the elevator door closed on Gabe’s gorgeous face, a half-dozen words on the opposite spectrum from awesome were running on repeat through Megan’s mind.
If dinner with Gabe had nearly done her in, how was she going to make it through a whole day with him, in beautiful Lake Tahoe, in one piece?
* * *
By the next afternoon, when Megan had fallen over for the hundredth time, she lay in the snow laughing at herself. “If I had a white flag, I’d raise it right now.”
Gabe had dropped to his knees to help her up and as he lifted his goggles, she found herself looking into his smiling eyes.
“You’ve almost got it.”
“You’re a terrible liar.” She was too exhausted and surely bruised all over to do more than nod in the general direction of Summer, who was working on tricks at the far end of a ramp the ski resort had set up for snowboarders to play around on. “I’m afraid Summer is going to be the only snowboarder in our family.” She shot a nasty look at the board attached to the big boots she’d rented for the day. “I hope my skis will forgive me for cheating on them.”
He helped her up into a sitting position. Together they watched Summer go from trick to trick, a tiny whirl of energy on a snowboard that looked way too big for her.
“That kid of yours is a natural.”
“I know. She’s a natural at everything.”
Gabe shot her a look. “You don’t sound entirely happy about it.”
She bit her lip, knowing she’d already given too much away. And yet, for all the falling and cursing she’d done into facefuls of snow today, she’d truly enjoyed being with Gabe. Fortunately, it had been easier to ignore all the things her body was aching to do with him when they were bundled up in snowboarding gear and hats and goggles. She’d simply been able to let herself enjoy being with him. He’d been patient with her and Summer, had known just when to push Summer to the next step...and when to let Megan quit while she could still hobble off the mountain in one banged-up piece.
“She can be such a daredevil, always reaching for the thrill without always thinking about the ramifications of her actions.” She couldn’t stop herself from adding, “She’s the picture of her father. She got way more than her blond hair from him.”
“That’s funny,” he said softly, “because when I look at her, all I can see is you.”
She met his clear blue gaze on a surprised breath. “When she was born, she looked so much like him that I can remember wondering if anyone would believe I had anything to do with the little miracle in my arms. And then as she grew older and was always trying to climb a little higher and jump a little farther and go a little faster...well, I worry about her sometimes. Worry that she’ll end up pushing too far or too fast one time. Like her father did when his plane—”
The rest of the sentence was swallowed by her gasp as she watched Summer make a particularly bold move with her snowboard.
Landing triumphantly, Summer looked over at where they were sitting and waved. On a choked laugh, Megan gave her daughter the required thumbs-up.
Gabe reached for her hand, then. And even though they were both wearing thick gloves, she swore she could feel his heat through the layers of fabric and insulation.
“There’s a difference between risking smart and risking dumb. You raised her smart, Megan.” She couldn’t help but get lost in his eyes as he said, “And not all risk is bad.”
His words ran from her brain to the parts of her body that were suddenly screaming out for his touch again. She knew he was talking about Summer, about her fears as a mother...but what if that wasn’t all he was saying?
What if he was saying he’d changed his mind? What if he was trying to tell her he wanted to take a risk? With her. And that he wanted her to take it, too?
With him.
“Mom, look who’s here! I told Karen we’d probably be out here today and to come find me.”
Megan yanked her hand out of Gabe’s so quickly her glove almost came off in his hand. One of the girls from Megan’s soccer team lifted her goggles.
“Hi, Ms. Harris.”
The girl’s mother was a few seconds behind on her skis and after Gabe helped her up, Megan quickly made the introductions. Fortunately, she knew Julie was happily married, so the appreciative gleam in her eyes when she looked at Gabe weren’t anything more than being a normal female.
Damn him. Megan had to admit he really was irresistible, looking just as good in snowboarding gear as he did in jeans or his fire gear.
She couldn’t bear to think how good he’d look without anything on at all.
“Karen hasn’t been able to stop talking about a sleepover with Summer all day.”
Megan’s brain stuttered away from the imagined picture of a naked Gabe to what Julie had just said. “A sleepover?”
“Sorry,” the other woman said, “I should have asked, is there any chance I could steal your daughter for a night of staying up too late and eating too much junk food at our cabin? I know the girls would just love it.”
Normally, Megan wouldn’t have blinked at the offer. Summer and Karen got along great and while she didn’t know Julie that well, she wasn’t at all worried about leaving Summer with her for the night.
What she was worried about, however, was the thought of being alone again tonight. And not just for a few hours. All night long, just her and her lonely bedroom, with Gabe one floor away, all alone in his bedroom.
It was a recipe for disaster.
“That’s really sweet, but—”
Summer and Karen had boarded over by then and the combined “Please!” and “Pretty please!” from the two girls wasn’t something Megan could selfishly ignore just because she didn’t trust herself not to do something reckless with the gorgeous man beside her.