Instant Attraction

opened her door and checked for the cheese.

It was gone, probably courtesy of the fat raccoon waddling off her porch. “Hey, that cheese wasn’t for you!”

The big guy actually stopped and craned his neck, giving her a look that had her letting out a startled squeak and slamming the door. She showered and dressed, then tentatively opened the door again.

No raccoon.

No Chuck either…

But lots of fresh snow. She made her way through it, which someone had thankfully shoveled from her path all the way to the lodge’s front door. She went directly to the kitchen, where Annie shoved a plate of food and a hot mug of coffee into her hands.

“The guys got stuck on the pass last night,” Annie said. “Trapped there by the storm.”

“Are they okay?”

“They’re boys. They love that stuff.” Annie looked at her speculatively. “You didn’t tell me you skied with Cam.”

Katie blinked. “I thought you knew.” She paused at the look on Annie’s face. “Is that okay?”

“He hasn’t been on his snowboard since his accident.”

Katie went still, then sank to a chair. “He hasn’t?”

“No.”

“But…I’ve seen him go off with his board.”

“Apparently he never has been able to actually use it. Until yesterday, with you.”

“My God.” Why hadn’t she known that? “I had no idea.” Her mind raced back to being in his office. She’d been sidetracked by their chemistry, and then in the Sno-Cat she’d been caught up in her nerves. But just before the lift, she’d sensed something from him, and then she’d been distracted by Heidi, and…and dammit. He had seemed just a little off, but then she’d fallen from the lift. “I should have asked.”

“He probably wouldn’t have said. He’s too damn proud for his own good.” Annie shook her head. “Right after the accident, he wasn’t healthy enough to get back on a board, and then when he was, he left. Just took off. Now he’s back, and he’s running trips, but never the downhill trips. Stone’s done them all.”

“Yeah, I noticed that.” She thought back to how careful he’d been with her on the mountain, how perfectly kind, never letting on to what must have been a hugely emotional thing for him, and she felt like crap. “I stopped the whole lift. My first time up the hill, I fell off at the end. I was just so nervous, and he…he was so sweet. I feel so ridiculous now, given what he must have been feeling.”

“And he never let on?”

“No, he was steady as a rock.”

“No limp?”

“A little, the usual, but he didn’t seem like he was in pain.”

“Well, that’s good then.”

“How exactly is that good, him keeping in his feelings?”

Annie looked taken aback. “Keeping in his feelings? What does that have to do with anything? If he did fine, he’s over it.”

Katie was beginning to understand not just where Cam had gotten some of his reticence from, but also what Nick was dealing with. “It helps to talk out stuff, Annie. He might have gotten ‘over it’ a lot sooner than a whole year if he had.”

Annie shook her head. “You weren’t here, so let me tell you how bad it was. Three surgeries. After the first one he got an infection that nearly took his leg. The doctor told him to get used to a wheelchair. Cam proved him wrong, but it was a month, one long month before he could walk, and then when he could, he still had to give up his entire life.”

“I understand. It was awful, tragic. But, Annie, why was boarding his entire life?”

“I-” Annie stopped. Blinked. “You know, I never saw a problem with that until just now.” She sank to a chair and stared out the window. “All this time I thought I was doing him a favor, babying him, letting him not get back out there. Letting him not talk about it…I thought it was for the best, not forcing him into anything.” Her eyes were shiny when they met Katie’s. “Damn.”

“Well, he got out there yesterday. And looked like he was born to it, I might say. He was amazing.”

Annie smiled. “He was born to it. Growing up, if he wasn’t being worked into the ground by his father, he was on the slopes. Once I got him, he lived on that mountain.”

“He was lucky to have you.”

“Hell yeah, he was. Did you ski his namesake, Wilder Way?”

Katie let out a little laugh. “Uh, hello, remember me, the woman who stopped the lift? We stayed on the bunny slopes.”

Annie choked on that. “The bunny slopes?”

“He said that it was good practice for him.”

“Honey, that boy used to heli-ski into places that would make your hiney twitch, where even the photogs wouldn’t go to catch him on film, and then he’d huck himself off cliffs. For fun.” She shook her head. “Practice. Good Lord, he must have it bad.” She slid her gaze over Katie. “And so do you. Jesus.”

“You think he and I would be a mistake?”

“Are you still leaving?”

“Yes.”

“Then, yes, it would be a mistake. For both of you.”

Chapter 13

Stone and Cam didn’t get home that night either. The storm caught a group of skiers off guard near Mt. Bliss, and the guys joined the Search and Rescue team to help locate two missing skiers.

Katie slept in her warm bed and thought about Cam out there on the mountain, out in the elements. Not only surviving but trying to help others do the same.

And she’d been so proud of herself, being so “risky” here at Wilder. She didn’t have a clue. She fell asleep determined to reach even deeper for more.

Balls out.

The next morning, she went to the lodge, grabbed some food, then went upstairs to her desk, pulling out a napkin-wrapped piece of bacon from her pocket. She flipped on all the lights, got down on her hands and knees, and searched under each desk. “Here, kitty, kitty…”

But there was no sight of the scrawny cat masquerading as an ostrich baby, so she sat at her desk and got to work, only to nearly fall over a few minutes later at the rustling beneath her. Slowly, she bent low and found two huge green eyes staring at her. “Chuck,” she breathed, “you came.” She unrolled her napkin, holding out the bacon.

His little nose wriggled as if he couldn’t quite believe it. His fur was rumpled and clumpy, and there was a bald patch behind an ear. His tail was permanently bent to the right. Clearly, he’d been through hell, and he absolutely broke her heart. “Come on, sweet thing. You know you want it…”

Gun-shy, he continued to sniff at the bacon but wouldn’t take it out of her hand. Caving, she set it at his feet. “There-”

It vanished so fast she got dizzy. Smiling, she leaned in to pet him, but he let out a low sound from deep in his throat and dashed out from beneath the desk, disappearing as fast as the bacon had.

“Watch your fingers with that one,” Stone said as he came up the stairs, looking as big and bad as his brother always did. Bigger, actually, and just as tough and impenetrable. He was the sort of guy who could be dropped anywhere on the planet and manage to survive.

And yet he didn’t make her knees knock together like Cam did.

“You good?” he asked.