‘The Alpine Challenge is fresh, it’s new, and it has no winners and no losers. It’s a clean blanket of snow for every single one of us.’ She looked down the table at her competitors, making eye contact with each one, and leaving Robbie till last. ‘What went on before is irrelevant. The past is the past.’ She addressed the reporters once more, the clicks from cameras audible in the space.
‘I’m doing this competition because it’s time. I have had enough rest, and it’s time for the next chapter. For a long time, I sat in the shadows, but that’s done now.’ She eyed Robbie again. ‘I’m here to win.’
Andy nodded, smiling. ‘Thanks Rebecca, and the next question is to you, Robbie, if I may?’
Robbie’s head perked up, and he made a finger gun at him. ‘Shoot.’
Andy raised a brow but didn’t miss a beat. ‘Thank you. Tell us please, how does it feel to be competing against the Ice Rebel?’
Robbie’s smiling lips froze in place and Rebecca resisted the urge to smirk. Only just. Looking away, she scanned the crowd, and then she was staring into Luke’s eyes. He didn’t look away.
‘It feels great, I’m looking forward to it. Like Rebecca says, it’s all to play for now.’ He gave her a sneering look disguised as a friendly little nod. She rolled her eyes, making a couple of reporters on the front row titter. She looked back to Luke and he was rolling his. Heidi Erskin was getting questioned now, and she took the chance to take him in. He looked tired, but his eyes were sparkling at her from across the room.
She had rather hoped that in the last month he might have gone to seed a bit, like any decent ex should. Nothing major, she wouldn’t have liked him to just waste away to a husk without her or anything. They might be from Yorkshire, but this wasn’t Wuthering Heights. She just wanted a little jowl, or a clump of grey hair perhaps. A sign that he felt as utterly lovesick as she was. She’d been baking, crying and skiing like a madwoman all month. The fact that she had eaten half of what she made was a given. She’d even started making her own ice cream after she got sick of eating the low-fat stuff. The café customers loved it luckily. Between all the hand churning and the skiing, she’d managed to stay trim. Her hip didn’t ache any more. Being back on the slopes, trying to ski away her rage and heartbreak, she’d gotten her groove back. Her body responded to her better than ever before, and she felt herself smiling when she woke every morning. She was back. Those first ten glorious seconds when she woke, and she was a ski champion, living her life in the mountains. Then Luke puffed into her head, and she was back to crying, baking, eating and skiing. Sniffing the aftershave he left in the bathroom, and trying not to cry. Pathetic. The least he could do is look like he’d been mauled by a tiger or something.
‘Any more questions for me?’ she asked, when the conversation lulled. ‘I am so grateful to you guys for coming out, but I have a prior engagement.’ She went to stand, and most of the room stood with her. Waving them away, she gave a cheery wave to the cameras and headed off the stage. She headed towards the back, but Luke wasn’t where he was standing just a second before. Had he left?
She said hello to the guys on the door, walking out of the room and hearing the doors close behind her. The corridor was empty.
‘Looking for someone?’
She whirled back to the door, and there he was.
‘Yes. No.’
‘I don’t know anyone called No, sorry. Have you tried the front desk?’ His lip twitched. ‘Was it me?’
‘Who told you to come?’
‘No one told me to come, Becks. I came because I wanted to. Was it me, that you were looking for?’
‘Hans told you. Holly would never break the girl code, even with baby brain. I’m going to set his bloody beard on fire when my nephew is of age.’
‘Our nephew,’ he corrected softly.
‘Our nephew.’ She gave him that one.
‘And we own a sofa together. I like it.’
‘It is nice. How’s your dad?’
They could hear clapping behind them, and the shuffle of chairs and papers being moved around.
‘He’s not in hospital now. We’d better go.’
He held out his hand just as the doors opened, and Rebecca stopped as half the journalists in the room clocked the moment. She could see Andy give her a discreet thumbs-up behind his clipboard, and she turned and put her hand firmly in Luke’s. He squeezed it tight, his thumb stroking hers like two reunited swans.
‘Rebecca? Ice Rebel? Who’s the guy? A new ski partner? Can we have a name?’ A murmur was starting to buzz, they’d recognised Luke too.
‘A name, Rebecca?’
‘Is this your new man?’
‘Is he competing too?’
Luke was trying to walk her as briskly as possible out of the centre. ‘I’m sorry, oh I shouldn’t have come. I shouldn’t have left in the first place, but Dad … and I cocked it all up again. Jesus …’
He was looking at her as if she was going to go stellar on him again, and he was still trying to shield her from the reporters and rabble. Robbie would be there somewhere, enjoying every minute. Just feeling his hand in hers wasn’t doing enough to calm him down this time.
‘Let’s get out of here, we can get a cab and drive somewhere. Ditch them. I’ll fix it. Let me.’
Rebecca stood near the door, and turned around to face him, the small crowd slowing and surrounding them.
She grabbed his cheeks between her hands, and pulled him in for a kiss. He was still babbling away, but the second their lips met, he
