“These guys were going to take me up the other chairlift,” AJ said, gesturing at the longer lift. “And then over to the half-pipe, where you can do tricks and stuff.”
Bo was dying to say no to that. Kim gave him a look. It was remarkable how much she could convey in a single look.
“I’ll be careful,” AJ promised. “I’ll keep my helmet on.”
“Meet us at the lodge when the lifts close,” Kim said. “We’ll be by the fire, relaxing.”
“In fact, we were just headed there now,” Bo said.
“We’re not.” Kim bullied him toward the chairlift again. “We’ve got two more hours before they shut down the lifts.”
He tried not to groan aloud. “Okay, see you,” he told AJ. “Be careful.”
As AJ and the boys headed for the last line, Bo heard one of them say, “That’s your dad? Man, you’re lucky.”
Kim gave Bo a nudge. “Hear that? His friends think he’s lucky.”
“I wonder what AJ thinks.”
“He’s warming up to you,” she said. “Especially after today. I can tell.”
She worked him like a ranch dog for the rest of the afternoon. She was the most relentless of coaches, pushing him, yelling at him, praising him, scolding him. After each fall, he made a big show of rising to his feet, making certain he grabbed her and held fast for longer than was necessary. Damn. She felt so good in his arms, he was almost grateful for the outing. Almost.
Eventually, he was able to ride down the slope without mishap. He couldn’t keep the grin off his face. “I feel like I just pitched a shutout.”
“Good for you.” She high-fived him, but refused to let him rest on his laurels. “Let’s try the other chair.”
“Let’s try a cold beer by the fire.” He gestured at the lodge, so friendly-looking, with its glowing windows and puffing chimney.
“Ha. You’re on a roll, Crutcher. I’m not letting up on you now.”
“Media training and now this. What other tricks do you have up your sleeve?”
“Let’s see, ice-skating, tobogganing, snowshoeing…”
“Forget I asked.” He gritted his teeth and endured another chairlift ascent, longer and steeper than the other. This side of the mountain had more challenging runs.
“You want to see me dead,” Bo accused.
“I’ve never lost a client yet. Not to snowboarding, anyway.” She gave him no time to worry or talk himself out of taking on the intermediate slopes. Besides, there was this invisible but huge element in play—his pride. With dogged determination, he forced himself to conquer the hill. And somewhere between the bone-jarring wipeouts and soul-numbing cold, he actually learned how to ride a snowboard, and it started to be fun in a way he hadn’t experienced in a long time.
“Look at you.” Kim clapped her mittens in excitement. “You’re snowboarding.”
He dared to try a little more speed. In his mind, he was like the Silver Surfer in comic books—confident, agile, effortlessly graceful.
“AJ’s over at the half-pipe,” said Kim. “Let’s show him what you’ve learned.”
They found the boys taking turns on the engineered slope. It was a gully carved out of the snow, designed to facilitate airborne turns.
“Watch this!” AJ called out when he spotted them. With his friends calling encouragement, he surfed the half-pipe, taking a spill or two, but managing a couple of clean, sharp turns. He wobbled as he landed, but stayed upright.
Bo felt a crazy kind of pride. “That’s my boy,” he said.
“Yes, it is,” she agreed.
“My turn.” Before he lost his nerve, he went to the edge and teetered there.
“Go for it,” AJ called, his voice echoing through the pipe. “Come on, you can do it.”
Bo took a deep breath and watched Kim demonstrate. She made it look effortless and fun, looping back and forth, from one side of the U-shaped trench to the other. To Bo, there were few things more attractive than a woman who was good at sports. Growing up, his crushes had always been for woman athletes—Gabriela Sabatini, Jackie Joyner-Kersee. Kim easily qualified for membership in their club, because she was fearless and good at what she did. Best of all, she was close enough to touch.
Taking a deep breath, he pushed himself over the edge and down the slope of the half-pipe. Instantly he knew he had miscalculated his aim. Instead of gliding down one bank and up the opposite side, he slid down the middle of the pipe, gathering speed by the nanosecond. Vaguely, he could hear warnings being shouted, although he couldn’t make out the words.
He was going faster than he’d ever gone without the benefit of an internal combustion engine. If he crashed now, he would break every bone in his body. He needed to figure out how to slow himself down. In desperation, he tried the weight-shift move Kim had shown him and, amazingly, he turned, diverting his relentless downhill run. Now he was headed up the steep side of the pipe. The steepness would slow him down like a runaway truck lane off a freeway.
Except it didn’t work that way. Crazily, he gathered speed with centrifugal force, violating the laws of physics so many times, he ought to be arrested.
He heard the roar of voices as he cleared the lip of the pipe. Saw a patchwork of blue and white, the sky and snow, and beneath him, he felt absolutely nothing. He was weightless, flying. Ascending to heaven.
Okay, he thought. This is the part where I’m supposed to wake up and realize it was all a dream. Instead, from a terrifying height, he dropped like a bird shot from the sky. Boom.
A mushroom cloud of snow erupted all around him.
Moments later, AJ, Kim and the two boys gathered. “Are you okay?” AJ demanded, his voice edged with concern. “Dad! Are you all right?”
For a few seconds, Bo lay still. He wasn’t injured, but savoring the sound of AJ calling him Dad.
“Hey,
