Get with it Holly, think…
Obviously someone had hacked her account. She clicked on the twitter app too, just to check and gasped as she read ‘her’ latest tweet.
Gr8 to be back in Alps again, can’t wait to show Verbier my moves on the slopes!
She ground her teeth. There it was again, that picture of her on skis, holding a cup. How? Someone must have photo-shopped it. But who…who would do that? Who on earth would think this was funny?
Steve? The answer popped into her mind. He was a techno freak computer nerd and had a pretty warped sense of humour.
She pressed 'Pips mobile' on her contact list, nervously biting at some loose skin on her thumb. Given it was New Year they would still be up, she was sure. After two rings Pippa answered, Holly cut across her greeting.
‘Hi there, I need to keep this short because the call’s going to cost a fortune.’
‘Well, Happy New Year to you to!’ Pippa replied.
‘Sorry Pips, I’m a bit stressed. Someone’s hacked my Facebook and Twitter accounts and posted some rubbish about me being a championship slalom skier. They’ve even posted a photoshopped photo. Worse still, my boss has seen it and wants me to help take the guests off piste the day after tomorrow.’
‘Really? How funny!’
‘It is not bloody funny, it’s a nightmare,’ Holly groaned. ‘I put skiing as an interest on my CV, meaning I was interested in learning how to ski and now with that and the Facebook thing he seems convinced I’m an ace.’
‘So, tell him the truth.’
‘I tried and he just thinks I’m being modest. I didn't actually admit I'd never been on skis before though. Are you laughing?’ Holly rubbed at her aching temples with her free hand. What on earth was she going to do?
‘Can’t you just fudge it, haven’t you had any lessons yet?’
‘No, I had no time last week. You remember, I had all that babysitting work, looking after the tots while their parents skied. I hired some skis and boots when I got here and I’ve got those Salapettes and the ski jacket I managed to get cheap on eBay. But… I think there’s a shedload more to it than just having the right gear.’ Holly sighed, she just couldn't face admitting she'd never skied, it was too lame.
‘Go and talk to him tomorrow. It’ll be fine, stop stressing.’ Pippa yawned. ‘Or you could learn tomorrow, have some kind of crash course in the basics.’
Was that even possible? Holly briefly considered the option, mad as she knew it probably was.
‘I’m not sure about that. But Pips, hang on. One other thing I need to ask you - do you have any idea who the hacker might be? I was wondering if, you know, Steve might have done it as a joke.’
‘You think Steve did it?’ Pippa’s tone was sharp now.
‘I don’t know, it was just a possibility,’ Holly backtracked, feeling guilty. ‘Sorry, look, give my love to Steve and the bump and if you can think of anyone who might have done this can you let me know?’
‘Okay, I will. Now take care and stop stressing. ‘Night.’
‘’Night,’ Holly replied and pressed the red button to end the call.
Great, so where did that leave her? She would just have to find Scott and tell him, explain her accounts had been hacked. Sure, she’d put skiing on her CV as one of her hobbies but everyone lied a little bit on those kinds of things. He wouldn’t mind, surely.
Thinking of Scott reignited the spark of desire still smouldering since his ‘kiss’ earlier. Would she get a repeat performance? She hoped so. She still ached for him, needed him inside her. Why oh why had she told him she didn’t want sex yet?
When she went back up to the party he was nowhere to be found. Relief mixed with anxiety at the postponement. Now it would be hanging over her head all night. Great.
She’d tell him tomorrow, he’d be fine about it. Of course he would.
***
The skis carried her effortlessly over the glittering snow and Holly grinned across at Scott who skied next to her. He smiled back at her, a sexy smile that promised very exciting things.
When she turned back to the snowy horizon she could see dark obstacles lying ahead in the snow. She looked down at the ground to see her skis had vanished and old tin trays were strapped to her feet instead.
Damn. It was a dream. Of course she was dreaming, after all she couldn’t actually ski. She wobbled, her balance faltering. Scott had disappeared up ahead before she could call to him and she tumbled over onto the hard impacted snow, banging her head with a force that left her reeling.
Holly sat bolt upright, chest tight and breaths coming in great gulps. A killer headache thumped away in her head, accompanied by a powerful emotion, a familiar sense of not being good enough.
It was just a dream. It didn’t mean anything… She looked at the time - it was only four am. She played Angry Birds on her phone to keep her mind from racing, only falling asleep again just ten minutes before her alarm went off.
***
When Scott failed to appear at breakfast she decided to find him in his office. Her heart thumped painfully hard, sleep deprivation exacerbating her anxiety. There was no answer to her knock so she pushed the door tentatively.
The office was empty.
She stared at the chestnut brown leather armchair in the corner.
Did last night really happen?
Heat rose in her cheeks as flashback images came to mind. Had she really done that? With a man she barely knew. Worse than that, with a man who was her boss!
Sensing someone behind her, she turned to find Magda staring at her, a malevolent gleam in her eye.
‘Oh, Hi Magda, I was just looking for…’
Magda cut across her. ‘He’s driven to Cortina again, something to do with his latest venture.’
She pressed her lip-glossed mouth into a smug smile, as if to infer she was party to Scott’s personal confidences. The very thought made Holly feel sick. Were Scott and Magda an item? Or had they been? No, she couldn’t think about it.
She managed a weak smile. ‘Oh, on New Year's Day?’
‘He's very passionate about his work, it means more to him than anything else.’ Magda's eyes raked over Holly, sneering at her supermarket jeans and hoodie. Clearly Holly’s off duty clothes didn’t pass muster. ‘Scott and I go back a long way. If there's anything you need to know you should ask me rather than bothering him, he's always terribly busy.’
Miaow. Message received loud and clear.
Magda was the last person she'd go to with any problems. Holly ignored the sharp stirrings of jealousy, remembering instead Scott's interest in her, his eyes on her body, full of desire …
‘Looking forward to tomorrow?’ Magda asked, her pencilled eyebrows arching skyward.
Holly eyed her with suspicion. Magda always seemed to have so many agendas going on at any given time it was hard to keep track.
‘Hmm, well, I might not be going.’ She crossed her arms over her chest, wondering how quickly she could extricate herself from this conversation.
‘But you’ve got to,’ Magda replied, a flinty look in her eyes. ‘Amelia and Sophie have the day off and they’ve arranged to go to Geneva shopping. They've even booked their train tickets. You can’t wimp out now.’
‘No problem,’ Holly lied. ‘I expect it's not that difficult really?’
‘It's a really easy run, you could do it in your sleep.’ Magda smirked and rolled her eyes as she walked away.
I did do it in my sleep last night and I came a cropper!
Holly chewed thoughtfully at a loose fingernail, hugging her arms around her chest. Sophie, she’d go and find Sophie. Maybe she knew someone, one of the ski instructors who’d give her some cheap intense tuition. After all she had most of today free before she had to be back for supper duty. There was one advantage to the all male group - at least she didn’t have to add babysitting to her duties.
Why hadn’t Scott told her he was going to Italy again today? After all he’d told Magda …
>
Come on Holly, it’s not like he’s your boyfriend or anything. He didn’t promise anything and that’s…fine.
Yeah right, and if she believed that then she was a championship skier. Once she'd sorted this out she swore she would never lie on her CV again. But then skiing with the guests certainly hadn’t been mentioned at the interview.
Scott would be fine about this, surely. Maybe he’d even find it funny?
***
When her alarm went off at six am the next morning she was waiting for it, had been lying awake for ages, stiff with fear. Not to mention stiff and sore from yesterday’s intensive skiing lesson. A lesson that made it clear to her just how difficult it would be to complete today’s trip and remain in one piece, never mind actually convince anyone she had a clue what she was doing.
It was time to find Scott and confess.
CHAPTER FOUR
Scott arrived in the kitchen just after six am with a black cloud hovering overhead. He needed a cup of coffee. The black mood had haunted him since New Year’s Eve. He’d driven down to Sion and walked around the town to distract himself from how much he wanted Holly. Being in close proximity to her at the Chalet had been too difficult to handle.
Never had doing the right thing felt so crap.
It'd gone downhill from there when he’d visited the chalet in Cortina on New Year’s Day to find the first fix not completed as planned since his last visit in December. And construction site had been left unsecured. Couldn’t he trust anyone to get things right? Clearly the site manager had been lying when he’d assured him all was going well. He ground his teeth just thinking about it.
Adding to that was the difficulty of not dwelling on today's date. Zoë died a year ago today and he couldn't bear to think about it. Yet not thinking about her felt like a betrayal.
If she hadn't lied about being ill … If only I'd been around to force her to get medical help …
The old tormenting thoughts pelted him like bullets of hail, stinging as they hit their target.
The only glimmer of sunshine that morning was Holly, looking up from the sink where she dried the saucepans from last night's supper. She was keen, there was no sign of the other girls yet. Her auburn waves were secured up in a loose ponytail and her cheeks flushed a healthy pink.
A real English Rose.
‘Morning,’ she said, smiling tentatively.
‘Hi there, looking forward to today?’ He found he was able to smile back at her. His spirits had lifted already at the thought of spending the day with her, and hopefully the night too, if all went as planned.
‘That’s what I wanted to talk to you about.’ She twisted and untwisted the tea towel in her hand.
‘Not bailing out on me I hope?’ The disappointment was crushing. He’d regretted not asking her to go with him to Cortina yesterday. So what if the other girls had talked? Sod them. He wanted to spend time with Holly and he was the boss. If anyone was allowed to break the rules, he could. ‘I’m relying on you to help and it’ll be great fun.’
‘I’m not that good at skiing you know.’ She bit her lip. ‘I have no idea where that photo on the Internet came from. It must be someone’s idea of a joke.’
He could hardly concentrate on what she was saying. Memories of Zoë 's final days in the hospice in Surrey had unleashed a torrent of pain. Awareness of Holly's reluctance to join the trip today penetrated his thoughts but he couldn’t listen. He needed her with him, even if that made him selfish. He had to be selfish today if he was going to get through it.
‘I’m not expecting too much. Don’t worry. Have you got stage fright? It’s not that difficult a run, I wouldn’t risk real live guests on anything too dangerous.’
‘It's … I’m terrified of helicopters,’ she blurted. ‘Always have been, I’m afraid.’
The tea towel twisted into a tightly knotted rope in her hands, her nails embedded in the cloth.
‘Oh? It’s a very short ride.’ He frowned at her, perplexed. ‘You’ll barely be strapped in before we land again.’
‘I, I don’t know.’ She squeezed her eyes shut.
‘Please do this for me Holly, I don’t have time to make other arrangements.’ He gazed at her imploringly. ‘I’ll look after you, I promise. And you know how much the guests like you.’
‘Hmm.’ She shrugged.
It was true, Holly had been a real hit with the guests. Her softer, caring nature made her more popular than the spiky tongued Magda. He stepped forward and took hold of the tea towel, tugging her towards him and planting a quick, soft kiss on her lips.
Delicious.
Who cared what anyone else thought?
She tasted of coffee and croissants. The sounds of the guests getting up and going to their ensuite bathrooms made him pull back with regret.
‘Tonight, after supper, I’ve got a treat for you.’ He squeezed her hand. ‘Come on, ski with me today. It’s a doddle. Just a gentle run on pristine powder snow. What could be nicer than that? And I promise the helicopter will be fine, over before you know it. Please?’
‘Alright then.’ She smiled but it was a small, tight smile. ‘As long as you know I’m not that good a skier.’
Magda had told him Holly was shy when it came to talking about her achievements. It’d been her who’d shown him Holly’s Facebook page. He supposed Holly must be one of those people who had more confidence when in their ‘online’ persona.
Slalom skiing was highly skilled. Even if she’d lost her nerve for the kind of speeds she was used to in competitions she’d still be streets ahead of the rest of them.
He really wanted her company, the thought of having her by his side lifted his spirits and his day started to look up. If Holly wasn’t with him he knew he’d just obsess about Zoë. Holly would be a lovely distraction and the night he’d planned for them would be the perfect ending to the day.
***
Not that good a skier!
The hum of the helicopters rotor blades seemed to resonate with the panic coursing through Holly’s body. What on earth had possessed her? She’d hoped pretending to be terrified of helicopters might do the trick.
Clearly not.
It wasn’t the helicopter making her nervous but the plunging-head-first-into-an-icy-ravine-when-she-lost-control part. She’d gone for the crash course lesson yesterday on the basis at least she wouldn’t have to admit to Scott she’d never skied before in her life. So, she knew how to walk in ski boots, no mean feat in itself, and how to stay upright-ish on skis. She mentally ran through how to execute stopping and turning. As long as she remembered which way she was supposed to lean she might come out of this alive…
Go and tell him you’re not doing it!
She ignored the persistent anxiety leaping up and down at the edge of her mind waving a red flag. She hated conflict, absolutely loathed it and would do all kind of stupid things to avoid it. Like this for example. You hardly needed to be a psychologist to know the fear stemmed from her mother's drunken verbal attacks on her but that didn’t help her any.
Six hours intensive tuition had left her muscles sore and cramped. Who knew what state she’d be in after today? Nursing broken bones in hospital probably.
Her stomach lurched. Exactly how had she let herself be swept along with this? On the plus side the fact she was clearly lacking a backbone would come in useful later when she hurtled off the edge of the cliff.
She hadn’t been able to bear letting him down. He seemed really keen to have her along today and in return she'd wanted to be with him. What surprise did he have planned for her later, she wondered. Would she still be in one piece to enjoy it?
Her fingers knotted together on her lap, knuckles white as she tried to smile at Scott.
‘Okay?’ he mouthed at her over the noise of the helicopter.
Huh, she wasn't so much okay as certifiably insane. She nodded warily, her stomach lurching in sympathy. She was too far in to tell the truth now. She was sick of always having to pretend she
was all right. Just for once she felt like saying ‘No, I’m bloody well not okay.’
Magda, sitting next to her, caught her eye and smirked. Almost as if she knew the mess Holly was in. Hmm, maybe it’d been Magda who’d hacked her Facebook and Twitter accounts? She certainly didn’t seem to like Holly; she’d taken against her from the first night. But did she really hate her enough to stitch her up like this? Then there was the question of whether she had the technical skills to do it. But even if she didn’t, she could easily have persuaded someone who did…
Holly concentrated on taking a deep breath, mentally shelving the suspicion. She needed to concentrate and would just have to do her best. Panicking wasn’t going to get her anywhere. She’d have to remember what Finn had taught her yesterday and take it as slow as possible.
All too soon they were landing. Magda climbed out gracefully. Holly lost her footing and slipped on the impacted ice, tumbling face down into the snow.
Even with her face stuck in a snowdrift and stinging with cold, the hoots from the guys descending from the helicopter behind her were audible.
‘Here, let me help you up,’ Scott said, a strong arm raising her up and setting her on her feet again. ‘Right, let’s get the gear out the back. I thought Magda and I could take the lead as we know the route to the mountain cantine and you could take the rear, make sure we don’t lose a guest on route?’
Humph, losing one of those jerks would be a bonus.
She held her tongue and tried to regain her dignity, last sighted somewhere in a snowdrift. Both her face and her pride smarted like mad, she hated looking stupid. At the rear would be good. No one would be watching her and she could go as slowly as she liked.
Thankfully she managed to get her skis on and locked into position without falling over again or needing Scott's help. The vivid blue expanse of sky contrasted sharply against the jagged, bright-white mountaintops. The air smelt deliciously fresh and mellow sunshine lifted her spirits. Maybe she could enjoy today after all, it couldn’t be too…
Confessions of a Chalet Girl: HarperImpulse Contemporary Romance Novella Page 4
