by Karen Rock
One side of his mouth jacked up. “You know where I live.”
Julie clutched a branch of a miniature Christmas tree to stop herself from slipping and stood. When her skis slid, Austin grabbed her and it seemed as if a sheet of foggy glass fell away in front of them: every color leaping, every birdcall separate and vivid.
“Ready to try again?” he asked into her ear, sending her nerve endings into overdrive.
“You promised me pizza at the end of this, right?”
He stepped back and put a hand over his heart, light skidding across his handsome face. “Pepperoni and meatballs.”
Her mouth watered, imagining her favorite, though at this moment she wanted Austin more. “You remembered.”
She moved aside as a family of four rushed by in a flash of neon jackets and pom-pom hats.
“Sometimes too much,” she thought she heard him mumble as he skied a few feet down before turning. Breath lifted Austin’s chest, as if he was bracing himself for something. “Up and at ʼem, Julie.”
“Who’s Adam?”
His mouth tipped upward at their old joke and she grinned back before pushing off again, slower this time.
“Curve side to side,” coached Austin. She swiveled her hips, leaning slightly into each shallow turn. The sun warmed her back through her jacket and a lightness stole through her.
This was fun.
Yes, there was a chance she’d fall again.
Yes, there was a chance she’d hit scrub brush.
And yes, there was a chance she really might end up on that stretcher. However, those possibilities should not—would not—ruin this moment.
She felt free. Powerful. Moving through space like she was running—only faster. Laughter escaped her, cascading, bubbling over her tongue sweet and smooth.
When she hit a bump, she ended up sprawled in the snow again.
Graceful, she was not.
Other beginners edged by her as Austin expertly sped back, floating on the snow, by the look of it. The tink tink tink of a bird sounded somewhere close.
“Okay?”
She was already back on her feet and leaning on her poles when he reached her. “Definitely. This is incredible.” The air smelled so good she wanted to bite into it, feel the soft crunch between her teeth.
“I knew you’d like it if you gave it a chance.”
Their eyes locked and moments ticked by, until a kid barreled into Austin, sending them both sprawling.
Julie laughed as they scrambled upright. Nice to see Mr. Athlete could be a little ungainly once in a while.
“That’s two for me and one for you.” Julie bumped his shoulder with hers and propelled herself forward.
“You forgot your swan dive off the ski lift.” Austin slid a teasing look her way when she passed him.
Trees turned to a green blur as she skied, the early afternoon sun reflecting off her metal poles. “I’m actually trying to forget that one, thank you very much,” she called over her shoulder.
Austin reached her and tapped the side pocket she knew held his cell phone. “I’ll send you a picture if you like. Or you can grab it off my Facebook page.”
Julie gasped. “You are evil.”
“One of my best qualities.” He tossed her one of his devil-may-care grins, looking impossibly handsome.
A valve loosened inside of Julie, making her feel entirely different from the “think first, act never” girl she’d become again when she’d returned home from college. She sped up and whizzed by him, her muscles coordinating at last.
“I’ll be the judge of that. See you at the bottom, sucker.”
“Oh, it’s like that, then.” He easily caught up to her and swished from side to side. “What do I win if I get there first?” His lazy grin knocked the wind out of her.
“What do you want?”
He cocked his head and his eyes glinted before he faced forward again. “Guess you’ll have to wait and find out.”
In a moment, he’d disappeared around a bend, the roof of the lodge closer than ever.
No doubt he’d win, but so would she. Whatever lurked around the next turn didn’t scare her anymore. She pushed harder, eager to find out what lay ahead.
Bring it on.
Today showed she could let go and face her fear of the unknown.
And that could include a future with Austin. She just had to make him believe it, too.
CHAPTER FIVE
“SO, FORCING ME to do hard labor is your idea of a prize?”
“I won. My choice.” Austin scanned Julie’s beautiful, flushed face before looking back at the road. “Plus, there’s pizza in it for you.”
He grinned at her irritated harrumph as they drove through downtown Lake Placid. At a yellow light, he slowed his Jeep and idled in front of a white clapboard building with a white picket fence, black shutters and a wraparound porch. Only an oval sign that read Lake Placid Public Library—est. 1884 gave its true purpose away.
“When exactly is that pizza coming my way?” Julie clutched her stomach. She wore a fitted blue thermal shirt and white fleece vest that revealed enough of her curves to get his heart thumping. “I’ve been smelling it since we picked it up. How much farther to your new condo?”
“About a half mile out of town.” God, she smelled good. Still used the same coconut shampoo that made him want to bury his face in her thick hair and breathe it in.
Why had he impulsively asked her to help him unpack his kitchen? Her organizational skills had always impressed him, but that wasn’t the real reason. Not even close.
He wanted her in his first permanent home. To imagine, for a minute, what life together would have been like.
Danger prickled down his spine. Fantasies. When would he learn to avoid their burn?
The light clicked green and he pressed on the gas, his gaze skimming over the ski village’s quaint cobblestone sidewalks. Garland hung from street lamps tied with silver bows. An inviting Christmas shop blazed with twinkling lights, a red train passing by the window as it made its trek around the store. Salvation Army bells rang as holiday Muzak streamed through hidden speakers all along the thoroughfare. Tourists with loaded shopping bags thronged the streets.
For a moment, Austin wished he and Julie could be among them—just another couple window-shopping. But those were ghosts of Christmas past. Not present. And definitely not the future, no matter how much she’d impressed him on the slopes today.
He knew she wanted to overcome her indecision and hesitancy, but it was just a start. Besides, Austin couldn’t commit to Julie with the tour kicking off so soon. He still had too many doubts. It would take a lot to convince him that she wouldn’t retreat into her safe little world again and leave him alone, stumbling in the dark.
Julie’s proximity fired up his imagination. Her cascading laughter, snappy comebacks and quirky attitude reminded him of why he’d loved her...and why he needed to guard himself.
“A tree farm!” she squealed and pointed. “Let’s get one for your condo.”
He nodded and cranked the wheel, unable as ever to resist her enthusiasm. His tires churned up the white, snowy parking-lot entrance and the Jeep jerked to a stop beside a lighted sign that read Jingle Bell Tree Farm.
Julie swung herself out of the Jeep and threw her bag over her shoulder before he grabbed the keys from the ignition. She’d changed out of her snowsuit into a pair of stretch jeans that made her look slim and taller. Strands of hair slipped free of the braids pulled across each shoulder.
Her lashes fluttered against the setting sun as she stared at the smeared watercolor sky. She was built like a runner, lean limbs and long muscles. Chin always high, shoulders always back. No one had ever attracted him this way and she could break his heart into tiny pieces if he let her.<
br />
But he wouldn’t.
Not this time.
The evergreen-laced air curled beneath his nose as he joined Julie. Families and couples laughed and chattered around them, dragging trees to their cars, securing them with rope or bungee cords. A xylophone player accompanied a helium-voiced woman as she sang “Santa Baby” into a microphone beside a rickety card table and cash box.
A balding, barrel-chested man waddled up, his stomach straining the buttons of his padded flannel overshirt. He had a broad face that looked built to scowl and, beneath a bulbous nose, a thick mustache curled down to the corners of his mouth. As he rubbed his gloved hands and stomped his work boots, his cheek bulged with what smelled like cherry chewing tobacco.
“What can I do you for? Looking for pine? Spruce? Almost out of balsam, but still got a few in the back.” His fast mumble of words took Austin longer than Julie to decipher.
“Balsam, please. That’s our favorite.” Her smile flashed and the man stared before swatting the air and hustling through a thicket of cut trees.
“Did you see his buckle?” Julie whispered in Austin’s ear, her warm breath making him tighten in awareness. “It said Jingle This.”
They laughed softly into the circle of cold, still air between them. “He does have bells on his belt,” Austin murmured, Julie’s soft hair tickling his cheek as he leaned close. Her giggle made him feel like a fifteen-year-old with awkward limbs, sweating forehead and racing pulse. He lost himself in her brown eyes for a minute as they smiled at each other. How he missed this. Missed her, he admitted to himself.
“All righty. Here’s a dandy fellow.” The lot worker hefted a six-footer from a pile leaning against a tan trailer with a few pieces of its vinyl siding missing. “Got a bit of a bare patch in the back. Nothing a few ornaments won’t cover.”
Austin scrutinized the tree. It looked full enough.
“How much?”
He turned at Julie’s quick question, his stomach sinking as he remembered another thing about her that hadn’t changed.
The man turned and spat brown on the snow behind him. “A hundred bucks.”
Her features sharpened. A bloodhound on the hunt. Austin knew better than to intervene. Just sit back and watch the magic.
“Thirty-five,” she replied firmly. She popped in a piece of gum and glanced casually around the tree lot, her expression disinterested, though Austin knew better.
A phlegmatic cough erupted from their helper. It ended in a derisive laugh. “This ain’t no charity, ma’am.”
“Looks more like a con job to me, if that’s what you’re charging.”
He pointed at a hand-painted sign with sizes and prices listed. “Just going by the rules.”
Julie studied the sign, then turned back to the tree. “Says you only charge eighty for trees under six feet.”
The man sighed and shot Austin a “can you believe this” look, which he did not return. Instead, he moved closer to Julie, enjoying himself. “Let’s get out the tape.”
“This here’s over six foot or I’m Frosty the Snowman.” The wannabe lumberjack hooted, then shrugged under the weight of their combined stares, and headed inside the trailer.
Alone, Austin bent down, nearly touching Julie’s nose. “So how much are we really paying?” He ignored the electric jolt when her lashes tangled with his.
“Fifty.”
“Got it.”‘
The man returned, grumbling, with a yardstick. “Plenty of other places to go if you don’t like our prices.”
“Exactly,” Julie put in coolly. “And the stick begins at the trunk base, not the branches.”
Austin pinched the branch where the yardstick ended, ensured the bottom lined up to it again and watched as it missed six feet by an eighth of an inch.
“Holy—”
“—Night?” Julie interjected, her voice sweet, her grin warm and crinkly. “One of my favorite Christmas carols. Just for that, I’ll give you forty.”
“The price is eighty.” The man jabbed a thick finger at the sign, his ruddy face now resembling a tomato.
“I’m assuming you wrote those figures three weeks ago.” Julie tapped her cleft chin. The gesture reminded Austin of how he used to kiss that chin before capturing her mouth and...
“At the start of the season, correct?” Julie continued.
The worker studied her, skeptical, then nodded slowly.
“But with only three days until Christmas, and competition just down the road, as you pointed out, these prices should be reduced. Half price at least. I’m doing you a favor by offering you such a good deal.”
He sawed his scruffy jaw back and forth, the way a man did after taking a solid punch.
“Ma’am, discounts have to be approved by the boss,” he groused.
“And where is he or she?”
He pointed to the crooner in the front wearing a light-up Rudolph sweater and matching earmuffs.
“I see a resemblance. You must be her son. Someone she knows she can depend on to do all the heavy lifting while she has fun by the checkout, right?”
His chest rose and fell as he released a frustrated sigh. “She never comes back here unless it’s for cocoa. Doesn’t offer me none, either.”
Julie patted his arm. “Exactly. She’s not in touch with customers. Doesn’t know how to make a sale. Seal the deal. Strike a bargain. Give the green light. Play ball. So how’s fifty sound?”
The owner’s son blinked quickly at Julie’s rapid-fire words, his brain cells shuffling to keep up. Finally he shook his head and extended a hand, a gray tooth appearing in his crooked smile. “You got it, girlie. Let’s get her done.”
Thirty minutes later, Austin was still smiling at the memory of the singing owner’s stricken face as she watched them settle the bill and return her son’s cheery wave.
“Your condo is beautiful,” called Julie from one of the back rooms, her voice echoing in the empty space, bouncing off the newly painted walls and freshly laid wooden floors. “These views.”
“I got in early when I saw the plans a couple of years ago. Signed on for a top floor, rear corner. Best in the building,” he answered with pride. It’d taken him a while to accept that his job with the US team was permanent. That, although he’d continue wandering the world during the competition season, he could put down roots. All he needed was a partner, but he suspected he’d end up with the four-legged kind. Certainly not Julie. Lake Placid was too far from her home. How could he be confident she wouldn’t drag her feet or change her mind about joining him if he asked? In the end, she’d only flatten him again.
He poured water into the tree basin he’d unpacked from a box labeled Christmas, and stood back. “Ready to decorate when you are.”
She slid across his floor on her stocking feet, striking a Risky Business move à la Tom Cruise at the end of the short hall. “We’ve got the place to ourselves. Let’s get into trouble.”
She dimpled at him and he almost smiled. Clamped it back. Ignored the surge of excitement she always aroused in him. “Work. Remember? Not play.”
Her shoulders drooped. “Well. At least you let me eat first.”
“I know better than to deal with you on an empty stomach.”
She threw packing peanuts at him then strolled to the tree. “That looks great. What do you want to do first? Decorate or unpack?”
He studied the boxes piled in his great room, the urge to open them gone. “Decorate. I already have the box open.”
“We need music. Want me to do ‘Santa Baby’?”
He mock shuddered. “I think you forget I’ve actually heard you sing before.”
She began an off-key version, her mouth pouting in a way that made him want to kiss her. Hard. He peered around the room. Find a distraction. Fast.
A barrage of male voices filled the room, belting out a version of “O Holy Night” that no one but cows and sheep should have to hear. In a faraway barn. Very isolated. Maybe an abyss. Or black hole.
Julie whipped around, her mouth loose. “This is—this is my favorite boy band. How do you still have this album?”
“Must have forgotten to toss it,” he said gruffly.
Their eyes met and clung, the trilling multi-octave licks fading to the background. Outside the French doors that led to his deck, it was day and night at once: in one direction the sky glowed with pink and orange, in the other a frail full moon was hanging in darkening blue. Wind moved through the pine branches, reminding him of a slow, soothing hush.
Julie glowed in the fading light, her oval face so gorgeous it made his pulse stutter. His hands itched to reach for her, so he stuffed them in his pockets. He didn’t have to resist much longer—soon she’d be too far away to even think about.
“Want some flavored coffee? I’ve got a Keurig.”
Julie stared at him for another moment and released a shaky breath. “Why don’t you start on the lights and I’ll get it set up. I’m guessing it’s in one of the kitchen boxes?”
He nodded and began looping the strings around the tree, his mind on the woman who moved through his kitchen as though she belonged there, setting up his coffee machine on the makeshift plywood counter, fumbling through the flavor containers and making the space smell like home, he thought as the pungent aroma drifted his way.
“Is this creamer and sugar still good?” she hollered over a jarring, rock version of “The First Noel.”
“Just packed it a few days ago.”
“Okay.”
He pulled out boxes of red-and-gold balls and began hanging them.
