by MG Braden
too wide. Lord, was she really going to go and appear in front of him in a bathing suit? She must be nuts!
She could still hear Rick’s voice echoing in her mind, “Geez, Cass, you’ve put on the pounds, eh?”
or “Maybe you should buy one of those suits with the skirts on the bottom.” He always said he was joking,
but the words really hurt and she was self-conscious enough as it was. She always tried her best to keep
in shape, but her body tended toward a fullness that she couldn’t seem to fight. Her doctor said she was
fit, strong and healthy and that her body was at the size it was meant to be. Still, it certainly didn’t make
being in a bathing suit any easier. Nope, I’m not doing this. She turned to go back inside the hotel.
“Cassidy?”
She turned back. “Daniel, hi.”
“You looked like you were leaving? Didn’t you just get here?” His brow furrowed in puzzlement.
“Oh...I...I thought I forgot my towel.”
“You’re holding it.”
“Yeah, I know. Silly, huh? Like when you’re wearing your glasses on your head and go looking for
them.” She walked slowly over to the hot tub.
“Come on in. I’ve poured us some nice sparkling water. Pellegrino. A very good year.” He laughed,
then added, “Sorry, I couldn’t get a bottle of wine.”
“That’s ok, I probably had enough at dinner, anyway.”
She stood beside the hot tub with uncertainty. How could she enter gracefully? She had hoped that
she would get here first so she could already be in the water when Daniel arrived. She liked herself a lot
from the chest up. She hadn’t quite worked out how she was going to get out without him noticing, but she
was sure she would have thought of something. Cassidy, just get in the water. You are a beautiful,
strong woman. She gave her head a shake, threw back her shoulders, dropped the towel and robe on the
bench and stepped down in to the water. She noticed that his smile never faltered and he held out his hand
to help her down the last step before he passed her the cup of sparkling water.
“Now,” he said, “if we arrange ourselves on this side we can look out over the valley and look at
the view. I love the way snow looks in the starlight.”
Cassidy was listening, but she wasn’t looking at the valley. She was noticing how muscular Daniel
was. When he stood in the hot tub the water hit him just above his waist. Without a shirt on she was able
to see the definition in his arms and chest. It wasn’t a body builder type of muscular, which would look
odd with his slim build, but his arms were quite amazing to her. His hands were large, yet so gentle when
he held her hand and led her to her seat. Looking into his eyes, she guessed she had been staring at him, so
she quickly looked away and tried to pay attention to what he was telling her about the view. Her body,
however, had other ideas and she tried to still the flutter in her stomach and hoped her peaked nipples
were visible under the swirling water.
Sitting beside him and listening to him talk felt so right. She stopped worrying about the way she
looked and tried to enjoy the moment. It was very peaceful. Used to so much tension all the time, she
wasn’t entirely sure how to deal with it, but she did know it was nice. Finally relaxing, she allowed her
eyes to drift shut.
“Earth to Cassidy.”
“Hmm,” she said, opening her eyes to look at him.
“Am I putting you to sleep?”
“Oh no! I was just listening to you talk and sitting here quietly...I’m sorry. I guess that was rude.” she
blushed.
“Not rude exactly, but a guy never wants to think he is putting a pretty girl to sleep.” Daniel tilted his
head and smiled.
For a moment she couldn’t think what to say. Daniel had called her a pretty girl and here she was
acting like an awkward teen. That was exactly how she felt. An awkward teen with no idea what to do or
say. “I promise I wasn’t asleep. So, you really know an awful lot about this area. How long have you
been coming here?”
“We’ve been coming here since I was in my teens. I dunno, maybe ten years? A long time anyway. I
came with my family and then, as I got older, friends and sometimes on my own. The Johnsons are like
family to me now.”
“Is that why you’re always put to work?” Cassidy laughed.
“I guess. Mostly they know I like to help out and I do get to ski free so it works for me. I try to come
up two or three times a year, at least.”
“That’s great. I don’t get to ski as often as I’d like. Mainly because it’s just too expensive and too
long a drive to go for one day. I love ski trips though. I like the skiing of course, but it’s also everything
else...sitting by the fire after a long day of skiing, soaking in the tub, the fresh air, everything just seems so
much cosier after a day of skiing. It’s nice not to have to rush back home or to even have to make sure to
get every last possible run in because you know you can come back the next day.” She looked at Daniel,
shrugging. “I don’t even know if I’m making sense. It’s just...”
“Romantic?” Daniel raised an eyebrow.
“Well…” She blinked rapidly, feeling nervous. “Yes.”
Daniel’s eyes drop to her lips, the bottom of which she was nibbling on with her teeth, a bad habit
she had when she felt unsure about something. Maybe he’s going to kiss me. She stopped biting her lip
immediately.
* * *
I should just kiss her now. But somehow he didn’t think it was the right time. He didn’t want her to
feel awkward or like he was pushing himself on her because they were half naked in a hot tub. That
wouldn’t be appropriate. Not that he didn’t want to taste the lip that she was nibbling on, because he did.
Very much. Still, there was a vulnerability to the situation. When he kissed Cassidy, and he planned on
doing just that, he wanted to know that she was only going to be thinking of him when she kissed him back.
He’d sensed her hesitation about actually coming in to the hot tub. Unsure exactly what it was all
about, but acknowledging it all the same, he didn’t want to give her any reason to want to leave. He had
even held back a whistle when she dropped her robe before stepping in. Normally he wasn’t given to
catcalls and such—he couldn’t believe that the whistle had come to his lips, but she was gorgeous. Even
in her one piece, conservative swimsuit she was amazing, but it wasn’t just her curvy figure, it was her
eyes that sparkled with life. The more he learned about her, the more attractive he found her and he was
beginning to appreciate everything about the woman that she was. It was one of those funny things where
you aren’t really thinking about someone that way and it kind of sneaks up on you. He was used to being
friends with women, in fact he had a lot of women friends, but most of the time he was clueless that some
of them liked him as more than a friend, until someone pointed it out to him. Then he was just
embarrassed. He was a one woman kind of guy, and since Natasha’s death he just wasn’t into getting back
out there.
Noticing that Cassidy was biting her lip again, he said, “Hey—do you want more Pellegrino? I think
there’s a bit more.” He reached for the bottle and knocked it off the ledge, hearing it crack as it hit the
ground. “Uh oh. That’s why we’re not sup
posed to have glass out here. I’ll get it cleaned up.”
Daniel swung up and over the side of the hot tub in one movement. “Great, it didn’t shatter. Just
broke cleanly in two. Must be because it’s cold or something.” He carefully picked up the pieces of
broken glass and carried them to the garbage. Turning back toward the hot tub his left foot skidded out
from under him.
“Oh! Be careful Daniel, that walkway looks icy.”
“I’m ok....whoa!” He couldn’t save himself and went down into the snow that was piled beside the
walk.
Cassidy stood up in the hot tub. “Are you ok? Are you hurt?”
Picking himself up, he shivered, and walked as quickly and as carefully as he could to jump back
into the heated water. He went right under. Coming up with a splash he answered, “Nothing hurt except
my manly pride. The cold was rather refreshing actually.” With that he reached over the side, scooped
some of the snow off the railing and dropped it down her back.
“Hey!” She squealed and turned to grab her own batch of snow from the side.
Laughing the two of them playfully threw mini snowballs back and forth at each other until he held up
his hand. “Truce.”
“Truce,” she said. “Wow, we spilled water everywhere.”
He glanced around. “Yeah. I’ll make sure to get some salt sprinkled down here, or it will cause an
icy mess come morning.” He looked at her sitting across from him, where she had ended up during the
course of their snow fight. Suddenly he felt that she was too far away. He reached over and tugged on her
hand, pulling her over to him. “Come sit over here. The view is better.”
* * *
Cassidy settled in beside Daniel once again and was content; even though she was sure she was a
wrinkled prune from being in the water so long. A hush had fallen on their conversation and they both
seemed lost in their own thoughts. She was thinking about something he’d said earlier and decided to ask
him about it.
“Daniel? At dinner you mentioned something about taking a ghost from your past out on me, or
something like that. What was that all about?”
He was silent for a few minutes and she noticed his brows were furrowed like he was thinking
really hard about something. Rather than push him to speak she just waited. Normally patience wasn’t one
of her virtues, but she had a feeling this was something she had to wait out.
Finally, when she thought he wasn’t going to answer at all, she heard him clear his throat. “About
eighteen months ago I lost my fiancé, Natasha, in a hiking accident.”
He spoke so quietly she wasn’t sure if she heard him correctly but, in case she did, she wasn’t sure
what to say anyway so she said nothing.
“She wanted to take a trail that was too narrow. The rest of us didn’t want to go. I had a bad feeling
about it and asked her to stay with the rest of us. She chose to go anyway. There was a rock slide. She
didn’t make it.”
“I’m so sorry. That must have been horrific.”
“Yeah. Well, anyway, that’s why I was so mad earlier.”
Cassidy felt him slightly shift away from her. “But, I don’t understand. You didn’t even know I was
going on that run, we never discussed it, so I’m not sure how you could be mad.”
“I thought you blatantly ignored the sign saying the run was closed. Like Natasha, I thought you just
did what you wanted regardless of the circumstances. It was like déjà vu.”
“Maybe it appeared that way, but you know now that I didn’t even see the sign. And it’s not like I
expected you to come rescue me anyway.” While she felt bad for him and his loss she was annoyed that
she was being pegged as a troublemaker. At least, that’s what it sounded like he was saying.
“Well I don’t think Natasha expected it either, but when you ignore things around you that’s what
happens. If you would only pay attention then I wouldn’t need to rescue anybody!” He was almost
shouting at her now.
Shrinking back in the hot tub, she tried to pull her body far away from his. Slowly moving to the
opposite side. Why was he yelling at her, again? She realized that he was talking very softly now. While
he was looking at her it didn’t seem like he even saw her. In fact, she was pretty sure he didn’t. “If she’d
have listened she’d be alive today. She’d be alive...” were the words that she finally caught as he spoke
them.
Compassion flooded through her. This poor guy. He was still miserable over losing his fiancé and
here she was getting mad at him. Obviously the incident today had tripped something in his recollection of
the hiking trip and now he was reliving it. She was only the vehicle he was using to get through it. Maybe
because she was here, in flesh and blood, he could get some of his feelings aired out. Guys never really
thought they had to do that—they held everything in until they exploded. She had a feeling that’s what he
had done. At least she hoped so.
“Hey...” she reached across to jar his shoulder. “Hey, Daniel. It’s ok. I know that this hit you pretty
hard, but maybe what you have to think about is that in the end she died doing exactly what she wanted to
do. I don’t think she’d be happy knowing she hurt you.”
He lifted his gaze to hers and she noticed his eyes were wet, maybe with tears he was holding back.
“I know. That’s the thing, I know. I just could never talk about it before. All of our friends...it was just too
hard.” He shook his head. “I’m sorry that I took it out on you. Both earlier today and tonight. You didn’t
deserve that, and I really have no excuse other than, well, the situation was similar and everything came
rushing back. I dunno. Now, I’m probably not making much sense.”
She smiled. “It’s ok. I know you must have loved her very much. I’m sorry I brought back sad
memories. If it helps, I promise to look for closed trails a little more closely next time.”
He nodded. “Some date this is turning out to be huh?”
“Date?” she asked shyly.
“I guess it wasn’t officially a date but, yeah, I think it is a date. You can’t end up all alone in a hot
tub with a pretty girl if it isn’t a date.” He wiggled his eyebrows at her lecherously and she laughed.
“OK, well this girl is officially a prune, so I think the pretty part is a bit overrated. I think it’s time
we call it a night.” As much as she wanted to stay there with him, she really felt that it was time for him to
be alone with his thoughts. And she needed to figure out what she felt too. Every time she thought her
attraction to him was growing, something came along to hold it back. Plus, it appeared as if he might still
be too hurt from losing his fiancé. Then there was the little fact that this was just a week long ski trip and
they lived in two different places. She was certainly not looking to be anyone’s ski trip fling. She came
here with a totally different man; she couldn’t expect to leave with someone else.
Even if that someone else is ten times the man I came with. She shivered as she climbed out of the
hot tub, grabbing her towel to wrap around her hair. She tried to jam her arms into her robe but wasn’t
quite able to get one of them through since she was holding the towel. Smart, Cass, real graceful.
Struggling, she finally got her robe on. She no longer felt the chill as the heat of a blush worked i
ts way up
her cheeks.
“You don’t have to do that you know.”
“What?”
“Cover up so quickly. I certainly don’t mind the view.” He grinned.
She ducked her head. “Thanks.”
“I’ll walk you back to your room.” As they made their way back inside Daniel lightly took her hand.
“Careful. Don’t want to slip.”
When they reached the door to her room she realized that he had never let go of her hand. “This is
me,” she said tapping on the door with her free hand. She looked up in to his eyes and then quickly back
down, suddenly very nervous. You’re acting like a silly schoolgirl. She brought her head back up and
gazed directly into his eyes. Feeling that she should say something, but unable to formulate any actual
words, she thought it best that she go into her room instead.
He waited while she fumbled with her card key and opened the door. He bent his head and brushed
his lips over hers, so quickly, like a feather. Leaning into him, Cassidy wrapped her arms around his neck
and deepened the kiss for a few long moments before letting go.
Daniel touched a finger to her lips and smiled. Then he was gone, whistling as he walked down the
hall.
Chapter Nine
What a nice dream , she thought as her hand went to her lips. Still half asleep Cassidy rolled over
and snuggled deeper under the covers. She wanted to get back to the dream. That kiss, so gentle, then so
hot. Mmmm. Wait, don’t go! It was gone. The dream and the kiss. She sat up in bed, frowning. It took her
a minute to realize that last night had been no dream. The lack of sleep had made her all fuzzy, but seeing
her damp bathing suit hanging off the back a chair brought it all back. Not the best place to hang a wet suit.
Still, she didn’t move to take it into the bathroom. It had been a very late night. Something like two or
three in the morning. She and Daniel had talked of so many things. Important things. And then, the kiss.
She knew it was just a brief fleeting thing, but to her it still held promise. Maybe? Well, let’s not
get ahead of ourselves. Stretching languorously, she gave a start as she heard a knock on the door.
Looking at the time she saw that it wasn’t early morning as she’d thought. It was almost eleven. Putting on
