Page 76 of Just Let Go

“Am I wrong?”

“Yes,” she said. “You are. I’ve had plenty of fun.”

“What’s the most fun thing you’ve ever done?”

Her face fell and she shook her head, as if to let him know she wasn’t going to tell him.

“What was it? Something shocking? Skinny-dipping in Lake Michigan, maybe?”

She shot him a look.

“Come on. You thought of something.”

She surveyed his face for a moment, then looked away. “Honestly, going to the flower market with my mom when I was little. We used to go every Saturday, and she’d pick out the most gorgeous flowers—different ones that we couldn’t get just anywhere. I told her that one day I was going to have a flower truck. Sell flowers right out of the back of it—the kind of flowers we got at the market.” She looked away. “She laughed and said it was the craziest and best idea she’d ever heard of, and when I was old enough, she’d buy me an old Volkswagen and we’d turn it into a flower truck together.”

Grady watched her as she quietly shut down, realizing, as he knew she would, that she’d just shared something she hadn’t meant to share. With him.

“Sorry,” she said. “I don’t know why I just told you that.”

“Why didn’t you buy the truck?” he asked.

She shrugged. “Seemed like a stupid idea once I grew up. And besides, my mom was long gone.”

“Here,” he tugged the zipper of her coat up to the top. “The wind can be brutal.” He found her eyes, but he didn’t know what else to say. He didn’t have much advice when it came to relationships or forgotten dreams. After all, he was trying to dig his own out from the rubble of the mess he’d made.

He shook the moment away. “Well, if that’s the most fun thingyou can remember, you’re in for something awesome,” he said. “Because once you get the hang of this, you’re going to know how it feels to be free. You’ll be hooked.”

“I’m just hoping I’ll still be in one piece,” she said.

“I’ll make sure you are.”

And he vowed to keep that promise, on the slopes and off. He suddenly had the inexplicable desire to protect feisty, maddening Quinn Collins.

And that was a desire he wasn’t accustomed to at all.

CHAPTER

18

“FIRST YOU NEED TO LEARN TO MOVE FORWARD IN YOUR SKIS,”Grady said, thankfully changing the subject after her embarrassing outburst about her mother.

She was starting to make a habit of revealing too much of herself to this man. Her only solace was that he’d likely forget all about it in an hour.

Still, she had not meant to broach that subject with him or anyone else. Her mother was on her mind—and some things she couldn’t keep from spilling over.

Slowly, patiently, he taught her how to move in her skis. They skied to a clearing where she could simply use her poles to propel herself forward across the flat land.

“See, that’s not so bad,” he said as she managed to stay upright for longer than five minutes.

Quinn didn’t pretend she’d accomplished anything remotely impressive, though she had to say, it felt good not to be stuck in a snowdrift with small children pointing and laughing.

She’d expected Grady to give up on her almost immediately, but once again, she was wrong about him. He walked her through a number of basic, beginner-type things she was sure he hadn’t thought of in years. Skiing, for him, was clearly second nature—she could see it in the way he moved. Still, that didn’t stop him from breaking things down in a way she understood. He was a good teacher.

Three times, their lesson was interrupted—twice by kids who wanted pictures and autographs and once by a tall, thin blonde who wanted something else entirely. She wore a bright-pink ski outfit with perfectly coordinated boots, gloves, and goggles, her long, curly ponytail so perfect it could’ve been drawn on, like Betty’s in the old Archie comics.

After the woman took a selfie with Grady—who looked unusually uncomfortable—she leaned over and whispered something to him, then sashayed away.

Quinn shook her head.

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