Page 58 of One Last Run

“It’s a long hill,” Danica said.

“It’s barely a hill,” Pete teased. “It’s a stretch to call it a slight incline. After Allais Alley, this is nothing.”

Danica winced, looking at Kiera who was fixing her gloves as they watched a family of five slide down the hill in a clump of interconnected tubes.

“We should try that,” Maggie said, pointing toward the family with her elbow in her sling.

“And accidentally catch one of Pete’s Docs to the face? No thanks,” Kiera said.

Pete shoved down her initial response that Kiera catching a foot to the face would be no accident, but she decided she’d keep the peace for Danica’s sake. Kiera had been acting so strangetoday, staring at her phone, and watching Pete with a pointed expression. It’s not like she and Danica were hiding, not holding back from a hand on an arm, a playful bump of a hip. Kiera should be used to it — it was the way they’d always acted.

“Come on, Kier, I’ll put myself between you and Pete’s boots,” Izzy offered, and Pete watched suspiciously as they seemed to exchange a long, knowing look. She made a mental note to ask Izzy about it later.

After placing their five tubes together, Pete helped Maggie and Danica get settled in. Danica’s wide eyes, sparkling with excitement despite her otherwise serious face, made her adorable. Pete waited until Kiera and Izzy were situated before taking hold of her own tube, running a few steps, and throwing herself stomach-down onto her tube, reaching to take Danica’s hand as she passed.

In Kiera’s defense, thiswasa terrible idea. The tubes and their riders began to fly in all different directions, creating a screaming horde of adult women flying down the hill at speeds none of them expected. Although Danica held onto Pete’s hand tightly, a larger bump launched Maggie, Kiera, and Izzy in different directions. Kiera and Izzy flew from their tubes, continuing to roll downhill in the snow with shrieks. Maggie had tucked herself into a small ball, clearly afraid of further injuring her wrist after what Kiera and Izzy had just gone through.

Pete heard screaming, and it took a moment to realize that it was coming from Danica. After a brief pang of fear, she realized that Danica was yelling with... joy. She was laughing, her head thrown back, eyes squeezed shut. As they soared past their fallen friends, her hair whipped out around her coat hood, her wide mouth parted in happy squealing.

Pete wanted to memorize that sound, this feeling, the entire moment, and keep it forever. She let out an excited whoop, still laughing even as they careened from the path and tumbled fromtheir tubes. A jolt of panic flashed through Pete’s body as she saw that Danica was lying face down in the snow, limbs askew.

She scrambled on her knees over to where Danica lay, rolling her over to find that Danica was still laughing, tears streaming down her cheeks. “Are you okay?” she asked breathlessly. “Are you hurt?”

“No, I’m fine, I’m fine,” Danica said, brushing at her face with her bare hands.

“You’re sure?” Pete asked, her heart pounding frantically in her chest. Danica grabbed the front of Pete’s jacket and pulled her down, pressing a warm kiss to Pete’s frozen lips.

“I’m fine,” Danica emphasized, and Pete brushed some of the hair from Danica’s face. “Anyone ever tell you that you worry too much?”

“No one has ever told me that, oddly enough,” Pete joked, helping Danica to stand as they wiped the snow from their clothes.

“We should rescue Maggie. She looks like a stuck turtle,” Danica said, nodding her chin toward where Maggie was still tucked into a tiny ball, safely ensconced in her tube towards the bottom of the hill. Higher up the hill, Kiera and Izzy were talking with their heads close together, but Danica didn’t seem to notice. They grabbed their tubes by the handles and helped Maggie, who was also fine, stand up. The three of them nearly fell over with giggles as they slipped and slid, trying to help one another regain their balance.

Pete walked back up the hill to where Izzy and Kiera were still talking, catching the tail end of a phrase from Izzy that sounded an awful lot like, “a terrible fucking idea and you know it.”

“You guys alive and in one piece?” Pete announced loudly, and both women spun toward her, looking surprised. Kiera’s cheeks were flushed, and Izzy was scowling.

“Should we go again?” Danica asked from behind her, dragging both her and Maggie’s snow tubes.

“Definitely,” Izzy said a little too quickly.

They spent the better part of the morning on the sledding hill, racing and trying to fly high on their tubes over the tiny ledge that could make them airborne. Pete’s tension about Kiera and Izzy seemed to unwind with each smile on Danica’s face, and when Maggie suggested lunch, Pete cleared her throat and announced that she and Danica would meet them after.

Her plan was two-fold. First, and most importantly, she wanted to steal Danica away for any alone time they could get out of their last full day. Second, if anyone could glean information about Izzy and Kiera’s talk, it was Maggie, who could read people unlike any other. Or, perhaps Maggie was just the friend group’s nosiest member, and therefore held more secrets than anyone else.

The second the condo door closed behind them, they were flinging boots and jackets and scarves off, already greedy with their kisses, desperate for one another.

“My bed, this time,” Danica whispered against her mouth as they pressed against a wall, Pete’s mouth already sliding over the soft skin of Danica’s throat.

“Who said anything about a bed?” Pete teased, her knee pushing between Danica’s thighs.

Danica was shameless as she moved her hips against Pete, urgent and needy. “You’d rather just fuck me against this wall?” She had a wicked smile on her face to match her sultry tone. Pete nipped at her lower lip, her hands sliding under Danica’s sweater, feeling her cold sweat-slicked skin.

“If I must.” Pete let out a husky laugh, her thigh rising as Danica’s hips ground against her.

An hour later,Danica lay sprawled over her, Pete’s breath finally slowing after drawing out Danica’s first orgasm in the hallway, fully clothed like horny teenagers, then dragging her to bed as they took turns satisfying what felt like a nearly infinite need.

“I can’t believe we ever left my bed after doing this last night,” Pete mumbled from where her face was still pressed into Danica’s hair, breathing in the rosemary and mint of her shampoo. “I don’t intend to make the same mistake again.”

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