Page 11 of One Last Run

“Maybe they’ll start now. What if we try to figure out this week if you two could… reconnect?” Maggie offered, still hopping.

“Is that a good idea?” Pete asked, feeling a spark of worry at the excitement gleaming in Meddling Maggie’s eyes.

“Uh, sure,” Maggie said, watching Izzy take an admirably long draw from the vape. “You good?”

Izzy nodded, coughing and exhaling inside the mudroom, then panicking and hurrying to open the back door.

“I don’t pretend to understand how vapes work, but if you could not hotbox Aunt Jade’s entire house, that would be helpful.” Maggie scolded Izzy with a smile that said she wasn’tseriously mad. She looked from Izzy back to Pete. “Okay, let’s brainstorm how to figure out this reconnection.”

CHAPTER 5

DANICA

How she andPete ended up alone on a chair lift together, Danica wasn’t entirely sure. Kiera had gone off to ski the black runs higher up the mountain. Maggie and Izzy had been right behind her in line, but as the chair swung around and she settled in, it was Pete beside her, not Maggie.

She tucked her poles under her leg and held onto the bar, staring straight ahead.

“These seats are kind of squishy,” Pete remarked.

Danica nodded, noticing that her ass wasn’t freezing on a hard metallic seat for once.

“So, you’ve been avoiding me,” Pete said playfully.

Danica watched as a skier carved down a wide blue run effortlessly. They looked peaceful all alone. No one else was beside them, cornering them in a vulnerable moment. “I haven’t been avoiding you. It’s been a busy trip.”

The chair swung as it lifted higher and higher, the rhythmic clicking of the overhead cable system the only sound above them.

“I don’t want it to be weird between us,” Pete said, leaning back in the chair. She pulled a small flask from her jacket pocket and took a swig.

“Are you seriously drinking right now?” Danica asked, her voice dripping with irritation. “See, this is?—”

Pete held out the flask. “You want some?”

“No, I don’t want whiskey right now,” Danica said, exasperated.

“Suit yourself,” Pete said, taking another swig from the flask.

The chair passed another pole, which screeched like some poor dying animal as the chair slowed to a stop. The chair swung, suspended about fifty feet above the ground, flanked on the side of the run by tall bare aspens dotted with conifers. An unexpected mid-air breakdown.

Oh, fantastic, it was her worst nightmare.

“Did the lift break?” Danica glanced up at the pole, then swiveled in her seat to look back. She didn’t recognize the snowboarders behind them, like Maggie and Izzy had either left their position in line or were lagging behind. Were they stuck, too?

“I bet someone took a tumble getting off, so they held it up,” Pete remarked, unconcerned.

Danica took a deep breath, raising her goggles onto her helmet. She stared up to where the chair was attached to the cable.

“We’re not going to fall,” Pete said, nonchalantly resting her elbow on the seat back as if they were comfortably on a sofa, not dangling precariously fifty feet above ground.

Danica’s strained voice undoubtedly gave away her uncertainty. “You don’t know that. What if we’re stuck here for hours?”

“Then it’s a nice relaxing spot with a view. We’re right next to a pole, so we’ll be one of the first to be rescued.” Petelooked around, relaxed and enjoying the view like the typical unbothered, unworried person she was.

Danica’s chest felt tight and her mouth went dry. “Why isn’t it moving yet? If someone just fell, wouldn’t it be moving by now?” She didn’t know if she was more upset about the idea of being stuck on a chairlift high up in the air or being stuck on a chairlift with Pete.

Pete shrugged —shrugged!— and unzipped her backpack, pulling out a water bottle. “You still really hate being out of control, don’t you?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Danica said, short-tempered and anxious and tired, taking off her gloves. “Is that even water?” She was blazing hot suddenly, and put her clammy hands on the metal bar in front of her, cooling them instantly. Her throat felt tight, and she was struggling to take a deep breath. Having a panic attack was inconvenient at the best of times, but being stuck with her ex in a swinging death trap precariously trapped in what felt like thousands of feet above solid ground was an even worse scenario than most.

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