Page 36 of Stuck with my Brother's Firefighter Besties

I couldn’t.

Instead, I leaned back, forcing my voice to steady itself.

“You’re right,” I said, the words barely a whisper. “I was.”

I could see her pulse quicken, her breath hitching as she glanced up at me, uncertainty flickering in her eyes.

But I couldn’t read her. Not fully.

She wanted me to cross the line; I could feel it in the way she was looking at me. But that would be a mistake. A dangerous one.

The chairlift jolted, and for a split second, I thought I was going to lose control. But the moment passed, and I let out a slow breath, focusing on the slopes ahead.

“I’m not gonna play games with you, Lila,” I said, my tone low and firm, but there was still an edge of heat in it.

“Then stop teasing me,” she said softly, her voice shaking as she looked away, her eyes falling to the snow below us.

I didn’t answer.

The words I wanted to say were stuck in my throat—things I couldn’t afford to say. Not yet. Not when the weight of everything between us felt so heavy.

* * *

Skiing was supposed to be a release.

The crisp mountain air, the snow underfoot, and the promise of adrenaline as we flew down the trails should’ve been enough to clear my head.

But all it did was magnify everything.

This day was impossible, and everything seemed to be making it worse.

Especiallyhim.

I couldn’t stop watching Colt.

Every time he was near Lila, cracking some joke or flashing that cocky grin of his, it lit a fire in my chest that no amount of snow could extinguish.

He was relentless.

And she was eating it up.

Not that I blamed her.

Colt had that easy charm that made people want to be around him. But it didn’t make it any less infuriating to watch.

By midday, the group had split up, everyone scattering across the slopes to take on different trails.

Nate had taken off with a few friends, Lila had gone back to the lodge for a break, and Ryan was helping some kid fix a binding on his snowboard.

It was just me and Colt, standing at the top of the hill, the view of the valley stretching out beneath us.

It was the first time we’d been alone since this whole mess started, and the tension between us was thick enough to cut.

“You’ve been real quiet today, Jaxon,” Colt said as he adjusted his goggles. His voice had that familiar teasing edge, but there was an undercurrent of something sharper. “Something on your mind?”

I strapped my boots into my board, refusing to look at him. “Not really.”

“Yeah? Funny, ‘cause you’ve been looking at me like you want to throw me off the mountain. And this isn’t the first time I’ve felt you looking at me that way.”

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