Page 45 of The Dating Dare

“I’ll help,” the girl volunteered and grabbed her right leg to steady it as Seth gently worked her boot off.

She couldn’t help it. She whimpered, biting down on her lip.

“Fuck,” Seth said, turning worried eyes to her. Then his continued efforts drew a moan out of her. He stopped immediately. “Fucking hell.”

“Oh, God. I’m so sorry,” the snowboarder said again, wringing her gloved hands.

“I’m okay. Keep going,” she said to Seth, setting her jaws to prepare herself.

Tara tried to stem the tide of tears streaming down her face. She didn’t want to upset Seth anymore, and the poor girl was near tears herself. She took a deep breath to stop herself from grimacing. When her boot was finally off, cold sweat drenched her face and back from enduring the pain.

“Goddammit,” Seth cursed under his breath. “Your ankle is too swollen for me to tell if it’s broken or not.”

“Crap,” Tara sighed. “We don’t have cell reception up here, right?”

“Right,” he confirmed, pulling off his beanie to run his handthrough his hair. “I’ll have to go down to get the medics, but I don’t want to leave you here alone.”

“I can go.” They both turned to the girl. “I’ll go down and let the medics know. It’s the least I can do.”

“Thank you,” Seth said. “I really appreciate that.”

“Yeah, thank you,” Tara echoed, surprisingly relieved that he could stay with her.

“I’ll go down as fast as I can,” she said with determination on her face.

“No,” Seth and Tara yelled at once.

“No. Take your time and be safe.” Tara spoke calmly, hoping it would dampen the girl’s postcrash adrenaline. “We don’t want you to fall again.”

“Okay,” the girl said, deflating a little. “Bye. Don’t freeze to death or anything.”

With those reassuring words, the teenager shoved off on her snowboard and disappeared down the slope. Tara shifted her seat on the snow, then winced in pain.

“Dammit,” Seth growled as he shrugged off his backpack. “We need to get you more comfortable. Well, as comfortable as you can be sitting on the freezing snow with a possibly broken ankle.”

“Seth, look at me.” And when he did, she said, “I’ll be okay. It’s probably just a sprain. It’s not a big deal.”

“You wouldn’t have gotten hurt if I hadn’t dragged you up here.”

“What?” She rounded on him. “You didn’tdragme anywhere. I chose to come up here. The Ego has many sides, doesn’t it? This isn’t about you. It was just a freak accident.”

He stayed stubbornly mute as he lined up their skis perpendicular to the slope and gently shifted her so she sat on the skis. She was proud of herself for not making a peep while he moved her even though ithurt like hell. But she had to say something when he zipped off his jacket, and put in around her shoulders.

“What do you think you’re doing? You’re going to freeze.” She tried to shrug it off but he planted his hands firmly on her shoulders.

“I have an extra thermal shirt in my backpack. I’ll be fine.” His expression told her that he wasn’t going to change his mind, so she let him wrap his jacket around her. Once he put on his extra layer, Seth carefully placed his backpack under her injured leg to elevate it. The throbbing became slightly more bearable.

“Thank you.”

“You don’t have to thank me,” he said glumly.

“Stop beating yourself up. My ankle hurts pretty bad and I don’t have the strength to argue with you right now.”

“Shit. I’m sorry, Tara.” He knelt beside her and brushed her hair away from her face with cold fingers.Geez.He’d taken his gloves off to get her situated. The sweet—and unnecessary—gesture squeezed her heart.

“If you’re sorry, stop fussing. And put your gloves back on. Okay?”

“Okay.” He sat facing down the hill, so his back was supporting her side. “Lean on me.”

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