Page 20 of The Mountain Man's Virgin
He jumped in surprise, and as he turned to face me, he lost his balance. He smiled and grabbed a fistful of my jacket and pulled me down into the snow with him.
I couldn’t stop the fall from happening. We were in a heap on the ground and my giggles came with a fury. They were matched by Mick’s low baritone laugh. We remained in a snowy heap of giggles and laughter until both of us were crying.
“Not bad for a city girl,” Mick said. He smiled and brushed some snow off my hat.
“I’ve got a school record in the 800m,” I said, “there’s no way you were getting away from me.
Mick was quiet. His eyes searched mine and then he brushed my hair over my shoulder, “There’s no way I would ever want to,” he said quietly. He leaned in and I could feel his breath lingering on my lips like a light warm breeze. I was trembling. I could feel the warmth of his face radiating into mine. He pressed his cheek to my cheek, his beard cold and comforting against my skin, then he slowly drew his face along mine until we would’ve been eye to eye, but his were closed. Then he closed the eighth of an inch gap that lingered between us, and the warmth of his lips met mine. Adrenaline surged through me, my stomach flipped, and I think that I melted a little. I realized that my body wanted all of Mick, not just his lips, pressed against it.
I moaned into his mouth and felt my body pressing against his. He pulled back and we simultaneously opened our eyes: blue meets bluer. Then, we both grabbed each other, my arms around Mick’s waist, and his hands behind my head, and we kissed again, this time hungrier. His soft lips kissed my face and then returned to my lips, this time his tongue meeting mine. It was by far the most passionate moment I had ever experienced in my life.
When Lawrence and I kissed, it wasn’t unpleasant, but it didn’t make me want to taste more of him. It didn’t make my hips involuntarily thrust towards his body. Kissing Mick had awoken something inside of me, something I didn’t want to ever go back to sleep.
When Mick drew back from my lips, he looked me in the eyes and said, ‘You’re so beautiful.’ I didn’t question it. I knew deep from the bottom of my soul that Mick meant it.
He stood up, held out his hand and helped me up out of the hole our bodies had created in the snow. I let him pull me up and moved to kiss him again, but he turned his face. Something had happened - the spell was broken.
“We need to keep moving if we’re going to make it to the ridge for you to make your call,” he said gruffly and trudged away.
“Mick…” I called after him, but he didn’t respond.
We snowshoed in silence for what felt like an eternity, but in all likelihood was about an hour. In the meantime, the snow had eased up and the sun was starting to break through the dark cloud cover. All I could hear was silence and the crunching of the snow underneath our feet as we traversed along switchbacks along the ridge.
I didn’t know what to say to him, and he didn’t seem interested in talking, so I just stayed quiet. What the hell was wrong with him?
We finally summited, and the view took my breath away. Snow-capped peaks jutted up all around us in every direction. The sun had won the battle with the clouds and was reflecting off the expanse of snow - the gray darkness replaced with a dazzling white wonderland.
“It’s so beautiful,” I gasped.
“Have you never seen the mountains like this before?” Mick asked.
“Never,” I said. “We didn’t have a lot of money growing up, and there was no such thing as a family vacation in our household.”
“That’s really sad,” Mick said.
“It does sound sad, but I had a great childhood. Our family was really close, and my parents did the best that they could. I remember my mom going without food so that my sister and I could eat.”
“You said your family ‘was’ close. Are they not anymore?”
I sighed. I tried to avoid telling my story, but something about that moment, standing on the peak, being as close to heaven as I’d ever been, I started, “My dad was picking up my mom from her job cleaning at a motel; my older sister was babysitting...” My voice cracked. It always did when I got to this part.
“Lucy, I shouldn’t have asked,” Mick said.
“They died.” I didn’t have the energy to go into the details of the car accident. I remembered that I was still pissed at Mick for ignoring me. He didn’t deserve the whole story. Why would I open myself up to someone who would shut down every time I felt us grow closer?
But Mick surprised me. He didn’t say, ‘I’m sorry’ like everyone else did. He just said, “Mine too,” quietly.
As we stood there, staring off into the distance, I can only assume that Mick was thinking the same thing: only an orphan can understand another orphan.
Mick reached his arm around my shoulders and pulled me in close to him. This wasn’t like the kiss. This was the comfort of a friend, the comfort of someone who could understand true loss. Ten minutes ago, I wouldn’t have let him touch me again, but this touch was exactly what I needed. It didn’t light a fire inside me the way that his kiss had, but it melted me just the same.
Eventually, Mick loosened his hold on my shoulders.
“You should have service on your phone here,” he said.
I pulled my cell phone out of my pocket, and sure enough, 2 bars - enough to make a call.
I looked at Mick and he nodded his head, I pulled up Lawrence’s number and pressed call.
