Page 227 of Small Towns, Wild Hearts

The smile was back and it was either the wine or the dimples that were sending warmth through my entire body, originating from my lower belly. Who was I kidding? I knew that it wasn’t the wine. “My luggage didn’t make it here either. I spent the day buying snow pants and long johns. I missed the grandpa’s sweater section in the store though.”

“Oh.” He laughed and pointed to the lobby with his thumb. “It’s right over there, we can get you suited up after dessert.”

As if on cue, Natalie brought over a slice of cheesesteak for Mister Sweater Blue Eyes. “Thank you.” He smiled at Natalie and my heart thudded. I had worked part-time as a server while I put myself through my undergraduate degree and seeing people be kind to waitstaff warmed my heart.

“Where are you here from?” he took a bite of his cheesecake just as my elk arrived. Natalie cracked some pepper on top and gave me a devilish eyebrow pump before she walked away.

“New York.” I took a bite of the elk and held in a moan.

“How is it?” He grinned.

“Incredible. It’s better than I expected.”

He wiped at his brow with his napkin. “Phew. I’ve never done that before.”

My stomach growled and I wanted to pick up the steak and gnaw it like a wild animal. “Done what?” I took a bite of the steak piled with mashed potato.

“Recommend food to a…” He hesitated, and even in the dark light of the steakhouse, I could see the crimson rush along his neck and into the depths of the zippered neck of the fair isle patterned sweater. “Stranger.” He gulped and sipped his coffee.

I wondered why he paused, and what he had wanted to say instead of stranger. “Where are you visiting from?”

“New York.” He grinned. “Can you believe that my flight was overweight? Have you ever heard of such a thing?”

I gulped. He was from the same city as me. We were supposed to be on the same flight. I wondered if 2B was meant for him.

Mister Blue Eyes and I sat one table apart and had what I would consider to be one of the best not first dates of my life. He wasn’t wearing a ring, but he was too perfect to be single. And, he wasn’t flirting, he was being kind to a stranger, I told myself. It had been so long since I’d met a gentleman, I was letting myself get flustered. The conversation was light and fun, and I decided to let myself enjoy it.

Natalie dropped his bill off while she cleared away my empty plate. He slipped a hundred-dollar bill into the fold and stood up. “I’m glad that you enjoyed your elk. Good luck with your ski lesson tomorrow.”

I’d felt a spark with that man, a connection, and before I knew it, he was gone. I hadn’t even gotten his name.

* * *

After a sleepless night, imagining waking up next to the man from the night before, I ate a protein bar, pulled on my ski clothes, and shook off the entire encounter. Snow fell heavily and silently onto the balcony of my hotel room. I’d come here to ski, not meet and fall in love with a handsome stranger—this wasn’t a rom-com, it was real life.

I braided my curly brown hair and put on my helmet. “Oh no.” I groaned as I realized that I’d forgotten to buy goggles. I pulled back the curtain, hoping that by some miracle the snow had stopped falling in the past five seconds, but the tiny flakes had grown into quarter-sized clumps. My lesson wasn’t due to start until eight o’clock, so I headed to the ski shop at the base of the gondola. I set my rental skis on the rack and headed into the store.

A young kid who looked kind of like Bieber suggested two types of lenses. I held them up to my face and looked around the store. “I don’t know…It’s snowing today. Are these the best ones for this kind of light?”

“You should walk outside and test them,” a deep voice spoke over my shoulder. I froze, the goggles held to my face. Our conversation had been less than twelve hours earlier, but already I knew that I’d never forget his voice. I turned, knowing that I’d be face to face with Blue Eyes.

The kid pointed to the doors. “That’s good advice. Go check out the lenses in the natural light.”

“Okay.” I realized that I still had the goggles pressed to my face. I was thankful for their mirrored surface, hoping it hid the blush in my cheeks. They also let me stare unabashedly at Mister Blue Eyes as he opened the door to the store.

“Just don’t steal them,” Bieber kid yelled.

“I’ll tackle her.” Blue Eyes smiled at me and my chest tightened.

“I’m surprisingly fast in these boots,” I managed to croak. He pointed to his snowboard boots. “I think that these are a little faster.”

Once I’d tried both sets of goggles, I held up the ones with the yellow mirrored lenses. “I think that these work better.”

“They suit you.” He held open the door for me and I studied the toes of my ski boots as I returned to the counter, wishing that I wasn’t so flustered by his presence. It was just another coincidence that he was also at the store that early.

He disappeared behind the racks of gloves and I paid for the goggles and immediately installed them on my helmet. While they were great for protecting my eyes from the elements and helping me see on the mountain, they blocked most of my lower field of vision. “Ow,” I yelped as I walked right into a table of t-shirts. My shin stung from the sudden impact.

It was like the world had gone into slow motion. The pain of the display hitting my shin paled in comparison to the embarrassment of collapsing onto the display, an avalanche of t-shirts falling to the floor around me. “Oh, my God. I’m so sorry. I didn’t see that…”

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