Page 46 of Bachelor

My mouth twitched, a smile threatening to break through my restraint, especially when Rhys smiled over the rim of his pint glass.

My blood began to heat as his throat bobbed as he swallowed. He hadn’t shaved his face in a few days, and he looked totally, wholly ruffled with his hair wild and body glistening with sweat in the firelight.

It took all of my strength to tear my gaze away from him and focus on my lunch.

“Dan, come sit with us,” Rhys said, waving his hand toward the crowd.

Professor Dan Montague spotted us, a look of relief flashing over his handsome features as he made his way to the table. We all scooted our chairs to make room for him.

“This place is insane,” he said as he sat down with his tray—a large cup of hot coffee and a small cup of fruit.

I often wondered if the man ate anything. About as tall as Rhys but lanky, Dan was built like an ultramarathon runner and consumed a copious amount of coffee. His office always smelled like coffee, and so did the hallway his office was housed in in Hollis Hall.

He turned to Rhys, blowing out his breath. “How’d you do up there? Everything come back to you like you thought it would?”

“It was a breeze. I’m going back up there soon, might stay for night skiing as well.”

Dan rolled his eyes and forked a rough-looking strawberry before thinking better of putting it in his mouth. He sipped from his coffee instead and eyed me. “I hear you’re quite skilled at skiing.”

“Not really,” I said with a soft smile, but Jessica chuckled, shaking her head.

“She’s insanely good at it. Probably because her parents dumped her in Aspen every Christmas.”

“Well, that part is true.” I shrugged, sipping from my beer. “I did learn to ski there, especially away from my mom and her tittering socialite friends.”

Rhys laughed low in his throat, but there was still a heated look in his eyes.

“Rhys, you should go with her. There’s a run on the far side of the mountain, I can’t remember what it’s called, but you can take lift four, and then it’s a bit of a level ride until you reach what’s called thedrop-off.”

“Are you encouraging me to lead a student into danger, Professor Montague?” Rhys teased, but a glimmer shone in his eyes.

“I think the one who will be in the most danger is you, big and burly as you are. Lots of trees on that part of the mountain.”

“I’d like to go,” I piped up, leaning forward.

“You better go get on the lift before Cassandra rolls her way down the mountain again,” Tyler whispered into his beer.

I nodded. He was right. The last thing I wanted to do was get stuck with her again.

Rhys finished off his beer and motioned to mine. “We’d get going then, if you’re actually up for it.”

“I’m up for it,” I said a little sharper than I meant to. I stood and donned my gear before following him out the door. As we walked, I realized with a start that we were going skiing alone. As... friends.

Friends. I wanted to laugh, and then cry, at the thought.

I shouldn’t be out here with him enjoying myself. I wasn’t over him. I didn’t think it was possible to get over him.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, but I grabbed my skis and headed for the lift.

I heard him sigh behind me as he followed with his board.

Neither of us spoke as we watched the lift pick up group after group until finally we stepped up and got swooped into the air. The chair ahead of us and the chair behind us were empty.

It was quiet up there, every sound lost in the strange silent vacuum only snow can produce.

“We didn’t have to do this.”

“Do what?” I asked, picking at the handles of my ski poles to just to give myself something to do.

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