Read Online A Little Learning by Margot Early - Free Book Online Page B

but...”
    “You don’t have to apologize. I appreciate what you’re saying. Are there classes available in Sultan?”
    “I think I might be able to find something. There will probably be just two other dogs, at the most. This is such a small town. But there is a woman who trains avalanche dogs, and she does some obedience classes, too, from time to time. I’d be happy to give you her number.”
    “Thank you.”
    His intense study of her made Rory wonder exactly what he was thinking; how he was reacting to her unsolicited advice. She said, “Well, you should grab something to eat, and I’m off to do the same thing. I’ll see you at one.”
    Seamus opened his mouth but didn’t speak. Not at once. “Fine,” he said at last.
    Rory suspected it wasn’t what he’d been going to say.
    * * *
    B EAU WAS SULLEN on the ride to the same trail Rory and his father had skied on the previous afternoon. Rory wished she’d been able to speak to him alone about his resistance to telemark skiing—or to skiing with Seamus—but there hadn’t been time. Seamus drove, so on the way there Rory sat in the back with Beau and asked him about his previous telemark experience.
    “I’ve done it a few times. I can’t, like, make a telemark turn yet.”
    “Lots of people with tele skis never make a tele turn,” Rory replied.
    When they reached the spot they’d used the day before, they parked and removed their skis from the roof rack of Seamus’s car. As they put on their skis, Rory noticed Seamus watching his son thoughtfully.
    “It’s been a while since we’ve skied together, hasn’t it?” Seamus asked.
    “Yeah,” Beau murmured.
    “Skins on,” Rory said, and they all fitted climbing skins to their skis.
    She’d skied with fathers and sons in the past, as a ski instructor. Her pet peeve was fathers who found the occasion an opportunity to pursue her, rather than attend to their children’s needs.
    Seamus wasn’t like that. He complimented Beau, talked about how he himself was huffing and puffing—untrue—while Beau steamed up the trail in the lead. Rory saw Beau’s confidence and self-esteem grow with his father’s praise. It made her like Seamus more.
    In fact, it made her like Seamus to an alarming degree.
    Is it just because my father has never spent time with me?
    Well, whatever the Lee family got out of the Sultan Mountain School, she reflected, at least they would have this—more time together, meaningful time.
    She coached father and son on their first run, praising Beau’s form, which was excellent. A childhood skiing in Telluride, even without his father’s company, certainly showed.
    When they returned to the car late in the afternoon, she checked her cell phone and found a message waiting for her.
    “Rory, it’s Samantha. We have a domestic problem. Guess who is out and hasn’t been found. I’ve told Desert I’m not sleeping in the house until Lola is caught. So I’ll be staying at the hot springs. And Norris broke up with Desert. I think it was about the snake. So Desert’s miserable.”
    And at home alone with Lola? It hadn’t been stated in so many words.
    Rory certainly wasn’t going to sleep in the house with the python loose, either. Granted, Lola was unlikely to cozy up to one of them, bite and squeeze. Still, Rory knew she wouldn’t sleep soundly with the snake out of its vivarium.
    And Lola would not be easy to catch.
    Desert’s house, Desert’s problem.
    But Rory was a roommate. And Desert’s boyfriend, according to Samantha, had just broken up with her.
    “Everything okay?” Seamus asked as Rory closed the phone.
    Rory felt reluctant to reveal that Lola was loose. Desert’s irresponsibility—and Rory had no doubt that Desert’s carelessness was behind the escape—seemed to reflect on her. He’s going to think we’re all like Desert. Airheads.
    Desert wasn’t an airhead.
    She was just...Desert. And though Rory lived with her and danced with her, she had no illusions about