figured it out by themselves. Kate sat down on the bench and
watched me with a skew grin. When I looked at her she blew me a kiss and I
rolled my eyes.
“No, keep your legs like this,” George said, drawing my
attention back to our lesson. He put his hand on my thigh an guided my leg to
where it had to be. After he took his hand away I could still feel the print of
it on my skin. He straightened out and looked at me, smiling.
“Much better. You have the build for this,” he said.
I chuckled and shook my head.
“Really, there’s a build for skiing?”
“There is. But your build is good for everything.”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. He was flirting
outright with me. And what was more, I liked it.
When the lesson was over he gathered us together.
“Do you ladies want to meet with a few of my instructor
friends tonight at the bar?” He looked right at me when he asked it and another
shiver traveled through my body.
“We’d love to,” Ashleigh spoke for all of us. Kate grinned
and glanced at me.
“This is going to be great,” Kate said, sitting on my bed
while I put on make-up. “George is a nice one, eh?”
I shrugged. I was trying to make my skin look normal with
concealer, but the fact was that I had really bad sunburn. In Montana. The
sun’s reflection off the snow had really done a number on my face two days in a
row.
“He’s okay,” I admitted. More than okay. Damn hot and his
eyes hypnotized me. But I wasn’t going to admit that to Kate. When it came down
to it he would probably end up going for her, anyway. I still wasn’t convinced
he liked me better. That never happened when Kate and I were together.
I applied light shadow and mascara, and ran a brush
through my hair. I was wearing jeans and tan boots, and a brown leather jacket.
My hair hung loose over my shoulders. I stepped back to inspect myself full
image in the mirror.
“Well, at least my face compliments my red hair,” I said,
shrugging.
Kate laughed. “You look great. Real sexy. I bet even if
George ends up being just a ski instructor one of his friends should be fun to
deal with. If all ski instructors came with muscles like that I’ll take any of
them.”
“I bet Charlie would love to hear you say that.”
Kate shrugged. “Charlie understands nothing’s set in
stone. Well, I’m not sure if he does. But it’s not.”
I laughed. Charlie was Kate’s latest and he’d been around
for six months, which was longer than any of the others had lasted.
Ella got us to the bar. She’d managed to get the details
from George before we’d left. If I was ever stuck in a wasteland with no
resources, I’d want Ella with me. Kate was an amazing friend but Ella had
access to literally everything. For that matter, if I was ever stuck in a
wasteland, I’d want it to be with George. Now there was someone I could get
lost with.
The bar was down to earth and homey, with a dark wood bar
and matching stools, and booths set around the edges with red seats. A cloud of
smoke curled around the lights in the ceiling, and music blared from hidden
speakers.
George spotted us when we walked in and waved us over to a
booth where he sat with five other men. He dragged a table from the middle of
the room so there was enough space for ten people, and introduced us around. I
only caught two names. Hans looked like he’d escaped from Germany with the
accent to boot, and Pierre had a permanent smile plastered across his face. The
other four all had roughly the same color hair and eyes, and I learned later
they were cousins.
They ordered us cocktails, and we talked. The conversation
was light and easy-going, and after my first two cocktails my blood hummed in
my veins and I’d forgotten about my sunburn and how dull I looked next to Kate.
George moved to sit next to me. His eyes stared right into
my soul, and I looked away, into my cocktail glass because I didn’t know where
else to look.
“You did well on the slopes
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