Snowbound (8 page)

Stirring cream into her coffee, she leaned back in her chair and sighed. “I’m so full. Ugh. I went from hungry to full way too fast. That’s what I get for trying to keep up with you.”

“Hmm,” Daniel said distractedly. “Hey Cass? I’m thinking we’re the so-called, special event. Whaddaya say we finish up here and let the staff go home? Some of them work off mountain and I’d hate for them to be driving down too late.”

Lulled by the food and wine, it took her a minute to figure out what Daniel had said because he said it so quickly, and his words seemed to run together. Once the words sunk in she was disappointed he wanted to call it a night, but understood he was trying to be considerate of the employees at the resort.

“No way,” Daniel interrupted, “I may not be independently wealthy, but I can afford a tip. Please. Why don’t you just go get changed and meet me at the hot tub?”

She knew that to object further about the tip, just to show she didn’t need anyone to take care of her, was probably both silly and futile. “Thank you. I’ll see you there.” She rose to leave and was almost across the restaurant when it hit her.

Wait, a hot tub! I have to wear a swimsuit. Oh Lord!

Chapter
Eight

Cassidy stood in the doorway to the gazebo, where the hot tub was located on a deck overlooking the valley. Daniel hadn’t seen her yet as he had his back to her. It looked like he was pouring something into plastic cups.
It’s not too late to turn around.
She willed her legs to move forward, but her mind was telling her to run. She clutched the towel to her chest and tried to keep the flap of her robe from opening too wide. Lord, was she really going to go and appear in front of him in a bathing suit? She must be nuts!

She could still hear Rick’s voice echoing in her mind, “Geez, Cass, you’ve put on the pounds, eh?” or “Maybe you should buy one of those suits with the skirts on the bottom.” He always said he was joking, but the words really hurt and she was self-conscious enough as it was. She always tried her best to keep in shape, but her body tended toward a fullness that she couldn’t seem to fight. Her doctor said she was fit, strong and healthy and that her body was at the size it was meant to be. Still, it certainly didn’t make being in a bathing suit any easier.
Nope, I’m not doing this.
She turned to go back inside the hotel.

“Yeah, I know. Silly, huh? Like when you’re wearing your glasses on your head and go looking for them.” She walked slowly over to the hot tub.

“Come on in. I’ve poured us some nice sparkling water. Pellegrino. A very good year.” He laughed, then added, “Sorry, I couldn’t get a bottle of wine.”

“That’s ok, I probably had enough at dinner, anyway.”

She stood beside the hot tub with uncertainty. How could she enter gracefully? She had hoped that she would get here first so she could already be in the water when Daniel arrived. She liked herself a lot from the chest up. She hadn’t quite worked out how she was going to get out without him noticing, but she was sure she would have thought of something.
Cassidy, just get in the water. You are a beautiful, strong woman.
She gave her head a shake, threw back her shoulders, dropped the towel and robe on the bench and stepped down in to the water. She noticed that his smile never faltered and he held out his hand to help her down the last step before he passed her the cup of sparkling water.

“Now,” he said, “if we arrange ourselves on this side we can look out over the valley and look at the view. I love the way snow looks in the starlight.”

Cassidy was listening, but she wasn’t looking at the valley. She was noticing how muscular Daniel was. When he stood in the hot tub the water hit him just above his waist. Without a shirt on she was able to see the definition in his arms and chest. It wasn’t a body builder type of muscular, which would look odd with his slim build, but his arms were quite amazing to her. His hands were large, yet so gentle when he held her hand and led her to her seat. Looking into his eyes, she guessed she had been staring at him, so she quickly looked away and tried to pay attention to what he was telling her about the view. Her body, however, had other ideas and she tried to still the flutter in her stomach and hoped her peaked nipples were visible under the swirling water.

Sitting beside him and listening to him talk felt so right. She stopped worrying about the way she looked and tried to enjoy the moment. It was very peaceful. Used to so much tension all the time, she wasn’t entirely sure how to deal with it, but she did know it was nice. Finally relaxing, she allowed her eyes to drift shut.

For a moment she couldn’t think what to say. Daniel had called her a pretty girl and here she was acting like an awkward teen. That was exactly how she felt. An awkward teen with no idea what to do or say. “I promise I wasn’t asleep. So, you really know an awful lot about this area. How long have you been coming here?”

“We’ve been coming here since I was in my teens. I dunno, maybe ten years? A long time anyway. I came with my family and then, as I got older, friends and sometimes on my own. The Johnsons are like family to me now.”

“Is that why you’re always put to work?” Cassidy laughed.

“I guess. Mostly they know I like to help out and I do get to ski free so it works for me. I try to come up two or three times a year, at least.”

“That’s great. I don’t get to ski as often as I’d like. Mainly because it’s just too expensive and too long a drive to go for one day. I love ski trips though. I like the skiing of course, but it’s also everything else...sitting by the fire after a long day of skiing, soaking in the tub, the fresh air, everything just seems so much cosier after a day of skiing. It’s nice not to have to rush back home or to even have to make sure to get every last possible run in because you know you can come back the next day.” She looked at Daniel, shrugging. “I don’t even know if I’m making sense. It’s just...”

“Romantic?” Daniel raised an eyebrow.

“Well…” She blinked rapidly, feeling nervous. “Yes.”

Daniel’s eyes drop to her lips, the bottom of which she was nibbling on with her teeth, a bad habit she had when she felt unsure about something.
Maybe he’s going to kiss me.
She stopped biting her lip immediately.

* * *

I should just kiss her now
. But somehow he didn’t think it was the right time. He didn’t want her to feel awkward or like he was pushing himself on her because they were half naked in a hot tub. That wouldn’t be appropriate. Not that he didn’t want to taste the lip that she was nibbling on, because he did. Very much. Still, there was a vulnerability to the situation. When he kissed Cassidy, and he planned on doing just that, he wanted to know that she was only going to be thinking of him when she kissed him back.

He’d sensed her hesitation about actually coming in to the hot tub. Unsure exactly what it was all about, but acknowledging it all the same, he didn’t want to give her any reason to want to leave. He had even held back a whistle when she dropped her robe before stepping in. Normally he wasn’t given to catcalls and such—he couldn’t believe that the whistle had come to his lips, but she was gorgeous. Even in her one piece, conservative swimsuit she was amazing, but it wasn’t just her curvy figure, it was her eyes that sparkled with life. The more he learned about her, the more attractive he found her and he was beginning to appreciate everything about the woman that she was. It was one of those funny things where you aren’t really thinking about someone that way and it kind of sneaks up on you. He was used to being friends with women, in fact he had a lot of women friends, but most of the time he was clueless that some of them liked him as more than a friend, until someone pointed it out to him. Then he was just embarrassed. He was a one woman kind of guy, and since Natasha’s death he just wasn’t into getting back out there.

Noticing that Cassidy was biting her lip again, he said, “Hey—do you want more Pellegrino? I think there’s a bit more.” He reached for the bottle and knocked it off the ledge, hearing it crack as it hit the ground. “Uh oh. That’s why we’re not supposed to have glass out here. I’ll get it cleaned up.”

Daniel swung up and over the side of the hot tub in one movement. “Great, it didn’t shatter. Just broke cleanly in two. Must be because it’s cold or something.” He carefully picked up the pieces of broken glass and carried them to the garbage. Turning back toward the hot tub his left foot skidded out from under him.

Picking himself up, he shivered, and walked as quickly and as carefully as he could to jump back into the heated water. He went right under. Coming up with a splash he answered, “Nothing hurt except my manly pride. The cold was rather refreshing actually.” With that he reached over the side, scooped some of the snow off the railing and dropped it down her back.

He glanced around. “Yeah. I’ll make sure to get some salt sprinkled down here, or it will cause an icy mess come morning.” He looked at her sitting across from him, where she had ended up during the course of their snow fight. Suddenly he felt that she was too far away. He reached over and tugged on her hand, pulling her over to him. “Come sit over here. The view is better.”

* * *

Cassidy settled in beside Daniel once again and was content; even though she was sure she was a wrinkled prune from being in the water so long. A hush had fallen on their conversation and they both seemed lost in their own thoughts. She was thinking about something he’d said earlier and decided to ask him about it.

“Daniel? At dinner you mentioned something about taking a ghost from your past out on me, or something like that. What was that all about?”

He was silent for a few minutes and she noticed his brows were furrowed like he was thinking really hard about something. Rather than push him to speak she just waited. Normally patience wasn’t one of her virtues, but she had a feeling this was something she had to wait out.

Finally, when she thought he wasn’t going to answer at all, she heard him clear his throat. “About eighteen months ago I lost my fiancé, Natasha, in a hiking accident.”

He spoke so quietly she wasn’t sure if she heard him correctly but, in case she did, she wasn’t sure what to say anyway so she said nothing.

“She wanted to take a trail that was too narrow. The rest of us didn’t want to go. I had a bad feeling about it and asked her to stay with the rest of us. She chose to go anyway. There was a rock slide. She didn’t make it.”

“I’m so sorry. That must have been horrific.”

“Yeah. Well, anyway, that’s why I was so mad earlier.”

Cassidy felt him slightly shift away from her. “But, I don’t understand. You didn’t even know I was going on that run, we never discussed it, so I’m not sure how you could be mad.”

“I thought you blatantly ignored the sign saying the run was closed. Like Natasha, I thought you just did what you wanted regardless of the circumstances. It was like déjà vu.”

“Maybe it appeared that way, but you know now that I didn’t even see the sign. And it’s not like I expected you to come rescue me anyway.” While she felt bad for him and his loss she was annoyed that she was being pegged as a troublemaker. At least, that’s what it sounded like he was saying.

“Well I don’t think Natasha expected it either, but when you ignore things around you that’s what happens. If you would only pay attention then I wouldn’t need to rescue anybody!” He was almost shouting at her now.

Shrinking back in the hot tub, she tried to pull her body far away from his. Slowly moving to the opposite side. Why was he yelling at her, again? She realized that he was talking very softly now. While he was looking at her it didn’t seem like he even saw her. In fact, she was pretty sure he didn’t. “If she’d have listened she’d be alive today. She’d be alive...” were the words that she finally caught as he spoke them.

Compassion flooded through her. This poor guy. He was still miserable over losing his fiancé and here she was getting mad at him. Obviously the incident today had tripped something in his recollection of the hiking trip and now he was reliving it. She was only the vehicle he was using to get through it. Maybe because she was here, in flesh and blood, he could get some of his feelings aired out. Guys never really thought they had to do that—they held everything in until they exploded. She had a feeling that’s what he had done. At least she hoped so.