Slope of Love (Love in Bloom: The Remingtons) (12 page)

Rush set the mug of hot chocolate in front of her and sat down. “I gotta admit, I felt a little like I was being checked out just then.”

She felt her face flush and covered her eyes with her hand. “I just wanted to see what all the other women saw.”

“And?”

She glanced up at the amused look on his face. “And now I’m completely mortified that you caught me doing it.”

“Why? I check you out all the time.” His smile reached his eyes, and when he lifted his mug and took a sip, his smiling eyes were still locked on her.

“You do?”

“Hell yes. I’d be crazy not to. But to be honest, I used to check you out from a different perspective. You know, to make sure you didn’t have spinach between your teeth or anything.” He laughed under his breath.

She was still stuck on
Hell yes
.

“I’ve only been checking you out like
that
for the past, oh, I don’t know, year or so. But now…”

“Year?”
Year!
“Now?”
Stop, stop, stop.

He leaned across the table and motioned her closer. “Since we kissed,” he whispered, then sat back with a satisfied look in his eyes.

She tugged at the end of her hair. “You’re just trying to rattle me.” She took a drink to buy herself time to learn how to breathe again. “Brat.”

“Okay, so we should talk about this.” He ran a hand between the two of them. “Us.”

Why does jumping across the table to kiss you suddenly seem like an option?
Not only was that a crazy-ass idea that went against everything she was trying to accomplish, but it would not go over well with clunky ski boots weighing her down.

“Us? I don’t remember committing to an
us
.”

“No. You sure didn’t, which, I might add, is not great for my tender ego.” He set his mug down. “But don’t you think we should at least talk about it?”

“I can’t even think about all this. I’m still reeling from…” She noticed Patrick and Cliff sitting at another table and she lowered her voice. “You know.”

He laughed. “You can’t even say it? The kiss?” He leaned in close again. “The hot, sexy, passionate kiss that left me practically unable to walk?”

“You’re doing it again, saying things just to get to me.” Her eyes darted to the other tables.

“Get to you?” He cocked his head.

“Make me uncomfortable. You
know
I’m private about that stuff.”

“I probably know about at least ninety percent of the men you’ve kissed.” He furrowed his brow. “How can you say you’re private about it?”

“Well, private between us. You’re my closest friend, but I don’t like other people to know those things.”

“I’m sorry.” He lowered his voice. “I wasn’t doing it to get to you in that way. But I
was
doing it to bring it back to your mind so that it would be tougher for you to put me back in the friend zone.”

Coach Cunningham walked by their table, square chin held high, broad shoulders squared. He paused, shifting his serious eyes between the two of them. “Ten minutes.”

“Yes, sir. We’ll be there.” Rush nodded and watched him walk away.

“Rush, maybe we should table even talking about it until after the competition this weekend. Then we’ll have a few weeks to decide if it’s worth it.” Her stomach sank thinking about all of it—her shoulder, the competition, delaying what she really wanted…being with Rush—but she was already on thin ice with the coach. The women’s coach had spoken to her about her loss of focus before they came to Colorado, and she was sure that was why Coach Cunningham had zeroed in on her during the meeting. What she wasn’t sure of was whether her coach had attributed her lack of focus to her shoulder injury or to her relationship with Marcus—or both.

His jaw twitched. He pressed his lips together, then scrubbed his face with his hand and nodded. “If it’s worth it?” His eyes filled with pain. “Is that what you
want
to do?”

“I…”
No.
She was staring at the man she’d loved forever, and she couldn’t form a single sentence to save her life.

He gripped the edge of the table. “I’m gonna make this really easy for you. The competition is only a couple days away, and by the look in your eyes, you’re more than a little conflicted about the two of us.”

He rose to his feet, and her heart nearly stopped.

“Friends. Until you decide what you want.”

He was being considerate, and still his words pierced her heart. She knew all it would take was for her to stand up and tell him that wasn’t what she wanted at all, but she caught sight of Coach Cunningham and a different worry gripped her. She had to get back on track.

“Is that what
you
want?” she finally managed.

“I think you already know the answer to that.” He picked up his mug and looked toward the door. “Ready to hit practice?” He asked the question without an ounce of resentment, and it stole the air from her lungs.

No. I’m not sure my legs will work any better than my mouth
.

RUSH SQUINTED BENEATH his goggles against the frigid air pelting his face as he raced down the slope. Coach Cunningham’s words rang in his ears.
If you can feel your face, you aren’t going fast enough.
The coach was a hard-ass, which made him the perfect mentor for Rush, who had grown up under the strict tutelage of his father.
Do your best. Be better than every other person in everything you do.
He leaned into the curve with his heart slamming against his ribs, and his mind drifted to Jayla. He fought to pull it back to the slopes, knowing damn well that any distraction would cost him time. He hunkered down lower and leaned forward, eking out a little more speed. Racing at speeds upward of fifty miles per hour meant that the smallest mistake could cost him his career in injuries—or his life.

The lights of the lodge came into view, and he pushed himself harder, drew forth more speed as he hit the last leg of the run, and finally plowed to a stop at the bottom, spraying snow in his wake.

Coach Cunningham looked at his stopwatch and shook his head.

Shit
. “How bad is it?” He skied over to the coach. His lungs burned from the cold air—a good burn.

The other team members came in after him, and the coach and his assistant, Chad, clicked off their times.

Rush knew better than to hound the coach. He’d tell Rush when he was damn good and ready and not a second before. He skied over to Jayla as she took off her goggles, which left marks just below her eyes. She was breathing hard, and she wasn’t smiling.

“How’d it feel?”

“Not as good as it should have.” She turned to look at the coach, and Rush didn’t miss the way the coach narrowed his eyes. She shifted her poles to her left hand.

He had the urge to take her in his arms and tell her everything would be okay. It wasn’t okay, and he of all people knew that.

“Well, then, we did the right thing. You need to train harder and focus more. The last thing you need is me messing with your sexy little brain. Big brain. Shit. Never mind.”

Another week and the competition season is officially over. One week. That’s all it is
.

Only it wasn’t. Even when they weren’t in training or actively in competition, they lived and breathed for the day they would be. The sadness in Jayla’s eyes told him that she knew it as well as he did.

“You’ll fix this, Jayla. I know you. You’re just distracted. First there was Marcus; then I came roaring in with feelings you didn’t know were there. And damn it, I knew better.” He shook his head, feeling guilty as hell.

“Rush.”

The way she said his name was a halfhearted effort at best, and he didn’t blame her one bit.

“Jayla, look at me.”

She lifted her eyes, her lips slightly parted.

He focused on her eyes, because focusing on her lips would bring his directly to them. He leaned in close. “You sure your shoulder is okay?”

She rolled her arms backward, as if proving to him it was. Her eyes turned to liquid steel. She wasn’t about to show any sign of weakness. Not even to him. The Jayla he knew had returned, and she’d booted vulnerability to the curb.

Unfortunately, she might have booted him right along with it.

Friends
. Despite the fissure he felt in his heart, he had to be supportive of her. He wanted to, even if he was hurting. “You’ve worked your whole life to get here.”

He saw determination in her eyes and in the lift of her chin. When he touched her left shoulder, he felt her gathering strength through the slight pull of her muscles as she drew her shoulders back.

“All that matters right now is that you fix this,” he said. “Concentrate. Practice until that run feels like fucking heaven. You got it?” His eyes drifted to her shoulder, and he wished like hell he knew what was really going on.

She nodded.

“Remington.” Coach Cunningham’s arms were crossed; his face was set in a stern grimace.

He skied over to the coach.

“Follow me,” Coach Cunningham said gruffly as he led the way toward a grouping of trees, then glanced back at Jayla before setting his sights on Rush. “You’re not a dumb kid, Rush. You know damn well why I put you with Jayla for the workshops.”

“Because of Marcus, I assumed. He’s out of the picture. She ended things with him.”

“Yes, because of Marcus. He messed with her head, which messed with her times, which you know is everything.” He ran his hand across his jaw and blew out a breath. “Rush, I won’t tell you what to do with your personal life, but Jayla’s a strong competitor, and she needs to pull it together. She can’t do that with you looking at her like she’s one of your fan girls.”

Fan girl? More like the love of my life.
“Coach, you’re the one who put me with her.”

“Because I’ve seen the way you are with her. You’re protective, even when you say nothing at all. One look from you stifles the riffraff. Except it had the opposite effect on Marcus because of that asinine competition between you two. He only went after her to get your goat.”

“No offense, Coach, but I don’t think Marcus’s dating her had anything to do with me.”

He smirked and shook his head. “Then you’re blind as a bat.”

No way
.

“Now, I respect the hell out of you as a competitor, Rush. And I expect you to respect her, given your long friendship. At least enough to give her a fighting chance to get back on her feet. You guys have the whole summer to figure out what to do with those looks you’re giving her, but she needs to get back on track or she’ll lose her edge, and I’m seeing her going easy on her right arm, which worries me.”

“Got it, Coach.”

If he had any doubts before, the coach just sealed their fate. Rush wanted no part of hindering Jayla’s career.

JAYLA STARTLED AWAKE at four thirty the next morning. She sat up in bed, trying to figure out what had woken her. Someone knocked at the cabin door, and she picked up her cell phone and clutched it to her chest. Marcus? Panic ran through her. She pulled on a T-shirt and sweatshirt with her flannel pants. As three more hard knocks rang out, she texted Rush.
Someone’s banging on my door. Marcus?
She stood frozen in the bedroom, hoping Rush was awake. Her phone vibrated a few seconds later.
Morning, sunshine. Open the door.

She pulled the door open and Rush stepped in.

“Let’s go.” He ran his eyes down her body. “Boots. Now.”

“Now?” She shoved her foot into her boot as she rubbed her eyes. “What the hell is wrong with you? Do you even know what time it is?”

“I do. Take something for your shoulder and hurry up. The coach is worried.”

She sighed loudly as she stomped into the bedroom, took Motrin and Tylenol, then joined him in the living room.

“Rush, if you think this is the way to a girl’s heart, you’ve got your head on backward.”

He grinned. “Want to put on real pants instead of pajamas?”

“That depends. Where are we going?”

“To whip your ass into shape. Shit. I almost forgot. Stretch.”

“What?”

“Do your stretches. Here. Now.”

“I’m not even awake yet.”

Rush frowned at her. “Come on, whiner. I’ll do them with you.”

They sat on the floor and stretched their legs, then progressed up through their muscles. When they reached their arms, she felt him scrutinizing her movements, and she fought to keep from revealing the pain in her shoulder.

“Look at Sleeping Beauty doing her thing.” He pointed to the bedroom. “Why don’t you change out of your sexy pj’s and then we’ll go.”

She went into the bedroom, mumbling under her breath.
Sexy pj’s. It’s four thirty in the morning.

Jayla yawned as they headed up to the equipment room in the dark. To their right, the slopes snaked up the mountains like fingers reaching for the clouds. The resort stood tall and imposing at the crest of the hill. White lights lined the peaks and valleys of the roof, like hundreds of stars shining down on them. The top layer of snow had frozen overnight and crunched beneath her boots.

“Why are you even up?” She curled her shoulders against the cold air, her hands buried deep inside her coat pockets.

“Because you and I both need to shave some time off of our speed, and God knows you’re not going to get your butt out of bed early without a friend to give you a little push.”

A friend
. How many times had he pushed her to practice for extra hours at camp when she complained about someone beating her time? “How are we going to get up the slope? The lifts don’t open this early.”

They went into the equipment room, which was eerily silent, and collected their skis and poles.

“Don’t underestimate the power of Rush Remington.” He winked as they made their way to the ski lift.

“I’ve missed you these last few weeks, you know. Even the way you push me further than I might push myself.”

“Don’t kid yourself. You’d push yourself as hard as you needed to by this afternoon if I hadn’t shown up.”

He was right. It didn’t matter how much she liked him, or that for the first time in forever she felt whole despite her injury. She’d already decided that she’d come too far to let her focus falter for anyone. Including Rush.