Luke sent a spray of snow up as he cut his skis hard to one side. “That’s it. You look like you’re getting the hang of it.” He slipped his goggles over his head and grinned. “You think you’re ready to head up to the lifts?”
“Um.” She raised her goggles and glanced around the base of the slope looking for Margot. Her pea-green jacket and matching ski pants were hard to miss and yet zilch. Margot was nowhere. Olivia licked her slightly wind-chapped lips and shuffled her ski in a semicircle. “Have you seen Margot?”
“Huh.” Luke lifted a hand to his forehead, blunting the glare from the sun, eyes squinting as he searched. “No. It’s not like she could’ve gone far or—”
“Hey!”
Olivia’s jaw dropped.
Wobbling slightly, knees too straight to balance properly, Margot careened down the hill Olivia and Luke had just skied, gaining speed. She lifted one of her poles and waved. “This isn’t so hard!” Margot laughed, shrieking when she hit a bump that caused her to veer slightly to the right. “This isn’t—fuck.” A flicker of fear flashed across Margot’s face, visible even from several yards away. Olivia’s gut clenched, her chest tightening. “How do I slow down? How do I stop?”
“Wedge!” Luke shouted. “Skis together!”
Oh, shit. In her panic, Margot brought her skis closer together, but not only at the front, causing her to pick up even more speed.
Luke swore under his breath. “Pizza, not fries! Pizza, not fries!”
“What?” Margot shouted.
“Did I forget to mention that analogy?” Luke gripped the back of his neck. “Shit.”
Shit was right. Margot was rapidly approaching the bottom of the slope, with no sign of slowing down.
Olivia cupped her hands around her mouth. “Wedge, Margot! Wedge!”
Margot bent her knees, the front of her skis coming together, her speed slowing as she skidded to the bottom of the slope and kept on sliding, beyond where Luke and Olivia stood, heading straight for the neon-orange plastic mesh barrier.
Olivia’s heart stuttered then seemed to stall out completely as Margot skied straight into the snow net, coming to an abrupt stop before toppling backward. Powdery snow flew up around her, raining down softly.
Luke started to shuffle forward on his skis, but Olivia wasn’t willing to waste that much time. She crouched down and pressed on the heel levers at the backs of her bindings, stepping free from her skis. Leaving her poles and skis in the snow, Olivia sprinted across the clearing to where Margot lay, staring up at the sky with a dazed expression.
“Mar?” Olivia fell to her knees beside Margot, hands trembling as she patted Margot’s snow-streaked face. “Are you okay? Say something.”
Margot’s face scrunched and a terrible whimper escaped her lips, the sound piercing Olivia’s heart and putting a lump in her throat.
“Mar?” she repeated, this time softer, more desperate, her voice cracking as a flurry of the worst what-ifs flashed through her brain. She cradled Margot’s face in her hands. “Please say something.”
“Ow.” Margot coughed, lashes fluttering as she cracked open first one eye, then both, blinking dazedly up at Olivia.
Olivia’s throat seized. She had to swallow twice before she could get another word out. “What hurts? Your back? Is it your back? Don’t move. I’m pretty sure you aren’t supposed to move.”
She’d read that somewhere. Heard it? You weren’t supposed to disturb someone after a bad accident, falls and collisions and—Olivia gulped in a breath, needing air.
Margot groaned, then made the sweetest sound Olivia had ever heard in her entire life. She laughed, albeit slightly pained-sounding, her lips twisting in a grimace as she huffed softly. “My pride.”
“Your what?” Olivia swept her thumbs along Margot’s cheekbones, fingers trembling softly.
Margot shifted, lifting up onto her elbows with a slight wince. Olivia let her hands fall to Margot’s shoulders.
“My pride,” Margot repeated, face turning scarlet, and that was what Olivia had thought she said. Margot’s lower lips jutted out. “And my ass.” Her eyes swept down her body, lower lip jutting out in a pout as she stared at her feet. “And my pinky toe.”
Driven by a soul-deep sense of relief, Olivia clutched at the collar of Margot’s hideous green ski jacket and hauled her closer, sealing her mouth over Margot’s, swallowing the tiny gasp of surprise Margot made.