Roaring laughter comes from behind me, startling me.
"Damn, Kade! What've you been doing to her precious ass to leave bruises?" Tag says, making my cheeks heat up and burn with humiliation.
Kade rolls his eyes, but he can't wipe the teasing grin from his face when he sees how utterly mortified I am.
"She likes it rough," Kade jokes, making me blush all the more.
Tag bursts out laughing with Kade as I start throwing snowballs from the ground, still unable to get up on my own.
"You're both jerks," I mumble, only fueling their laughter.
"Aw, don't be mad," Kade says, mocking me all the more with just his tone. "Come on. Let's head to the lodge and get you dried and warmed up."
He's not even wet. Of course, I've been on the ground for most of the day, and he hasn't fallen once.
"You wasted the whole day trying to teach me to ski," I grumble, feeling like the worst guest ever.
Tag goes to help him when my knees try to buckle. With one of them on either side of me, they slowly start leading me back, laughing in tiny spurts at my pathetic skills on snow.
I poke my lips out to exaggerate a pout, but Kade's laughter ceases instead of continuing like I expected.
"Damn, put those away, girl," Tag jokes.
Kade's eyes go to my lips as I pull them back in. He reaches up with his hand to gently stroke my lips with his thumb, and my heartbeat quickens to the point I'm worried it'll explode. Tag becomes a forgotten fixture on the snow as I shuffle closer to Kade, praying he's about to finally kiss me for real.
"Kade! Tag!" Wren yells, laughing loudly with Erica, his fiancée, attached. "Let's head up."
Kade's hand falls from my face, and he lets out a ragged sigh before letting his eyes drift to Wren.
"Not right now. Raya is cold and needs a change of clothes. Not to mention, I'm starving."
Tag winks at a few passing girls who are skiing by us. The girls smile and wave, giggling lightly to themselves as they pass by with expert strokes.
"I'll catch up with them later," Tag says with a grin.
"You can head on. I've got Raya," Kade says while kneeling in front of me to start taking off my boots.
We're not close to the lodge, and it's going to be hard to walk in this snow. He waves at a guy riding around on a snowmobile, and the guy doesn't hesitate to meet us, killing the engine the second he reaches us.
"Carry her up to the house for me," he says to the guy who nods compliantly. Then Kade starts helping me up on the back of the snowmobile.
So I'm going to the
house?
"Come meet me at the lodge when you have on dry clothes, and I'll have you something warm to drink ready and waiting," Kade says as he steps back.
"We'll come hang out with you for a few minutes," Erica says when they reach us.
I clutch onto the back of the guy's jacket as he roars the engine to life again. My eyes go to Kade who offers me a small wink before I'm being whisked away. It doesn't take us long to get there, and I see Kade and the others laughing together in the distance.
It feels right to be here with him, and no one has made me feel out of place. I can do this.
Paul Colton has a house that can only be described as perfect, and it's a short walk from the lodge. Fortunately, there are sidewalks that stay shoveled that take you to and from.
Margaret, Kade's mother, greets me at the door when I fumble with the key they told me to keep this week.
"Hey," she says softly as she steps aside to let me in. "Where's Kade?"