Whoa. Her stomach did a quick twist and spin at the thought. Nervous, yes, but it was the right thing to do. If they were going to work this out between them and have it stick this time, she had to be as honest as he had been the night before.
She gave the baby a gentle pat, then, smiling, she headed through the lobby. There were guests sprinkled around the great room, enjoying the fire, having a snack, chatting. She ignored them all, stepped outside and took a deep breath of the chill spring air. Tulips and daffodils were spearing up, trees were beginning to green.
It was as if the snow was melting along with the ice in her heart. Lacy felt lighter than she had in two years. And she was ready to let go of the past and rush to a future that was suddenly looking very bright.
“Lacy! Hey, Lacy!”
She turned and grinned at Kevin Hambleton as he jogged toward her. Kevin was young, working his first season at the lodge. He was helping out at the ski-rental shop, but had been angling for an instructor’s position.
“Hi, Kevin,” she said as he started walking with her toward the ski lift that would take her to the new construction site. Not only did she want to see how the building was coming along, she could admit to herself that she wanted to see Sam, too. And she knew that if he wasn’t at the lodge, working in the office, he would be at the site, watching his plans come to life. “I’m just going up to check on the guys, see what progress they’re making.”
“It’s great, isn’t it?” His face practically shone with excitement. “A lot of things happening around here now that Sam’s back.”
“There are, with more to come,” she said, thinking about the gift shop, the portico and the expansion to the lodge. Within a couple of years, Snow Vista would be a premier tourist destination.
“I know, I read that in the paper this morning.”
“What?” She looked up at him. As far as she knew, the gift shop hadn’t been announced.
“Yeah, there was this article, talking about all the changes and how Sam’s going to put in a new beginner’s run on the back side of the mountain and all...”
Lacy shook her head, frowned and tried to focus on what he was saying. But her heart was pounding and her brain was starting to short-circuit. “He’s building a run on the backside?”
“Yeah, and I wanted to put my name in with you early, you know?” He grinned. “Get in on the ground floor. I really want to be an instructor and I figured starting out with the newbies would be a good idea, you know?”
“Right.” Mind racing, Lacy heard Kevin’s excited voice now as nothing more than a buzz of sound. The cold wind slapped at her, people around her shouted or laughed and went about their business. It was all she could do to put one foot in front of the other.
“With a new run going in, you’ll need more instructors, so I just, you know, wanted to see if maybe you’d think about me first.”
He was standing there, staring at her with a hopeful grin on his face, the freckles across his cheeks bright splashes of gold.
The edges of her vision went dark until she was looking at Kevin as if through a telescope. She felt faint, her head was light and there was a ball of ice in the pit of her stomach. Through the clanging in her brain and the wild thumping of her heart, Lacy knew she had to say something.
“How did you hear about the new run?”
“Like I said,” he told her, his eyes a little less excited now, “I saw it in the paper. Well, my mom did and she told me.”
He was looking worried now, as if he’d done something wrong, so Lacy gave him a smile and a friendly pat on the shoulder to ease him. No reason to punish him just because her world was suddenly rocking wildly out of control. “Okay then, Kevin. I’ll put your name down.”
“Thanks!” Breath whooshed out of him in relief. “A lot, really. Thanks, Lacy.”
When he ran off again, she watched him go, but her mind wasn’t on Kevin any longer. It was fixed solely on Sam Wyatt. The lying bastard. God. She thought about the night before—as she had been doing all morning—only now she was looking at it through clearer eyes.
And heck, it wasn’t just last night, it was the past few weeks. Romancing her. She nearly choked. He’d said he was going to romance her, but that wasn’t what he’d been doing. This whole time, he’d been conducting a sort of chess match, with her as the pawn, to be moved wherever he wanted her. He’d spent weeks softening her up, until he could apply the coup de grâce last night. Then he rolled her up in sympathy, let her shed a few tears for him, for them, then he’d swept her into bed, where rational thinking was simply not an option.