“That’s right. I forgot you’re probably used to this.”

Once he’d helped me get my skis on, he said, “Okay, so now you’re gonna jump up and down to make sure they’re on right.”

Feeling like a goof, I jumped several times. “They seem good.”

“Congratulations. You’ve passed the first step of skiing, which is getting your damn skis on.”

Then I could barely move. “Oh my gosh. How do you walk with these things?”

“That leads into your next lesson, actually. It’s called waddle walking.”

Milo began to demonstrate what he meant. He was basically teaching me to walk like a duck.

“So, just practice this technique,” he said. “It’s walking as if you have something between your legs.”

Interesting visual.

“This technique will help you get around if you lose one of your poles,” he added.

Lifting my legs one by one, I mimicked him. It was awkward. And it certainly had been a while since I’d had anything big between my legs. Ha! My mind had been in the gutter ever since I saw Milo in his towel this morning.

After my waddle-walking lesson, he taught me how to properly use the poles.

Once we got moving, I did my best. “It isn’t as steep out here as I imagined it would be.”

“That’s because it’s a bunny slope, sweetheart.”

I’d always heard that term—bunny slope. Come to think of it, there were mostly children around. I was lamer than I thought.

He spent a good deal of time making sure I knew how to stop and turn right and left. I struggled a bit, but managed to finally conquer those basic moves after an hour or so.

“When do we leave the beginner slope?”

“This is it for today. You won’t be ready for anything else. I don’t want you to get hurt.”

While that sounded kind of pathetic, I appreciated that he was being protective of me. And he was right, of course. I stood a good chance of hurting myself.

“It must have been so exciting to be a ski instructor,” I said as I waddle walked beside him.

“The perks were fun, but there’s also your fair share of dealing with whiny kids and adults. It’s not exactly a cake walk.”

“The women must have loved you.”

I immediately regretted my comment. What are you thinking, Hazel? Isn’t it bad enough you eye-fucked him when he was in that towel?

“I actually had a girlfriend for the majority of the time I worked on the slopes,” he said.

“Oh yeah?”

Almost immediately after he announced that, he changed the subject— almost too quickly, which made me wonder if there was a story there.

“Let’s teach you some more turns,” he said.

And so he did, and I fell down over and over. But there was an upside to falling: Milo would reach out his hand and help me up. His strength with only one arm was impressive. A couple of times, I might have purposely fallen, pretending to have trouble getting up just so he could help me.

Yes, I’d completely resorted to cheap thrills at this point. I knew nothing would be happening between Milo and me before we parted ways, so I enjoyed the innocent physical contact any way I could.

The contrast of the bright blue sky and white snow was breathtaking, a calm before the next storm was set to roll in this afternoon. Perhaps I should have been paying more attention to where I was going instead of the sky above, because at one point, I crashed right into Milo, who had been several feet ahead of me. We toppled to the ground together. The sunlight beamed straight into his beautiful eyes.

His concern was only for me, not himself. “Are you okay?”

“Yes. I’m so sorry. I still have to remember to lean downhill and not backwards when I feel myself losing balance. Looking straight ahead and not at the sky would help, too.”

Once again he helped me to a standing position. “You’ll get the hang of it. I wish we had more time. A couple days more, and I think you could’ve been great.”

I smiled. “Have I earned my hot cocoa yet?”

He chuckled. “That’s my cue to take you back, huh?”• • •Later on, after we returned to the hotel, a cloud of sadness lingered in the air.

Tomorrow morning we would go to the airport together, and that would be the end of this little adventure. We’d both been able to change our flights, but even though we were going to New York City, we were still on different airlines and flying to different airports.

We returned to our respective rooms but planned to meet down at the bar after we’d showered. I opted for a bath to soak my sore muscles after the many falls I’d endured today. Once I got dressed, I knocked on Milo’s door to see if he just wanted to walk downstairs together.

“Come in,” he said.