Page 80 of Wanting You

“Absolutely not.” She stomped her foot. “We are the kindergarten team, Tanner. All this separation is over, do you hear me? Over!” Another stomp. “My class and I are coming on this field trip and since you’re the instructor here, I’m going to need you to teach me how to ski right now!”

Glancing around nervously, he wondered how rude it would be for him to ask one of his new coworkers if they would take Chloe on. There was no way he could do this with her, no matter how much he wanted to. It was entirely possible that he would end up groveling and begging her for another chance, and he wasn’t sure he could handle the rejection again.

“Maybe I can ask one of the other instructors…”

“No,” she said defiantly. “I want you to teach me. You’re the ski pro, Tanner.”

“Yeah, um…”

“Are you afraid to work with me? Do you think I’m unteachable or that you’re not up to the challenge?”

Now he looked at her weirdly. “What’s going on with you? Why are you trying to pick a fight with me? I’ve been respectful, Chloe. I’ve stayed out of your way because I didn’t want to do anything to make you uncomfortable. Now you show up here and you’re kind of not doing the same for me.”

For a moment she didn’t say anything and he figured he’d made his point. But then she surprised him.

“We’re adults, Tanner. We work together. There’s only so much avoiding we can do. And you know what, it didn’t help anything.” Her shoulders sagged. “I’ve missed you. A lot. So many times I thought about picking up the phone or just going over and talking to you, but…I always chickened out. It’s what I’m good at.”

“Chloe…”

“But I’m trying, okay? I want to try again.”

Wait…was she saying what he thought she was saying?

Taking a tentative step toward her, he asked, “You mean…you want to give us a try? Like…get back together?”

She nodded even as she bit her bottom lip. “I behaved so poorly, Tanner. And bratty. When I heard about this field trip, I was convinced it was a publicity stunt. I got into it with Susan about it, and…”

“I went to extremes to make sure no one took this as a PR thing. At least, not PR for me,” he quickly interrupted. “That’s not why I did it, I swear.”

“I know.”

He explained about how he found out about the ski school and his thought process on why it would make for a fun field trip. “I wasn’t doing it to outshine you or win any popularity contest—real or imagined. This is just a huge part of my life and the thought of being able to combine it with teaching my class…”

“I’m sure your students are going to have even more of an appreciation for all the work you put into decorating your classroom after coming here next week. And when they see you demonstrate everything, they’re going to think you’re the coolest teacher ever.” There was no condescension in her tone. If anything, she sounded genuinely happy.

Like she was proud of him.

“And what about you?” he asked gruffly. “I like the thought of us doing this trip together, but…why come here for lessons? No one was going to make you get up and ski in front of the kids. I would have never let that happen because I know how you feel about it.”

She laughed softly. “I’m not trying to compete, so please don’t think that. I’m doing it because I know some of the kids are going to be scared and I want to be an example. I want to be able to say that I understand and then share how I got up and did it too.” Pausing, she laughed again. “I just didn’t want to have to do it for the first time with an audience in case I failed and fell and made a complete fool of myself.”

Closing the distance between them, he carefully wrapped his arms around her waist. “I promise to catch you if you fall.” Resting his forehead against hers, he added, “And not just while we’re skiing. We can take things as slowly as you want, and I’ll still be there to catch you. Always.”

Smiling, she moved her arms around him as well. “You may regret saying that. My athletic skills are seriously awful.”

“Doesn’t matter. And for the record, I would thoroughly enjoy holding you up as well. It’s not just the catching.”

He leaned in to kiss her, but she pulled back. “I think if we do that, the lesson is never going to happen,” she told him with a grin. “And it took a lot for me to come up here and do this, so before I chicken out…”

“Ah. Got it.” Taking her hand, he led her over to the area where they had all the equipment. “Come on. Let’s get you fitted with boots and skis.”

She nodded, but didn’t say anything and he could tell her nerves were starting to get to her.

“There’s nothing to fear.” Gently, he turned her toward the ski area. “There are several hill levels. We’re only going to go on the smallest one and that’s only after I get you used to having the skis on. We’ll go over how to walk and move in them and then how to get up off the floor in them.”

“Already planning on me falling?” she asked with a nervous laugh.

Unable to help himself, he hugged her. “Everyone falls. And for the record, everyone gets that part of the lesson. It’s actually one of the first things we teach everyone.”

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