Page 35 of Crashing into Love

“He told you that last time, too. And so did I.”

“I know. But I didn’t want to get anyone else sick. One person gets it, and everyone at the lodge comes down with it, too, and we’re giving it to our guests.” Her grandma set her empty teacup in the sink. “And I didn’t want to get Gia sick.”

“I know. I’m glad you’re feeling better, though.”

“Me too. It means I can get back to work.”

“Grandma, no. You should still rest.”

“Today, I’d like to get back to the office, at least, and take care of Gia for you. I know she’s been a bit of a handful with the snow days. Let me keep an eye on her in the office while you get out on the mountain for a bit. You need to train, Selma.”

“I got up the other day,” she replied, not exactly lying to her grandma but not telling her the whole truth, either.

“And?”

“It was good.”

“What did your coach say?”

“That it was good,” she repeated.

Her grandma stared her down carefully, and somehow, the woman always knew.

“What were you doing on the mountain, Selma?”

“Teaching Gia how to board.”

“You let that child on a snowboard? Finally, you agreed?”

“I did. And she did okay with it.”

“But you got no practice in, I take it?”

“Not really, no.”

“Today, you’re going up. Just do a run. You don’t have to do any of the real training you normally do, if you don’t want to. You need to relax, Selma.”

“So do you.”

“I’ve been relaxing for months now. I need to get back to work. I’ve been miserable just lying around her, especially knowing you’ve been carrying all the weight for me.”

“Grandma, you’ve helped with Gia more times than I can count.”

“That’s my job; she’s my great-grandchild.” The old woman winked at her. “You go. Get dressed and get your board. I’ll be at the lodge in a few minutes, and I’ll take Gia.”

“She has remote school today. I made her promise not to distract the other kids. Can you maybe watch her at home? You can bring the computer with you for the paperwork and stuff.”

“That sounds like a decent compromise.”

Her grandma was smiling at her, but Selma wasn’t sure how she felt about having her watch Gia today of all days. Gia had been pretty extra recently and seemed to only want to hang out with Drew. She’d really taken to snowboarding, which was fine, but she was supposed to be focusing on school instead of distracting the other kids in her class. Her grandma had a way with Gia, though. Gia knew not to test her and was always respectful toward her. On top of that, she’d gone from practically seeing her great-grandma every day of her life to not seeing her for a few months because she was sick. Selma knew Gia missed her, and she tried not to worry about how her daughter would handle it when the woman was gone one day; hopefully, very far off into the future.

Selma watched Gia hug her great-grandma for a solid minute, and despite video chatting with her regularly, she sat down on the couch next to the woman and proceeded to catch her up on everything she’d missed. Grandma then motioned for Selma to go change, so she obeyed and got dressed for a day on the mountain. Before she made her way out to the shuttle, though, which ran every fifteen minutes, she got a phone call, so she stopped at the doors to answer it.

“Hello?”

“Hello. Is this Miss Driscoll?”

“This is she.”

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