Page 40 of Finding Love on the Slopes

She stood by the fireplace, hip cocked, arms crossed over her chest, eyes blazing blue flames that mesmerized him momentarily. Leighann was the most beautiful woman he had ever met, but angry, she took his breath away.

Leigh was fuming. Here she was, letting her imagination run wild with possibilities, listening to her heart say this was the man she had been waiting for all these years, and then he went and blew it all up. She had convinced herself that all the tabloids were wrong, and he wasn’t a womanizing playboy, and then he suggested… that. She didn’t have a violent bone in her body, but right now, she wanted to slug him right in the kisser.

Leigh tried counting to ten to calm her anger, fully expecting an apology. What she wasn’t expecting was laughter. Full belly, deep, rumbled laughter. From him!

She started tapping her foot to help her keep count. She was on forty-eight when he finally finished with a moan. “That was funny, Leighann—good one. I knew Curtis had a sense of humor, but wow, yours is right up there with his. For the record, it still hurts to laugh.” Enrique wiped the tears from his eyes and glanced her way again, all humor leaving his feature, sincerity taking its place.

“Sweetheart, there is no world in which I would proposition you in that way. I was honest when I said you shouldn’t lump me into the gentleman’s club. I’m not one. I’m also not a total cad. I respect you too much to even suggest such a thing. I respect your brother too much to suggest such a thing. And yes, I’m fully aware that he would stake me in the middle ofthe desert and let the critters tear meat from my bones if he found out I even thought of you in such a dishonorable way. That’s not even mentioning what my family would do to me if they found out I dishonored you. Hannah nearly burned my face off to address my chronic tardiness. If she found out, I asked a woman, any woman, to play strip poker with me outside of the bounds of marriage… I don’t know what she would do. Probably cry in disappointment, which would be worse than force-feeding me an entire bushel of Carolina Reaper peppers. And my brothers… They have worked so hard to reform me. Hearing I acted dishonorably would bring their wrath down on me, too. Then there is the whole, ‘I don’t break promises thing,’ and playing strip poker with a stunning woman, not my wife, paves the way to breaking pact number four, which I proposed, by the way.” Enrique ran his hands through his hair before making eye contact with Leigh as she reclaimed her seat on the couch. “As I said, there is no universe in which I would ask you to play strip poker with me without first saying, ‘I do’ in front of all our family.”

She believed him and felt bad for assuming the worst. “I’m sorry I jumped to conclusions. You looked like you were angling for something, and I couldn’t figure out what. I know strip poker is a popular seduction game, so my mind went there.” She shrugged her shoulders, still confused by the whole situation and trying to process the little nuggets of information he had shared. “Hannah almost burned your face off for being tardy? What is pact number four? Yes, my brother has his ways ofmaking people wish they never crossed him. I wouldn’t rule out staking you in the desert, but that sounds a little dramatic.” Now, a beautiful smile lifted her lips; she was trying to bring some humor back into the situation. One she had ruined with faulty assumptions.

“I think staking a man in the desert for dishonoring you would be more than appropriate. Yes, I have a habit of being fashionably late, even to family functions. On more than one occasion, Hannah’s dinner has been less than fresh because she makes everyone wait for me. She is a stickler for a family meal. I guess she thinks I need to correct that bad habit once and for all, at least where my family is concerned, so she decided to teach me a lesson this year at our New Year’s Eve dinner. She added Carolina Reaper oil to my pudding. It burned like you would not believe and made the rest of the evening very unpleasant. It was effective. I will try never to be late for my sister’s events ever again. As for pact number four. We were all teenagers with raging hormones, and Fernando and I had just really started to get into girls. Hannah and Anthony had recently married, in name only, so they could get us all out of the boy’s home. I overheard Hannah worrying about what would happen if one or more of us got girls pregnant. She was asking Anthony the best way to address the situation and make sure we had the knowledge and what we needed to be safe, consensual, gentlemen. Anthony’s stance was celibacy is always the best policy, and Hannah laughed. She said Anthony was a saint, but he needed to be realistic: his brothers grew up on the streets withthe worst of role models, and we were all blessed a baby hadn’t been made yet. I decided right then and there to propose a pact: no one makes any babies until we are financially ready and have a happy home to bring them into. We all knew how hard life could be, and I wanted to make sure we didn’t do what our parents did to us to any more kids. I’m not sure I would have thought about it if I hadn’t heard Hannah upset about it. I would have done anything to make her happy, and not fooling around made her happy. I didn’t even wait until New Year’s Eve. That night at dinner, I just put it out there. Everyone saw the reasoning and agreed. Pact made. They can put whatever they want in the papers, but my brothers and I are not playboys.”

“Wow! I really like Hannah. I hope I get to meet her someday. Going back to the wagers. If it wasn’t strip poker, what were you hoping to achieve? You definitely had an agenda,” Leigh accused, still not sold on the idea but trying to be open-minded now.

“Do you accept the terms of the game? You spend five hundred grand of my money, and I get something not monetaryorinappropriate from you?” Enrique stretched out his hand for her to shake in agreement. “Trust me, Leigh, I will do my very best never to hurt you again. This is the first step, baby.”

Leigh scrunched her nose. “I don’t like the endearment baby. Fine. I will play—until I won’t. We will see.” She shook his hand one time firmly, then picked up the fresh cards he laid in front of her.

“What’s your wager?” he asked.

Taking a moment to think, she lifted a delicate shoulder as if to say, ‘Why not?’ and said, “If I win, you have your people find the person who owns this cabin and offer to replace it with one that is a little more weather-tight and has solar panels or something.”

This time, he laughed lightheartedly. Glancing at him, she realized there was a dimple-like curve in his cheek when he smiled fully. It wasn’t a full hollow, but she found it very attractive.

“That’s more like it—good one. I will definitely do that. If I win, you will go on a date with me of my choosing, a surprise.”

“Oh. That’s all this was. A way to wrangle a date out of me without the risk of rejection! You are such a man.” Leigh rolled her eyes but played along.

For the next hour, they played. Enrique won most of the hands, and his wagers ran the gambit from dates to secrets about Curtis to answers to random questions. The three hands Leigh won rung promised support to the at-risk youth sports scholarships and an all-inclusive relaxing vacation for her brother where he could just chill and not have to worry about anyone’s safety. Her wagers didn’t even come close to a hundred grand, so Enrique determined he would find a worthwhile ski program and make a donation in her name or open a scholarship fund for low-income kids looking for ways to pay for lessons and competition entries.

He couldn’t remember the last time he smiled so easily around someone who wasn’t Hannah or any of his brothers. She made him feel like a new person. He was glad they werebeing rescued, as he needed to check in with his staff to make sure the disaster from the previous few days had been cleaned up, but he was sad that their time alone was coming to an end.

It was different here in the glow of the hearth. He felt a warmth inside—the kind you feel when you’re sitting with an old friend—a friend you had no idea you had been looking for your whole life until you found them. That was the kind of warmth that existed between them now. He hoped they could maintain that connection after they left the shelter of their little shack. He was falling for this woman hard and looked forward to seeing where this went.

Chapter Thirty-Six

It was mid-afternoon when they heard the rumble of snowmobiles approaching. Enrique made quick work of putting out the fire as Leigh opened the door and worked to clear a path.

Within minutes, three safety patrols pulled up a few feet from the porch. As they removed their face and head protection Leigh recognized the men. Dear friends from her time on these slopes had risked their lives to come save her. Chris led the pack, trudging through deep snow to the cabin, and helped her push through the large mound making it difficult to see them.

As soon as a path was clear, he swept her into a hug, “I’m so glad you’re okay,” he whispered into her ear, holding her much closer and longer than was appropriate for friendship.

Enrique banged around behind her, “Thanks for coming for us. We’re all ready when you are.” His voice carried across the surface of the snow and the stillness that encompassed the white wonderland around them.

“Any gear that needs to be strapped down?” asked Allen, her longtime friend. They learned how to ski the same year under the careful eye of her brother. He had been a chivalrous child, always looking to help others. Leigh liked him instantly, and they became close. She was so happy when he asked her dear friend Darla to marry him some twenty years later. They had a fresh new baby at home now. Only true dedication to a friend would have taken him away from his small family and sent him up here into the avalanche danger zone.

“Just my skis and poles. All his equipment was lost on the way down,” Leigh informed him, taking them from Enrique’s hands and passing them to Chris, who then passed them along.

Enrique handed her emergency pack to her, and she started strapping it to her back. Chris quickly intervened, removing it and passing it back to Allen as well.

“Any injuries for Patrick to check out before we get going?” Chris inquired, taking a step closer, filling her space.

Leigh instinctively stepped back, right into Enrique, who placed his hands on her upper arms. She didn’t know why she felt relief at the contact. Chris had been in her life since she was a child. Enrique, she had met five days ago, yet Chris’ proximity made her uncomfortable while Enrique’s touch through layers and layers of clothing soothed her. It didn’t make sense.

“No, he may need some stitches and will definitely need an x-ray of his ribs, but there is nothing we can do for him here. Let’s just get going. I don’t want us here longer than we need tobe. The sooner we’re all out of the avalanche track, the better I’ll feel.”

Leigh circled around Enrique to have one last look in the cabin. All was as it was when they arrived, save the open boxes of supplies. Her mesh trash bag had been packed in her bag. There were cold remains in the fireplace, but there was little she could do about that without making a much bigger mess. Deciding it was the best she could do, she closed the door, secured it with the numerical padlock, and spun the numbers to reset the code.

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