Page 33 of Finding Love on the Slopes

Chapter Twenty-Seven

“So, what happened with your grandmother? Did she ever step in and help?” he asked, hoping he didn’t sound like an interrogator but feeling, what was it-frustration maybe, over the way no one seemed to care about this tiny child being left in the care of another child.

“Oh, she’s fine. She still lives in her little cabin up on Iron Mountain near Glenwood Springs. When she saw that Curtis was doing okay, she came to visit less often but always called to check on us. I think seeing her daughter in such a state broke her heart. She tried to push her to move on, to get back to her life, but the more she pushed, the worse things seemed to get. If she thought of getting her mental help, she never said anything about it in my presence. I think she was walking a fine line between allowing us to continue as we were and ruiningeveryone’s lives. I can’t image how hard it would be to take your own daughter’s kids from her or, I don’t know, Baker Act her or something. In the end, she let things happen the way they did. I’m sure if Curtis hadn’t been so capable, she would have stepped in. But there was no real danger. He did a great job. The only real question is, should he have had to? Would anything have been better had authorities been involved? In my opinion, no. At least not for me. I imagine I would have grown up not knowing any of my family. This way, my brother and I have an unbreakable bond, and my grandmother is close with us. I haven’t seen or spoken to my mother since I moved out at eleven, but that’s fine with me.”

“Wait, where did you go when you were eleven?” Enrique asked, confused.

“Curtis adopted me. Again, not sure how he managed that other than the fact he was a pillar in the community and the judge sent his kids to ski camp with Curtis every year. Curtis had a steady job at the resort, plus his adventure tours, which were pretty consistent but sort of freelance. He could take the jobs he wanted and skip the ones that weren’t convenient. He got such a reputation that folks were requesting him and paying large amounts of money to get him, so he was able to buy a little three-bedroom cabin. He needed someone to keep an eye on me when he was away, so he asked one of the female ski instructors if she would be his roommate for free if she helped with me. I’m sure Gina paid some kind of rent because she doesn’t strike me as a freeloader. She also did adventure tours when a femaleguide was needed, so then I went to stay with the Baileys or my grandmother, depending on when it was in the school year and such. I’m telling you, my childhood may have been unorthodox, but overall, it was pretty great.”

“Gina, is this the same woman who is his partner at Parker’s Outfitters?”

“One and the same. She has been his best friend and roommate for twenty years now. Well, not a roommate anymore. When I graduated, she got an apartment closer to the canyon. Now, she runs the Arizona location of Parker’s and hops between shops as needed since she is right in the middle and can be in either location in about an hour. She works remotely organizing the tours, so if she isn’t actively guiding a tour, contracted as a ski instructor, or needed to cover a shift at one of the shops, she is working from home. She is like a sister, though, so I love it when I catch her staying over at Curtis’ when he is out of town. She is one of the few women I have bonded with over the years and can thoroughly enjoy a girls’ night with. Oh, you asked about my grandmother. Not sure if I answered that. She is about to retire this year, actually. I worry a little about her living up in the mountains all by herself, but it is a great place to live, so I don’t blame her for holding on to her family legacy with all she has.”

“Yeah, Curtis took me there once. It’s beautiful country up there.” Enrique rubbed his temples and yawned.

Leigh looked at her watch, “It’s three in the morning. You haven’t shown any worsening symptoms of a brain bleed;maybe it will be alright for you to rest now. I can dig out my phone and set an hourly timer to wake you and make sure you’re okay. There are only two sticks of wood left. I haven’t timed how long it has been taking for them to burn, but my guess is we have about two hours before it starts to get really cold and another four or five before there is sufficient light for me to go look for more. If we sleep while it’s still warm, we may actually get some rest before the cold gets to us.” Leighann looked at Enrique questioningly as if she was seeking his approval of the plan. She had been so confident to this point. It bothered him that the weight of the responsibility for their wellbeing had fallen on her shoulders when it was his bad choices that had landed them in this predicament.

“That sounds like a good plan. Don’t set a timer, though. I’m not sure what good waking up every hour will do, at least not under these circumstances. Trust me, though. Aside from a killer headache, I’m doing okay. If you have any more of that pain medicine, I will gladly take it.”

Leigh jumped up from the couch and hurried to her pack to retrieve the ibuprofen and a cup of water. “I’m so sorry. You should have taken more hours ago. There I sat, talking your ear off while your head probably feels like a middle school band is practicing in there.”

Enrique smiled at the accurate description of his pain, “That’s pretty close to the truth; I had likened it to a stampede of elephants, but if this band has a rather large base drumsection… that would be an entirely correct image of what is happening inside my skull right now.”

Accepting the tablets and water, Enrique knocked them back quickly and then returned the empty cup to her waiting hand. As she carried it back to the kitchen, he added the last two pieces of firewood to the small pile of embers and the remaining few inches of the currently burning log. The wood instantly burst into flames. It was so dry it wouldn’t take long to burn to ash. Enrique took the poker and banked the embers the best he could. Hopefully, they would last till morning, and there would be a large stockpile of wood just outside the door waiting to be discovered under a massive pile of snow. That was what he was praying for anyway.

Leigh approached the pallet they had made earlier with the mattress and grabbed the cushions she had been sitting on, placing them on the floor between the mattress and the couch. Enrique grabbed the two he had been sitting on to finish the job.

Before Leigh could sit down on the floor, Enrique claimed the couch cushions for himself, leaving the mattress close to the fire for her. She stood there poised to argue, but he beat her to that, too.

“I’m bigger, and I need less heat to stay warm. I got us into this mess, so the least I can do is take the chillier side of the bed. And my ribs are killing me. I was thinking I could sleep on my left side and use the couch to sort of hold me up. No arguing; we need sleep. Let’s go, princess. Down you go. Hopefully, thereare no peas hidden under your mattress, and you can get some decent shut-eye.”

“Princess? Do I look like I need royal treatment? I’m my brother’s sister. Once I allow myself to shut down, I can sleep anywhere. If I don’t set an alarm, I’ll sleep like the dead through breakfast, lunch, and dinner.”

Leigh got comfortable, wrapping the blanket around her legs, which she pulled up to her chest as she faced the fire.

“If you get too cold before the fire goes out, poke me, and we can switch places. Or, I can set a timer, and we can switch every hour until the fire dies,” she suggested.

“That’s not necessary, Leighann. Get as much sleep as you can. Who knows what tomorrow will bring?” Enrique replied, using his feet to tuck the blanket around his cold toes since bending to do so would have been excruciating. Once he was as warm as he was going to get, he closed his eyes and reflected on the day.

He had really messed things up. He’d apologized, but he would need to do some penance to make up for this one. He couldn’t remember the last time he had acted so selfishly, and it had hurt someone else, not just himself. He would find a way to pay Leighann back for her kindness.

Hannah flashed before his eyes, and he smiled. Yeah, he imagined Leighann would be just as stubborn at receiving gifts as his sister was, but in the end, she always accepted them, and he would find a way to get Leighann to, too. The image of Leighann and Hannah played out in his mind for severalmoments, giving him pause. He had always said he would never marry. Anthony had found the one woman in a million worth dedicating his life to, and the rest of them were out of luck. Anthony had challenged him, and Enrique had agreed that if he found a woman like his sister, he would gladly reconsider his stance on marriage.

Thinking back on their time together, all that she had shared that day, the details Curtis had shared with him over the years… He may have just found his one-in-a-million woman, and it didn’t scare him senseless. She might say she wasn’t a princess worthy of special treatment, but he wanted to treat her like a queen, his queen.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

When Leighann started to emerge from her slumber a few hours later, her backside and feet were freezing, but her face was surprisingly warm. Her eyes widened in shock and horror when she realized she was flush up against Enrique, and her face was tucked into the crook of his neck, his right arm draped over her hip while his left wrapped around the pillow under his head.Oh man, he smells so good! Wait, WHAT! How did I get here? How do I get OUT of here?

Her mind swirled at her predicament. She was not a woman who climbed into bed with men. This was an entirely new situation for her, and she wasn’t sure how to remove herself. Did she simply roll over and stretch like she had just woken up and nothing had happened? Or did she inch away and pretend to sleep until he awoke with a respectable distance between them?

She didn’t have time to decide on the best course of action because a chuckle shook Enrique’s chest, alerting her that he was, in fact, awake.

“Morning, Sunshine.”

For a moment, she debated pretending to sleep a little longer until her brain had had sufficient time to process the situation, but Enrique took that option right off the table when he gently swept her long blond hair away from her face to reveal her flaming red cheeks.

“I know you’re awake, princess. No use pretending. I can feel your eyelashes fluttering against my skin. I don’t mind being your nose warmer, but it looks like you may have gotten a little overheated by the flush on your cheeks,” Enrique teased.

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