Page 15 of Born in the Spring

Concerning Shepherd, itwasa childish way to try to steal some of the attention, but I was at the age where it burned too deep in the shadows. I would’ve taken almost any eyes, andeven a scolding from Dad for myinappropriatebehaviorto have them on me.

“You’re just mad I have two more abs to show off than you do,” I retorted, with a chug from my own can.

Court huffed his disagreement, then laughed good-naturedly back into his seat.

This roofed balcony was our prime hangout spot. You could see hills and trees, skiers and boarders and sledders, all in one scope.

But before we grew up a bit, and I started to help man the resort, we used this spot to spy on people coming in.

We didn’t come out every day—we hadn’t yesterday or the day before that—but the day we decided to venture to our chairs was the day I spied Elara. I didn’t see her pull in, but I couldn’t take my eyes off her as she walked up.

And neither could Court.

It was almost comical the way we both leaned forward in our chairs for a closer look. I couldn’t say what drew me to her—she was obviously gorgeous, even up from a balcony. It could’ve been the top she wore, which was sky blue, literally my favorite color, and more thewayshe wore it. It could’ve been the way her hair blew across her face, and how she swatted the strands away three times before scooping it all up into a ponytail. It could’ve been how she looked around, almost like she was lost, until she smiled, her eyes caressing over the place I called home, a slow realization of knowing she was exactly where she was supposed to be.

She was a stranger. And it could’ve been because she didn’t feel like one.

I couldn’t explain it, but there was this tug in my chest that told me my life was about to change, and I let it pull me rightover the railing.

“Who the hell isshe?” Court mumbled to the universe.

“I’m about to find out,” I answered, then gave him aback offstare as I swung a leg over. “You’re not.”

“What are you doing?” he chuckled out, when both my legs were over. I didn’t dangle long before I dropped. It was a drop that could be made, so I didn’t even question the move. And I was never afraid to show my ass. Or land on it. But I landed on my feet.

“Yeah, go get her,” Court called out to me as I started the walk. “With a shirt on!”

I whipped around in time to catch my shirt as he threw it down, and I wrestled it over my head as I hurried to catch this girl before she could get past me.

“Hey,” I breathed, skidding to a stop in front of her, almost taken down by the smallest sheet of ice on the pavement. A lot of good the sand the plowers spread around did. I took the bit of amusement on her face as a thumbs-up to clear my throat and try again. “Hey.”

She had fire in her hair, and fire in her eyes—more blue, the brightest and deepest blue I’d ever seen, with freckles my own eyes couldn’t stop tracing over.

“Hi,” she said back, and I knew from that one husk of a word, I could listen to her talk forever. “Nice move,” she said, with a flit of her gaze toward the balcony.

My mind urged me to say something lame, like,oh, you saw that?It was nothing.But that was something my brother would’ve said, so I mustered a “Thanks” through another breath. Then through something I could only describe as nerves, I added a just as lame, “I do that all the time.”It was nothing.

Then I doubled back, not wanting her to think I meant I fly over balconies for every girl I see. “I don’t do that all the time. That was my first time.” First and only.

This entire thing was a first and only.

I clamped my lips, waiting for her to part hers, to save me with any words of her own.

“You just had to get to me that quickly, huh?”

The flirt in her voice? I couldn’t make that up. She was flirting with me. So I found some of my confidence and stepped closer.

“Yes,” I said. Her lips curved, and while wondering just how soft they were, I offered my name. “I’m Jasper.” I started to lift my hand to shake hers, a reflex of meeting new, random people here, to present myself asprofessional, but this wasn’t that kind of meeting, so I curled my hand back in. Then mentally berated myself for killing an opportunity to touch her, before letting myself believe there’d be more. “Cassidy.” My last name was a blurt, the nerves rebounding and telling me to use it for points. “My family owns this resort.”

Nice move,I mocked to myself now.Bring your family into this.I might as well have puffed out my chest at the way I delivered that one.

But something in her eyes sparkled, her face lit up in another slow realization of finding something she needed. “Elara Hayes,” she told me, with a pause before giving her last name, a tease at how I gave mine, but without the blurt, and fuck, even her name was beautiful. “And you’re someone I’ve been looking for.”

“You’re who I’ve been looking for too.”

If I’d ever made a jump at all, it was this one. The words came out dazed-like, and the blush that pinkened her cheeks? Icouldn’t make that up, either. My own face heated with more of a flush as I realized she’d saidsomeoneshe’s been looking for, notwhoshe’s been looking for.

Something I did have going for me was I could laugh at myself. And I did, which encouraged her to join in. Her laugh was spirited, from the gut, the sight and sound sending strong flutters through mine, and I knew right then it would be my mission to always make her laugh.

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