Page 21 of Choosing You

Ugh…why did I think this was a good thing to do?

“Sloane?” Will said softly, as if he had said it more than once.

Slowly, she turned her head and forced a smile. “Hmm?”

“You okay? You got super tense and quiet.”

“I…I’m fine. It’s silly how this is making me nervous when I typically go on every roller coaster that goes upside down without any issue.” Even her laugh was nervous.

“Yeah, well…we can actually get off at the top if you want. There’s a set of steps that we can take down if we need to.”

And that made her relax. “Oh. Okay. Whew! I’m not saying we will, but it’s nice to have options.”

“I have to agree.” He took her hand in his again. “Tell me about some of the wildest roller coasters you’ve ever been on.”

After that, they talked about theme parks, rides, festival foods, and the scenery. Sloane had been so distracted that she didn’t even realize they had approached the top platform and were already heading back down to the bottom.

“Wow! That went faster than I thought it would! Thanks for distracting me.”

“All I was doing was keeping the conversation going. I feel like we have a lot of catching up to do, even though we just met. Does that make sense?”

Smiling, she nodded. “It does. But I feel like I’ve been doing most of the talking. I’d like to find out a little more about you.”

The confident grin on his face told her this man wasn’t afraid to talk about himself.

The only problem she had was…well…it seemed like they were talking about extremely superficial stuff—like neither of them was ready to take things deeper. So, she stuck to another safe topic.

“You’ve obviously lived in Sweetbriar Ridge for a long time.”

“Born and raised.”

“What’s it like living so close to a ski resort? This is kind of the equivalent to me living in Florida and having some of the greatest theme parks in the world right in my backyard.”

That made him laugh. “I don’t think little old Summit Ridge can compete with theme parks. Plus, it was closed for most of my life. It only reopened three years ago. I remember coming up here with my family when I was little, and it’s where I learned how to ski, but once it closed, we had to go other places. It became a bit of a drag to pack up the car with all our equipment and drive an hour or more away, but when I was in high school, it was a blast to do it.”

“So you enjoy skiing?”

“Absolutely! There’s actually an indoor ski school right here at Summit Ridge. We could check it out if you’d like.”

Did she?

“Um…not today.” Although it sounded like a lot of fun, she was going to have to reach out to Hailey soon and let her know what was going on. As much as she’d love to spend all day with Will, she was going to have to get back to her sister’s sooner rather than later.

Dammit.

“That’s fine,” he said, clearly unbothered by her response. “Maybe we can come back another time. Which begs the question—how long are you in town for?”

Good question.

“I’m flying back on Tuesday,” she told him. “And I do need to spend some time with my family.”

“Sure. I get it.” He paused for a moment. “You know, you never told me who they were. Maybe I know them, and we can all hang out together!”

Luckily, they were approaching the platform and she put all her focus on getting off without tripping. “That was fun! I’ll bet the scenery is gorgeous during the change of seasons, especially when the leaves change colors! Or during the winter! Do they ever put twinkly lights in the trees? That would look so pretty if you rode the lift at night! Do they let you ride the ski lift at night? Is that safe?”

She was rambling and she knew it, but if it bought her more time before she had to answer questions about who her family was, she’d gladly keep going.

“You know, they do put lights in the trees—I’m not sure they twinkle,” he teased, “But they sort of do a winter wonderland kind of thing. Again, if you’re here during that time, I’d love to bring you back to see it.”

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