Page 10 of Stuck With Mr. Frosty

After shoving my feet into my boots, I follow Rosie out the door and we run down the trail. She takes the steps two at a time, landing in the fresh snow and stepping to the side as one of the landscapers shovels the path.

I follow her, my heart hammering in my chest. The last thing I want to do on my first day of work is to make a bad impression. The people here knew my mom. They’re going to expect me to live up to her memory.

And I don’t know how I’m ever going to be able to do that.

My breath comes out in white little puffs as we hurry to the gondolas and cram inside. Rosie slumps back against the seat while I sit across from her, looking out over the mountain.

Snow coats the tops of the hills and the trees. The pines are a striking green beneath their dusting, and there are people flyingdown the hill. I take a deep breath and blow it out, wondering how many times Mom looked out at this same view.

Rosie reaches over and takes my hand. “She’d be happy you’re here.”

I wipe some tears from my eyes and smile. “I wish I could have come with her the last couple years, but I was never able to take the time off school. There was just so much going on. I didn’t realize how much I would miss it while sitting here now.”

“I’m sure she was happy that you were off and living your life instead of following her around mountains.” Rosie gets off the gondola first, waiting for me. “She used to talk about you all the time. Sometimes, I felt like I knew you even though we’d never met. She was so proud of everything you did.”

“You’re going to make me sob, and we have to be at our first class in like two minutes,” I say, voice breaking. I force a smile and look up to the sky, pulling my sunglasses from my pocket and slipping them on to hide what I know have to be red eyes.

Rosie laughs and puts her own sunglasses on, leading the way over to a post markedLesson A. She stands beside the post and takes a deep breath. “Let’s do this.”

I nod, butterflies erupting in my stomach. We’re on a tiny bunny hill at the top of the mountain, one that flattens out for several yards at the bottom of a small slope. The gondolas open again, and several children pour out with skis and snowboards clasped tightly, a couple parents trailing behind them.

“Good morning!” I force a level of cheer into my voice that I definitely don’t feel, clapping my hands together and smiling at the people gathering around. “I’m Mia, and this is Rosie. We’regoing to be your instructors for the day. Now, anyone with skis, come with me.”

I step to the side, and the horde of children carrying fluorescent skis follows me. I show them how to step into the skis and make sure their boots are locked in and the buckles tight.

“Okay.” I look around at the little group in a semi-circle in front of me. “Who knows what a pizza is?”

We’re in the middle of discussing how to move and stop when there’s a bark and several excited shouts about the puppy.

Honey comes bounding through the snow, her blue goggles shining and her fluorescent vest bright against the snow. Her fluffy tail whips back and forth as she drops down in front of the children, begging for belly rubs.

I laugh, reaching out to catch one of the toddlers on skis as she goes slipping to the side while trying to get at the dog. After I set the toddler back on her skis, she takes off sliding and drops to her knees beside Honey.

Aiden storms over, his hands curled into fists, the reflective sunglasses he has on hiding what I know has to be furrowed brows.

“Do you even know what you’re doing?” he hisses under his breath as he stops in front of me, keeping his body turned to watch the children while also lecturing me.

“Wow. Okay, so you’re really set on being rude today, aren’t you?” I put my hands on my hips, glaring up at him. “I don’t know what your problem is right now, but I have other things I should be doing.”

“Well, the sole thing that you should be doing is watching the children.” Aiden motions to them, but he keeps his voice low.

I could shove him down the side of the mountain and be perfectly fine with that right now.

I don’t think anyone else would be happy about it, but it would make me feel better. Maybe I’d get lucky and he’d turn into one of those characters from a TV show, rolling into a giant ball with only his eyes and his feet sticking out.

“Iamwatching the children,” I say. “I don’t know what you think you’re doing, but I’ve got this, and you don’t need to worry about it.”

“That one,” he says as he points to the toddler in skis, “nearly took a header down the mountain because you were too busy looking at Honey to care about the kids.”

With a scoff, I drop my hands. “Have you ever seen a toddler on skis? They barely know which way they’re going. They’re marshmallows. She has a safety strap on so I can grab her, and I did. As soon as she started to slip away. So don’t think that you can come over here and tell me that I don’t know what I’m doing.”

Aiden makes a rough noise in the back of his throat and turns to the children. “Hey, everybody. Time to talk about mountain safety!”

That’s it. First chance I get, he’s getting shoved down the mountain.

“He took over my lesson!” I jab my fork in Rosie’s direction before stabbing a piece of chicken on my plate. “I was supposed to be teaching them how to ski, and instead he taught a bunch of kids under five how to tie knots!”

Rosie’s lips press together as she struggles to smother a smile. “I don’t know, but I thought the two of you looked pretty good working together. It was like you were waiting for your chance to strangle him.”

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