Page 91 of Devious Kingpin
There was a slight hint of sarcasm in her voice, but I chose to ignore it. She’d make her way down the slope if I had to put her on my skis to do it.
* * *
I rubbed a hand over my jaw, studying Juliette’s posture.
She gripped the zipper of her jacket, playing with it while eyeing the skis I held for her like they carried a fatal disease. We drove up to Wilmot Mountain, the closest option to Chicago for traditional skiing. I didn’t tell Juliette that while I succeeded in teaching Priest to ski, he hated it and preferred snowboarding. I could teach her skiing; I couldn’t teach her snowboarding because only people with two left feet could snowboard and that is not me.
There was a class about twenty feet away with five-year-olds that showed more enthusiasm than Juliette.
I laughed. “Come on, you can do it. First, let’s strap them on.”
She didn’t move, so I bent down and strapped her boots in. Then we got down to business and went over the basics. First, we tried to “glide” as she called it. Next, we ski-walked around the class being held for the little kids while they threw us curious glances.
“Okay, I’m ready for the real hill,” Juliette announced.
“I don’t think—”
“Dante, I’m ready for the real hill,” she repeated, glaring at me.
I sighed. Stubbornness was Juliette’s weakness. She let her emotions guide her too much. “I’m going to do it with you or without you,” she added with a lift of her chin.
“Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
We walked to the top of the hill and Juliette positioned herself. Her eyes shone and her cheeks were red from the cold but there was clear excitement on her face.
I pointed to a spot. “Wait until I’m standing there, then ski down, controlling your speed. Use the poles the way I showed you.”
She nodded eagerly, but my gut feeling warned me she wasn’t listening. She was already picturing herself flying down the mountain.
“Juliette, are you paying attention?”
“Yes, yes. I’m waiting until you’re standing there, then I’m going to ski down and use my poles the way you taught me. Piece of cake. Get your ass in gear.”
I shook my head.
Making my way down the hill, I reached the spot and turned around to see Juliette already speeding down.
“What the fuck—” I hissed.
She was going too fast.
“Slow down, Juliette!” I shouted, waving my hands. She looked like she was daydreaming. The smile on her face was one of pure bliss, but it quickly turned into panic. She tried to stop, making an inverted V. All she did was tangle her feet and—boom.
She rolled down the hill and straight into me.
“Fuck!” she grunted as she crashed into me. Her breathing was hard and her eyes wide, but adrenaline must have still been pumping through her veins because she dusted herself off and announced, “I almost did it. Let’s do it again.”
I glanced around, wondering if maybe I wasn’t seeing something right. She’d almost killed herself, not almost done it. The looks on passersby’s faces told me I was right.
“No,” I said firmly. She was only recently mine. I wouldn’t risk losing her on some adrenaline rush.
“I was good,” she claimed. “I just fucked up the whole inverted V but other than that—”
“Other than that, you could have broken your neck.”
“But it was such a rush.” She grinned, her eyes shooting back to the top of the hill. I was starting to wonder whether my wife was an adrenaline junkie. “I want to try it again,” she begged.
I shook my head. “Please, Dante.” She even fluttered her eyes. “One more time.”
