Page 70 of See You Next Winter
It’s not the best head start, and the snow is still patchy in places where the morning crowd has swept up the perfectly groomed piste. If I wasn’t so invested, I’d spin around and ski backwards, a skill I mastered at a much earlier age than him, and taunt him the entire way down.
There’s not enough snow coverage in the lower part of the mountain, and it will be a few more weeks until we can ski right down to the chalets. My apartment is closer, but we still have to take a chairlift to get down the mountain, and I hurtle through the barriers with Ryan hot on my tail.
Thank God I found him early. In an hour or two, there’d be a twenty-minute queue for this lift, but most people aren’t ready to give up on the mountain yet.
Once I’m in position, I wait for the four-seater bench to loop round and scoop me up. I’m certain I’ve won, until he barrels through the emergency stop barrier, ducking around the side and nudging me out of the way with the full force of his body.
The alarm sounds, the chairlift grinds to a halt, and Ryan gets an angry earful in French.
“Désolé, désolé,” he calls, holding up his hands in surrender. The lift operator resets the button, and kick-starts the mechanics, all those moving parts crawling back to life as we begin our descent.
“Think you can get rid of me that easily?” he says, clutching the side of my jacket and dragging me across the vinyl seating until I'm by his side.
We tuck our ski poles underneath our thighs, unclip our helmets and then his mouth is on mine, and my hands are in his gorgeous, messed up hair.
We make out like the teenagers we once were; all tongues and teeth and zero fucks given. We can’t stop laughing, but we keep going, even when passengers on the way up whoop and cheer as we pass them, sending up a chorus of‘ooh la la’and‘get a room’.
I have a room, and once I get him in it, I’m never letting him leave.
Chapter 55
Kayla
Twenty Winters Ago / Age Eight
“That’s not it,” Itell him, turning him towards the chalet. “You're looking in the wrong direction.”
“Am not. My grandma said you find the Big Dipper, draw a line with your finger and that’s how you find it.” He tips his head as far back as it will go.
“Well,mygrandma said it’s the brightest star in the sky.”
“Then let’s ask them and we’ll see who’s right.”
We race down the hill to where they're drinking hot chocolate on the patio chairs behind Ryan’s family’s house. We always drink ours super fast so we have more time to build another snowman before they send us to bed. I’m getting really good at them now.
“Can you show us how to find the North Star again?” They make space for us to climb into their laps.
“Do you remember how to find the Big Dipper?” his grandma says, setting her mug down and pointing at the sky.
“See!” he yells. “I told you so.” I poke my tongue out at him, and twist to follow the line of her finger.
“That’s the North Star. And no matter where you are, if you look for it, you’ll always be able to find your way home.”
“Ifwe’re in the Northern hemisphere,” Ryan says.
“Yes, Ryan,” my grandma says, setting me down in her chair. “But let’s hope you two friends are never half a world apart.”
“Let me show you something very special our papas showed us when we were girls together.” She crouches in front of us, lifting our warm mittens and pressing them against our chests.
Ryan and I look at each other, then back at her, trying not to laugh.
“No matter where your life takes you, if you’re ever feeling lost or lonely, you can press your hand right here, and remember you sweet angels will always be two hearts, under one sky.”
Chapter 56
Ryan
It’s been six weekssince our third date, and in that time I’ve set up a home studio in Kayla’s spare bedroom, moved all my stuff out of the chalet, and we've flown back to Edinburgh for Allie and Mel’s wedding.
