Page 51 of The Season
Before I can even begin to contemplate what that could possibly mean, Liam lets out a snort. “Please. I trained you for a week three years ago. You make it sound like we were married.”
“You told me I was your favorite student,” Tessa retorts.
“No, I told you that you were the most painful student I’d ever taught. Possibly unteachable. And that it was a good thing you had talent, because you had absolutely nothing else going for you.”
Tessa widens her eyes dramatically, but doesn’t bother to hide her smile, like she’s proud of his condemnation.
“Lily, on the other hand…” Liam throws his arm around me, his fingertips dangling precariously close to my chest, his side pressed against my own. My heart stutters, breath suddenly feeling short, like I’ve just finished hiking at ten-thousand-feet altitude or powering down a double black diamond run. “Lily actually listens to what I tell her. She’s a good student.”
Heat floods me, my legs suddenly feeling weak under the weight of Liam’s praise. I feel myself leaning against him, reaching around his waist and gripping his sweater to steady myself.
I’m equal parts irritated and confused by my reaction—I’m not into Liam. Not like that. At least, I don’t think I am. And besides, I’m pretty sure he’s only trying to make some point with this girl he knows.
Tessa’s grin turns almost predatory, her eyes glinting with a mixture of amusement and interest as she takes us in. “I bet she is.”
She takes a long sip of her drink, then fixes me with a smile that is all warmth. “It’ll be good to have another woman instructor. It’s a right sausage fest at the snowboard school at the moment—only about six women to fifty men. Ski school is better, but not by much.”
She takes another drink, pausing to dab her lips with the back of her hand. “If you ever want someone to ride with on your days off, let me know. Or someone to drink with. Or shop with.” She pauses, giving me a conspiratorial wink, then drops her voice to a mock whisper. “Or if you want to complain about how moody Liam is.”
“I’m not moody,” Liam grumbles, dropping his hold on me and taking a swig of his beer. “Tell her, Lily.”
A laugh bursts out of me despite my best efforts to hold it back, and I turn to give Liam anare you kidding me?look. Just this afternoon alone he’s gone from happy that I passed my exam, to snapping about us running late to the liquor store, and now I’m the best student he ever had.
Liam curses under his breath, shooting Tessa a glare before stalking off to the other side of the kitchen. I let out a sigh of relief when he sidles up to Matty—who is looking decidedly lost, clutching his can of Dr Pepper and staring wide-eyed as Tom regales him and Seth with some story.
“See,” Tessa says, drawing my attention back to her. She waves her drink in Liam’s general direction. “So moody.”
I give her a tentative smile, stumbling closer to her when someone knocks into me from behind. She reaches out, gripping my shoulder to steady me, then gives me a searching look, her blue eyes full of kind intelligence.
“I’m serious about going riding sometime,” she says, dropping her hand. “Or drinking. I live with my boyfriend and a bunch of his mates, and it all gets a bit tooblokeyat times, you know what I mean? Plus, Jason works in park, so he’s out most nights.”
“Park?” I furrow my brow in confusion, and she chuckles.
“He builds the terrain parks—the kickers, the rails, that sort of thing. Drives a groomer too, so they’ve had him grooming the main runs near the park as well.”
“Oh. Wow, that’s cool,” I offer lamely, not sure of what else to say.
I’ve been skiing and then snowboarding my whole life, but never stopped to think about how the runs got groomed each morning, about who was responsible for making the snow fresh and crisp, or who designed the terrain parks and made sure everything worked.
Tessa nods, seemingly unconcerned by my bland response. “It is, innit? He’s one of the best, he did the pipe for the X-Games last season, and the kickers he’s built are the biggest in country, apparently.” She grins, her eyes flashing mischievously. “But enough about him. I want to know about you. Seth said you’re from Hawai’i? How did you get into riding—there isn’t snow in Hawai’i, is there? And how did you meet everyone?”
I give her the very high-level version of why I came to Utah, quickly brushing over the explanation of my privileged family holidays to the snow each winter, and talking instead about what Hawai’i is like, and how excited I am to do a full season in the snow for the first time in my life.
She tells me about the snowboard school, giving me a dizzying amount of information—unspoken rules, names of people to avoid, people to keep on my side. Things I had never thought about before, like the fact that there is only one changing room for all the ski and snowboard instructors, that the sparse number of women get dressed at lockers right next to men.
When I start to tell her about how Matty invited me to move in, and how there were only meant to be five people living here, but we ended up with seven, Tessa laughs so hard she spills her drink.
“Holy shit.” She swipes her eyes with the back of her hand, laughter still shaking her tall frame. “I bet Liam was fucking livid. That’s epic. Seven people. That’s more than we have in our place, and I thought we were packed. Wait…” Her laughter trails off, and she widens her eyes in horror. “There’s only one bathroom?”
I grimace and nod, because that has been one of the hardest parts about this living situation. That, and sharing a room with Tom.
“Oh mate, I’m sorry for yah.”
“What? Why are you feeling sorry for Lily?” Eddie asks, injecting himself into the conversation, and into the small space between me and Tessa. He throws an arm over both our shoulders, putting his head between ours like it’s some sort of sports huddle.
“So many reasons,” Tessa drawls. “And one of them is standing on my toes. Do you mind?” She shoves at him, playfully but forcefully, and Eddie winces before releasing his grip on her shoulders.
“So violent,” he complains. “I was actually coming over to see how we’re doing on mixer, thank you very much.” He cranes his neck, trying to see to the counter behind Tessa while still keeping his arm wrapped around me. It’s littered with half-empty liquor bottles and mostly empty soda bottles. “Looks like we’re out of coke. Want to walk with me to the corner store to get some supplies?”
