Page 8 of Avalanche
“Oh yeah.” A slow grin spreads Eddie’s face. “You forget I was at Cardrona last season with you. You coached the junior snowboard team kids for what, three months?”
“Two and half,” Liam clarifies, as if that two weeks makes some sort of crucial difference. “And it was only three days a week.”
“Yeah, okay. Well, I’m pretty sure I saw you buying them all hot chocolates that day the storm closed in. You know, when you guys got stuck at the cafe for an hour.”
Liam grumbles out some inaudible response.
“And there was that other time you made me dress up as Pengi to come down to base and cheer up one of your kids after he’d broken his arm.”
Liam scrubs at the back of his neck.
“Pengi is the mascot,” Eddie explains to the rest of us. “Basically, some poor instructor—usually me—has to wear this super heavy penguin costume that’s impossible to see out of and get swarmed by little kids on skis. It’s fucking terrifying to be honest.”
“It sounds like it,” Antoine agrees, but I can see he’s biting back a smile, his green eyes dancing with mirth as he watches Liam squirm with discomfort.
“And then there was that other time you had a go at some new instructor about not using the right teaching techniques for his group of kids…”
“He was teaching them like they were adults,” Liam retorts, his tone laced with disgust. “Giving them all this technical information that was way over their heads. Kids just want you to show them what to do and then make it into a game. Everyone knows that.” He looks around the table expectantly.
Matty squirms in his seat, looking distinctly uncomfortable. “I… I didn’t know that.”
Liam gives a dismissive wave. “Yes, you do. I’ve seen you teach. You’re great with the kids.”
“And so are you, by the sounds of it,” Seth comments. There’s a satisfied smile curving his lips, a gentle glow spreading beneath his scruff covered cheeks.
Liam jolts, as if struck by Seth’s words. “What?”
“All the things he said.” Seth tilts his chin towards Eddie. “That isn’t what someone who dislikes kids would do.”
“I don’t dislike kids,” Liam argues.
“Mate. You literally just said you didn’t like kids two seconds ago,” Eddie points out.
“That’s not what I meant,” Liam says on an exasperated exhale. “I meant…”
Antoine has one hand pressed over his lips now, as if he’s having difficulty holding back laughter at our boyfriend’s expense.
“…I meant I don’t like most kids. In general. I just like my kids. Not my… I don’t have any kids. Obviously.” His cheeks are flaming now, and a light sheen is coating his forehead. “I like the kids I’m teaching. Or like, the kids in my family. My cousins and stuff. Yeah.” He gives a determined nod. “I like those ones.”
Antoine snorts out a laugh, the sound strangely inelegant coming from his lips.
“So.” Antoine tries to school his features but fails, his eyes glowing with amusement as he knocks his shoulder against Liam’s. “Basically, how you feel about most people. You hate them unless you know them.”
A laugh bursts out of me at Antoine’s apt description of Liam’s personality, my cheeks pulling almost painfully. Matty’s deep chuckle joins my own, drawing Liam’s glare to the pair of us, but there’s no heat in it.
“Fine.” Liam throws up his hands in defeat, but he’s smiling too. Or near enough to smiling that his eyes are tilting merrily at the corners. “Kids are not completely terrible. Happy?”
“I’m always happy, mate,” Eddie leans back in his chair, his head resting on his hands, a satisfied grin on his face.
“When’s your next day off?” Seth leans around Matty, a flush still painting his cheeks as he fixes his eyes on me.
“In four days.” My voice is raspy, raw from days spent calling out to my students across the snow. From too much exercise and not enough water. “Monday.” My hand trembles as I wrap my fingers around the glass and bring it to my lips.
Monday can’t come soon enough. I’ve never been this exhausted in my entire life.
Liam’s eyes narrow as he tracks the movement, his jaw ticking when my glass clatters against the wooden table.
“Shit, Missy.” Eddie shakes his head. “That’s eighteen days on the snow.”
