Page 93 of So This Is Christmas

“We’ll start here,” he said. “And perhaps end here. We needn’t tackle any of the bigger hills today.”

The way he said “today” made her wish there was going to be another trip sometime in the future. Look at her,wantingto ski.

Well, what she really wanted, she feared, were more outings with Matteo. When he wasn’t in work mode, he was... Well, he was the best.

She eyed the gentle slope. “Everyone on this hill is a literal child.”

“Everyone in Eldovia learns to ski at a young age.”

“These are all Eldovians? There are no tourists here?”

“There’s some winter tourism closer to Riems, where the hills are bigger, but even there it’s limited.”

“So this hill is going to be me and Eldovian toddlers.”

He smiled, and her breath caught. The sun was shining downon him, making his hair glow golden. “Everyone starts somewhere. There’s no shame in being a beginner.”

“I’m not good at not being good at things.”

She wouldn’t have thought it possible, but his smile grew even wider, and, she thought, maybe even fonder? “I know that, but I have faith in you.”

“You have faith in my ability to not be good at something?”

“I have faith in your ability to not be good at something the first time you try it, but to do it anyway.” He offered her an arm.

“It feels weird,” she said, looping her arm through his and taking an experimental step.

He led her to the base of the hill, clipped her into her skis, and demonstrated how to walk up the hill with the skis at an angle.

“So we just walk up?” she asked, mimicking his turned-out stance.

“We just walk up.”

“That’s a little disappointing.”

“Don’t you have an idiom for this? You have to walk before you can run?” He started up. “Use your poles like this.” He showed her how to dig them in as she went.

“I’m not sure walking is the best metaphor for... walking.”

At the top of the hill, he gave her a little lesson and took her poles from her. “You traditionally learn without poles.”

“What kind of sense does that make? I thought this was the beginner hill. Why take tools away from beginners?”

“Learning without poles teaches you balance and encourages you to develop a more pure technique.”

She gave a little snort. “Okay. Here goes nothing.” She pushed off—and skied down the hill. She skied down the hill! Her descent was shaky, but she didn’t fall. Not knowing how to stop, shekept going until she ran out of momentum. She turned, triumphant, and Matteo, still at the top, raised his poles in celebration, took off, and swooshed down the hill, coming to a tidy stop right next to her.

“You did it!”

“I did it! Take that, Bradford Worthington III! You have been quietly exorcised!”

He sniffed, and she caught a glimpse of the old, stuffy, disapproving Mr. Benz. “Indeed.”

“Why do you do that sometimes? Flare your nostrils like you’re mad?”

“That,” he said, “is not an expression of anger, but a relaxation technique. I learned it from a therapist when my parents were splitting up.” He demonstrated, but did so in an exaggerated fashion, taking a deep inhale through his nose and then pursing his lips and exhaling through his mouth. “It calms me when I’m... riled.”

She wanted to laugh at all the times she’d seen that and thought he was asserting his superiority, when really she had just been getting to him. She turned back to the hill. “That was fun. Let’s do it again.”

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