He has a big wooly hat pulled down over his forehead. Some of his brown hair is sticking out and I have a sudden urge to pull his hat off and run my fingers through his messy hair. I turn away and look at the snow-dusted trees instead.
“Did you really go to prison?” It just slips out. I wish I didn’t ask it but the words are out there now. There’s no taking them back.
He sucks in a deep breath as he keeps his eyes locked on the scenery. “Yup.”
“How was it?”
He turns to me and laughs. “Delightful.”
“You know what I mean,” I say, hating that my cheeks are blushing again. “Did you really steal a car?”
“Don’t believe everything you hear,” he says with a sadness in his voice. “I’m not as bad as people like to think.”
That wasn’t an admission or a denial. I’m not sure what that was.
I decide not to press the matter. Not right now anyway. I’m still hoping to enjoy the beautiful day a little bit and I don’t want to start a fight.
We chat about the wedding and about our lives back home as the chairlift takes us up.
“Why did you decide to work on cars?” I ask him as we pass over a little girl waiting for her father. He’s walking up the trail with his skis off to get the pole she dropped.
“I like the simplicity of it.”
“Car engines are not simple,” I say with a laugh. “I can never remember where to put the windshield washer fluid.”
“People are not simple,” he says in a low voice. “Engines are. I like that they’re always the same. They’ll never turn on you. They’ll never think the worst of you. They just do what they’re made to do.”
We sit there in silence for a long moment.
“Why don’t you get along with your dad?”
He sighs. His eyes are almost watery as he turns to me. “I’m not the kind of son he wanted. I never was.”
“What kind did he want?”
“Someone good and wholesome with a promising future. Someone smart and honorable. Honest. Righteous. Someone like you.”
“Like me?” I ask, jerking my head back in surprise.
“Why do you look so shocked?” he asks with a warm smile. “Of course, you’re all those things. And more. You’re an amazing woman, Eleanor. He’s lucky to have you in his family. And so am I.”
I open my mouth to answer but nothing comes out. Did Tanner Lawson just compliment me? Did he really just say all of those nice things?
I eye him out of the corner of my eyes, waiting for a punch line that never comes. He just takes deep peaceful breaths as he gazes at the mountains.
He looks so beautiful like this—all introspective and calm. The mischievous eyes and frustrating grin lights a fire in my core, but this sweet caring version of Tanner lights a fire in my soul.
I just want to reach over and hug him. I grab the bar and cling onto it instead.
The chairlift continues to rise up the mountain and just as we’re about to ski off, the frustrating Tanner makes his grand reappearance.
“I can help you get off,” he says as he lifts the bar. “I’d love to get you off.”
I grit my teeth as I glare at him, heart pounding viciously in my chest.
“I can get myself off, thank you.”
“Now, that I’d like to see.”
“Arrrggh!” I grunt in frustration as I position myself.
The chairlift quickly approaches the steep slope we’re going to have to ski down. We’re still about twenty feet or so off the ground.
“Stop touching me!” I snap as his big leg presses against mine. I shove his arm hard, but he doesn’t move. It’s like trying to push a statue.
“Your leg is on me,” he snaps back.
“Because you sat right next to me!” I push him again and the chairlift wobbles.
We’re real siblings now. We’re having our first ‘you’re sitting too close to me fight,’ so it’s official. Normally this happens in the backseat of a car and not a chairlift though.
Oh god, just the thought of being in a backseat of a car with Tanner is getting my heart rate increasing.
“Stop pushing me!” he says. I push him again.
The chairlift is really rocking now and I give him one more shove.
“No!” I scream, feeling nothing but air as my body slips off.
I gasp when I realize I’m falling.
Falling…
My stomach drops. I grit my teeth, preparing for impact.
I slam into the soft powdery snow and searing pain shoots up my ankle and into my calf.
Just as the scream leaves my throat, Tanner falls hard beside me.
It makes me feel a little bit better.
At least the fucker fell too.
Two hours later, we’re both waiting to see a doctor.
My ankle is the size of a grapefruit. It fucking hurts like crazy.