Matchmaker Backfire

“Well, that came outta nowhere, you alright?” he asks us both and I tell him I’m fine.

Carter takes his goggles off, flushed as he holds a hand to his cheek. The outline of my lips frozen there with my lip gloss.

Chapter Eight

Carter

“I guess the weather up here changes quick,” I observe, noting Greg’s disappointed look as he stares at me.

Why’s he staring at me?

“Guess so,” he muses dryly, turning to face Serena. “Maybe we should call it a day unless you really wanna stick closer this time?” he asks her, sounding a little more than annoyed.

“I tried to keep up dad, but the snow… it came in so fast,” she tells him, slipping off her own goggles and pointing to her cheek, telling me I have something on mine.

I wipe at my cheek, but it’s Greg who corrects me.

“Other side, slick. What’d you hit a butterfly on the way down?” he asks suspiciously, but forcing himself to laugh once he notices my embarrassment.

Embarrassed because if I’d known Serena’s kiss had left a mark, I wouldn’t have touched it.

I would have kept it there all day.

Greg be damned.

“Maybe we should call it a day,” he says a little more cheerfully. “Tomorrow, I’ll be sure and check the weather and ask more about those ancient slope markers.”

If it was just me and Greg, I’d be challenging him to another, more competitive run down the slope, but I can see Serena wouldn’t want me leaving her behind.

And I won’t put her in any danger by trying to prove anything to her dad.

“What else is there to do up here?” I hear Serena ask absently.

I could think of a thousand things, but none of them involve her father.

“Oh, sweetie. Don’t be so down on it, tomorrow will be clearer I’m sure. We can play board games. They have an indoor pool and hot tub,” Greg continues, stopping himself there and giving me another strange look as he catches me focusing on Serena.

“Board games sound like fun,” I blurt out. “Or we can just hang out and talk about old times,” I offer, giving Greg a firm look that I hope reminds him and myself, he is still my best friend after all.

“I guess so,” Serena says, sliding past us both, still on her skis.

“Oh, Carter?” Greg says suddenly, making me turn to face him, readying myself for anything now that I’m sure he’s sensed the undeniable connection between his daughter and me.

I raise my brows in silent response.

“I noticed you took the middle cabin. Can you scoot down one, so I can be in the middle one?” he asks, forcing a smile.

So I can put myself between you and my only daughter, is what he means.

I feel my eyes twitch, wanting to narrow in time with my breath, but I fight it.

“Sure, no sweat,” I shrug.

Remembering we have a whole week of this.

Seven days and seven nights.

Seven long nights if I can figure out a way to somehow get Serena alone for more than thirty seconds.

I love Greg, I do. But if I’d known things were gonna be this close-knit with all three of us, hell. Maybe I would’ve made my own arrangements to get Serena away.

Maybe if I’d known how hard I’d fall for her once I saw her again.

Given her a real first class vacation too, nothing like this place.

Now, now. Carter. Play nice. Bide your time and just see what happens.

There’s enough snow for us now over the icy slush to ski all the way back to the cabins, which are already blanketed in heavy snow.

There’s central heating, but I volunteer to get some wood in each cabin, so we can have a crackling fire.

“Maybe roast some hotdogs a bit later, the kind I know you would’ve brought,” I quip to Greg who smiles.

“Got enough food to last us weeks up here, they can keep their buffet,” he says knowingly. “A fire sounds great. I’m gonna grab a shower,” he adds and I watch him go into his cabin, the first of the three in a row.

I’m in two and Serena’s in three.

I take my time getting my skis off and stamping my boots at the door I figure now’s as good a time as any to switch rooms.

May as well give Greg what he wants, if I insist on being right next to Serena, with connecting doors, it’ll just eat him up I know it.

There’s a healthy stack of dry wood in a hutch on the verandah, but I wanna get out of this suit and boots arrangement first.

I haven’t skied in ages, and I can already feel a little cramp in my thigh.

A cramp that spreads once I step inside, hearing the hot water from Greg’s room as well as the room on Serena’s side.

She’s having a shower too, or maybe running a bath.