After Midnight by Katherine Garbera Read Free Book Online Page B

hadn’t found.
    “No need. I get that. Let’s start over,” he said.
    “How? Do we pretend we never met at seventeen? Or do we act like last night never happened?”
    “None of that. Let’s just start the morning over.” He reached over and clasped her hand in his. “I’m dying to get up on the slopes. You want to go with me?”
    “I... Really? I thought you’d want to take it easy.”
    “I didn’t anger all the resort owners here by taking them on and demanding they let snowboarders on the slopes just to be a douchebag. I did it because when I look at that mountain I see something I wanted to conquer. Besides, it was elitist to try to keep us out.”
    “I never saw it that way,” she admitted, staring down at their entwined fingers. “But then, Alpine skiing is accepted everywhere.”
    “So want to take on the slopes? We can race for real this time,” he said. “Not against the clock but against each other.”
    She slowly withdrew her hand and took a sip of cocoa. “I can’t.”
    He leaned back in his chair and glanced at her. She wasn’t watching him but was staring at the mountains again. “I’ll go easy on you.”
    “It doesn’t matter. I can’t go down the mountain.”
    “Why not?”
    She shook her head. “You were my bit of fun last night, Carter. We’re not friends and I—”
    “I don’t see that you have any friends here right now. Not trying to be mean, but it’s obvious—even to this
bit of fun—
that you need someone.” He clenched his jaw, trying to keep his temper in check. “I’d like to think over the years I’ve at least showed you I’m not a total loser.”
    “I never think of you that way,” she said, turning to face him.
    He saw something in her expression that he’d never glimpsed there before. It was something more than fear, and if he had to define it, he’d say it looked a lot like disappointment.
    “I’m scared, Carter. I can’t go down that damned mountain, because every time I’ve taken the ski lift up there I freeze. I’m fine showing kids what to do in their lessons, but I can’t go down a big slope.”
    His anger instantly cooled. That wasn’t what he’d been expecting. Lindsey was afraid? It didn’t jive with the bold, fearless woman he’d always known. She’d been throwing herself down the toughest, fastest runs since she’d been ten, or something. She’d gone over sixty miles per hour routinely, and now she was afraid?
    “Okay, fair enough,” he said. “But we’re going to get you over your fear.”
    She shook her head and took another slip of her hot chocolate. “I don’t think so. You’re sweet to suggest it, but let’s face it, the only thing we’ve ever had between us is an adversarial—”
    “We have more now. We spent the night in each other’s arms.”
    “That was sex,” she reminded him. “You always act like sex is just a physical thing. Nothing emotional there.”
    “Was it for you?” he asked in a low, deceptively calm voice.
    “Wasn’t it for you?” she countered.
    She gave nothing away. Why was he surprised? This was Lindsey Collins, and she never let him have an inch.
    * * *
    L INDSEY DIDN ’ T WANT to talk about her fears with Carter. In fact, the only thing she wanted was a distraction. God knew he provided her with that.
    “I’m sorry I feel like I’m not myself this morning. That’s why I left. I can’t explain it very well, not even to myself.”
    “What can’t you explain?” he asked, pinning her with his penetrating blue-gray gaze.
    “Last night, until the moment you arrived at my table, I was looking at my future and trying to figure out what my next move would be.” She sighed. “Last year at this time I was gearing up for a gold medal and setting my future, you know?”
    “I do know. But things changed.”
    “They did, and I ended up here in the bosom of some good friends and in the valley where I first learned to ski and started my world-champion path. I thought this was the