Precious Blessings

“Sound must really carry on this mountain.”

“Don’t you know it. Truth is, it was my pride. I didn’t feel dignified going down the same run as knee-high kids who could ski like Olympians.”

“So you chose the advanced run as an alternative?”

“At least I lived to tell the tale. So far.”

He made it to the top and drew himself up to his full height and still he didn’t feel tall enough, not in the eyes of this woman. He hated it. He really did. Because there was something incredibly special about her. She was easily balanced on her skis, leaning on her poles, serene and wholesome. She made his entire being, his entire spirit, take notice.

Suddenly, he was aware of someone else talking and then he remembered. There were two other women with Katherine. And as they were moving away, one was saying, “C’mon, Holly, let’s go fetch that ski.”

Ski. That didn’t register either. There wasn’t anything in this world but Katherine and the gentle quirk of her smile, and the thud of his pulse in his chest. She kept him glued in place. He could see her heart in her eyes. There wasn’t a drop of judgment, nor was she silently teasing him even when he might deserve it.

“Jack, are you going to be able to make it down okay? Marin has her cell phone. She can call for the ski patrol.”

“No!” He’d rather crash and burn and break every bone in his body—twice—than to admit defeat in front of Katherine. “I’m fine. It’s already coming back to me. I think the fall knocked loose some forgotten knowledge inside my head.”

“Good, because you could have been really hurt. I would hate to see that happen to you.”

That comment was tough on a man’s ego. Tough because she was concerned and caring. That made him like her even more. “Guess I’ll be going now. You want to catch up with your friends?”

She didn’t budge. She didn’t blink. The crinkle of a hint of a smile remained in the corners of her soft, pretty mouth. Snow flecked the fake-fur lining of her jacket collar and clung to the sleek matching ski cap. She looked like everything good and sweet in the world, and he didn’t want to think this way about this woman.

“Uh, Jack? Before you take off you need to know something. You’re missing a ski.”

It registered vaguely. He straightened his shoulders, looking as tough and manly as possible, considering he only had one ski. “I’ll take care of it.”

“Are you sure?”

“Positive.” He had to face it. He was never going to impress this woman—not that he even wanted to, of course. But had he wanted to, his dignity had passed the point of no return. He stabbed his poles into the hard berm of snow, ready to go. “Goodbye, Katherine.”

Okay, she could take a hint. Katherine checked the trail for skiers, but no one was coming. She couldn’t just leave him here—as Marin had put it, he was doom on two sticks—but she sensed his pride was bruised more than anything.

The poor man. He towered over her, a big mountain of a guy, radiating capability and strength. He didn’t look as though he had a single weakness. So why was it hard to find the will to kick off and leave him standing there?

She thought of what her friends and her sisters had said. She did not like this man, not like that, and she wasn’t in denial about it. Really. So then, why did her heart crack just as little? And then a little more as she kicked off and away, swooshing over the iced, packed snow, leaving him behind? She could feel his gaze on her back like the press of the cold wind. As she negotiated the next curve, she glanced over her shoulder to see him standing there, looking as alone as she felt.

She spotted Marin and Holly waiting for her and she skidded to a rough-edged halt.

Marin was flushed with excitement. “When I talked to him on the phone, did I mention to you that I found out he isn’t married? He’s a widower.”

Katherine couldn’t stop the wave of sympathy for him. That was sad. It did explain the lack of a wedding ring.

“Did you see how he was looking at you?”

“Like I was contagious with the bird flu?”

“That’s the denial talking.” Holly held up Jack’s lost ski. “We would have returned this to him, but we didn’t want to interrupt.”

“There was nothing to interrupt.” So maybe she was in a little denial. But not much. “I get the strong feeling that Jack doesn’t like me at all.”

“He does,” Holly and Marin chimed in unison.

Did they know how wrong they were? Completely. “What do you two know about men? You’re both single.”

“Yeah, but we have the experience of many failed relationships between us. Here.” Holly handed her the ski. “Either go up to him or we’ll just wait around the next corner and you can wait here for him, since he’s bound to come looking for this.”

“Then he’ll find it just fine, whether I’m here or not.” She could see him starting down the trail, balancing on one ski. He was on his way down.

There was only one thing to do. She propped the slim black ski, brand-new and newly waxed, against the snow berm where it would be easy for Jack to spot when he limped around the corner. “You two have been plotting while I was talking to Jack.”

“Guilty,” Marin admitted. “He’s a great-looking guy. He’s a caring father, so I know he has a lot of heart.”

“You can have him then, because his personality isn’t so great.” Katherine wasn’t sure if that was the whole truth, but Jack’s first impression had been a whopper. Remembering how he’d behaved when they’d first met would keep her firmly entrenched in her state of denial. “C’mon, let’s get moving.”

“You’re just gonna leave the ski?” Holly looked crestfallen. “But, what about our plan? You can’t get to know him better if you don’t stay, talk, meet him in the lodge for hot drinks.”

“News flash. I don’t plan on seeing Jack Munroe ever again even if I have to avoid him. Let’s go, he’s almost here.” She pushed off, leading the way down the trail. Snow pummeled into her like little wind-driven bullets, and she didn’t look back. Didn’t want to.

Because she already knew what she’d see. The disappointment on her friends’ faces and Jack Munroe wobbling on one ski. Jack Munroe, who’d given her flowers and who had enough problems on his plate. Just because he was a widower didn’t mean she was suddenly interested in him. She was pretty sure that Jack was not the man she was looking for.

Humiliation was a sad thing. Jack had found his ski, but his dignity had taken a fatal hit. In front of Katherine McKaslin.

Why her, Lord? He took another sip of strong sweetened tea in the warmth of the lodge’s empty auxiliary dining room and tried to squeeze the memory from his mind of glancing up to see Katherine at the top of the ravine, looking like a gift from heaven dappled with snow.

The Lord wasn’t answering, and Jack had to accept it. Why he was continuously coming across as a bull in a china shop in front of Katherine might forever remain a mystery. Maybe the trick would be staying away from her. That shouldn’t be too hard to do, right?

Right. So stop thinking about her.

Okay, he focused on the view outside the wide picture windows. Stunning. The rugged snow-draped mountain peaks stabbed into the falling veil of snow. Closer in, the mountain slope lay in a pure mantle of white that felt as peaceful as it looked. Out front, just within his view, a half dozen teens on skis were clustered in a half circle around a beginning instructor. Hayden was one of them. She stood at the end, a little farther away than the others. He only saw her from behind but he knew that slump to her shoulders. She was scowling, looking nothing at all like the little girl he remembered.

Where had the time gone? In a blink of an eye, here she was, a teenager, fifteen going on sixteen, and he wasn’t ready for it. Something had gone wrong somewhere, and he didn’t know what. The move here to Montana, to a smaller city and a slower pace was supposed to fix that. And after the stunt she’d pulled in Katherine’s store, it was clear his little girl was a teenager on the edge of trouble. Funny, he’d always blamed the parents for something like that.

But he was simply doing his best.

Maybe finding a church would help with that. He simply hadn’t had the time with the move and the adjustment to a new home and job to start searching for the right one. Thank God for this opportunity. Jack’s chest tightened with a mix of emotions he couldn’t name except for one. Gratitude. If Hayden was going to act out, it had been a blessing that she’d done so in front of Katherine. That they’d been given this chance to make things right. It was an opportunity he refused to waste, and he wouldn’t let Hayden waste it either.

Katherine. His guts knotted when he thought of her. Maybe the Lord was trying to tell him something. Like give up any thoughts of dating. You aren’t cut out for it. Not that he’d been thinking on that real hard, but some of the guys at work were more than happy to offer to set him up. He’d turned them down, so far. He was doing fine enough on his own, right?

Well, as tough as it was to admit, not really.

“More tea, sir?” The sunny waitress breezed up to his corner table with another pot of steaming water.

Not in a sunny mood, he gave a gruff nod and kept his attention on Hayden. The snow was falling harder now, shadowing the kids so that it was hard to see them as they followed their instructor, sidestepping toward the beginner’s run. He watched Hayden’s blue parka grow smaller and disappear over a rise.

That’s when he felt it, a flicker of emotion stretching tight right behind his sternum and then popping free, like a rubber band snapping. What was that?

He didn’t have to look around to know who was coming his way. For some unfathomable reason, he could feel the string pulling tight again, right over his heart the moment he saw Katherine enter the dining room.