I nodded, and he took the approval to continue attaching my skis, his strong hands buckling pieces of metal and hard plastic together. When the skis were clipped on, he tested the security by lightly pulling on them. With his eyes glued to mine, he trailed his fingers from the skis up to my calf. His touch was delicate but firm enough that I could feel it through my layers. It wasn’t much, only a small, light movement up my leg, but with his dark brown eyes gazing into mine, it was incredibly intimate. My cheeks and ears flamed despite the freezing cold weather.

“Are they tight enough?” He asked, his tone coarse and rigid.

I hummed softly, my eyelids half open. “Oh yes. I think they are.” I looked down at the skis on my feet. Finn stood and wiped the snow off his knees, then grabbed both of my hands and helped me stand.

I wasn’t expecting to agree with Finn on this whole charade, but after listening to Mom and Taylor talk about how great he is, there was no way I could dump him like a pile of trash. I wouldn’t hear the end of it until I left home. At least this way, when I got back to Florida, I could call them in a few weeks and break the news over the phone.

When I stood up with Finn’s help, my feet slid up and down the patch of ice I was on, and my arms instinctively shot out with my fingers spread wide for balance. My chest and shoulders adjusted, trying to find a comfortable posture to do more than stand, but I leaned too far forward and nearly smacked my nose on the ice.

“Woah. Hold on there, Grinchy.” Finn’s hand came up to my waist, and I found myself wanting equally to push it away and pull it close. It was like my ovaries were at war with my brain, and I was trying to stay neutral like Switzerland. The ovaries shouted, “Look how hot he is, take him home!” while my brain said, “Run! Now!”

Respectfully they were both annoying me.

When his hand left my side, I forced myself to straighten up and lifted my chin. I turned to where everyone else stood and saw all eyes were indeed on us now, including Cooper, whose grin was undoubtedly mischievous. I cleared my throat and grabbed the ski poles from Finn’s hands.

“Wait. Let me fix this first.” He grabbed the snow goggles and brought them down to my eyes. The new shades provided the comfort of being able to see more than blinding white everywhere. With ski poles in hand, I pushed myself forward, one tiny foot in front of the other. I clearly couldn’t glide my way over there, so I had to awkwardly lift my skis each step to walk them over to my family.