Lucy’s stomach twisted at the thought of either.

“Um, I’m not really very athletic.” It was the polite way to say, “No thank you very much, please sod off.”

Steph waved off her refusal. “Oh, there’s nothing to it. You’ll be fine.”

“But I didn’t bring any gear.”

“Jules is about your size, and you’re only a little taller than her. She’s got a few snow outfits here. We’ll get you situated. And you can rent the boots and skis up there. You’ll love it.”

Lucy was sure she would not love it, but found herself saying a weak, “All right.”

Steph grinned and drank some more coffee.

*

“I look like a Teletubby,” Lucy moaned quietly at herself in the mirror.

There was a knock at her bedroom door and she jerked it open, daring whoever was standing on the other side to say one thing about the way she looked. Will. Just brilliant.

“So, you ready?” he seemed particularly casual about the fact that she was wearing head-to-toe aubergine and resembled either a bloated undercooked sausage or the aforementioned Teletubby. Tinky Winky was the purple one, wasn’t he?

“I think so. I mean, what should I bring?” Lucy preferred to have everything planned out and this outing was far too ad hoc for her liking.

Will scratched the back of his head. He wasn’t wearing a daft outfit. He was wearing a T-shirt which had—again—ridden up and shown his extremely taut stomach. Was there such a thing as a twelve-pack?

“Okay, you’ve got the goggles, the mittens, and the ski socks …” Those items, all borrowed from Jules, were in a small backpack—also aubergine—on the bed. “And we’ll get you a helmet and boots up there. Oh, yeah, you’ll need lip balm.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, for the cold.” He laughed. “You’re looking at me like I said lipstick or something. Just, you know, regular old Chapstick.”

She did not like how amused he seemed. How was she supposed to know what to take with her for a day of skiing? She gave him a firm stare and he stopped laughing.

“Okay, um, bring your phone—in case anything happens, you know …?” No, she did not know, and she didn’t want to think about it. “And tissues. There should be those little packets in your bathroom. Bring a few. Your nose runs like crazy up there.” Well, that’s just brilliant. So far, nothing he’d said made her any happier about their impending outing. “And that should be it. Oh, and there’s these.” He retrieved two foils packs from his pocket and held them out.

Lucy had seen them before. They were those little heat packs you put in your boots for when it’s really cold. She didn’t know they made them for hands too, but he’d given her one set of each. “Jules gets numb fingers and toes sometimes, so she uses those. Okay, so meet you downstairs in a few minutes? And you can just wear your Uggs.”

“Only Americans wear Ugg boots outside,” she muttered to herself. She really did hope it was jet lag making her so ill-tempered. Or perhaps it was abject fear. Was she really doing this?