*

“You’re doing awesome!”

They were on a green run—the easiest kind, Lucy soon found out—and Will was skiing backwards in front of her, making it look as simple as walking, which for him, it probably was.

He was watching her form and explaining how to make little corrections and, surprisingly, she was doing very well. At first, she’d been self-conscious about him watching every nuance of how she moved—and she’d felt like a giraffe on roller skates when she’d first stood up on skis—but as the morning progressed and as she progressed, she found that she really liked skiing.

Lucy beamed at Will. “Do you think maybe you can start skiing forward now?”

He laughed. “Sometimes I forget.” He gracefully changed directions and was soon skiing alongside her. She snuck a surreptitious glance at him, still amazed by how effortless he made it look, and she recalled her conversation with Steph from that morning. Of course, he was good. He’d been on the snow for twenty-six years!

They were coming up on a skiing class of small children and Lucy’s stomach twisted into a tight knot. “You’ve got this,” said a reassuring voice to her right. “Just lean ever so slightly to the left and take that path there.” She followed the line of Will’s arm and gave a sharp nod.

The children seemed to be intent on scattering across the width of the ski run, and Lucy held her breath as she narrowly missed a little boy wearing a Cookie Monster helmet. They passed the skiing class without incident, though, and she sighed, a grin spreading across her face.

“You’re a natural,” Will called to her.

“I can’t believe I’m going to say this, but it’s brilliant!”

“We were lucky. It’s usually much more crowded than this, but the storm must have deterred some people from making the trek.”

“And it’s sunny!” she exclaimed. She heard his laugh and when she glanced his way, there was a broad grin under his goggles.

“Yeah, it’s kind of perfect. Fresh dump of powder last night, sunshine today. But it’s not always like this. That’s how you know you’re a hardcore skier or snowboarder—you go out even when it’s freezing and there’s zero visibility. If there’s fresh powder, you just want to get out in it.”

Lucy had a realisation—she’d been so absorbed in what Will was saying, she was no longer nervous about skiing around other people. She was just doing it. And those two hours of snowploughing on the bunny hill getting her confidence up were definitely paying off. Will hadn’t let her try a green run until she could ski with parallel skis, and she’d never worked so hard to follow instructions in her life.

It was the ski lift that had terrified her most, however. What if she fell off and plummeted to the ground below? What if, when it was time to ski off it, she slipped, and the ski lift smacked her in the head and she had to go off to hospital—on Christmas Eve!