to make it to one of her ski lessons today but was disappointed he’d missed out on it.
“Hey, Carter, you got a minute?”
Georgina was one of Thunderbolt girls, though calling her a girl was a bit of a misnomer. She was his age and had been married to Stan Poirier, the owner of the Thunderbolt energy drink company, for a few years now. He liked her—she was nice enough and had always sort of had a way of making the overtly sexy ads he shot for her husband’s company seem almost okay.
She also must have the temperament of a saint to put up with Stan’s flirting. But there was some real love between those two, and somehow they must have figured out something that worked for them.
Carter wanted that with Lindsey. But he was honest enough to admit that he had no idea how to get it. He wasn’t good at the normal days. He could do nights of sex and fun adventures, but the everyday living was harder.
“Actually, I was just on my way out,” he said. He was anxious to find Lindsey. And, if he was honest, to wash away a bit of the fake attitude he’d had to step into to be the spokesman for Thunderbolt.
“It won’t take long,” she promised, leading him away from the others to a cozy couch set up in one of the alcoves in the long hallway in the lodge.
“What’s up?” he asked as she sat and gestured for him to sit next to her. Sitting would mean this wasn’t going to be as quick as he had hoped, but he complied.
“That woman you were with at the nightclub, Lindsey...I think she’s an Alpine skier,” Georgina started.
“Yes, she is. What about her?”
“She saw you filming. She didn’t look too happy and I wanted to let you know before you went charging off to see her.”
Ah, hell. That was the last thing he’d expected. “Thanks.”
He started to stand, but she stopped him. “Do you want some advice?”
He just looked at her, and she smiled.
“Probably not, right? Who wants to listen to another person when it comes to relationships? But I’m going to tell you about Stan and me. He’s always interviewing those gorgeous girls. You know how they look at him, and he likes it. He likes that they fawn all over him.”
“It’s not like that for me,” Carter said. “Lindsey makes all the rest of them pale in comparison.”
“Good. Make sure you tell her that.”
He studied Georgina for a moment. “Does Stan tell you that?”
“Not often enough,” she confessed. “But I know he loves me.”
“How?” Carter asked curiously. Women had sometimes mentioned the L word around him, but the truth was he’d never experienced it in a relationship. He loved his dad, but then the old man had been his only constant in his life. His mom had died giving birth to him, and it had always been just him and his dad. A part of him thought maybe the fear that gripped him when he thought of not having Lindsey in his life might be love.
Or maybe it was something else. He just had no idea.
“Stan shows me every day,” Georgina explained. “Does special little things that he knows I like, and he always makes me feel like I’m the most beautiful woman in the world. I don’t know if that will work for Lindsey, but it does for me.” Leaning closer, Georgina reached out and patted him on the shoulder. “Every year those girls seem younger, and I feel... Well, that doesn’t matter. I just wanted you to be aware of what she’d seen. I like her.”
“I do, too. I’ll explain that I had to do the photo shoot today.”
She arched a brow. “You’ve known about it for weeks.”
“I...I’m not really good with the relationship stuff,” Carter admitted, releasing a frustrated breath.
“Don’t try to pull that kind of BS with her.”
It was funny that Georgina could see through it; most people just shrugged and assigned it to his snowboarder, live-free attitude. But she knew that it wasn’t. He didn’t like the fact that she could read him, and wondered if his mask was slipping now that he was spending so much time with Lindsey.
With her he felt as though he could be himself. But he didn’t feel that way with the rest of the world. Certainly not with the Thunderbolt energy drink company. He needed to keep his guard up.
“I won’t. Thanks,” he said, standing.
He walked away from Georgina, but the farther he moved into the lodge, the slower his steps became. Talking to Lindsey wasn’t going to be easy. He knew it. He should have mentioned it earlier, but he’d felt silly saying he was going to be in a hot tub with a bevy of twentysomethings.
“Dude, you don’t want to go to the bar,” Bradley said, coming up behind him.
“Why not?”
“Lindsey is pissed about what happened earlier, and Elizabeth texted me to find you.”
Great. “It was just a job.”
“I get it, man, believe me, I do. But apparently Lindsey thought there was something wrong with you because you missed a class. She went from worrying for your safety to seeing you cavorting in a hot tub.”
“Damn. I didn’t think of it that way.”
“Or maybe you did,” Bradley said. “I know for me there are times when I need to know that I’m at least as important to Elizabeth as the resort is. So I do stuff to get her attention.”
Was that what he’d been doing?
He knew each day she was getting more confident on her skis and needed him just a little bit less. That was something he couldn’t tolerate.
“I’M SORRY,” CARTER said as she opened the door to her condo. He’d texted her that he’d had to work and had just gotten her message. Then he’d asked if he could stop by her place and she’d said yes.
Lindsey was over her earlier upset and realized that if she was going to be involved with Carter she’d have to get used to seeing him with other woman. His biggest sponsor had a lot of those scantily clad girls. But she also knew that it was more complicated than that.
“It’s okay. I was foolishly worried something had happened to you,” she said. But it wasn’t as if they’d had a standing appointment or anything like that, so a part of her felt that maybe she shouldn’t have been so freaked out.
“I know. I should have mentioned the photo shoot but I just didn’t... I felt like we were starting to feel too settled and that I had to tell you, so I didn’t.”
“It’s fine. I get it.” She gave him a cavalier smile. “Remember, we said we’d make up our own rules. So we don’t have to share everything if you don’t want to.”
