toughest decisions are. But that’s the way it should be, since you’re the one who has to live with the consequences.”
Consequences. She had left him this morning, and it had been hard. He was leaving soon to get back to his touring schedule and his new professional life. He’d said last night that he didn’t want to lose her, but she knew him better than that.
Eventually he would move on.
And where would that leave her?
Lindsey took a sip of orange juice to wash away the parched feeling in her throat. She should put some distance between them now, instead of skiing with him and asking him to stay the night at her place.
“I guess you must really like him,” Elizabeth said, “if you are that confused about what to do.”
She did like him. A lot. But as with all the other things in her life that she wanted, he was right out of her grasp. He wasn’t like skiing, something she could train for and master. He was always going to keep her guessing and trying to keep up with her own feelings.
She had to cut her ties to him, and she had to start doing it now.
“Sure, what’s not to like? Carter is sexy, charming and just the sort of guy a woman uses as a distraction.”
CARTER WOKE UP feeling pretty good. He’d done just enough to get Lindsey back in his bed where he wanted her. Or, as it was in this case, his bed. He saw her note and swung by his place to shower, change and collect his snowboard. Hitting the slopes with Lindsey was going to be fun.
It felt right in his bones to be doing this with her, and after yesterday’s setback, he was ready to move forward. He hoped that he didn’t have to talk about his emotions ever again.
That had easily been the scariest moment of his life. He smiled at the valet as he tossed his keys to him and stopped by the little counter-service café off the lobby for a coffee before heading into the main dining room to find Lindsey.
He saw her sitting with Elizabeth near one of the windows. They were talking intently, and he felt something shift and settle in his soul. She was his. Lindsey looked pretty with her long blond hair hanging loose around her shoulders. She wore a pair of leggings and a long sweater, and when she talked she gestured with her hands.
He stood there in the shadows, just watching her, almost afraid to believe that he’d somehow convinced her to take a chance on him. The guy that the world saw as never serious about anything had a very serious crush on her.
His ice queen.
He’d melted her, and in return found that she had melted him. A part of that would never be the same again.
He took a sip of his coffee as the maître d’ came over to see if he wanted breakfast.
“Nah, I’m fine. I’m going to surprise those ladies.”
The other man nodded, and slowly Carter made his way through the tables. There weren’t that many people in the restaurant this morning. He noticed Georgina and Stan were sitting quietly together, and he thought of how it took all types of relationships. That there wasn’t just one kind of relationship or one answer to how they worked.
Maybe even someone like him could find true happiness with Lindsey.
“He was a distraction,” Lindsey said.
He paused. Was she talking about him?
“Are you talking about me?”
She glanced over her shoulder; all the color left her face and she bit her lower lip.
“Carter, how nice to see you this morning,” Elizabeth said quickly.
But he wasn’t interested in being sociable or pleasant right now. Unless he was wrong—and let’s face it, he wasn’t—Lindsey had pretty much just relegated him to booty-call status. Well, hell. He’d been thinking they were something special and she was getting ready to show him the door?
“We’re you talking about me, Lindsey?” he asked again.
She turned her face down and wouldn’t meet his gaze. “Yes, Carter, I was.”
He didn’t know what else to say to that. And he hadn’t been expecting her to admit it—especially not in front of Elizabeth.
“I thought we were past that.” He gritted the words out. “Didn’t last night mean anything to you?”
She stood. “I don’t want to talk about this now.”
“That’s too bad,” he said, blocking her path. “Your distraction isn’t going to be just brushed aside as easily as that.”
“Carter, please. I don’t think this is the right time.”
“Too bad. I’m tired of running after you and never feeling like I’m good enough. You know that you can’t keep me dancing to your tune forever.”
“You haven’t been dancing to anyone’s tune except your own,” she said, her temper flaring. There was a red flush on her cheeks as she stepped forward, pushing her finger at his chest. “We aren’t normal couple material. You have a life that takes you around the world, I don’t. I’m here working and trying to figure out—”
“Figure out what? How to not be afraid of the one thing that makes you special?” Sure, he had weaknesses, but she did, too. How could she not see that with her, he was different? With Lindsey he had a shot at being the man he’d always wanted to be but had never been able to figure out how.
As soon as the words left his mouth, he knew he’d gone too far. She shoved her way past him. He wanted to take it all back. To pull her into his arms and apologize, but he couldn’t. He knew he should, but he wasn’t built that way. And the farther out of his grasp she moved, the meaner his thoughts became.
“Don’t walk away like that,” he said.
She shook her head, and he saw the sheen of tears in her big brown eyes...but she didn’t let them fall. “At least I have something that makes me special and I’m not afraid to admit it.”
What the hell did she mean by that? “I’m not hiding.”
“Yes, you are hiding. Everything you do is another barrier to keep everyone from seeing the real man. The boy I met at seventeen already had those barriers in place, so I wonder if you even know who you really are anymore.”
She’d cut a little too close to the bone with that observation, and later on he’d feel the bruising, not just to his ego but also to his soul. But right now he was too busy trying to even the score and make sure she walked away as deeply hurt as he was.
“You’re not seventeen anymore, either, and maybe hiding away in Park City isn’t the solution for you,” he said harshly. “You fell. So what? A lot of skiers fall. You were injured and now you’re better. It’s time you stopped hiding.”
He’d
