dressed in her ski outfit looking like the ice queen as she took off her coat.
Penny and Elizabeth climbed the stage, too, and stood behind her. She cleared her throat as one of the techs handed her a microphone.
“Good morning, everyone,” she said. The talking slowly died down and everyone turned toward where she stood at the front of the ballroom.
“First of all, thank you for participating in today’s event and for volunteering your time and services for our event this coming November.”
There was a round of applause and Lindsey took a deep breath.
“What many of you might not know is that this event was the brainchild of Carter Shaw.”
She pointed to the corner where Carter stood. “There is probably a lot about Carter that you don’t know, but the most important thing from my point of view is that he’s...um...not a distraction to me.”
She signaled to Bradley and heard the single drum beat before Cher started singing “The Shoop Shoop Song” and she lip-synched, “‘Does he love me?’”
With Penny and Elizabeth dancing and shooping behind her, she met Carter’s blue-gray gaze from across the room. Slowly she sang and danced her way over to him, weaving a path through the crowd as everyone clapped and turned to look at him, too.
She was more nervous about what he was going to do once she got to his side, but she felt alive and so in love with him at that moment that it really didn’t matter. She wasn’t going to be able to tell herself that he didn’t know how she felt after this moment.
She stopped in front of Carter as the song ended with “It’s in his kiss.” She stood there for a minute and looked into his eyes.
“I wanna know if you love me so,” she said quietly. She lifted her hands to his face, curving them against his cheeks as she went up on tiptoe and kissed him.
He stood there, his mouth rigid under hers for a moment, and she feared she’d made a huge mistake. But then she felt his arms come around her as he lifted her off her feet and spun her around in his arms.
“I do love you,” he whispered into her neck. “I hope you felt it in my kiss.”
* * *
CARTER FELT HUMBLED and happy and so damned glad that Lindsey had more courage than he did when it came to showing how much she loved him. He held her closely to him and never wanted to let go.
“Gorgeous, I loved that,” he said with a big grin. Then he realized that everyone in the room was still staring at them. And if he’d learned anything from their last public discussion, it was that she preferred privacy.
He led her out of the room and down the hall to one of those little conversation nooks. He set her on her feet and gazed into her big brown eyes.
“Did you mean it?” he asked. He’d been alone so long. Felt so unattached to everyone else in the world that it was hard to believe she’d connected to him. That she loved him. Love wasn’t something he’d ever prized until he thought he’d never have hers.
“Yes, I meant it. Would I sing that song and dance around the ballroom if I didn’t?” she asked, still clutching his hand tightly.
She seemed to need his strength now that she’d made her confession, and he was more than happy to give it to her. “You do like the spotlight.”
“Ha. You know I don’t. Listen, I wore this outfit today because last year when I had my crash I felt like I lost everything. That my life was over. I retreated here and recovered physically, but mentally I had no idea how to fix myself.
“And then you showed up, teasing me and flirting and making me think about things that had nothing to do with skiing, but you woke me up. Shook me out of my icy state, and I’m not the Ice Queen anymore. You’ve made it so I can’t be again. I really do love you, Carter.” Tears shimmered in her eyes as she reached up and gently brushed a lock of hair off his forehead.
He brought his mouth down on hers, kissing her with all the emotion that he’d shoved deep down for so long. To hear her say those words and confess to loving him.
“Do you feel it in my kiss?” he murmured as he lifted his head. “I love you, Lindsey. I have never in my life been afraid of anything. I’ve never needed anyone. I’m happy to look for my next big challenge and move on, but the thought of leaving here without you by my side was unbearable.” He cupped her face in his hands, one thumb gently caressing her cheek. “I wanted you to see me and know that last year when I dared and tried to claim a kiss, I was really coming after you.
“I was ready for our lives to stop being about competing on the snow and to make them more intimate. I can’t live without you, gorgeous. I love you.”
She smiled at him. “I was so nervous. But I wanted to prove how much you meant to me. I’m sorry for all the things I said. And how I acted at the ski lesson yesterday.”
He sat on the couch and pulled her onto his lap, cradling her close to him as he stroked his hand down her back. He could hardly believe that she was his. At last, after all these years, he had the one woman he’d always been afraid to admit he wanted.
“I was pushing you, too. I didn’t want to leave myself vulnerable. Admit I loved you before you did,” he said. “Damn, gorgeous, you beat me to it today. I was planning to confess at the end of the events.”
“Once again you are eating my dust,” she said with a huge grin. “I couldn’t wait. Skiing is important, of course, but I needed to know where you fit in my life... Well, that you’d be in my life at the end of the race.”
He looked into those big beautiful brown eyes of hers and felt a sense of rightness settle over him. “You have me.”
“Good. That doesn’t mean I’m still not going to beat you at everything we do.”
“Uh, how do you figure you’ve done that?” he asked drily.
“Um, poker, I won. World records—I’ve got two. Your heart, I won again.”
He’d won, as well...at poker and with her heart.
He cuddled her close and traced the line of her neck down her arm and lifted her hand to his mouth to kiss her palm before placing it over his heart. “You have my heart, that is true. I have a world record, and I only compete in one event so that pretty much makes us even. And...poker? I let you win.”
She threw her head back and laughed. The joyous sound echoing through the hall and through his empty soul. “You let me?”
“That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it,” he said.
“If that’s what you want to believe,” she murmured. “I want the man I love to be happy.”
“I am.”
She’d made him the happiest man in the world today. Where he’d had doubt and fear and bottled-up emotion, he now had Lindsey and her love. He knew that the road for them wouldn’t be traditional or smooth—that just wasn’t their way. But having her by his side was all he’d wanted, and he could admit now that he was very happy to have her by his
