Page 11 of A Bear Ski Instructor Christmas (Holiday Shifters of Frost Mountain)

The Two-Legged Table

“Aw, crap,” Michael muttered, dropping the hammer. “That’s not good.”

The table he’d been working on was missing a leg. How hadn’t he noticed it before? He’d been trying to put together a three-legged table for one of the villagers ahead of Christmas. So far, the thing had only two of them. Not enough for it to stand on its own. What was worse, he’d fixed both legs opposite each other. He’d have to add two more if he wanted to keep the table from toppling over.

Now, I’ve got to start all over.

The night was colder than usual, and he was working alone in the workshop. Andrew had left for home earlier. Working alone certainly had its perks. For one, he had no one to distract him. The problem was that distractions didn’t always appear in the form of friends. Sometimes, they were his own thoughts. He wouldn’t have made such a silly mistake with this table if his mind hadn’t been so preoccupied with the memory of the other night.

He hadn’t seen Elena since she tried to kiss him by the lake, mostly because he’d been actively avoiding her. Still, the memory pricked the back of his mind. It had all happened so fast. One second, they’d been talking, and the next, he’d nearly stumbled into a rock trying to get away from her.

It had been so sudden. Not as sudden and unexpected as when Rachel had thrown her arms around him and kissed him the day they met. But Elena was not Rachel. Even now, Michael wasn’t sure there was anything thing he wouldn’t do to feel the elf woman’s lips on his again. At the same time, he’d give anything to keep from bumping into Elena in the next week or so.

But they’d cross paths again eventually. Melinor was too small a village for him to avoid her forever. For now, at least…

He flipped the table over, gazing at it in the soft moonlight streaking in through the open door. He’d have to take it apart and be more careful reattaching the legs. Maybe if he could—

“Working late?” said a voice, drawing his attention to the door.

Speak of the devil.

“It’s not my first time,” Michael said, feeling his spine stiffen all of a sudden. “What are you doing here?”

Elena remained in the doorway, the moonlight casting a long shadow across the floor of the workshop. “I figured I’d drop by to see you. You weren’t in your cabin. And here you are.”

“I’m busy, Elena.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Of course you are. You’re always too busy to talk to me. Never too busy for her.”

“Rachel?” he wondered.

At the mention of the name, Elena seemed to recoil. “I’ve seen the way you look at her. Like she’s the only woman you’ve ever known. But you don’t even remember her.”

“Elena, maybe we should talk about this some other time—”

“I want to have it out now, Michael,” she snapped. For a second, she was silent, then asked, “Don’t you like me?”

He breathed an exasperated sigh. “Is this about what happened the other night?”

“Are you going to answer my question or not?”

There was no point letting this conversation drag on any further. Michael turned away from the table and faced her, hands folded across his chest. “No, Elena.”

“What,” she scoffed, “you think she’s the better choice?”

His jaw clenched slightly. “I don’t…like you. At least, not in the way you expect. I can’t give you what you want.”

Her stony expression seemed to waver for a second, and then it was back. “I see. So Rachel…”

“I want Rachel, and I’m starting to think that we were together in the past before I got here.” That wasn’t entirely true. As much as he wanted to believe it, he still didn’t remember enough to be fully convinced. “That’s it. Is that what you wanted to hear, Elena?”

The look in her eyes answered his question. “Well, I hope it works out for you two. I…guess I’ll see you later, Michael.”

She turned to leave. Michael thought he heard a sob before her shadow disappeared.

With another sigh, he turned back to the table, wondering if he should’ve said something else. The last thing he wanted to do was to hurt Elena’s feelings—or anyone else’s, for that matter. In his defense, she hadn’t given him much choice.

He forced the thoughts from his mind and continued to work on the table. It wasn’t long before the distractions resumed, this time in the form of someone else. A smile tugged at his lips as thoughts of Rachel filled his mind. Now, if she’d been the one who showed up at the workshop instead…

A series of footfalls in the snow outside pulled him out of his reverie, and he turned just in time to see a figure appear in the doorway.

“Elena,” he began. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have—”

He froze. It wasn’t Elena who stood in the doorway.

It was Andrew.

“I came back because I forgot to leave this.” He held up a hammer, frowning at Michael. “What exactly happened while I was gone?”

Michael regarded his friend for a moment. Then he told him everything that had happened, from Elena’s attempted kiss by the lake to their brief chat tonight.

By the time he was done, Andrew’s eyed him with amazement. “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me she tried to kiss you.” He held up a hand. “Don’t worry, I’m not annoyed about that. But you don’t need to feel so bad for telling her the truth. You’ve never had feelings for Elena. Nothing she says or does can change that.”

Michael ran his fingers through his hair. “I feel like this would all be so much easier if I could just recover the rest of my memories. That’s what I was trying to do by the lake. It’s hard, knowing there’s something there, just out of my reach.” Ever since the other day, when that image flashed in his mind, he’d known it without a doubt. “It’s confusing.”

“But you know what you want, don’t you?”

He didn’t answer. As much as he wanted to believe he did, it was hard to tell himself that he really did know what he wanted, especially since he couldn’t even remember the woman he wanted.

And the way things were going, he was starting to wonder if he ever would.