Page 19 of Ski You Later (Alpine Glow #1)
It’s impossible for me to focus on anything when she’s in pain.
I smack my feet against the lodge's worn carpeted floors as the day comes to a blissful end. My four little toes have all frozen together, forming what I call the mega-toe . They’ve also reached the point where they’re so cold that it burns.
Plopping onto my usual stool, I do whatever is necessary to get these frozen plastic shells off my feet as fast as possible. A few minutes of whining and watery eyes later, my ski boots lay discarded at my side.
After wiggling my toes fails miserably, I attempt to stand to help with the blood flow. This also fails spectacularly, and I find myself clutching the stool for dear life.
Today’s training was more intense than usual, with the first race looming over everyone's heads.
Even though I lost the feeling in my feet within that first hour, I kept skiing as many laps of the course as possible.
The result of my commitment today left me with ten frozen stubs and socks iced onto my skin.
I take a couple of minutes to let my feet breathe and start to remove the rest of my gear. The blonde strands are plastered to my head with sweat and stick in every direction when I remove my helmet.
This gets a cackle from Charles sitting across from me, and I quickly braid my hair before he can take a photo. After putting everything on the table, I brace myself for the main event.
Wrapping my hands around my feet to try and thaw my socks, I have the sobering realization that I don’t have any feeling in those either. I start breathing warm air into my fingers and watch as the team trickles in from the cold.
Snow sticks to everyone’s jackets as the icy wind whips through the open doors. The entire team showed up for training today and slowly starts filling up our corner of the lodge.
The sound of ski boots hitting the floor fills my ears as we all undress and wait for the coaches to give us a debrief .
Next week is the first race of the season, so Liane will go over the proper conduct expected of a Polar Team athlete.
It’ll just be the usual rules that they’ll make no attempt to enforce.
Wear your team jacket at all times.
Do not leave your rooms after ten at night.
You are representing the University when you wear that jacket, so you all must be on your best behaviour.
I roll my eyes just thinking about all the time this speech will waste as I go back to trying to move my feet.
The spike of pain that shoots up my calf makes me grit my teeth and grip the end of the table for support. Looking across from me, I see Aurora’s going through similar pain as tears streak down her face.
As I’m about to say something to her, a hand lands lightly on my shoulder.
Turning to the side, I find Roman looking down at me, furrowing his brow with concern. It looks as if he just walked inside, since his helmet and jacket are both sporting miniature snow piles.
“What’s wrong? Why are you crying?” His question sounds more like a panicked demand as he examines me. His eyes are wide as he takes me in, only looking back once as he sits on the stool across from me.
“Did someone make you cry?” He begins to whip his head back and forth around the lodge as if he’ll find what he’s looking for.
I give a pained chuckle as I place my hand on his arm. “You’re being ridiculous; no one made me cry. I’m totally fine.” I give him a tight-lipped smile and then look away as I scrunch my face up in pain.
“What’s your face doing then?” He starts unclipping his gear as he looks at me quizzically.
“It’s nothing. My feet are frozen, and I’m currently in the burning phase of frostbite,” I try to say casually, but my toe accidently knocks against the ground. My entire body tenses on the impact and I turn my wince into a smile in order to convince Roman that I’m fine.
There is an upward tilt to his lips as he leaves to retrieve his ski bag. He removes the rest of the equipment in front of me, but frequently glances my way.
After looking at me three more times, I turn towards him fully. “Why are you sitting over here?” I ask curiously. He always sits a couple of tables over with his roommates, but they don’t seem too upset he’s sitting here now.
Roman’s shoulders shrug. “I wanted to sit here today,” he says simply.
“Why?”
“Because I wanted to,” he responds immediately.
“But why?”
A small laugh bursts out of him then, his head hanging low as his body starts to convulse. Confusion fills me for a second before I realize that he’s laughing.
He looks up at me, a sheen of water in his eyes as he sends me a smile. His eyes scan the surrounding area before he leans into my space and puts his lips to my ear.
“You are absolutely terrible at this dating thing, Langley,” he drawls. His smile’s so prominent that I can practically hear it in his voice. I blush at that, having forgotten we’re even fake dating in the first place.
He’s still smiling as he leans away from me and against the lodge table. I send him a teasing scowl as I begin packing my equipment. My brain mulls over a witty retort to send Roman’s way, but Liane and Rachel appear before I have any hopes of delivering it .
“Alright, listen up team. Rachel and I are going to go over all the rules for our first official race of the season.” She pulls out her notebook and goes over the general itinerary for the trip.
“The van will leave the school lot at six am, Thursday morning. We’ll drive non-stop until we reach Thistle Mountain. This is a seven-hour drive, so pack lunch, water, and lots of snacks.”
They start to describe the packing list for the race, and at the same moment, I feel my feet being lifted from the ground.
The burning feeling returns in an instant, as the contact of warm hands causing prickling to break out over my toes. The pain immediately lessens with the pressure from those hands, and warmth starts to slowly bleed into my feet.
I turn my head to see Roman holding both my feet in his lap, his warm hands gripping them together as he tries his best to melt the ice from my socks. His brow is furrowed in concentration as he alternates lightly squeezing both my feet between his insanely warm hands.
The tears return to my eyes for a completely different reason as I watch our team captain treat my frozen toes so gently. He’s applying the perfect amount of pressure to slowly warm my feet without crushing them.
Roman glances up periodically so the coaches can see he’s listening, but the majority of his attention remains on the task in front of him.
My eyes are glued to the boy before me, but as I look around the group, I see that his little stunt hasn’t gone unnoticed. Most of the team ignores the coaches and now watches Roman take his time warming up my toes. It hasn’t slipped past my attention that half of them have their jaw hanging open.
I guess hearing that Roman’s my boyfriend versus actually seeing it are two completely different matters at hand.
I don’t miss the look of shock that’s on Jasmine’s face, as well as the enormous grin that Xander and Landon are both wearing.
It suddenly clicks what he’s doing. Roman chose to do this in front of the whole team, ensuring that everyone would be watching and help sell our relationship. It was a great tactical move on his part, and the effort he’s putting in should make me so happy.
Yet, against my better judgement, his intentions cause all the fluttering in my chest to wither up and die. For one split second, I felt giddy at the thought that he was doing this just because he wanted to. Not because he saw a great opportunity for others to see us acting like a couple.
I don’t let any of my feelings show on my face. This would all go to waste if I looked sad, so I ensure to keep the facade of a loving girlfriend locked in.
Rachel must have noticed the shift in the team’s attention because she suddenly claps loudly to regain the room. “I don’t know why Langley’s feet are more important than your schedule, but we’re not going to be repeating this information.”
I flush crimson for what feels like the millionth time this week and try to pull my feet from Roman’s grasp. His hands quickly shoot to my ankles, holding firm as he keeps them in his lap. The fight goes out of me instantly as I realize he wasn’t willing to grip my frozen feet any tighter.
He looks up for the first time since starting this task. His face is set in a teasing glare as he lets go of my ankles and going back to lightly holding the beds of my feet.
Turning back to the coaches, I mutter a quiet apology and hope Aurora was listening to everything I missed.
“You’ll be racing Giant Slalom on Friday and Saturday and then Slalom on Sunday.
You’ll get your bibs Friday morning, and you’ll keep them for the whole weekend.
The inspection will start at eight in the morning.
The girls race will then start at nine and the boys will follow with the start at ten thirty.
The course will be reset at lunch and then this schedule will be repeated in the afternoon. If any of you have any questions, contact Roman and he’ll talk to us.”
All the heads turn towards Roman who puts his hand up in a quick wave but doesn’t bother to lift his head. His hand goes back to grasping my feet immediately, with his grip having succeeded in melting the sock off my foot.
“Coach? What if Roman’s too busy to pass on our messages?” Jasmine’s hand is raised so high that one would think she’s trying to help a plane land. A mask of mock innocence is displayed across her face as she acts as if her question is legitimate, and not a dig towards Roman.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Liane’s voice sounds intrigued as she turns and faces Jasmine.
“Well, just because he’s apparently dating Rhodes now, so he probably doesn’t have time to maintain his team captain responsibilities. I mean, he’s not even paying attention to our first race meeting. ”