Page 29 of Ski You Later (Alpine Glow #1)

She really never listens.

Everyone was sore after sitting for so long, but the next few hours will be spent unloading our gear, and that’s a sure-fire way to get everyone moving.

Jasmine and her friends mysteriously disappear the second it’s time to do actual work, and the rest of us start to huddle around our giant trailer.

The team is renting a four-bedroom, hillside house that’s absolutely filled to the brim with bunk beds. At this point, we’re all accustomed to the fact that we’ll have no personal space as we enter into the race weekend.

We’re also all aware of the system that we need to form in order to unpack this trailer efficiently.

Someone will stand in the gigantic trailer and throw bags down to the people waiting below.

Those bags are then passed to the ‘runners,’ who stand at the door of the house and bring the bag to its respective place .

There’s about fifteen people who each have four pairs of skis, ski equipment bags, ski tuning tables, overnight bags, premade food, and enough booze to kill a cow. Long story short, without organization, unpacking this would be a nightmare.

Liane and Rachel have their own condo down the road, so they pass the van, trailer, and house keys off to Roman. He returns to our group and leans casually against the side door or the trailer.

Conversation naturally pauses as everyone creates a half moon around him, and Roman’s eyes scan the crowd. His mouth moves without sounds as I see him counting everyone, and I don’t miss the small wink he sends me when we lock eyes.

“Alright, listen up,” Roman says, speaking normally, yet the team hushes instantly.

Even though not everyone wants to be his friend, he’s still our team captain. More importantly, he’s an imposing figure who’s our only hope of unpacking this mess.

“Aurora, go round back and get the rest of the girls; they’re not getting out of unloading duty.” He points towards the house, and Aurora looks to me with a smile and runs away .

“Okay. We’ll be having a team meeting at six in the living room, so that gives you all a couple of hours to unpack and have some food.

I’m meeting with the coaches at five to get all the details for the race.

Now let’s get organized and unpack this thing.

” Calvin and Roman unlatch the doors to our enormous trailer, and a mountain of luggage stares back at everyone.

Shrieks sound from around the corner momentarily pull away everyone’s attention as Jasmine and her friends rush back to the group. “You’re psychotic!” Jasmine screams at Aurora as she makes a stupid face in their direction.

Rora comes right up to my side, chuckling under her breath and wiping a tear from under her eye. “What did you do?” I whisper to her, not wanting to interrupt Roman while he’s assigning tasks. Aurora just laughs harder and says she’ll tell me later.

The team starts separating into groups as Roman finishes, and I immediately realize I wasn’t listening at all. The sun was hitting the side of his face at just the right angle, making it impossible for me to hear anything coming out of his mouth.

I can see Nico and Grayson going into the garage as they make room for sixty pairs of skis to fit in it.When I look back at the trailer, only Xander and Kai are catching luggage that the other guys are throwing down.

Roman doesn’t even seem to be paying attention as he mechanically picks up equipment bags and tosses them to Xander. Without overthinking it, I walk up to the base of the trailer and wait for the next bag.

Roman robotically turns around, cocking his arm back as he preparing to toss someone’s bag down.

As his momentum swings the bag back and then forward, his eyes lock with mine.

His bored expression transforming into shock as his eyes widen dramatically.

In one of the most ridiculous moves I have ever seen, he tilts his body to the side and uses the momentum to whip the bag into the trailer wall.

We silently stare at someone’s poor bag as it slowly rolls off the trailer platform and has a loud thud as it hits the ground. The wince is practically glued to my face, and I’m surprised to see a slight smile on his.

“I think that was Jasmine’s bag,” he says with humour in his tone.

I completely ignore him as I cross my arms. “What was that?” I look between the bag and Roman as I fix the latter with an unimpressed expression.

The man resembles a statue as he blankly stares down at me. “I didn’t know it was you until the last second. It was a close one,” he says nonchalantly. Picking up a new bag and tossing it to a figure on my left.

The way he continues to toss bags and ignore the fact that I’m trying to help makes me want to smack him. As he throws yet another bag to a figure beside me, I decide to put my hands out to show I’m in line.

“Can you get to work?” Roman looks at me expectantly. He keeps his emotionless facade on, but I can see the teasing gleam that lights up his eyes. As if he’s waiting for me to reciprocate.

“Um, yeah. Can you pass me a bag, please?” I don’t tamp down the sass in my tone as I keep my arms extended.

“If you insist on doing this, then there’s a bag right there, Langley.” He gestures to the one at my feet and lifts his eyebrow my way.

Landon conveniently appears beside me and I kindly ask his to take Jasmine’s smushed bag. Roman glares at his brother retreating form as I stare up triumphantly.

“Now I have no bag, so can you please toss one down to me?” I tilt my head innocently and keep my hand extended .

His gaze seems assessing as he crouches down on his haunches, gripping the side of the trailer for balance. “What if I don’t want to toss one down?”

My defenses rise immediately, and I point an accusing finger at him. “Why? Because I’m a girl?” I know Roman isn’t doing this because I’m a girl; I just saw him toss one to Aurora. But logic has no place in my arguments with this infuriating boy.

His face somehow looks even more bored than before. “Don’t be ridiculous. That’s the last reason I would treat you any differently.”

“Aha! You are treating me differently!” I say triumphantly as I jump up and point at him with more gusto.

“I never claimed I was going to treat you the same,” he drawls. He reaches down slightly and brushes away the bangs that had fallen into my eyes. The glare that he sees right after pulls a small laugh from him, and I’ll be damned if that sound wasn’t honey in my tea.

At this point, we have drawn the team’s attention, especially since Calvin is now the only one passing the bags down. Roman realizes this and fully stands up again, sending me a warning look before tossing more bags down .

Aurora appears at my side as she extends her hand for something. “Why are you making a scene?” She whispers to me casually as Roman places a cooler in her hands.

“I’m trying to prove a point,” I say without looking away from Roman.

“She’s getting in the way,” he says, eyes locked on mine.

“Okay, then,” Aurora draws out the words as she promptly turns to leave.

Roman turns his back on me to get more bags, and before I get the chance to regret it, I grab the side of the trailer and hoist myself onto the platform. I teeter once on the ledge, but Roman’s at my side in a second. Gripping under my elbows, as he promptly pulls me into his chest.

“You really never listen. Do you, Langley?” He asks with a hint of bemusement in his voice. His hand moves to grip the top of my hip and steady me in the wobbly trailer. I put my hands on his forearms, relishing the hard surface under my palms.

But I refuse to let his toned, beautifully-muscled arms distract me at this moment. “I want to help, and if you don’t pass me a bag, I’ll just have to get it myself. I’m not just going to stand here and do nothing, Roman,” I state. Crossing my arms so he knows I’m serious.

“I never expected you to do nothing, Langley. I literally assigned you to the tuning room,” he deadpans.

I stare at him for a second without processing his words. Is that why he wouldn’t pass me a bag? “Oh, well. I wasn’t listening then,” I say quickly, dropping my strong-woman stance and stepping back.

He doesn’t waste a second to close that gap again while simultaneously pulling me back into him. “You never do,” he says with a smile and a quick squeeze of my hip.

My body is burning at this point, the anger from earlier turning into something else as we stay this close. “Is that why you didn’t give me a bag?”

“Correct.”

“Why didn’t you just tell me that then?” I can’t help but ask curiously.

His face contorts in front of me as almost a sheepish quality takes over his face. “Now, why would I want you anywhere but right beside me?”

Heart, meet the floor. My brain is an empty jar of butterflies as my body presses against every smooth ridge of his .

“I’m just going to go unpack the tuning room then,” I say breathlessly, but I’m doing everything in my power to stay calm. Being this close, his clean smell is invading everyone of my senses, and I want nothing more than to wrap it around myself.

“Good girl,” he whispers. His rich voice penetrates my last barrier of brain cells, and try not to let those words melt away all my common sense. A slow nod is all I’m capable of giving him and he smiles like a cat at my flustered face.

He then gives a couple of open-handed pats to my hip, slides past me and hops onto the pavement. Turning around as he lands, his hand extends out to me as the other prepares to grab my waist.

With a sigh, I take his hand because this trailer needs to be unpacked, and I’m only slowing down the process at this point. His other hand grabs my waist immediately, and I’m weightless for a moment as I’m lowered to the ground.

“You seem to be touching me an awful lot, Huxley,” I say as my feet touch the ground. Thinking about what he said in the van, I tip my head up and look directly at him after telling him my thoughts.

“Then tell me to stop, Langley,” he counters as the smile on his face only grows .

There is not a single part of me that wants him to stop this recent shift in behaviour.

The small touches, the tantalizing words, and the acts of kindness have all inched their way into my heart.

Burrowing there and creating a space where I feel comfortable putting my trust in him.

I would be thrilled if not for the fact that this whole thing is just an arrangement.

I know in my head he’s acting like this because I asked him to, and he’s doing his best to help me out. Even though every single thing he says to me makes my heart melt into goo, I need to remember it’s all for show in front of the team.

He must see my face change from these thoughts, as that light-hearted look sputters out from behind his eyes. “What’s wrong?”

‘Oh, nothing,” I deflect as I put a normal smile back on my face. “Just tired, you know. I’m going to go unpack the tuning room.” Pointing back to the house, I turn and make my way over to the garage.

A hand quickly encases my wrist, and I turn back to see Roman looking at me with concern. “I’ll see you inside, Langley,” he says with a reassuring smile and then lets go of my wrist, albeit reluctantly.

As if in a daze, I walk towards the garage and see Landon helping set up the ski tuning tables all around the space. He chuckles as he sees my face, puts down his socket wrench, and walks up to me.

“You good, Rhodes?” He asks half-heartedly, as his attention stays focused on everyone moving things around.

Ignoring my inner turmoil, I put on a forced smile and try and joke around with him. “Oh yeah, I’m fine. Your brother is a confusing grump, but what else is new,” I say jokingly.

“Oh, I can only imagine it’s just beginning,” he says distractedly. His eyes stayed fixed on everyone’s movements around the room.

His words pull me out of my own head, and I turn to him in confusion. “What does that mean?”

Landon does a double-take as he seems to tune into the conversation, and his eyes widen comedically as the past minute registers. “What? What does what mean?”

“The thing you just said,” I say as I narrow my eyes at him.

He looks at me with a blank stare, and with a move that’s more startling than anything else, he turns and walks away.

“Landon! You can’t just leave!” I yell and chase him into the house .

People and luggage are moving everywhere, and I mentally high-five myself when he gets stuck behind a line of athletes at the bottom of the basement stairs. Grabbing his bicep, I drag him into one of the storage rooms nearby.

“Help me! A crazy woman’s grabbing me,” he yells to the team as he successfully catches everyone’s attention.

I slam the door before he can draw more of a crowd and pin him with my deadliest stare. “What’s going on, Landon?”

“Nothing. I swear!” He surrenders one of his hands as he puts it in the air, but I can plainly see the other one tucked away. The fact that he feels the need to cross his fingers behind his back only solidifies my suspicion.

“Landon! Tell me right now,” I yell, pointing an accusing finger at him.

His fake distress that he’s been milking this entire time turns to mischief right in front of my eyes.

A feline smile takes over his face, and even though he’s adopted, he looks exactly like Xander in this moment.

“I just think certain aspects will change when it comes to your little arrangement, Rhodes.” Before I can inquire further, we hear Grayson calling his name from the hallway.

I can only imagine that it has to do with the organization of the tuning room and Landon comes to the same conclusion.

With a few patronizing pats on the head, Landon darts out the door and leaves me alone in this storage room. Leaning back against the wall, put my hand over my mouth in thought.

The Huxley boys are up to something, and I’m going to find out what.