Page 35 of Ski You Later (Alpine Glow #1)

This is what people mean when they say that suddenly all the songs are about her.

The sun streaming through the window blinds me as I blearily open my eyes. The wooden beams of the bed above me come into view, and I try to remember when I decided to take a nap. I’m tucked tightly into one of the bottom bunks in my room, two heavy blankets covering me up all the way to my neck.

My head has stopped it’s aching as I sit up and try to remember how I got here. Movement in the corner catches my eye, and I see Roman quickly come to sit at the end of the bed.

“How are you feeling? Do you need some water?” His massive hand gently supports the back of my head, as if he is scared I might fall backward.

“I think I’m alright.” I say the words slowly, as if testing out if they’re true .

I close my eyes for a second, the recent memories coming to me in short bursts. The race. The fall. The humiliation.

It floods back to my me as if a dam has broken, and I pull my head out of Roman’s grasp. The fact that I had the world’s most pathetic crash, and then I ended up hurting myself in the process. I know Roman’ going to yell at me for failing, so I apologize as fast as I can.

“Roman, I’m so sorry.” I put my face in my hands, shame flooding every bone in my body.

“Rhodes.”

“I failed you. I failed our team.” I continue as I hear him say my name again, but this time dragging out the last syllable.

“Plus, I think I dazed myself with that crash,” I sputter.

“Rhodes,” he says quickly as he tries, and fails to interrupt me.

“Which, I’m also so sorry about!” I point to him and talk over his repetition of my name.

As if it’s a reflex, he grasps my wrist and forces me to look at him. I try to pull away from him so I don’t see his disappointment, but he only pulls me closer.

As I’m about to apologize again, Roman’s eyes widen dramatically, and he shushes me in my face. “No! I’m going to talk. You’re going to listen.” He gives me a hard look and doesn’t move until I nod back at him.

“I have no idea what you are rambling about. You crashed; it happens, dust yourself off and get ready for the next race,” he says it like it’s that easy.

Sensing that I’m preparing to cut him off again, he plows on with his speech. “You might have a concussion, and I’m going to get a ski patrol to come look at you. You could’ve passed out from being overwhelmed and in shock, but either way I want it looked at.

“Injuries are not to be messed around with. I’m assuming you didn’t even know about your state and that is the only reason I’m not mad with you.” He says this all in a very serious tone, and I realize I can’t be too hurt if I’m able to follow what he’s saying.

“Now, how are you feeling, and don’t even think about lying to me.” He sends a serious expression my way and I smile at how much he cares.

“I’m feeling fine now. I promise,” I add at the end when he sends me a skeptical look.

“Alright, then I’ll fill you in on what’s gone on since you’ve been asleep, and you tell me what happened at your crash. ”

He tells me how he contacted the coaches right away and informed them of an athlete injury. Ski patrols are on standby for whenever I’m up, and I need to be cleared by them if I want to race tomorrow.

He goes on to inform me how he traded places with Aurora for an hour to ski his race run but then came right back to my side.

I can’t help sending him a disbelieving look at that as I grab onto his hand. “You didn’t have to come back. Aurora can watch me if you have team captain duties,” I say as guilt flows through me.

His brow furrows and he move in closer. My bangs fall into my eyes as I inch towards him, and he wastes no time brushing them out of my face.

“I don’t care who it is, Langley. I won’t know peace unless I see that you’re okay with my own two eyes. It’s pretty selfish of me if you think about it.”

I release a slight chuckle at his words, and wince slightly at my cheek. Brushing my hand over it, I don’t feel much pain until I get near my eye.

“From what I gathered; your goggles gave you a small cut, but it just bled like crazy. It could’ve been due to altitude honestly,” he says gently.

His hand grabs mine and he raises them so my fingers can brush over the cut. It seems shallow which makes me release a breath, but I can’t stop the insecurity from taking over me.

“Does it look bad?” I ask him with uncertainty lacing my voice.

“Langley,” he drawls. “You are so beautiful. Now you just have an awesome battle scar. Guys dig that you know.”

I flush but decide to not to shy away from his flirting. “Oh, yeah? Well, I have my eyes on a specific man at the minute, so I hope he likes it.” I pretend to look around the room as I say this, knowing it will make him mad.

When I feel a light grip on my chin, I smile as he brings my face to meet his. “If that man isn’t me, we’re going to be having words miss.”

A full laugh takes over me and I relish in the smile I get in return. I quickly tell him my side of the story now. Telling him every part of my race run and where it went wrong.

Embarrassment creeps its way into my voice when I get to my fall, but I plow through and describe everything from there.

Roman nods the whole time, analyzing what I’m saying and stares at me intently. I tell him that I’m still feeling completely fine, and how I think it was the nerves mixed with the lack of sleep and food.

He nods up until my very last word, then leans past me to put another pillow behind me. I lie back after he fluffs them up and I feel like a pampered princess as I recline.

He dusts off his hands as he leans against the wall. “Alright, that was my team captain duties over.” He puts one of his hands over the covers and rests it lightly on my leg. “Now as your boyfriend.”

“Fake boyfriend you mean,” I add in quickly just in case this was some sort of test. Albeit this is one test that I would love nothing more than to fail.

He doesn’t even acknowledge me as he continues.

“I was scared shitless there.” He runs his hands through his hair, causing the usual styled back brown strands to stick up in every direction.

“You had blood all over your face. Then I couldn’t even feel relieved when I saw it was just a couple of scrapes because you passed out. ”

Putting his hands back in his lap, he faces away from me to look at the wall ahead.

“I’ve delt with this kind of injury before, when Xander had a bad concussion a couple years ago.

He crashed into a tree and was vomiting everywhere.

When that happened, I worked fast and efficiently, doing everything I could to ensure he got proper treatment.

“But, when you passed out on me, I was terrified. All the training I’ve been through just left me in an instant. I was fully panicking, and my lack of professionalism could have hurt you. I’m so sorry, Rhodes.”

He faces me now; his smile lines couldn’t be farther away from me as his devastated eyes meet mine.

Without even thinking, I reach forward and wrap my arms around his neck.

Pulling him close to me and holding him tight.

I can feel a piece of my heart wrapping around this boy as I hold him, but I feel it solidify when his arms encircle me, and he grips me back.

He’s exactly the type of guy to do everything in his power but then blame himself for not doing enough. I lock my arms into tight bands around him, and put all my reassurance behind this hold.

It’s moments like this, when I’m surrounded by his embrace, that I hate the word fake.

But, the hug itself is too enjoyable to even dwell on that problem right now. His warm body fits perfectly under mine, and I find myself pressing further into his perfect chest .

It’s only when he relaxes under me, that I think I have proved my point and slowly pull away from him.

Looking at me thoughtfully, the hug seemed to have cleared some guilt on that conscious of his.

He starts to rub the back of his neck nervously, and I can’t help but find the actions adorable now.

“Well, Langley. I’ll get the ski patrol to come check you out, but you’re going to stay here for the night, no exceptions. Your ass is grass.”

While his words make sense, I also don’t love the idea of him telling me what I can and cannot do. “You can’t just tell me what to do you know? You can advise me, but you can’t order me to stay here tonight,” I say with challenge thick in my tone.

His head tilts, not anger splaying across his face, but it’s an intense emotion as he assesses me from his spot on the bed. I can’t explain the thrill that fills me on having all his attention focused on me like this, but I don’t back down.

The Roman I usually see stays hidden underneath his grumpy exterior. He’s kind, gentle, caring, and very easily rattled.

Whereas the Roman sitting in front of me currently, is the team captain. He’s used to getting his way and doesn’t back down an inch at my words .

“You. Aren’t. Leaving. This. Bed.” He leans in closer after emphasizes each word, and this does nothing but succeed in making me push back more.

“What if I do?”

“You shouldn’t even try.”

“Now I want to try even more.” The lightness of my tone counters his menacing glare and I smile wickedly at him.

A piece of me recognizes that I’m fully flirting now. If I actually had any interest in going out, I would just sit here until he left and then sneak out later.

But, I don’t want to sneak out. I want to spend more time with the man in front of me.

Staring at him now, I realize that I don’t want Roman as my fake-boyfriend, my friend, or my team captain. I just want him to be mine.

His actions have shown me time and time again that he wants to be more than a fake relationship. And as I sit here, safely on my bed after dutifully being taken care of, I can’t help but want the same thing.