Chapter 46

Her eyes were so blue that it was startling. They seemed to jump out at you, and I was momentarily speechless. She must have thought that I was ignoring her, because her expression turned cool, and she said, “Okay, Hotshot, you must be a pro. Why haven’t I met you on the circuit?” I had no idea what she was talking about, but I wanted to meet her.

It’s impossible to know what someone looks like when they’re in a full ski outfit that includes a helmet and goggles, but she was standing here now in her ski pants and a sweater. Her blonde hair was even lighter than mine, and it was pulled back into a ponytail. Her sweater was nicely filled out, and she would have been very pretty, but her face was red, and she had ‘raccoon eyes’ from constant exposure to the sun while wearing goggles. She was still attractive, so I stood up and said, “Because you were surrounded by guys every time I tried to talk to you. I guess it must be tough being as pretty as you are.”

The cool expression was quickly replaced by one of surprise as she blinked and said, “Uhh, thanks, but who are you?” This was getting to be fun, so I thought that I’d see what I could get away with. She’s about five foot six, so I leaned in very close, which accentuated our height differences, and I peered down at her. Those striking blue eyes got wider but she didn’t back away. She set her jaw, put her hands on her hips instead, and said, “Are you gonna tell me or n...” I stopped her in mid sentence, by kissing her.

She pulled back slightly, but she didn’t turn away. She also didn’t close her eyes or kiss me back. She just waited until I was finished, then she said, “Is there any reason why I shouldn’t kick your ass for doing that?” “I can think of a few. I outweigh you by a hundred pounds, I’m almost a foot taller then you are, and I think that you might have enjoyed it just a little if you would have let yourself.”

We stood, staring at each other. I was grinning, but neither of us said anything. I could finally see little crinkles in the corner of her eyes, and the beginning of a smile. She shook her head and started to turn away, then she stopped, took my head in her hands and kissed me full on the lips. It was a nice kiss, but it didn’t last long. Someone yelled “Hey, Connie,” and she turned and started to walk away. I called out, “Thanks for the cocoa.” She didn’t turn around; she just waved her hand at me.

Erin and Kelly had joined us and were standing next to Marie when I turned around. The guys who had been talking to Marie were also still there, and their mouths were hanging open. One of them said, “Fuck! That’s ‘Killer Connie’. She was a silver medalist at the Olympics last year.”

I don’t follow skiing much, but I had heard of her. However, I was getting a kick out of seeing the guys’ expressions, so I said, “Yeah, I was trying to show her the quick way down ‘Suicide’ this afternoon.”

Erin said, “Yeah, right,” and started laughing. I had to grab her around the neck and give her ‘Nuggies’ before she would quit. Marie told the guys to leave so that Erin and Kelly could sit down, and I told everyone what really happened as soon as they were gone. Mr. And Mrs. Rand came up with a bedraggled-looking Tammy a few minutes later. Tammy spotted my cocoa as soon as they got there, and she grabbed it and downed it in one gulp, then pushed Erin aside and flopped down.

I said to Mr. Rand, “Is she okay?” He laughed and said, “Yeah, she’ll be fine. I think that she set a course record for falling down on the bunny slope today, but she has a lot of guts and she’s learning. She may actually start to have some fun if she lives until tomorrow.” I looked at her sitting there, and it was comical. She had patches of snow stuck to her everywhere, and she was sopping wet. Her goggles had snow on the outside and inside, and it looked like her hat did too. Her nose and cheeks were red from the cold, and she looked exhausted, but I don’t think I ever saw her look so happy.

Mrs. Rand said that they were done for the day, and were going to take the shuttle to the cabin and drop Tammy off, then they were going into town and do some shopping for dinner tonight. Marie went with them, and Erin, Kelly, and I went back for a couple more runs. Erin had gotten better since we had last skied together, and proceeded to prove it to me every chance she got. She got to the bottom of a run so far ahead of Kelly and me at one point that she jumped on a chair with someone else, so Kelly and I rode up together.

I said, “Have you guys been having fun?” She nodded, then she said, “Why did you kiss that girl back in the lodge?” It surprised me, and I said, “Oh, I was just having fun. Why?”

“Do you kiss every girl you meet?” I said, “No, just the pretty ones,” and I grabbed her and playfully tried to kiss her on the cheek, but we were getting close to the top, so I had to let go. Erin was waiting for us and she said, “Uhh, you two want to get a room somewhere?” as we stepped off the chair. Kelly threw a snowball at her, and we all took off down the mountain.

It was late and I was whipped by the time I got to the bottom of the run. I mentioned it to the girls, and we caught the shuttle back to the cabin after the requisite amount of teasing me about being a wimp. Marie and Tammy were in the living room. Tammy had showered, put some sweats on, and was lying on the couch. She groaned when we walked in, but she was smiling. Erin and Kelly went to take showers, and I sat next to Tammy and asked how she was.

She said, “I never knew skiing was this much work. I must have fallen down a hundred times, but I was able to make it all the way down a couple of times towards the end, and BOY is it fun. Every muscle in my body is sore, and I’m not sure if I’m going to be able to move, much less ski tomorrow.” Marie suddenly got up, left the room, came back, and handed me a bottle a minute later.

She said, “You brought her. It’s your responsibility to take care of her.” I stared at the bottle, but it didn’t have a label. Marie said, “It’s for sore muscles. Dad makes it. It works great, it’s odorless and it doesn’t stain bedclothes.” She then looked at Tammy, winked, then back at me and said, “They’ll be home in a few minutes; put it in your room, and, you can uhh ... after they go to bed. Well, you get the idea.”

There are four bedrooms and a loft in the cabin. Two bedrooms and a small room they called the ‘Loft’ are on the second floor, and the other two bedrooms are on the first floor. The Rands share one bedroom on the second floor, and Erin and Kelly are in the other one. Marie was using one of the lower rooms until Ben, Kate, Mom and I got there, then she was going to move to the loft.

They stuck her boyfriend in the loft when he got there, and were going to figure out what to do when we got there, but Ben, Kate, and Mom decided not to come and the boyfriend left, so that left Marie and Tammy with rooms of their own, and I took the loft.

There is one bathroom on each floor, and Erin came out of the one on the top floor as I was putting the lotion away. She had a towel wrapped around her and was drying her hair with another. She stopped when she saw me, and said, “That was quite a trick you pulled with that blonde at the lodge. You’re getting pretty smooth with the girls. You’re not going to turn into an asshole, are you?”

What she said hit me harder than she knew. What was I turning into? I knew that I had to think about this, and I said, “No, I don’t think so. Why did you say that?” She stopped drying her hair and said, “Because, big brother, you’re a big, good-looking guy. I see the way girls look at you and I hear the way they talk. They sorta fall into two groups. One group thinks that you’re a big lovable bear, and they want to cuddle you. The other group says that they don’t like you, and that you’re nothing but a ‘jock’. But I know that any one of them would go out with you in a minute if you asked them.”

“The problem is that you never go after girls, but you seem to always be with the best looking ones around. You can’t imagine what a stir you caused when people saw you with Molly Dennis. She never dated anybody, and the next thing anybody knew, you were seen with both her and her friend, Alice, then there was Kristen. Almost every stud in school asked her out, but she never really dated anyone until you came along. It blew everybody away because she’s so mysterious that they were sure that she had a rich boyfriend or something, but she was hanging all over you the next thing they knew, and what made matters worse is that you’re only a junior.”

“Oh, come on, she didn’t exactly ‘hang all over me’.”

“Yes she did, Bro. She never let you out of her sight. Mom and Dad were both worried about her and what she might talk you into at the beginning, but she’s a good girl at heart, and besides, Amy and I both assured them that you could handle things.”

“Well, I don’t seem to have handled things very well. She’s off somewhere pursuing a career, but what about you and Amy assuring the folks that I’d be okay? How did you know that I wouldn’t run off and get married or something?”

“Because you’re not stupid. I bet you’re not all that upset about her leaving deep down.”

“What makes you say that?”

“Because she was pressuring you. I saw it before we left for skiing, and Mom told me about it when she called from Vegas. You’re not ready for that, and I bet you’re now relieved that you don’t have to make a decision about it. I liked Kristen, but the one I really liked was Sam! She was a terrific girl, and I think she was perfect for you, but you did something to screw it up and I don’t know what it was. Desi seemed to know what it was, but she wouldn’t talk about it. You’ll have to tell me what happened one day.”

The incident that caused our breakup began to come back to me, and there was no way that I was going to tell her about it, so I changed the subject back to what we were originally talking about, and I said, “So, you’re worried that I might be turning into an asshole, eh?” She looked at me for a second, then she said, “No, big brother, I’m really not. I just want you to be careful. I hear that broken hearts are not fun.”

“You’re pretty smart for a fourteen year old. Have you broken any yet?”

She smiled a little and said, “No, not yet. I think some guys at school would like to get friendly, but having a big brother on the football team kinda puts a cramp in things. But to tell the truth, I’m so busy at school that I haven’t wanted to bother. I know things will change when I get older, but there’s plenty of time.” I was glad that she didn’t know how happy I was that she felt that way.

She went into the bedroom to dress and I started to head toward the shower, and she said, “Pete!”

“Yes?”

“There are a couple more girls who you seem to have an effect on. They are both very dear to me, and I’m especially close with one of them. Do you have plans for either one of them?”

“I just got out of something that I guess you could call a relationship, Erin. I don’t want to even think about another one for a while, okay?” That seemed to satisfy her, so I took my shower, and the air smelled wonderful when I came downstairs. Mrs. Rand was making a giant pot of chili, and I was suddenly ravenous.

Erin and Kelly set the table when it was time for dinner. Tammy tried to get up and help, but she was so stiff and sore that she couldn’t get off the couch, and Erin and I had to help her to the table when chili was served, amidst much teasing.

We talked about going to the hot tub after dinner, but Mr. Rand said that there was a sign on it that said it was being repaired, so we watched TV. A movie that we all wanted to watch started at nine. Mr. And Mrs. Rand went to bed around ten, and the rest of us watched until it was over at eleven. We decided that it was time to go to bed, and I was helping Tammy to her room when she quietly said, “Are you coming by to give my poor bones a rub down later?”

I told her that I would wait a little while till things quieted down and I would come to her then. Marie was standing by her door When I came out of Tammy’s room. She grinned and said, “Got her tucked in, or are you gonna come by later?”

I walked over to her and said, “Why, you wanna come and watch?”

“Maybe. It depends on how good you are at ‘tucking’.”

“I’ve been told that I can ‘tuck’ pretty good.” She raised one eyebrow and said, “I’ll bet you can.” She didn’t say anything else, but she watched me as I climbed up to my loft. I waited about twenty minutes. Everything seemed quiet when I opened my door, so I grabbed the lotion and started downstairs.

There are no windows in the loft, so it’s pitch black inside. I turned my light off before I opened the door so that no light would shine out, and I stepped into the hallway. The Rands’ door was closed and so was the door to the girls’ room, so the only light came from the windows downstairs. It took me a while to feel my way down to Tammy’s room.

I opened the door and slipped inside. The curtains were drawn, but there was enough light that I could see Tammy lying under the covers watching me. I sat on the bed and looked at her for a minute, and I think that a lot of thoughts were going through both our heads. I was pretty sure that she would make love to me if I asked, and I wanted her very badly, but I knew that it wasn’t right for either one of us. Kristen was still fresh in my mind, and I knew that thoughts of Tony were still with Tammy.