Do-Over by Niki Burnham

Author:Niki Burnham
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing
Published: 2006-12-02T05:00:00+00:00

Five

“Listen,” Georg says once we’re on the chairlift again, keeping his voice low since Dad and Anna are right behind us and—as Dad pointed out—voices carry on these things. “I’m sorry about the dance. But it’s being held at the Hotel Jaegerhof. The hotel’s a beautiful place, but . . . well, it’s not the same if the two of us go to a dance together as it is when we go on a ski trip where your dad and someone else from the palace staff are along. It’d be hard not to—”

“Don’t even worry about it.” I can tell—despite the fact that he’s wearing his ski helmet and has his goggles pulled down—that he’s wigging out, thinking that I’ll think he doesn’t love me.

I know he loves me. I’m just tired of hiding.

However, as I choked down the bratwurst and gushed to The Fraulein about the strudel (which should earn me some serious brownie points since it’s not like she made it herself—she freaking bought it, at a ski lodge) I resolved to take the high road regarding the dance, no matter how much this lets-lie-low situation bugs the snot out of me. Give Georg the benefit of the doubt and all that stuff I swore I’d do after getting back from vacation. I want Georg to know that I love him, that I trust him, and that he can trust me.

Well, before I drop the David bomb—if I can figure out the right time to do it—and Georg wonders all over again if he can trust me.

“I do worry,” he says quietly.

I give him the Valerie Shrug, hoping he thinks it’s genuine this time and that I really don’t give a fly because I understand his position. Keeping my tone as relaxed as possible, I say, “I’m going to be busy helping Ulrike, at least for the first part of the dance, so it’s no big deal. Besides”—I shoot him a grin that’s meant to blow him away, though whether it works or not, I have no clue—“I know exactly where you live. I can find you whenever I want.”

“Maybe when you get home from helping Ulrike we can do something completely laid-back. Rent a movie or play Scrabble. Share some popcorn. We can make it a date night, just not at the hotel with everyone else.”

We’re going to get burned out on watching movies in our apartments every night, and even I can only eat so much popcorn, but it’s not like I can really object to one more in-the-palace date night, can I?

“Come on,” he says once we’re at the summit and have gotten our goggles adjusted and looped the pole straps around our wrists. “Let’s go halfway down on this red”—he points out a trail on the map using his pole—“and we can cut over to that black run we did before lunch. Just do the bottom half of it and see how you’re doing.”

Right. I’m tempted to say, hey, if I make it down

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