Slide by Norah McClintock

Author:Norah McClintock
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781459811690
Publisher: Orca Book Publishers
Published: 2016-08-01T04:00:00+00:00

NINE

I was on a roll, no doubt about it. The next day was the closest I’d ever come to perfection, and that included the past couple of days.

My first clue that something was going my way for a change: When I got down to the dining room that morning, Annie was there. She wasn’t in her work clothes. She was in regular clothes, and she was sitting at a table near the kitchen, eating breakfast like a regular person. She looked up when I walked into the room, and she waved at me.

“I was hoping you’d show up. Come and eat with me, Rennie.”

My heart did a happy-feet routine. I could feel it dancing and hear the thumpety-thump of the drumbeat it was dancing to. She’d been hoping I’d show up! Hoping. To see me.

I strolled casually to her table, which was an achievement, let me tell you, because my legs felt like cooked spaghetti.

“Grab some food first, Rennie.” She flashed me a big smile. “The oatmeal is amazing. You should have some. It’s just what a person needs for a day on the slopes.”

I hit the buffet and piled stuff on my plate—bacon, eggs, sausage, toast, jam, orange juice and coffee. Plus a bowl of oatmeal sprinkled with brown sugar. I raced back to the table.

“Wow, you sure know how to fuel up,” Annie said.

I looked at the debris of her breakfast: the bowl with a few bits of oatmeal sticking to the side, the empty milk glass, the empty plate with toast crumbs on it, the plate with the tiny smear of egg yolk and the splash of congealed sausage fat.

“Look who’s talking,” I said.

She laughed. “I know how to fuel up too. I have to. Between work shifts, I’m on the slopes. How’s your gran?”

“She’s okay. She says she’s enjoying herself, but this isn’t exactly the holiday she planned.”

“Do you have to stay with her and keep her company all day?”

“The opposite. She keeps telling me to go and have fun. She orders me. I’m not kidding. I order you to go out there and have fun, Rennie. That’s what she said to me this morning.”

“So that’s what you’re going to do? Go out there?”

“And have fun. Yeah. I have no choice.”

“Going with anyone?”

“Right. Like I know anyone up here.”

Annie grinned. “You know me. And I just happen to have the day off. And a lunch packed. For two.”

That was my second clue. Derek was gone. He was guiding a group of backcountry skiers. But she’d packed a lunch for two. That had to mean—

“I know some great places to ski. You’ll have to bring your avalanche pack. You have one, right?”

You’ll have to…and she was looking right at me.

“Are you interested, Rennie?”

Was I interested? That was like asking a starving person if he was interested in a snack.

“Sure,” I said. Mr. Cool, I hoped.

“Great. Eat your breakfast and meet me outside in ten minutes. And don’t forget your avalanche pack.”

I don’t think I’ve ever eaten that much food in so short a time as I did that morning.

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