A Little Learning by Margot Early

Author:Margot Early [Early, Margot]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Romance, Contemporary
ISBN: 9781460304365
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2013-02-01T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHT

IN THE MIDDLE of March came the first of the Sultan Mountain School tests for Seamus and his family, so that all of them could earn certificates saying they’d completed their course work. Rory would have liked to make the one-day expedition of skiing and orienteering a family activity, but it wasn’t possible. Seamus, as an adult, would need to be challenged more than his family.

As luck would have it, Rory was assigned as his companion for the day’s skiing, which would take them up onto Cone Mountain and through the ghost town of Gypsum over a twelve-mile course, provided they didn’t get lost.

The morning of the nineteenth, Rory and Seamus set out in her car for Jackson Gulch. From there they would ascend Cone Mountain with climbing skins on, then ski over to Gypsum and in a loop over a mountain pass and back down to the vehicle. Rory hoped.

As she drove, she mentally double-checked everything she’d brought. She always kept a list in her pack so that she’d forget nothing when she set out on a ski trip, but it didn’t stop her from trying to imagine possible emergencies of every sort and then thinking of all the things that would be needed to return them home safely.

When they reached their parking space near the foot of Jackson Gulch and began unloading the car, preparing to don skis and packs, Rory said, “This isn’t a test, per se. It’s just a requirement for getting your certificate.”

“I understand.”

It wasn’t the day Rory would have chosen for the expedition. Snow was already falling, two feet expected with the storm. But it was Sultan Mountain School policy to pick a date and make do with the weather. She watched as Seamus briefly consulted the topography, then showed her the route he’d planned the night before. “This is how we’ll go if avalanche conditions allow,” he told her.

“Fine.”

She let him lead off, but he seemed reluctant to plunge ahead, so for a while they skied side-by-side. Then they took turns breaking trail.

Breaking trail on skis going uphill was exhausting work, but Rory knew that they must keep moving to achieve their goal in daylight. Though it was only beginning to lighten as they skied away from her car, they had a long way to go. Also, she had one of her unsettled feelings about this trip; an unspoken fear that they might run into trouble before its end.

They skied for two hours and made good time. When they paused at their first landmark—a ski hut owned by the Sultan Mountain School—and stopped inside for a quick bite to eat, Seamus finally said, “Rory, how would you feel about seeing me once the course is over?”

Seeing me. Yes, somehow it did sound temporary. But they’d never dated. Dating meant trying things out, seeing how people got along. Dating didn’t mean that Seamus Lee wanted a casual fling with her. It didn’t mean he wanted even that much. A date was a date.

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