Falling Hard (Colorado High Country #3)

by Pamela Clare

  Hawke grinned, raised his hand. “I did. How else could I see my wife? Why don’t you sit right next to me and help me eat it, darlin’?”

  Victoria laughed. “And leave Rico to handle all the pizza orders? He’d never forgive me. Besides, you have Jesse. He can have my half.”

  “Fine—but he’s nowhere near as good-looking as you are.”

  “No argument from me,” Jesse said.

  A transplant from Chicago, Victoria had given up a fast-paced career at some big PR firm to be with Hawke. The two were crazy in love. The way Jesse saw it, Scarlet Springs had gotten the better part of the deal because Victoria had brought real Chicago-style deep-dish pizza to Knockers, saving the town from culinary boredom.

  She set the dish down in the center of the table, the scents of garlic, sausage, and tomato sauce making Jesse’s mouth water. “Enjoy.”

  Jesse didn’t mind if he did.

  When he got home, Jesse logged on to the SnowFest website, clicked the link for volunteers, and looked over the schedule. There weren’t many slots left.

  The shotski was covered. So was the polar bear plunge, the ice climbing competition, and the snow sculpture contest. The skijoring event had a few slots, but Jesse was hoping to compete, so that wasn’t an option. That left the kids’ snowman competition or the first-aid tent.

  He clicked on the first-aid tent, his gaze falling on the name of the organizer.

  Ellen Meeks.

  Hmmm.

  This whole thing had just become much more appealing.

  Ellie dropped the kids off at her mother’s place Monday morning after a busy weekend working in the emergency room. “I’m sorry, Mom, but I just don’t see how I’m supposed to run a meeting with two toddlers running around.”

  “You don’t have to apologize, honey. Believe me, I understand.” Her mother gave her a hug and a kiss on the cheek. “Just remember I’ve got that eye appointment at one.”

  Her mother needed surgery for cataracts and had been putting it off for months.

  “I’m not letting you wiggle out of that. I’ll be back long before then.” Ellie bent down and kissed the twins. “Be good for Grandma, okay?”

  Feeling irritated at being forced to give up part of her day off, she drove to the library, where she’d reserved a conference room. She reminded herself that SnowFest accounted for some portion of the hospital’s annual operational budget. Still, there were people on staff who attended the event and didn’t have kids. Couldn’t Pauline have drafted one of them to organize the first-aid tent?

  Ellie had spent a few hours last night looking through the folders Pauline had given her. Organizing this whole thing was a bigger responsibility than she’d been led to believe. She’d already put in an order for a long list of supplies with Central Supply at the hospital. She still had liability insurance requirements to manage and about thirty-six hours to fill with qualified volunteers. She hoped she had enough people to staff the tent throughout the three-day event. She would be there eight hours each day starting at seven, but the tent was open until nine at night.

  She grabbed the expandable file organizer that held the folders and all of the paperwork for volunteers, climbed out of the car, and walked inside to the reference desk. “Ellie Meeks. I reserved a conference room for ten a.m.”

  A young woman she didn’t know set a clipboard on the counter in front of her. “You’re in the Summit Room. I’ll need you to sign for the key.”

  Ellie signed her name, put the date and the time, then took the key and made her way upstairs. She found a handful of people waiting outside the locked door, most of them nurses she knew from the hospital. “Good morning.”

  Lolly Cortez, an older LPN who worked in the ER, gave her a sympathetic smile. “I was wondering who Pauline had roped into doing this.”

  Ellie tried to act less irritated than she felt. “I guess it was my turn.”

  She unlocked the door, stepped inside, and flicked on the light, then went about setting out the paperwork volunteers would need to fill out, along with copies of the schedule. People shuffled into the room through the open door behind her, taking their seats.

  She looked up—and froze.

  Jesse.

  He moved toward a vacant chair—all six-feet and four-inches of him. He looked wind-blown, as if he’d just come off the slopes, his hair rumpled, his cheeks red from cold. His lips curved into a smile. “Hey.”

  “Hey.”

  There was something in that smile, something in his eyes, too, that made her heart beat faster—and left her feeling uneasy. Was he interested in her?

  Oh, no. No. Ellie didn’t want that. Did she?

  She searched for something to say. “Are you … uh … off today?”

  He shook his head. “My boss gives me time off for Team stuff.”

  “Oh. Yeah. Right.” He’d told her that already.

  She willed herself to break eye contact and greet the others in the room. Most were nurses from the hospital, but there were a few paramedics from the fire department as well. “Thanks for being here this morning, and thanks for signing up to help staff the first-aid tent. I’m going to pass around the volunteer forms. If you could each take one and fill it out, we’ll get started.”

  She moved point by point through the basics—how many hours each of them would need to volunteer to fill the schedule, what supplies the hospital would be donating, what she expected of them during their time on duty. Then she ran through the check-in procedure.

  “What kinds of patient visits can we expect?” Lolly asked.

  “Good question.” Ellie pulled out the report from last year’s festival. “Last year, we had fifteen cases of hypothermia, one person with chest pain, a bloody nose, six people with altitude sickness, a twisted ankle, an ice climber with abrasions and lacerations, two severe hangovers…”

  That brought laughter.

  “… and two hospital transfers from the skijoring event—a dislocated shoulder and suspected concussion, and a broken wrist.”

  She could feel the heat of Jesse’s gaze on her as she spoke, his attention making it hard to think. She avoided looking his way, willed herself to focus on the job.

  “Part of our agreement with the town of Scarlet Springs is that we’ll have at least one person certified in CPR and AED use in the tent at all times. That means I’ll need a copy of your current certifications. If you didn’t bring them with you, that’s fine. You can scan them and email them to me. I’ll need to have them on file before the festival opens. Are there any other questions?”

  A few hands went up.

  Ellie did her best to answer.

  Yes, the fire department would once again have an ambulance on site. Yes, the tent would have heat and electricity. Yes, there would be a warm-up room for anyone suspected of having hypothermia. Yes, they would have oxygen and AEDs. No, she didn’t care whether a person did all six of their volunteer hours in a single day or spread them out over three days, as long as the tent had full coverage. Yes, she would need as much help as she could get unpacking the supplies and setting up. No, they wouldn’t need to set up the actual tent itself.

  Jesse held up his hand. “How do you plan to handle it if someone needs help but is unable to get to the first-aid tent? The festival takes up most of downtown and stretches all the way to the reservoir. That’s a big area to cover.”

  She hadn’t thought about that. Nothing in Pauline’s file addressed this issue. “I imagine we’d try to bring aid to them or ask the fire department to respond.”

  Jesse seemed to consider this. “I could ask the Team to lend us one of its utility task vehicles. A UTV would make getting from one side of the event to the other a lot faster. It can handle snow and ice, and it can maneuver between booths—something an ambulance can’t do. Also, there’s room on the back to carry a litter should anyone need to be transported.”

  Ellie could only see one problem with that. “Most of us don’t know how to drive one of those things.
”

  He laughed, his face lighting up with a grin that she felt all the way to her toes. “You drive it like a car—automatic transmission, steering wheel, brakes.”

  “Oh. Okay.” She cleared her throat. “Thanks. Let me know what Megs decides.”

  Relieved to have the initial meeting behind her, Ellie returned the key to the reference desk and walked outside—only to find Jesse leaning against her car, arms crossed over his chest, mirrored sunglasses hiding his eyes. She did her best to keep things professional. “Can I help you with something?”

  “Help?” He grinned, looking sexier than any man should. “No. I wondered if you would like to join me for lunch.”

  So she hadn’t been reading him wrong. He was interested in her.

  Shit. Shit. Shit.

  She fumbled for her keys, her mind racing for a way out of this, an excuse. Then she remembered. “I need to pick up the kids. My mom has an appointment at one.”

  He glanced at his watch. “A cup of coffee then?”

  Damn.

  She hated to hurt his feelings, but she needed to make herself clear.

  “Jesse, I …” Why did these things have to be so difficult? “I’m grateful for everything you’ve done for the kids and me, and I appreciate your volunteering for the first-aid tent. But I know what you’re trying to do. I’m just not ready to date yet.”

  One dark brow arched. “You think I signed up to volunteer for the first-aid tent to get closer to you?”

  The way he said it made it sound like the most absurd conclusion possible.

  “I signed up for this because I was sick over the weekend and all the other events had filled up. Megs would bust my ass if I didn’t volunteer for something. I asked you to lunch because we’re neighbors.”

  Oh. God!

  She stared up at him, her cheeks burning, the sharp edge of guilt pressing into her. She was such an idiot! “I guess I misunderstood. I just thought … I’m sorry.”

  But she’d seen interest in that smile, in those eyes.

  His forehead relaxed. “Don’t worry about it. I’m sure I’ll see you around.”

  He turned and walked away, leaving Ellie to stare after him.

  Chapter 6

  “Okay, what’s eating you?” Claire glanced over at Ellie, her hands on the steering wheel of her Subaru Outback as they made their way up the mountain toward the ski resort. “You might fool Mom and Dad, but you can’t fool me.”

  Ellie looked out the passenger side window at the snowy landscape. “I hurt his feelings.”

  “Whose feelings?”

  “Jesse’s.” Ellie told Claire about the meeting and the conversation in the parking lot. “I thought he was trying to start something, but he was just being friendly. I know I hurt his feelings. I feel so bad about that, so embarrassed.”

  “Oh, Ellie, honey. You really are hopeless at this stuff, aren’t you? He was totally asking you out. The guy is into you. Why you didn’t just say ‘yes’ is beyond me. Could it hurt to have lunch with him?”

  Ellie’s head snapped around. “Why do you say that?”

  “Well, he’s hot. You’ve said so yourself. And if—”

  “No, I mean why do you say he’s into me? He said—”

  “I know what he said, but he was just protecting his ego.”

  “How can you know that for certain?”

  “Oh, come on! Isn’t it obvious?”

  Ellie looked out the window again. “I just hope we don’t run into him today.”

  “I was kind of hoping we would. I want to check him out for myself.”

  Ellie could only imagine how that conversation would go. “If I see him, I’m going to ski away as fast as I can.”

  Claire changed the subject. “It looks like we’re going to have perfect weather.”

  It was only a thirty-minute drive to the ski area. Claire parked. They got their lift tickets, then put on their boots and skis and skied to the lift line. The line wasn’t as long as it typically was on the weekends, though a busload of middle school kids from Boulder were ahead of them, probably here for ski lessons as part of a PE class.

  Ellie glanced over at the Ski Patrol chalet, her pulse taking off when the door opened, and a man in a red parka stepped out.

  It wasn’t him.

  She wasn’t sure whether she felt relieved or disappointed.

  Stop doing this to yourself.

  She couldn’t let her confused feelings about Jesse ruin this day. She was here to spend one-on-one time with her sister, not to waste energy worrying about what he thought of her now. She’d been honest with him.

  But had he been honest with her?

  She set that thought aside, looked up at the cloudless blue expanse of the sky, inhaled the scent of pine and snow, and willed herself to relax. They’d almost reached the front of the lift line, so she shifted both poles into her right hand.

  Claire turned to the lift operator. “You’ve got a great job.”

  He grinned, dimples in his tanned cheeks. “Fresh air, sunshine, lots of skiing. There’s no better job in the universe.”

  It was Ellie and Claire’s turn now. They skied into place.

  “Do you know Jesse Moretti?” Claire asked the lift operator.

  Ellie gaped at her sister. “What—?”

  “Moretti?” The lift operator nodded. “Sure. You a friend?”

  Ellie answered. “No, just a neigh—”

  Claire cut her off. “Tell him Ellie Meeks is here.”

  “Will do.”

  Ellie didn’t have a chance to respond or protest because in that instant the chair scooped her and her sister up and carried them up the hillside.

  “Why did you do that? You know I don’t want to see him! Now he’s going to think I wanted him to find me.”

  Claire surveyed the scenery, a satisfied smile on her face. “Lighten up. You have physical and emotional needs. You need adult companionship. What would it hurt if you got together with this Jesse guy for a while? You don’t have to marry him. If he’s into you, then why not go for it?”

  “You don’t understand.”

  It wasn’t as simple as Claire made it sound.

  Since Dan died, nothing had been simple.

  “Ellie Meeks wanted me to tell you she’s here,” Kenny said over the radio. “She was headed up the Little Bear lift with another woman.”

  “Copy that. Thanks.” Jesse started back down the slope, patrolling Silver Bullet, one of the resort’s double-blacks.

  He would never understand women, even if he lived to be a hundred. Yesterday, Ellie had made it clear that they were nothing but neighbors. Today, she’d had one of the lift operators flag him as if she wanted to see him. It made no sense.

  What made even less sense was the fact that Jesse was happy about this.

  No, he wasn’t going to ask her out again. He’d gotten the message. He wanted to see her because he needed to apologize.

  When she’d turned him down and then suggested that he’d volunteered for the first-aid tent just to get closer to her, he’d let himself get butthurt. He’d acted like she’d read him wrong, let her believe she was out of line.

  Way to be an asshole, buddy.

  He was a better man than that. He could take “no” for an answer.

  Okay, so maybe she hadn’t been entirely right. He’d had to choose between the kids’ snowman contest and the first-aid tent. That had been a no-brainer. But he had been looking forward to spending time with her.

  Of course, there was no chance of him running into Ellie. They were on different mountains on opposite sides of the resort.

  He was wondering whether he might be able to find her on his lunch break when a skier in a lime-green jacket and red hat flew past him, bombing his way down the run, almost colliding with other skiers and breaking a half dozen safety rules as he went.

  There was no way Jesse could catch him, not without putting other skiers on the slope at risk. He reached for his mic. “Forty-two to
dispatch.”

  Matt replied. “Forty-two, go ahead.”

  “I need a couple of patrollers at the base of Silver Bullet. We’ve got an out-of-control skier. He’s wearing a lime-green jacket and a red hat.”

  “Copy, forty-two.”

  Jesse skied to the bottom of the run, expecting to find the kid in the green jacket spending some quality time with a few patrollers. Instead, he found Amanda and Steve standing empty-handed.

  “Sorry, Jesse,” said Amanda. “I guess we missed him.”

  “Shit.”

  Jesse went on a few more patrol runs, stopping to aid a skier who was having an asthma attack. When the skier had been evacuated via snowmobile, he headed down to the lodge for lunch. He’d just taken a seat when Kenny walked by, headed for the grill.

  Kenny saw him, waved. “Sorry about your friend, man.”

  Jesse had no idea what Kenny meant. “My friend?”

  “Yeah, you know. The woman who wanted to see you. They brought her down in a toboggan about ten minutes ago—knee injury or something.”

  “Jesus.” Jesse had heard that call, but he’d had no idea it involved Ellie.

  He shoved his lunch back into the bag and got to his feet, then headed over to the First Aid Center. A knee injury was the last damned thing Ellie needed. How was she going to keep up with the twins? How would she work? If it was a break or a torn ligament, she might even need surgery.

  Damn it.

  He stepped inside.

  Ellie stood in the middle of the room, talking on her cell phone and walking back and forth, still in her ski boots. She wasn’t limping. She didn’t look injured at all.

  She ended the call and walked over to him. “Hey.”

  “I heard you’d been hurt.”

  “Oh, that was my sister.” She pointed to a dark-haired version of herself that was lying in one of the beds, her leg elevated and splinted. “Jesse, meet Claire.”

  Ellie pushed Claire’s wheelchair out to the parking lot. “I called the ER and checked her in. We shouldn’t have to wait too long.”