“Okay, bundle up.”
She started as Jared’s smooth baritone interrupted her thoughts.
“You’ll need your scarf and hat, it’s gonna be cold.”
“I’ve got a hood, Jared.”
Shaking his head, he insisted. “Not good enough for this kind of weather. Once we’re whipping down the hill, the cold air will cut right through you. You’ll want that scarf wrapped around your face to block the wind.” Taking her knit hat from the console between them, he tugged it on her head, tucking long strands of blond hair underneath. He then looped the matching knit scarf around her neck. Once done, he leaned forward and kissed the tip of her nose. “You’re cute as a button, Stacy-mine, but what does a Georgia peach know about sledding and cold weather? Trust me on this.”
“You always take such good care of me.”
“Safe in my arms, isn’t that what I promised?” He pressed a firm kiss to her lips.
Stacy’s insides warmed as she looked at her fiancé. Unlike her thick cream-colored cap, with its wide folded-back brim and loose puffball at the crown, Jared wore a navy blue low profile cap that fit snugly to his head. It also sported a bright yellow M on the front, a necessity for all U of M alumni and Wolverine fans alike. A wealth of dark hair peeked out from beneath the brim, curling slightly in front of his ears and across his forehead. His long silky lashes fringed a set of dreamy eyes that had turned a beautiful laurel green in the bright light of day. It had taken a while, but she’d finally figured out the color of his eyes. He had more than one. His hazel eyes were unique, it seemed, and the shade was often mercurial responding to changes in his mood, the ambient light, or the color of his clothing. Chameleon eyes, she called them. Green was his usual color, which she saw most often when he was relaxed and happy—like now. She had learned that they took on an amber tint when he was in the throes of passion and quickly became a steely, hazel gray when he was angry.
Jared’s classically handsome features—straight nose, high cheekbones, strong jaw—drew admiring glances from women wherever he went. His lips were full and sensual, plump and soft to the touch—kissable lips—which any woman would beg, borrow, or steal to possess.
Her mind wandered as she stared up at his gorgeous face. She considered herself one very fortunate girl to have captured his heart. Young and successful, the man could have had his pick of women, but he’d chosen her—a working girl from the south. As she sat there, bundled up in at least five layers of heavy winter garb, she pondered the reason why, but the answer still eluded her.
Jared tapped her nose, snapping her out of her daydream, and flashed his dazzling smile. “Where did you go, Stacy?” he asked with a chuckle.
“Huh?” Flustered, she’d forgotten what she was doing.
“Mittens on, baby, we’re ready to go.” With a knowing grin, he gave her another quick peck as he released his seatbelt and pulled on his gloves.
Stacy often became rattled around him, but Jared, ever the gentleman, refrained from teasing her about it. She knew he delighted in his ability to keep her off balance, having once stated that if he ever lost his powers of seduction, he’d know he wasn’t working hard enough in the romance department and needed to step up his game.
Giving herself a mental shake, she quickly finished covering all the exposed areas of skin save her eyes, while Jared moved around the vehicle to open her door. Ordinarily, she would wait for him, but before he got the chance, she bounded out of the passenger side and met him around back. She bounced up and down, like an eager child on Christmas morning. She could barely contain her enthusiasm as he loosened the ropes on the long four-man wooden sled.
“I’m so excited, Jared. I’ve never played in this much snow before. Atlanta gets a dusting once or twice a year, an inch or two at the most. It melts within hours so you have to be quick or you’re out of luck for at least another year.”
“This snow will be around until late March, I’m betting.” Having unfastened all the ropes, he pointed to the flat end of the sled. “Grab the end, will you, honey? It’s not heavy, just awkward, and I don’t want to scratch my vehicle.”
Together they lifted the toboggan, setting it down in the snow. Each grabbed a hold of the nylon rope handle and together they dragged it behind them as they moved toward the top of the sled hill.
Stacy looked out over the snow-covered park. To the right—on the steepest side of the large hill—were six deep-cut grooves dug into the hard-packed snow. Running the length of the long slope, the toboggan runs were a little wider than the smoothly polished sled. Jared had explained that the track would guide the sled down the hill safely, preventing them from veering into the other riders on either side of them. At the top of each run, a city parks worker stood with a shovel sunk deep in the snow, preventing the sled from sliding down the hill before it was loaded with its passengers. Once everyone was seated, the shovel was removed and the sled slid lickety-split down its track, thrilling the riders who invariably squealed or laughed with delight.
“You know, down south, toboggans are knit hats, not sleds.”
“I say tomato, you say to-mah-toe. I also call the noontime meal lunch, not dinner… like a normal person,” was his teasing response as he scanned the crowded hill. They’d often laughed about the regional jargon and it was an ongoing game to outdo the other with funny colloquialisms. Stacy being from the south had a stockpile to choose from, redneck jokes being a staple.
“Do you see Marc and Jessie?” Jared asked as he scanned the runs.
Stacy laughed up at her six-foot, four-inch fiancé. Was he kidding? He towered over her petite frame and had a much better perspective to see over the scores of ski jackets and parkas before them. “Said the giant redwood to the sapling… You’re really asking me? Lift me onto your shoulders, big guy, and I might be able to see over the crowd in front of us.”
He looked down on her, smiling as he scanned her petite frame. “So true, small fry,” he teased before his expression turned thoughtful. “You’ll have to ride in front of me on the toboggan. I’ll tuck you under the curl and wrap around you like a second skin. Those tiny legs are too short to go around any of us, even Jessie. I’d hate to see you thrown and get hurt.”
“I’m going to ignore all the wisecracks about my size, buster,” she said with a playful swat on his arm, “simply because the idea of having you wrapped around me has made me all warm and fuzzy inside.”
Leaning down, he gave her a hearty lip-smacking kiss. “Hold onto that thought. By the end of the day you’ll need all the extra warmth you can get.”
Even that brief kiss had her senses stirring. Jared turned her on like no man had ever before. She couldn’t wait to marry him. The thought of unlimited access to all that sexiness was panty drenching, for sure, but she also couldn’t wait to share her life with him—to wake up beside him each morning, share the morning paper over a pot of coffee, kiss each other goodbye before work. At the end of the day, they’d put work aside and have dinner, relaxing afterward like a happily married couple. They’d stay in to watch a movie or to cuddle up in front of a roaring fire, occasionally going out with friends. They’d make love and fall asleep in each other’s arms, only to wake up and do it all over again. She knew it was a rather mundane existence, but she’d be content to spend her life that way. Routine made her feel safe. She didn’t like surprises.
Oblivious to the idyllic turn her thoughts had taken, Jared’s eyes continued scanning the slopes for their friends. “Do you see them?”
Seeing his focus concentrated on the toboggan runs, Stacy turned her attention to the sled hills. Bending from side-to-side and standing on tiptoe for a better view, she clung to his arm for balance. As she searched, she thought fondly of their two best friends. They were all close, often double dating, going to movies, concerts, and various business functions and charitable events together. The guys were both very athletic outdoorsy types and had introduced the girls to a whole new world of ente
rtainment. The group very much enjoyed frequent sailing on Lake St. Clair, as well as bike trips on Hines Drive, and Stacy’s first skiing adventure at Mt. Brighton. She and Jess both drew the line at the more unusual activities like rock climbing and ice fishing on Lake Huron. It would snow in Atlanta in July before Stacy walked, drove, or fished on a frozen lake that was for sure. Smiling as she scanned the park for Jess and Marc, she remembered telling Jared exactly that when he had suggested it.
Spying the pair, she erupted with a burst of hearty laughter, startling the couple in front of them. Muffling her amusement with her mittened hand, she nodded her head in their direction. His head swung around, searching but not seeing.
“Over there,” she said, pointing to their location, although in mittens this gesture was ill-defined. Redirecting his gaze with a fuzzy woolen hand to his cheek, she provided details. “See the girl in the bright pink coat trying to push that giant down the hill on that teeny-weeny little saucer?”
He instantly spotted them and laughed right along with her. It was like the mouse trying to move Horton the elephant—impossible. Clasping Stacy’s hand, Jared led the way over to them.
As they approached, they could hear Jessie trying to engineer a way to fit Marc’s massive form on the small silver saucer. Like Jared, Marc was very tall, weighing in at well over two hundred pounds. The men were like brothers, as well as best friends and co-workers, and whenever they were not at the clinic or with their fiancées, they were usually together, working out at the gym, playing golf or racquetball, or swimming at the country club. This meant Marc’s bulk was solid muscle and made Jessie’s attempts futile.
“Fold your legs over each other, Marc. They’re dragging.”
“Sorry, but a human pretzel I am not.”
“Man, get off that thing and show some self-respect,” Jared jeered his friend good-naturedly. “I brought us a man-sized sled.”
Marc twisted his head and when his eyes landed on the six-foot–long toboggan, he grinned from ear to ear. “Look, Jess, we’re saved from permanent disability.” He leaned over and rolled off the cramped saucer, groaning in complaint as he straightened his stiff legs. “Damn! I used to fit on this thing.”
“Maybe when you were five, but somehow I doubt even that,” Jared quipped, shaking his head in mock disgust.
“He was probably too big for it out of the womb,” Jessie’s comment had them all in stitches, her giggles causing the fog from her warm breath to encircle her pretty face. Stacy noticed her nose and cheeks were already rosy from the cold.
“Have you two been here long? You both look like popsicles already.” Stacy’s envious gaze didn’t miss the fact that Jessie had managed to wear a cute set of fuzzy white earmuffs, which nestled atop her thick coppery mane in lieu of a hair-flattening hat. She also took note of the myriad gold and red highlights the sunshine created in her hair, all natural she knew for a fact, unlike Stacy who had to spend hours in the salon chair under foil wraps to get the tri-color look. Her friend was gorgeous; her side-swept bangs mingled with the long lashes fringing her sparkling sky blue eyes and her fair complexion was perfect enhanced by her rosy cheeks. Her smile was infectious and Stacy returned it with ease.
“We haven’t been here long. This was our first attempt at the saucer.”
“Yeah, but we’ve been attempting for at least twenty minutes, cara.”
Stacy watched her friend’s face soften at Marc’s endearment. His speech, she’d noticed, was often intermingled with a smattering of Italian, which Stacy found extremely romantic. She knew it made Jessie melt.
“We tried two at a time at first, with me on his lap but got nowhere fast. Then Marc was trying solo, but we still couldn’t get the saucer to budge even an inch, especially with Gigantor on top.”
“Let’s you and me give her a go, Jess,” Stacy suggested gamely. “I can’t wait.”
“Okay,” she agreed, quickly scrambling onto the thin aluminum disc. “Get between my legs and I’ll take you for a wild ride, half-pint.”
The sexual undertones of her comment was an open invitation to Jared and Marc’s simultaneous response. “That’s what she said!”
While they howled with laughter with their decidedly one-directional sense of humor, the girls rolled their eyes and promptly replied in unison, “Pervs!”
In retaliation for the slur, the men gave them a small push and the lightweight saucer took off, whooshing down the slope. Jessie squealed with delight and Stacy answered in kind, until about halfway down the hill when a two-man sled cut into their path. Jessie saw them first and her squeals turned to screams of alarm. Stacy looked up and screamed as well, an image of the upcoming collision flashing through her mind.
“Move!” She shouted to the two teenage boys who were smack dab in their way.
“Lean right,” Jessie shouted in her ear. She then uncrossed her legs from Stacy’s lap, attempting to slow the racing sled with her boots, but it was too late. Impact was imminent, velocity as yet undetermined.
Disoriented as they careened out of control, Stacy lost all sense of direction and inadvertently leaned left, the opposite of Jessie. The even distribution of their weight outwardly caused the round sled to spin and instead of veering off to the side, it continued in a straight line, on a collision course with a surefire, two-sled pileup. At the last moment, their wild spin stopped. Having done a one-eighty, they were now heading backwards, flying blindly down the hill. Stacy found herself staring helplessly up to where Jared and Marc watched in horror from the top of the hill. Their arms gestured wildly to the side, as if by sheer force of will, they could redirect the path of the saucer. The next moment they rammed with a jarring impact, the momentum launching Stacy airborne, like a catapult—all 107 pounds of her—as she was thrown from Jessie’s arms, clear of the saucer, landing a good thirty feet away in a deep pile of drifted snow.
She lay there stunned, practically buried in the four-feet-deep snowdrift. Her chest was tight, the wind having been knocked clear out of her lungs. As if in a tunnel, she heard muffled voices calling her name. A woman’s voice called her, high and shrill with concern—Jessie. Then from farther away, she couldn’t miss the fear in Jared’s deep voice as he shouted her name in alarm. The voices became incrementally louder as the humming in her ears, unnoticed until now, began to diminish.
“Stacy!”
He was closer. She pictured him plowing down the hill, knocking people out of his way to get to her. The image was too funny and she would have laughed if she thought it was possible. Flat on her back on the freezing, snow-covered ground, Stacy stared absently up at the clear blue sky, silently inventorying all of her body parts.
Wiggling her toes, she was relieved to find she wasn’t paralyzed. Legs—check.
“Stacy!” came Jessie’s frantic voice—virtually on top of her now.
She raised her arms and looked at her hands, clenching and unclenching her fists. Arms, hands—check.
Turning her head slowly, she felt no pain. Neck—check.
Curling up slowly into a sitting position, her head swam, and she lay back down waiting as the world slowly righted itself. Head—check, well, sort of.
It seemed all her vital parts were in working order. It took her a moment to realize her butt was wet as if she had landed in a slushy spot. She was surprised the sun could have melted it on such a cold day. Then she grew concerned that an animal may have done its business there. Wouldn’t that be her luck to land in a puddle of pee?
“Eww,” she groaned with disgust and once again tried to get up.
“Stacy! Thank God,” Jared exclaimed as he dropped to his knees in the snow beside her. “The way you flew through the air, dear God, I feared a broken neck. Are you hurt?”
Groaning, she rolled over until she was half in his lap. Something sharp poked her in the leg and she let out a yelp of pain. “Ouch!”
“Is it your back?” Jared started running his hands over her. “You s
houldn’t be moving. Marc, call EMS.”
Marc flopped down on her other side, pulling off his gloves as he ordered. “Don’t move, Stacy.” He began searching his many pockets for his cell phone. “We’ll need a C-collar and a back board,” he murmured half to himself as he patted his pockets, searching. “Where is my damn phone?”
Both men were orthopedic surgeons, experts with muscles and bones. They specialized in sports injuries and saw patients with broken bones in their practice on a daily basis, some even paralyzed from sporting accidents. Obviously fearing the worst, Marc finally extracted his phone from an inside pocket.
“No, please, my back is fine. It just hurts—”
“What hurts, baby, your neck?”
“No, lower.”
“Your legs?” Instantly, he was running his hands down her snug ski pants, searching for breaks.
“Higher.”
“Where, Stacy?” Jared’s voice held a tinge of panic as his hands spanned her hips. “What’s broken? Is it your tailbone? A fractured coccyx can be very painful.”
“I think my butt might be broken because it’s killing me,” she cried. It was true, sort of. Something sharp was digging into her upper thigh. Reaching underneath her, she felt around for whatever it was. Locating the offending object, she rolled to her side and held it up in the air. It was a stick. She examined it for a moment before looking at Jessie. “Look, Jess, all those times you accused me of being uptight, you were right. I really did have a stick up my ass.”
Silence fell over the group. Jessie finally spoke, annoyance clear in her voice. “That’s not funny, Stacy. I thought you were really hurt.”
“Uncool, Stace. When I saw you fly through the air, I was preparing for the gruesome task of putting the pieces of your mangled and broken body back together.” Marc’s usually jovial tone had also become stern with irritation.
Looking up at her friends, she saw that their concern had turned to anger. Oops! She’d messed up. Not having witnessed her abrupt departure from the sled and subsequent flyover, she could only imagine how it had looked to them. She felt horrible for scaring them. “I’m sorry.”
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