by Willow Aster
***
It’s dark by the time we get to Crystal Peak Lodge. The glistening lights of the resort against the backdrop of the mountains and starry sky is a sight to see. Every stressful thought from the last couple of months dims, and anticipation takes its place. This will be wonderful. I am determined to make it so.
I thought I wasn’t ready to see Ian yet, but my eyes scan the lobby, searching every corner for him. All of a sudden, it’s very real that I WILL BE SEEING IAN SOON. I can’t wait. Even if it doesn’t go the way I might hope, I just want to look at him.
“There you are!”
I turn around and am immediately swallowed in a hug from Jeff. Laila stands next to him and smiles, her warmth a few notches cooler than the last time I saw her. It bewilders me momentarily, and then her smile widens and I push my thoughts aside.
“Sparrow, hello! You look so pretty. Did you have a nice flight?” Laila looks me over from head to toe and back up again. I want to ask if I passed inspection.
“Thank you. Yes, it was fine,” I smile.
I’m glad when my parents pick up the conversation. My dad goes to our condo to put my luggage away while my mom and I follow the Roberts to the lodge’s restaurant. Our group is already there and introductions are made all around. Still no Ian. Everyone seems pretty nice. My parents go for the older group—the parental side—congregating to the left side of the huge table and I venture to the younger side. I sit by Wendy, who appears to be around my age. Across from Wendy is Carl, and I think they’re a couple. On the other side of Wendy is a gorgeous blonde, Jade. She’s a bit icy, but I guess you can get away with that when you’re so beautiful. Next to Carl are two handsome brothers, Jake and Jared. I realize belatedly that they’re also brothers to Jade. The J siblings. They could all be models.
I realize I’m the baby when everyone around me orders fancy cocktails and beer. No one says anything about my choice of Coke with a squeeze of lime. Small talk resumes and it turns out, they’re spread all over: California, Indiana, Texas and even New York. Jared perks up when I say I’m at NYU. He’s finishing up his last year at Columbia. The food arrives and my tenderloin is delicious. I can never resist a good steak. I’m really enjoying getting to know everyone, especially Wendy and Jared, when I feel him in the room. I turn around and sure enough, Ian is walking into the restaurant.
Carl sees him next. He waves, and Ian lifts his hand to Carl, but his eyes are on me. He walks straight for me and stops just behind my chair. I look up at him and can’t help it. I’m fairly certain I light up like a tacky lawn at Christmas, complete with a flamingo.
“Sparrow…” His lips curve up. “You made it. How are you?”
“I’m well. How about you?”
“Same. I see you brought the beauty to Colorado.”
“I think it was doing fine on its own.”
Ian’s smile widens. “No … no, I don’t think you know what you do…”
We stare each other down … until Jade clears her throat. “I saved you a seat, Ian,” she calls out. “You’re just in time for dessert.”
Ian doesn’t look at her right away, but when he does, the spell breaks. He pats my back in a friendly gesture and goes to sit by her.
I can’t help it. I’m stung. I don’t know what I expected, but it was something a little … more. I want to kick myself for having any expectations at all. I pass on dessert and mostly listen to the conversations around me. I can’t hear what Jade and Ian are saying, but it sounds like they’re not having any lull in topics.
“Sparrow?” Wendy is looking at me, waiting for my response.
“I’m sorry, did you ask me something?”
“I was wondering if you want to head to our condo,” she points to the others, “we’re just gonna hang in the condo tonight and get up early to ski in the morning. Come with us.”
“Aw, thanks. I better … go back to my own tonight. I haven’t seen my parents in a couple of months. And I have a skiing lesson first thing in the morning.” I try not to grimace as I say that.
Jake pipes up, “You haven’t skied before?”
“No, never.”
The table goes silent when I say that. Jared waves his hand nonchalantly. “Oh, you’ll be fine. I think I had my first lesson here…”
I smile at him and then turn to the others, making eye contact with everyone but Ian and Jade. “It’s so nice to meet all of you. I’m beat tonight, but I’d love to catch up with you tomorrow night.”
They all agree to look for me the next day, and I stand up to head back to my room. My parents are still in deep discussion with their new friends and the Roberts. It could be a while before they’re ready to go. All of a sudden, I realize I’m not just making it up—I really am exhausted.
I head to the other side of the table to kiss my parents and am turning to leave when I nearly run into Ian. “Let me walk you to your room,” he says.
I don’t trust myself to speak, so I don’t. We walk out of the restaurant and into the hallway of the lobby. He looks at the packet holding my room key to see which direction to go. He puts his hand between my shoulder blades and leans his head over to mine, giving me a sideways hug of sorts.
When he pulls back, his eyes are luminous. “Hi,” he says again.
Mercy sakes. He just … does it for me. Whatever it is, he does it.
“Hi,” I whisper.
He leaves his hand on my back, leading the way toward my condo, even though I couldn’t begin to tell you where we’re going. He keeps watching me, smiling and assessing me with those eyes. I can’t think of a thing to say, and I don’t want to spoil the moment with trivial thoughts or accusing questions.
All too soon, we’re at my door. He takes both my hands and clutches them firmly in his. “When you’re done with your lesson in the morning, will you ski with me?”
“Oh—” a nervous laugh escapes, “I’m not sure that’s such a good idea. In fact, I’m sure it’s NOT. I don’t really expect to take to it.” I scrunch my face up and shake my head.
He laughs back at me, his even, white teeth shining like a perfect toothpaste commercial. “You’ll be great. And if you’re not, I can help you.”
“Right. Because you’re an excellent skier, aren’t you?”
“How did you know?” He teases, as his thumb softly outlines my thumb and the palm of my hand. I shiver. “Are you chilly?” he asks.
“No,” I sigh, feeling more than a little foolish. “You should really go ahead and do your thing—I don’t want to hold you back and I’m sure I won’t have it down after one lesson.”
“Stop that. It’ll be fun. What time are you done? Noon? Later?
“I think just before noon.”
“Great. How about we meet around one. Come warm up for a while after your lesson, rest, eat, and then be ready to do the real thing.”
I reluctantly agree.
“You must be tired. It’s, what—two hours later to you?”
I nod and unlock the door, smiling shyly at Ian.
“Sparrow…”
I go completely still and wait for him to speak.
“You’re a vision,” he almost sounds bashful as he says it.
I start to say something, but draw a blank. My face warms up and my cheeks hurt from smiling. I open the door and go inside. The last thing I see before I shut the door are his light bulb eyes shining at me, as his hand briefly touches his cushiony lips. I know who I will be dreaming of tonight.
The time change works to my benefit the next morning, when I’m awake bright and early. The view is so spectacular in the morning light, I actually gasp when I step outside. The mountain peaks don’t even look real.
I have a serious case of the jelly stomach as we pick up our skis and shuffle across the snow in the awkward snow boots. I haven’t been this nervous in … I don’t remember when. Our small class gathers at the bottom of the bunny hill. There are only seven of us, including Lars, the instructor. He looks like a surfer dude who is
slightly out of place, but he surprises me. In no time at all, he has us doing things I never thought possible. I master the wedge; let me tell you, I have worked out how to stop. As a last case scenario, Lars shows us the best way to fall if we can’t stop.
We do wide laps across the bottom of the hill for a long time and before I know it, I’m ready for more. Can you believe I don’t even fall once? In fact, the scariest part of the entire lesson is when we graduate to the ski lift. Now, that could wreck the entire experience for me right there. I nearly panic when I come this close to missing the seat, but it carries me off just in time. I catch my breath as I try not to think about how high it’s going … with nothing holding me in.
My dad yells out in the seat behind me, “You all right, Rosie?”
I don’t dare turn around, but yell back, “Yes!” my voice approximately two octaves higher than normal.
Lars is in front of me, and I study closely how he gets off the lift. When it’s my turn, I copy his moves to a T. Whew. That was intense. And then I turn around and see what I have to go down. What was I thinking? I do a few huge gulps, ignore that quivering that has returned in my guts and then take off down the mountain.
A huge grin is waiting for me when I get to the bottom. Lars is so proud. I’m pretty sure my grin matches his. I’ve never felt such an exhilarated rush. We spend the next hour fine-tuning what we’ve learned. The last few runs, Lars shares the lift with me. He’s charming and makes me laugh, so the time passes quickly. After he’s finished up his last tip and told everyone to enjoy the rest of their stay, he skis up to me.
“Looking great out there, Sparrow,” he says, still beaming.
His voice reminds me of Owen Wilson. In fact, that’s who it is—I’ve been racking my brain the whole morning to figure out who it is he favors. He’s much younger and cuter than Owen, but the messy blond hair, nose that’s been broken a time or two and the constant smile lurking on his lips has him looking like he just stepped out of a romantic comedy.
“Sparrow?”
“I’m so sorry. What did you say?” I mentally kick myself for getting distracted for who knows how long.
“I was just wondering if you want to meet up later? I know where the prime snow is … and some kickin’ places around town.”
I see he has the surfer lingo down pat. Maybe that’s how skiers talk too.
“Well … that sounds fun. You’ve been really … fun. I’m actually supposed to meet up with a friend later. But there are a bunch of us here—all better at this than me. You’re welcome to join us anytime.” If I say “fun” one more time, I’m going to choke myself. Give me too much attention, and I find a way to humiliate myself.
“I’d love that,” he says. He reaches into his jacket and pulls out a card. “I’ll be watching for you, but here’s my number. I’m free most afternoons and evenings this week.”
“Thanks,” I take the card and awkwardly tuck it inside my pocket.
He pushes off with his poles and turns back over his shoulder. “There’s something about you, Sparrow. You’re gorgeous, but … it’s more than that. There aren’t many people coming through here that I want to get to know better … you’re an exception.” He lifts his pole up and does a little bow before taking off.
I’ve just decided I love winter gear. I can splotch to kingdom come and no one will be the wiser.
I feel loads lighter as I get ready to meet Ian. Knowing that I’m not going to fall every other step has put my mind at ease. Beyond that, finding something that I’m halfway good at in the athletic department makes me downright giddy. I never dreamed I could pull that off. I pig out, brush my teeth and sigh when I realize I still have about twenty minutes before we’ve agreed to meet.
I’m absentmindedly putting my gloves on as I step outside. The brisk air feels so good after the heat in the Lodge. A high-pitched giggle grabs my attention and I look up to see Ian and Jade standing by the coffee bar. She leans over and pulls Ian’s face closer to hers to whisper something in his ear. He smirks and shakes his head, while Jade looks like the cat that ate the canary. She swishes her blond hair back and places her hand on his chest as she says something that requires feeling him up.
I feel my eyes narrowing as my blood nearly boils out of my skin. I never thought I was a jealous person, but I just might be.
They don’t see me, so occupied with their own little tête-à-tête; they are oblivious to anyone around them. I study them both and wonder what she is to him. Jade looks stunning. Her long hair is perfectly in place, the straight edge of her blond ends are in a perfect line across her pink coat. Her skin is rosy and flawless. Even from this distance, her eyes stand out. It isn’t her looks that make my green-eyed monster go on the prowl though, it’s the complete ease she has with him and the way he hasn’t even looked around for me once.
I’ll give him five minutes and if he hasn’t walked away from Jade, I’ll conveniently forget about meeting him.
Approximately 4 minutes and 30 seconds later, and with 10 minutes left before he’s supposed to meet me, I see Ian glance at the gigantic clock on the outside of the ski rental shop. He puts a hand on Jade’s shoulder, she grabs him into a hug and he walks away. I nearly try to hide so it doesn’t look like I’ve just been waiting and spying, but figure I’d trip or something equally embarrassing.
When Ian sees me leaning against the building, he flashes his brilliance my way. His eyes take me in, and for a moment, I forget all about Jade and ride high on his attention.
“Sparrow. You are lighting up the whole damn mountain,” he grins.
I smile because I was thinking the same about him. “Have you had a good day?”
“It’s been great. We all went out early. I’m seeing a nap in my future.”
“Oh, did you want to meet up later?”
“Nooo, are you kidding me? You woke me right up.”
“You looked plenty awake before you ever saw me,” I smirk.
Ian’s grin doesn’t fade, but his eyes narrow just a little, as he tries to measure what I’m really saying.
“How was your lesson?”
“It went surprisingly well!” I can’t even tone down the excitement in my voice and what shocks me more, is that I actually want to get back out there.
“I’m not surprised. Well, come on. Show me what you’ve got.”
Ian leads me to one of the longer, more difficult runs, one that I haven’t gone near yet. Once we’re on the lift, it sinks in that I’m in such close proximity to Ian. I wasn’t sure if I’d ever even see him again.
“So, Sparrow…”
I look over at him. If we never have another moment together, I know I will still always remember this moment here, right now, with his phenomenal face perfectly surrounded by the snowy peaks.
“Your name … tell me about that.”
“It’s from that verse in the Bible about how the Father sees when every sparrow falls. And my parents are half-hippie, so my name had to be unique. My middle name is Kate after my grandmother, and I used to write that on everything because I was embarrassed of Sparrow, but now I kinda like it. I’m just glad they didn’t name me something like Zipporah. Not that there’s anything wrong with that,” I grin.
“It fits you. But then again, you could probably even make Zipporah work,” his laugh echoes over the mountain.
We get off one lift and get on another to go higher up. I’m starting to get nervous about how high we are.
“So what is your middle name?”
“Oh no. No. I don’t think you’re ready for that one just yet.”
“Ohhhh,” I snicker, “it’s like that, is it? Okay, at least give me an initial.”
“O.”
“Oh what?”
“No, O. That’s my middle initial.”
“Hmm. It’s probably something hideous like Orville, that would be so funny…” I laugh my head off. “Or…” I look over at him because he’s not laughing. He’s facing forward and while he still ha
s a huge smile on his face, it almost looks like he’s blushing. Oh no. I sober up fast. “Oh … it’s not really … Orville. Is it?”
He nods.
“Nooooo!”
He nods again.
“You’re kidding.”
He shakes his head and then the loudest rumble comes out of him and he’s laughing so hard, the lift is shaking. I feel so bad.
“I’m so sorry. I can’t believe that. It’s not hideous … but really? Why would your mama do that to you? I mean—” I give up because now he’s wiping his eyes and it really is too funny.
He can barely breathe, but in between gasps and laughing, he’s saying, “I can’t believe you guessed it…”
“Well, O didn’t give me a lot to work with…”
He straightens up and I look forward. We’re almost to the top.
“There’s Oliver or Oscar … Omar…” he starts laughing again. “I’m named after my grandfather.”
“Well, now I really feel bad.”
“Don’t. That’s the funniest thing that’s happened to me in a long time.”
- 7 -
My stomach is growling to beat the band by the time we take off our skis and walk to the condo. My feet feel like they’re still gliding on snow. We run into Wendy and Jade outside the lodge and they invite us to eat with the group. I feel Jade’s eyes on me, taking in every look Ian gives me. So far, he seems nice to both Wendy and Jade and not as flirty as it seemed earlier. She doesn’t quite give me daggers, but I can tell she’s evaluating the situation and sizing up how much of a threat I am.
Lars is walking out of the building just as we’re going inside. “Sparrow!” his voice booms. “How did the rest of your day go?”
Everyone turns to look at me, waiting expectantly for me to speak. They act like it’s a foreign concept that I would have already made a friend.
“Hey, Lars! It was so great! I LOVED it!”
His smile stretches wide. “Well, you’re a natural.”
Jade lays her hand on Ian’s arm. Ian looks back and forth from me to Lars.