After Imogen left, Lily felt suddenly apprehensive. She didn’t know anything about skis and boots and mountains or any of it. She was borrowing some of Imogen’s ski clothes for the afternoon and she had everything bar the important stuff, but her stomach was churning at the thought of it.
There was a knock on the door and a woman with a bouffant hairstyle put her head around.
‘Are you the masseuse?’ she asked. ‘I’m booked in this morning.’
‘Absolutely. Come on in.’ Lily immediately went into professional mode.
‘I asked for a relaxing massage,’ the woman said, coming into the room, with a worried expression. ‘Not a sports one… my husband wants one of those after me.’
Lily gave her an easy smile. ‘Not a problem. If relaxing is what you’re after, relaxing is most definitely what you’re going to get.’
Stripping off her hotel sweatshirt so she was just wearing her polo neck and jeans, Lily left her client to get settled on the couch in private, then went back into the room. Picking up an oil that had been one of her favourites to use back home, Lily warmed some in her cupped hands and drizzled it across her client’s back.
‘This is safflower and jojoba combined and it contains lavender, jasmine and Brazilian rosewood so it’s rich and ultra-nourishing. In an hour’s time, you’re going to feel amazing…’
Chapter Eight
Three hours later, after a quick lunch, Lily was standing in some non-matching, wildly clashing ski clothes at the bottom of a mountain, clutching skis, wearing extremely uncomfortable ski boots that felt too tight and restrictive and weird. She didn’t like them at all. She had been measured and weighed and fitted and re-fitted for both her skis and her boots and it had been exciting but kind of scary too.
Lily hadn’t wanted to ask if her ski boots could be black and silver like the ones all the female skiers she had seen on her way to the shop were wearing and had instead ended up with ugly navy ones that didn’t match anything she was wearing. They also made her stand oddly, as though she was tilted forwards. The bottoms of the boots were at an angle, presumably to fit properly into the skis, but they felt bizarre when standing and walking.
Her skis were white with black tips and they looked fairly stylish, but Lily didn’t have a clue; they might scream beginner. And she hated her glossy, white helmet while she was thinking about it. It was absurd. Unattractive, clumsy and annoying. And she was sure she must look silly in it, even though everyone wore them. She felt like a cyclist who’d lost her bicycle.
She was standing at the bottom of Les Planards, which according to the map Imogen had given her was one of the larger nursery areas in the centre of Chamonix. The ‘green piste’ had a ‘gentle gradient’ apparently, which to Lily looked like a hideously steep slope, as well as another slightly more difficult slope. Both slopes had drag lifts and even they looked challenging to Lily. She felt her hands start to shake in the black, puffy ski gloves she was wearing, and she was of a mind to turn back the way she had come. Except that she had had to walk to this part of town in her ski boots, which involved putting a heel down and clonking down onto her toe and the same on the other foot. It had taken ages, she had felt awkward and silly, and she didn’t relish having to do it all over again on the way back.
‘Lily?’
She turned to find an extremely hot guy standing in front of her. He had dirty blond hair, dark eyes and a sexy mouth that looked as though it was about to break into a smile. The kind of mouth that instantly made a girl want to kiss it. Lily felt shocked at her own thought. She wasn’t prone to thinking that kind of thing about a guy she’d just set eyes on.
Lily blinked at the guy. Was this Matteo? Hadn’t Imogen said he was on the old side? This guy was in his early thirties and his face was tanned, but not weathered. And he was wearing black salopettes with the red ski jacket all the instructors wore. He had a pair of sunglasses on top of his head and his helmet and gloves were tucked under his arm.
‘I’m Luc,’ he said, holding out his hand and smiling in a friendly rather than flirtatious way.
Lily felt a frisson of excitement. So this was the famous Luc. Well. He was certainly hot.
‘I think you might have been expecting Matteo, but I had a free space, so here I am.’ His eyes met hers again and Lily felt another flicker of something. Wow. Luc was indeed good-looking. It was in a very different way to Jamie, who was all floppy dark hair and laughing eyes, but Luc was attractive. Sexy. Imposing. And very tall. But it wasn’t just that he was good-looking. He looked fun and exciting and… different.
Lily shook his hand abruptly, realising she’d left him hanging. His hand was warm and his handshake was firm.
‘H-hi,’ she replied, annoyed to find her teeth chattering. Was it the chilly air or her nerves? Or because Luc was so… tall…?
‘You are the new masseuse, I think?’
She nodded.
‘I will have to book myself in with you,’ Luc said. ‘I get very tight here.’ He pointed to his shoulders.
‘Sure.’
The thought of massaging Luc was rather disturbing for some reason, but Lily couldn’t very well turn him away. Nor would she if he booked himself in. She felt rather flustered, but she was sure it was one-sided. Luc must get this reaction from women a lot. He was charming and tall and confident and he looked unfazed, so Lily steeled herself. No more falling for guys who didn’t fancy her back.
‘So. You haven’t skied before, no?’ Luc started pulling his gloves on.
His accent was attractive, like Celine’s. Seductive, even. He did look like a playboy, though. No wonder Elodie was into him. And from what she’d told Lily last night, she was the one who had tamed him. Lily felt a stab of envy, which she swiftly pushed away. She was sick of feeling envious of people around her; she was sure she would get over her heartache one day and find her own Luc. Jamie. Whoever.
‘Er… no. I haven’t. Skied before, that is.’ Lily pulled her gloves on. Her hands were shaking badly. How embarrassing. She was fumbling around like an idiot. It was obviously nerves and not Luc’s handsome face.
‘Here.’ Luc whipped his gloves off and helped her on with hers, as though she were a child, doing the Velcro straps up for her, tucking the edges into the sleeves of her jacket. She found it oddly endearing.
‘You are a little nervous?’ Luc asked, raising an eyebrow.
‘Very,’ Lily admitted, letting out a jerky breath. She liked that James Bond one eyebrow lift, and she and Jamie even used to practise it a lot but to no avail.
Oh, do shut up about Jamie, she berated herself. She was turning into a Jamie-bore. She had to stop thinking about him and referencing everything back to him.
‘I don’t know what’s wrong with me,’ she said, glancing at Luc. She looked up at the nursery slope. ‘That looks high to me, but it’s a low one, right?’
Luc grinned. ‘It is a low one, yes.’ He pulled his helmet on and helped her with hers, then cocked his head to one side. ‘You are scared of heights, maybe?’
Lily shook her head. ‘I don’t think so. A bit, maybe. I don’t know. I’ve never really been up on anything high before. Maybe once. With my dad.’
Her voice faded. She hated thinking about her dad and any memories relating to him. But she knew she had been somewhere high with him once. A mountain? A tall building? Lily wasn’t sure. Maybe she had blocked it out. She thought she had probably blocked out many things to do with her dad.
‘OK.’ Luc shrugged. ‘No matter. Let’s get you up there and see what happens.’
‘We’re… we’re going up there? Right now?’ Lily felt her stomach squelch.
‘Yes,’ Luc nodded. ‘Apart from a short instruction here, we are heading up to the lower level slope.’ He put his gloved hand on her arm. ‘Do not worry. I am here with you. I won’t let anything bad happen.’
‘I bet you say that to all the beginners!’ Lily quipped out of sheer anxiety. The blood was pumping through her body at a rate of
knots. She actually felt light-headed.
‘I do. And they believe me. And so should you. Let’s go through a few things.’
Luc set about showing Lily how to stamp her boots into her skis whilst they were on a flat plane and went through some basic instruction about her stance, how to control the skis with the tilt of her knees, and where her poles should be held.
‘Let’s get the button lift,’ Luc said, once he was sure Lily had everything clear.
‘What’s a button lift?’ Lily felt her heart start thumping uncontrollably again. Being on flat ground was fine, but going up on any kind of lift was sending her spiralling.
Luc showed her how to step out of her skis by using one to push down on the back guard and her boot for the other. ‘A button lift is also known as a drag lift or a “Poma”, after the French company who made them.’
‘Great.’ Lily’s teeth were chattering again. ‘How do we get on that?’
‘We walk to it, first of all,’ Luc explained. ‘And then we put our skis on, shuffle through the gate and then we tuck the button under us like this.’ He demonstrated, looking comical as he gestured with his hands and bent his knees. He was playing with her, wanting her to copy him. ‘Come. It’s fun.’
Fun? Lily was thinking it might be more fun to shut herself in a hot sauna in her ski clothes this afternoon. With Elodie.
Stomping heel to toe in her ski boots after Luc, Lily felt her entire body flood with trepidation. What on earth was happening to her? Why was she reacting like this? Standing into her skis as Luc held onto her, Lily shuffled after him towards the lift, grateful of the queue. It was mostly formed by children, which was mortifying, but there were a few adults there as well. And some of them looked even more unstable than she felt, which was reassuring, but only momentarily.
‘I’ll go through first,’ Luc told her. ‘Where is your ski pass?’
‘In my inside pocket,’ Lily gestured to her chest. ‘Do I need to get it out?’
He shook his head. ‘No, but you need to aim it at that machine as we go through. Tomorrow, put it in this side pocket here, yes? It will be easier for you.’
Lily was puzzled, but soon realised what Luc meant. The sensor for the pass was low down and she had to contort herself at a weird angle to get her pass read. Basically, she had to aim her boob at the machine and bend over at the same time. On skis. No mean feat. Certain she must look utterly ridiculous and a total novice, Lily managed to get through the barrier without slipping over, just.
Luc grinned at her again. ‘That was funny. Well done for not falling over. So.’ He gestured to the button lift, which had round circles on the ends of long, metal arms that swung as they came around a rotating grinder. ‘We grab the button like so.’ He grabbed it and mimed tucking it between his legs. ‘We don’t sit on it. We just lean into our skis and let the lift drag us up the slope.’
‘Simple,’ Lily muttered, squashing down the feeling of panic that was threatening to overwhelm her.
Luc smiled. ‘You can do it. Shall I go in front of you or behind you?’
Lily shook her head. ‘I don’t know. What’s worse? Or better?’
‘I’ll go behind and then I can pick you up if you fall off.’
Fall off? He hadn’t said anything about falling off. Lily shuffled forward again and held her left hand out for the lift. One went past her and she tried to grab it and failed.
‘No problem,’ Luc said, rolling his shoulders expansively. ‘Who cares? Try again on the next one. Stay calm. Take your time.’
The next button lift came around and Lily grabbed it, hard. Too hard. Trying to tuck it between her legs, she wobbled and fell, landing sideways in the snow. Another button lift went by, but she hadn’t a hope in hell of grabbing it since she was face down in the snow.
‘Oh God.’ Lily didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. She laughed but felt herself cringing inside. Everyone else seemed to be able to do this effortlessly. Why couldn’t she? Feeling incredibly stupid, Lily struggled to get up, not even remotely managing it. Is this what it felt like to be a turtle flipped over onto its shell?
‘It’s OK.’ Luc’s strong, tanned hands came out and lifted her up. ‘Let me help you. Here you go.’ He expertly drew the next button lift down and held it between her legs. Lily felt embarrassed and she glanced at Luc. He was grinning, but he said nothing.
‘Hold on,’ he instructed. ‘I am right behind you.’
Lily held on for dear life. Her legs didn’t seem to want to do as they were told. She was trying to keep them straight and level as Luc had suggested, but they kept wanting to flare out like Bambi on ice and do their own thing. Like falling over again.
Do not fall off, do not fall off, Lily told herself. Jeez. She sounded like Dave.
‘We are getting off soon!’ Luc shouted to her from behind. ‘Remember what I said. You are going to take the lift out, hold on, point your skis to the right and you are going to let go and let your skis slide across.’
Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God. Lily did as Luc had instructed. Holding on slightly too long, she let the button lift ping away from her with a loud screeching noise and turned onto the slope. Realising she wasn’t holding onto anything, she wobbled, straightened, lost her nerve and then fell over again. She shrieked, getting a mouthful of snow.
Luc scooped her up as if she weighed nothing, even though she weighed a considerable amount, even if much of it was muscle, and set her upright.
‘OK?’ he asked. He looked amused, but sympathetic.
She glanced at him, trying to work out if he was laughing at her. ‘I’m OK,’ she said moodily. ‘I’m bruised and I feel like an idiot, but I’m OK. Thank you for helping me up. Again.’
‘De rien,’ he said, with a shrug of his shoulders. ‘It happens. Don’t worry about falling over. I fell over seventeen times the first time my dad taught me to ski.’
Lily was sure he hadn’t. She wanted to believe him, but wondered if it was just a story he had concocted to make beginners feel better after falling arse over tit.
Luc pointed down the slope. ‘That is what we are going to get down. Are you ready?’
Lily kept her skis sideways as he’d taught her and looked down the slope. Oh, dear Lord. This was a nursery slope? It looked horrendous. It looked steep and scary and like an absolute death trap.
‘Look at the view,’ Luc said, leaning casually on his ski pole. ‘Have you ever seen anything like that? How beautiful it is, oui?’
Lily swallowed and looked at the view. It was stunning. Snow-capped mountains that were picture-perfect, almost as though the brilliant white snow had been painted on in sweeping strokes. Clear skies in a bright shade of blue that was simply breathtaking. There was not a cloud to be seen; the earlier fall of snow had stopped some hours ago, leaving a thick, powdery finish everywhere. The view aside, the slope still seemed steep and unmanageable.
‘I’d quite like to go back to the hotel now,’ Lily said in a small voice.
‘You can’t,’ Luc replied cheerfully. ‘This is the only way down. The button lifts only go up. They don’t go down. We go down.’
Lily stared at him. Holy shit. How was she supposed to get down this stupid mountain when she hadn’t skied before? She wanted to sit in the snow and refuse to move. She would give anything to get off this mountain right now by helicopter or any other form of transport, but getting down this slope on these slippery skis? Nope. No thank you. Non.
And the height. Where had this fear of heights come from suddenly? Lily couldn’t understand it.
Don’t be such a baby! Lily heard in the back of her mind. Stop crying and go to the edge. Everyone else can do it! She started shaking all over. Her dad. Her dad had said those words to her. A memory rushed into her mind without warning. She had been young, maybe five or six. They had been abroad somewhere up a high mountain. Wherever it was, she hadn’t wanted to be there. Panic shot through her. And he had bullied her. He had forced her to go to the edge when she was u
tterly petrified.
‘Lily.’ Luc’s voice interrupted her thoughts, his voice calm and authoritative. ‘What did I say at the bottom of the slope? I am here with you and I will not let anything bad happen. Do as I tell you and I promise it will all be OK. Trust me.’
Lily stared at him, coming out of her reverie. He wasn’t her dad. He was trying to help her, not bully her.
‘OK,’ she said shakily. She didn’t know why, but she was going to trust him. Jesus, but she was petrified.
‘What do I need to do?’
Chapter Nine
‘OK, so we’re taking this really slowly.’ Luc demonstrated pushing the tips of his skis together, flaring the backs of them out.
‘Your arms are here, poles in this position.’
Lily copied him, her heart thumping.
‘We call this a snow plough,’ Luc explained. ‘For the kids, we call this a “wedge” or a “pizza”. For the adults, a snow plough. Perfect position, by the way.’
The compliment flew over Lily’s head. She felt as though she had a wodge of cotton wool in her throat. She felt as though she was about to speak in public in front of thousands of people. Naked. With a pineapple on her head. She felt foolish and gauche and so far out of her comfort zone she didn’t know what to do with herself. Lily took hold of herself. She could do this. She could do this.
‘Shall we make a start?’ Luc gave her an encouraging nod.
Not giving herself time to think, Lily nodded back. She pulled her goggles down and gritted her teeth.
‘Relax,’ Luc said. He pushed away slowly and went into a perfect snow plough. An elegant, effortless snow plough.
Lily hesitated, then followed him. Whoa. Her legs were shaking so much, she was wobbling all over the place. It was hard to stay in the snow plough shape. She put her weight forward as Luc had instructed, but felt herself glide down the slope. Which didn’t seem as steep now that she was moving down it.
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