And what about Luc? Lily twirled a lock of red hair around her finger. She liked Luc. There. She had admitted it. And she shouldn’t like him because Elodie clearly had some kind of claim on him. Also, if Elodie was correct, Luc was an arrogant player who got his kicks from making heartbroken girls fall in love with him. Lily frowned. Did she believe that of him? She had thought he was a player when she had first met him. Or had Elodie told her that?
Lily felt confused by the whole situation. She badly needed a girly catch up with Imogen to chew it all over and make sense of it. But for now, Jamie was here and Lily owed it to him to make his trip fun.
‘Are we all out on the beers tonight?’ Jamie asked, looking thoroughly excited.
‘Yes!’ Lily said. ‘Of course we are.’
‘Brilliant! After dinner, you can show me the sights of Chamonix,’ Jamie said to Lily, coming back to stand by her side.
Sylvan shimmied over, clearly jealous that Jamie had turned up. ‘Dinner is mini croque monsieur, followed by confit of chicken.’
‘Ooh,’ Jamie cooed, clearly realising that Sylvan needed some kind of applause after his announcement. ‘That sounds yummy.’
Sylvan flinched at the use of the word ‘yummy’, obviously not feeling that it was extravagant enough to describe his superb cooking.
‘I will see you at dinner, Lily,’ he said, walking off.
‘He fancies you,’ Jamie said, openly laughing.
‘Shut up,’ Lily said, nudging him. ‘He books massages with me every other day.’
‘Dirty monkey.’ Jamie pulled a face. ‘I hope he’s not one of your hairy clients.’
Lily giggled then sobered up. ‘I wish Ivy was here,’ she said, meaning it. ‘Don’t you?’
Jamie’s face became impassive. ‘Yes, of course,’ he answered smoothly. ‘That would have been lovely. But she’s working. Naturally.’ He turned away and started chatting to Ollie about skiing and where all the best runs were.
Lily chewed her fingernail as she watched him. He still gave her those feelings and he shouldn’t, because of Ivy, but thoughts of Luc kept popping into her head as well. Lily no longer knew who she liked, who she trusted and where she wanted to be. And she didn’t even know if she had any control whatsoever over what was going to happen. Jamie represented home and familiarity and Luc represented something new and different and exciting. Not in the sense that she would ever end up with him, of course, but just in the way that he represented her new life in Chamonix.
As everyone made post-dinner arrangements to go to two trendy bars and an insanely loud nightclub, Lily wished she could just hibernate in Luc’s parents’ log cabin on her own for a few days. Her life had suddenly gotten really complicated and she had no idea how she felt about anything.
Chapter Twenty-One
Imogen’s alarm went off at five thirty. She reached out sleepily and turned it off.
‘Oh dear,’ she groaned. ‘My head.’ She struggled to sit up, her black hair flopping over her face. ‘Lil. Who’s that on our floor?’
Lily sat up with slightly more ease. ‘That’s Ollie and that’s Jamie,’ she said in a low voice. ‘They wouldn’t leave last night so we tossed our fleeces over them and they slept there.’
‘Bloody hell.’ Imogen managed to get out of bed. ‘Why do you look fresh as a bloody daisy, woman?’
‘I didn’t drink the shots,’ Lily told her with a wicked smile. It was true. Everyone had gotten in on the shots last night and Lily had refused them. Shots made her exceptionally drunk and, for some reason, she had felt that she needed to have her wits about her. As it turned out, it had been a really fun evening and she needn’t have worried. Jamie had been hilarious and as playful as a puppy and everyone had adored him. Still, Lily was glad she hadn’t overdone it because she hated doing breakfast duty on a hangover. The smell of the eggs always made her want to barf.
Lily had been plagued by images of Luc and Elodie together, especially since the two of them had been noticeable by their absence. Images of Luc’s tanned body writhing all over Elodie’s beautiful, slender frame, her super-flat hair being tossed around with gay abandon, had caused her to feel quite nauseous. Was it just the principle of the thing? Was it because she liked Luc and thought of him as a very attractive friend, while she thought Elodie was a harpy with horns and a devil’s tail?
Lily grinned as she watched Jamie turn over under her baby blue fleece, repositioning the ‘I Heart Skiing’ cushion under his head so his dark hair flopped all over it. He had the best face, Lily thought, feeling her heart clench slightly. Well, not the best face. Luc’s was pretty hot too.
Oh, do shut up, she scolded herself. There is more to life than these two men, neither of whom were actually hers. They both belonged to other people – one of them Lily’s sister, and the other a harpy with horns and a devil’s tail. All she could do was enjoy Jamie’s company and try to figure out if Luc was a manipulative playboy with a black heart.
Easy peasy. Shouldn’t be too hard to work out, Lily told herself, shaking her head at the ridiculousness of it all.
‘What’s happening?’ Ollie said, lifting his head from the pillow. ‘Oh no. Who hit me with skis last night?’
‘Porn Star Martini did that,’ Imogen told him smartly as she emerged from the shower room. ‘And her pal B52.’
‘Oh dearie me,’ Ollie flopped down again. ‘I’m not on breakfast duty, am I?’
‘Yes, you are, lover boy,’ Imogen said, laughing. ‘You’d better get up.’
‘Wass happening?’ Jamie sat bolt upright. ‘And where the fricking hell am I?’
Lily got out of bed. ‘What’s happening is you’re hungover and so are we. We have to go and serve breakfast to everyone and you don’t.’
‘Sweet!’ Jamie said, flopping back down on the floor. ‘What time is my conference? Does anyone know?’
‘I think you said midday yesterday,’ Lily said, stepping over him. ‘And you can have my bed now if you want.’
‘Brilliant!’ Jamie said, heaving himself up and throwing himself into the warm space Lily had left. ‘Someone please set an alarm for five to twelve and then I’ll…’ Before he finished talking, he was fast asleep again.
Lily, Imogen and Ollie got themselves up and dressed and downstairs. With very sore heads, they started the breakfast service, completing their tasks like clockwork because they had such a good routine now. Elodie was nowhere to be seen and Lily had a horrible feeling she had stayed with Luc. Not that it was any of her business.
Lily assessed her day. She had two massages first thing, one with Sylvan and one with a guest, followed by her last appointment with Bernadette. She had promised to show Jamie around Chamonix before his conference, but perhaps it would be after if he was sleeping off his hangover until then. She set an alarm on her phone to go and wake him after Sylvan. After breakfast service, she hurried down to the room. Sylvan was only seconds behind her, always keen. He spent the entire massage talking, asking her very unsubtle questions about Jamie and when he was done with that, he wanted to know all her Christmas plans. At that point, he moved on to talk about one of the new chalet girls, Charlotte, perhaps signalling the end of his infatuation with Lily.
With any luck, she thought to herself.
Lily suddenly remembered that she had been planning to make Luc fall in love with Christmas again. Did she still want to do that if he was the massive dickhead Elodie had made him out to be? Lily finished Sylvan’s massage and made a pact with herself. She loved Christmas and it was such a shame that Luc didn’t anymore. If she could get him to enjoy even a modicum of the festive season and see it as something fun for the first time in years, she was all for it. So she was going to go ahead with her plans and she would speak to Bernadette about it later.
Ushering a still-keen Sylvan out of the room, Lily nipped upstairs to wake Jamie up.
‘Conference in two hours,’ she told him, shaking his bare shoulder gently. He had removed his shirt from the night before.
‘Oh jeez,’ he groaned, rolling onto his back. ‘Why on earth did I drink all those shots?’
‘Because they taste good. Get up. I have to go back to work and then I have hypnotherapy. Shall I meet you in town?’
‘Perfect,’ Jamie said, putting his legs over the side of the bed, then forcing himself to sit up. ‘Bloody, bloody hell.’ He checked his phone. ‘Oops, messages from Ivy. I’d better give her a call.’
‘I’ll leave you to it,’ Lily told him, feeling a pang, but pushing it away. Heading back downstairs to her massage room, Lily got on with her day.
* * *
‘So how do you feel after your last session?’ Bernadette asking, placing Lily’s hot chocolate on the table beside her.
‘Thank you. Pretty good actually. I mean, that whiteout was shocking, but I wasn’t as scared as I thought I would be.’
Lily had told Bernadette all about it earlier. She felt good that she hadn’t frozen or cried; she had simply gotten on with getting down the mountain. With Luc’s help of course.
‘My friend Jamie arrived yesterday, too,’ Lily informed Bernadette.
Bernadette eyed her shrewdly. ‘Oh yes? And he is a friend or a special friend?’
Lily smiled and sipped her hot chocolate. ‘Well. I have feelings for him, but he doesn’t have them for me. He’s dating my sister.’
‘That’s complicated.’ Bernadette stroked Jez’s brother, Charles, as he strolled past haughtily. ‘But is it nice to have him here?’
‘Definitely. He’s a bit of home, if you know what I mean.’
‘I do. And do you feel the same about him now that he’s here?’ Bernadette asked.
Lily thought for a moment. ‘I don’t know, if I’m honest. He’s my friend, but I came here to get away from him and it’s been good for me to have that break.’
Bernadette smiled at Lily. ‘But did all those feelings come rushing back when you saw him?’
‘I don’t know,’ Lily admitted. ‘There were feelings for sure, but I don’t know. Maybe… maybe not… I don’t know!’
‘OK, OK.’ Bernadette laughed. ‘And how is Luc?’
Lily felt her body stiffen slightly. ‘Elodie told me he was trying to make me fall in love with him. That he knew I was broken-hearted and he was trying to distract me.’
Bernadette stared at her for a moment, then burst out laughing. ‘What? There is no way Luc would waste his time acting like that, I can assure you. He doesn’t need to make girls fall in love with him. They just do.’
‘I’m sure,’ Lily said, sounding snippy to her own ears. ‘Is he… a playboy, Bernadette?’
‘A what? Like Hugh Hefner?’ Bernadette’s face was a picture.
‘Well, kind of. I mean, does he have a bad reputation? With girls.’ Lily could feel herself flushing.
‘Oh, that.’ Bernadette smiled mischievously. ‘I think he used to have that reputation,’ she said honestly. ‘I think he used to have lots of fun. But he’s grown up now. He’s wary of messing around too much with chalet girls and the like because they often come for a season and then they’re off. Perfect for him back in the day, but not so much now when he’s of an age to want to settle down.’
‘Hmm.’ Lily wasn’t sure what to make of that. Did a leopard ever change its spots? Or did it just grow up, as Bernadette was suggesting? Maybe it just didn’t matter if Luc was dating Elodie.
‘What do you think of Elodie Devereux?’ Lily asked before she could stop herself.
‘Elodie Devereux.’ Bernadette’s expression became grave. ‘She is a very mixed up girl, in my opinion. She used to be Anais’s best friend. Did you know that?’
‘No, I didn’t know that.’ Lily was stunned. Why had no one mentioned that before? Why hadn’t Luc mentioned that?
‘I’ll leave Luc to talk to you more about that one,’ Bernadette said with a wise nod of her head. ‘Now I have made you a list of everything Christmas-related that we do here in France. You know it’s all mostly about Christmas Eve?’
Lily took the list and tried to read Bernadette’s tiny, curly writing. ‘Yes, I’ve heard that. You have a big dinner, I think? But how can I go about organising that?’
‘You can’t, but I can,’ Bernadette replied triumphantly. ‘I thought we would play it like this. I will invite Raymond and Violetta. You will invite Luc. We will do all the cooking together and organise all the Christmas things.’ She shrugged. ‘Worst case, you and I have the most enormous meal on our own and we eat leftovers for days afterwards.’
‘Deal.’
Clutching her list, Lily popped her shoes in a rucksack and pulled her ski boots on. Saying goodbye to Bernadette, she grabbed her skis and poles from the hallway and left to meet Jamie. He was waiting for her outside one of the bars in the centre of town. He had changed into his ski clothes, wearing a fairly loud turquoise jacket with orange trousers, but they suited him. And at least she wouldn’t lose him on the slopes.
‘I’ve asked this guy if he’ll stash our skis for us as long as we come back for hair of the dog,’ Jamie said, gesturing to a nearby bar. ‘Do you fancy showing me around?’
‘Sure.’
They tucked their skis next to each other in the special area by the bar – ‘his and hers’, Jamie quipped – and set off through the town. Lily showed Jamie her favourite haunts, including the fondue restaurant she and Luc had eaten in and a few funky bars. She showed him the macaron tea shop where she had met Luc’s parents and they wandered through the Christmas market, buying pretzels and hot chocolate.
Lily suggested that Jamie buy Ivy some pretty earrings for Christmas. They were definitely her style, and he did so, but rather reluctantly.
‘OK, so I need a beer before we ski,’ Jamie said. ‘I need something to perk me up. My head is thumping.’
They sat outside under a heated lamp and Lily ordered a mulled wine, while Jamie got a beer. Lily idly wondered where Luc was, then remembered he had lots of private lessons over the next few days.
‘How was your conference?’ Lily asked, thinking the mulled wine wasn’t half as good as Violetta’s.
‘Dull as shit,’ Jamie replied, flicking his hair out of his eyes. ‘They brought it forward by three days, hence my early arrival, by the way. I was going to tell you and then I thought I would just surprise you.’
‘I was definitely surprised,’ Lily said with a smile. ‘How was Ivy when you spoke to her earlier?’
‘She was fine,’ Jamie said. He let out an almost indiscernible sigh. ‘Busy with work, as usual.’ He met Lily’s eyes. ‘To be honest, I don’t know if it’s working out, Red. I really like her, but I think we want different things.’
‘Maybe,’ Lily said sadly. She hated the thought of Ivy getting hurt. Ivy had been so excited about the two of them getting together, but now it all seemed to have fallen rather flat. Lily was pleased that she didn’t feel angry or upset about it anymore. And she wasn’t sure what that meant. Was she over Jamie? She eyed him over her mulled wine. She wasn’t sure she was really over him, but perhaps the feelings weren’t as strong and painful as before. It was a dull ache rather than a sharp pang.
‘Shall we ski?’ Jamie said, draining his beer.
‘Yes.’ Lily was excited. She would show Jamie her newfound skills and hopefully he would be impressed. ‘I can’t do anything more than a blue, I’m afraid.’
‘Really?’ Jamie looked disappointed. ‘I thought we’d tackle a red today.’
Lily felt herself have palpitations and she knew she had to stand her ground. ‘I’m really sorry, but that will just send me into a tailspin. I need to work up to a red. But if you want to go off on one without me, feel free. I’d hate to hold you back, especially on your first day here.’
‘Don’t be daft!’ Jamie shrugged off his earlier comment. ‘I’m here to see you, apart from my conference, so a blue run it is.’
Feeling pleased that it was more important to ski with her than dash off down the difficult runs by himself, Lily
took him to the run she and Luc had gone down the other day. She soon found out that skiing with Jamie was a whole new ball game compared to skiing with Luc.
‘Let’s go!’ Jamie cried excitedly at the top of the mountain. He set off at a high speed, not even looking behind him to see where Lily was.
Lily took a deep breath. She reminded herself about all the basic skills Luc had taught her and Bernadette’s words rang in her ears as usual. Her dad’s voice had been drowned out by all the hypnotherapy and Lily was over the moon about that. But where the hell was Jamie?
Lily took her time and started with some good, strong snow plough turns. She then tried to parallel, reminding herself of Luc’s instructions as she did so. Something didn’t feel quite right today, though, and Lily wasn’t sure what it was. Was it because Luc was absent? Was it because she was effectively alone, since Jamie had bombed off without her? Lily was rather peeved about that, truth be told. She fell over a couple of times, but picked herself up and carried on. When she got further down, she found Jamie waiting for her at the side, easy to spot in his bright jacket and salopette combo.
‘Where did you get to?’ he asked her. ‘I totally lost you.’
‘I’m not that speedy at the moment,’ Lily said, feeling rather foolish. ‘I’m only just perfecting my parallels.’
‘Really?’ Jamie looked flabbergasted and quite unimpressed. ‘But I thought Luc the wonder instructor was teaching you? I thought he’d been teaching you for weeks.’
Lily felt vexed. ‘He has. It’s just been a labour of love. I was petrified, Jamie. Literally petrified. I couldn’t even move off the top of the nursery slope on the first day. I’ve come so far…’ Her voice petered out and she stopped talking, worried she might start to cry.
‘OK, OK,’ Jamie put his arm round her. ‘I’m sorry. I just thought this Luc had turned you into the most magnificent skier, that’s all. I didn’t realise you were still at this very basic level.’
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