Chapter Nine
The second the wheels of the aircraft touched the ground, Kaitlin jumped.
"We're just landing," Liam said.
"I slept through the whole flight?"
He nodded.
"Oh my gosh. I'm sorry."
"For what?" he laughed. "For sleeping?"
"I probably drooled on you or something," she leaned back onto her side of the chair and switched the armrest back, wiping at the sides of her mouth.
He smiled and placed his hand over his chest. He was chilled in the spot she'd just spent several hours snuggled up to and would have given anything to have her back like that again. "Nope," he assured her. "No drool."
"At least I got something going for me today," she said. "Hey, I'm sorry for being an emotional mess."
"Everyone has bad days. You just happened to have a bad day and a worse boyfriend."
"Ex-boyfriend," she said. "I'm buying us a bottle of carbonated, overpriced water," she said. "We're wishing Rick good riddance with a toast."
"Sounds good," Liam said.
Upon deplaning, Liam looked around and realized by no means was Kaitlin kidding.
Aspen had a vibe of aristocrats and socialites but was unquestionably beautiful and definitely home to the most breathtaking mountains he'd ever seen.
"Do you mind stopping for my overpriced water?" she asked.
"I thought we were stopping for your overpriced eye cream."
"That too."
"You like overpriced things," Liam teased.
"Hey now, the water is for a special occasion. The eye cream is a requirement."
"Says you," Liam said. "Your eyes are lovely."
Kaitlin blushed and giggled. "They're lovely because of the eye cream. Trust me, if I didn't have it, they wouldn't be so nice."
He winked at her and smiled. "Whatever you say."
As the car approached the cabin that he'd rented, his mouth dropped. It was all log, snow-covered and surreal. Thing looked like it belonged on the big screen not in real life. She exited the car, her ruck sack slung over her shoulder, her bottle of overpriced sparkling water in one hand and the same expression on her face Liam was sure was on his. "Whoa," she said, "this place is incredible."
Liam nodded. "The pictures were nice. The real thing is nicer."
"I bet you're itching to go skiing."
"I wouldn't mind," he said. "But we can do whatever you want."
"I saw a paper about ski lessons at the lodge," Kaitlin said. "Why don't you go shred snow and I'll take a lesson that way I might be able to barely keep up with you tomorrow before I go face first into the mountain."
"I can take a snowboarding lesson," Liam offered. "Don't know how to do that yet."
"Snowboarding lessons are only offered on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. It's Sunday."
Oh.
"Honestly," Kaitlin continued. "You go and I'll take a ski lesson and we can meet each other around dinner time."
