Chapter Two

Hallie's POV

It was already dark by the time I got back to the hotel.

I curled up in bed scrolling through my camera roll and came across the video from that afternoon.

The stranger had grabbed my phone and filmed it at the bottom of the blue run.

In the video, I was crouched low with my knees bent, flying down the slope with snow spraying up behind me.

I came to a clean stop right in front of the camera, grinning so hard my eyes crinkled shut.

I watched it over and over, added an upbeat song, and posted it on Instagram with one line: Finally made it down.

A few minutes later, someone from marketing commented.

"Cole took you skiing again? You two are always so in sync. This looks amazing!"

My thumb froze over the screen.

Every ski season, my page used to be nothing but ski videos, and nine out of ten had been shot by Cole skiing behind me with his phone.

Everyone at work was so used to it that they just assumed he was the one behind the camera.

I scrolled down. My last ski video was from February of last year.

Addison started not long after that.

I replied to the comment.

"Not him this time! Some really nice guy helped me out all afternoon. I never would've tried a blue run without him."

The second I hit send, a new post popped up in my feed.

It was from Addison. Ten photos, and Cole was in every one of them.

He was holding her arm on the slope, crouching down to buckle her boots, and skiing behind her with his arms out to keep her steady.

The run in the background was the same one from my video.

Her caption said, "Shoutout to the most patient boss ever. I fell like a hundred times and he never once got sick of me."

Cole had commented underneath. "You're a fast learner. Round two tonight."

I put my phone face down on the blanket. I felt sick to my stomach.

After a while, I flipped it back over, opened her post, and liked the last photo.

Who he skied with from now on, whose arm he held, none of that was my business anymore.

The next morning, my knee hurt so bad I limped the whole way downstairs.

The resort restaurant was packed with coworkers.

Cole walked past me holding a coffee, then slowed down, his eyes dropping to my leg.

"Why are you limping?"

I didn't answer. He didn't ask again either. He set his coffee down on the table and walked out.

About ten minutes later he came back with a tube of ointment from the resort shop and tossed it down in front of me.

"Roll up your pant leg."

I hesitated, then did it anyway.

My knee was one big bruise, and the skin around the edge was scraped raw.

Cole's face darkened right away.

"Didn't you say that guy was such a great teacher? Then how'd you end up like this?"

He twisted the cap off. "That's what you get for trusting some random guy off the slopes. Don't push it next time."

He sounded harsh, but when he crouched down to put the ointment on, his hands were gentle.

As his fingertips got close to the edge of the bruise, he paused and looked up at me, like he was afraid he'd hurt me.

Back then, whenever I fell, he'd crouch down in the snow just like this and rub my knee.

I stared at the top of his head while he bent over my leg.

I wanted to ask what gave him the right to talk about that guy, but I kept it to myself.

"Hallie, you fell too?"

Addison came over with her tray, moving slowly, an elastic bandage wrapped around her right ankle.

She sat down next to Cole and sighed.

"I rolled my ankle night skiing last night. It got so swollen I couldn't even get my shoe on. Thank God Cole massaged it for like half an hour. It barely hurts this morning."

Cole's hand stopped.

I looked down at him. He looked up at me, totally unbothered.

"Her ankle was swollen like crazy. I wasn't just gonna leave her like that."

I rolled my pant leg back down, took out my phone, and sent him eighteen dollars with a note: For the ointment.

His phone buzzed on the table.

Cole glanced at the screen and frowned. "What are you doing?"

When the company was just starting out and he couldn't make rent, I covered it with my savings.

When my car broke down on the side of the road, he tossed me his keys without thinking twice.

All these years, we'd never kept score.

But starting today, I was keeping track.

I slid the ointment back toward him. "If you take the money, I won't feel weird using it."

Addison bit her lip.

"Hallie, are you mad because of me?" she said quietly. "It honestly hurt so bad I couldn't walk. That's the only reason I asked Cole for help."

Cole stood up and kept his voice low.

"What's going on with you lately? Everybody's watching. Can you stop being so childish?"

People at the tables nearby were sneaking looks at us.

I stood up too and looked at him calmly.

"Fine. Let's keep it simple, then. From now on, we're just coworkers. That's it."

"Do you even hear yourself?" He looked furious.

"I hear myself just fine." I smiled. "You, on the other hand? Since when is rubbing your assistant's ankle part of the job?"

That shut him up.

Before he could say anything, I grabbed my jacket, limped across the whole restaurant, and pushed through the door out into the wind and snow.