“With good reason,” he said and kissed her. “I’m glad that you feel you can’t leave. You’re a nice person, Charlie.”
She worried at her lower lip with her teeth for a moment. “I hope I don’t regret it.”
He felt the same way. “Well, after tomorrow, they will be married,” he said. “With luck.”
They found everyone waiting for them at the bar and were quickly shown into a private dining room.
Shep kept Charlie close, right where he wanted her. Fortunately Greg stayed in his own lane, behaving like a man who was marrying the love of his life the next day. Even Amanda did her best not to pay any attention to Royce and Ruby Jo.
Still Shep was glad when the meal was over.
“Night skiing!” Greg announced. “Get whatever you need from the shop and I’ll see you all up on the mountain.”
“Are you going snowboarding tonight?” Charlie asked when they returned to their room.
“Not without you.”
“Then you leave me no choice.” She tilted her head to one side, grinning at him. “Guess we’re going night snowboarding.”
He eyed her suspiciously. “You’re going to kick my butt up on that hill, aren’t you?”
She grinned. “I guess we’ll see but I’m going to try.”
He laughed. “It’s one of the reasons I love you so much.”
His heart fluttered and he felt warm clear to his toes as she kissed him. “Glad to hear it,” she said. “Let’s do this.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
THEY RODE UP the ski lift together with stars and a sliver of moon hanging in a midnight blue sky. Charlie breathed in the cold night air, feeling more alive than she had in years. Shep put his arm around her, pulling her closer. Below them in the glow of the lights, skiers and snowboards looked small and dark against the snow as they made their way down the mountainside.
As the chairlift slowed, they both slid off and down the hill partway to finish buckling up their snowboards. “Ready?” she asked, grinning at Shep from under her helmet.
And then she took off down the slope. The hill had been groomed, but there was a good foot of snow along the edge and even more in the trees. She headed for it, boarding into the shadowy semidarkness. She looked back once and saw that Shep was right behind her.
They cruised down the mountain, in and out of the trees and the deep featherlike snow. Charlie had forgotten how much she loved this. She ducked to avoid a pine branch. It brushed over her helmet, sending down a cascade of new snow. Behind her, she heard Shep swear and knew he must have caught the swinging branch.
When she looked back, he was getting up from the deep snow. Laughing, she found herself at the edge of the ski hill. Other skiers and boarders were now carving their way across the hill. She dove back into the trees to avoid them and hadn’t gone far when she sensed someone behind her again. She assumed it was Shep, but he was following her awfully close. A lot closer than he had been before.
She turned her head to look back into the darkness of the pines an instant before she was hit hard just below her shoulder blades. The blow knocked her off balance and sent her crashing downhill. She saw a tree coming and threw herself to the side, striking a smaller tree before burrowing deep in the snow.
The impact with even the small tree knocked the air out of her and for a moment, she didn’t know which way was up. She was under the snow, unable to breathe. Fighting her way to the surface, she gasped for breath and sucked in icy snow crystals that burned her lungs.
Furiously she wiped the freezing cold snow from her face with her glove and looked around in confusion. She didn’t see anyone close, but there were two ski tracks nearby that had cut through the trees before returning to the groomed ski slope.
Who had hit her from behind? She was barely able to process the thought before Shep came boarding up to her.
“Charlie? Are you all right?”
She wasn’t sure. She lay in the snow, still gasping. Her side hurt where she had struck the tree, but she didn’t think anything was broken. “Someone hit me.”
He stared at her as he helped her up. “Someone out of control?”
“Maybe, but it felt like I was hit with a fist.”
* * *
SHEP HAD SEEN another skier in the trees just before he’d lost sight of Charlie. But all he’d seen was a bundled-up shape. It had been too dark to make out much more.
“Are you sure you’re all right?” he asked, not for the first time since they had left the ski hill and returned to their room. They’d both changed, Charlie into yoga pants and a sweater, Shep into jeans and a T-shirt.
“It probably was just a skier out of control who hit me,” she said as if trying to convince them both.
“Did you get a look at the person?” he asked.
“It was dark. All I saw was a blurry figure as I was falling. But it was definitely someone on skis.”
“That leaves the suspects wide open since most everyone was on skis tonight,” he said, looking at her with concern. “Did Lindy ski?”
She nodded. “I remember she was looking forward to winter. She said she’d learned to ski at age three. But Lacey had grown up in Brazil. I guess it’s possible she’d learned to snow ski. Kat said Matt had money. He could have taken her to the Alps skiing for all we know.”
If Lacey had found out about the wedding and followed them up here... “Or it could have just been someone skiing out of control. An accident.”
He shook his head. “The person didn’t even stop to see if you were all right?”
She shrugged and he saw her flinch. “I’m just sore,” she said quickly, seeing his worried reaction.
They both startled at the sudden loud knocking at their door. Charlie looked at him with an expression that told him she was thinking the same thing he was. Amanda or Greg. Or both.
“Don’t answer it,” she whispered.
The pounding grew louder. Then a male voice called, “Charlie?”
Shep exchanged another look with her, this one more than surprised. “Daniel?” he mouthed.
She nodded.
“What is he—”
She held up her hands, eyes wide.
Shep stormed to the door and threw it open to find Daniel getting ready to knock again. He was dressed in ski pants and a jacket. He held his stocking cap and gloves in his free hand.
Daniel blinked at the sight of Shep and shifted his gaze to look past him into the room where Charlie was sitting on the bed. “I need to talk to Charlie,” he said.