‘This your girl, Zed?’ asked the stal holder.
‘Yeah, José.’
‘Why is it al the best ones are always taken? Ah wel .’ He passed over a Styrofoam cup and winked at me.
Zed took me back to his cabin at the head of the cable car. We could hear the creak and groan of the wheels running the lift. I studied Zed’s face as he checked something on the control panel—the width of his shoulders as he reached to make an adjustment to the display, the muscles in his arms flexing. I hadn’t got before why my friends spent so much time admiring boys in my old school; now I completely joined that party. Was this gorgeous guy real y mine? It was hard to believe I had been so lucky.
‘How do you know where the car is?’ I asked as Zed absentmindedly took a bite out of the doughnut.
‘Hey!’
He laughed, holding the bag out of my reach, and pointed to a display. There was a series of lights counting down as the cars went over points. ‘That shows me I’ve four minutes.’
Jumping, I grabbed the doughnut back and licked at the jam.
‘Sweet tooth?’
‘You’ve noticed?’
‘The hot chocolate with everything was a bit of a clue.’
I took a bite then handed it back. ‘You can finish it.’
He wolfed it down then took a slurp of coffee.
‘Ugh! Milk. I should’ve guessed. I need something to take the taste away.’ He tapped his chin, one eye on the monitor. ‘I know!’ He bent down and nibbled at my lips. I felt my body shift, a strange heaviness that urged me to hang on tightly to him or col apse in a heap at his feet. He gave a hum of pleasure and deepened the kiss.
We were interrupted by the arrival of the next batch of skiers. Unfortunately they consisted mainly of kids from high school who banged on the door and whistled when they saw what was going on in the cabin.
‘Here, Zed, stop making out and let us out!’ yel ed a girl from my science class.
‘Down, boy!’ barked a guy from senior year.
‘OK, OK,’ replied Zed, dropping me back on my feet. He looked pleased rather than embarrassed while my face was exploring al the possibilities in the red spectrum.
Once the skiers were off to their chosen runs, I stayed with Zed for another ten minutes then caught the car down the hil .
‘Thanks for coming up,’ Zed said, closing the door behind me. ‘You’ve stil got a bit of sugar on your lip.’
He brushed a tender kiss over my mouth, then tugged my jacket straight.
‘Hmm, I think I’l have to visit you again. It appears that the cable car is going to be more my thing than skiing.’
‘Take care.’
‘I’l try. You take care too.’
Tina persisted with my lessons to the point that, on the weekend before Thanksgiving, I could trundle down the nursery run without fal ing over until I reached the bottom.
‘Woo-hoo!’ She did a little dance on the spot as I made it. ‘Jedi knights watch out!’
I struggled off the skis. ‘I don’t think I’m much of a threat to the Empire just yet.’
‘It’s a start—don’t knock it.’ She picked up her own skis. This Sunday was much cloudier than the first time out on the slopes, the top of the lift obscured from view, the weather in a sul en mood.
We queued up for the lift to find Saul on the desk.
‘Hi, Tina, Sky.’ He let Tina through the turnstile but it didn’t click for me. Saul was holding me back. ‘No point you going up today, Sky. Xav’s on duty. I gave Zed the day off to go boarding.’
‘Oh, OK.’
The cable car was about to leave. Tina gave me a wave. ‘Wait here. I won’t take long skiing down.
Weather’s too horrid to hang about.’
I moved out of the way. The last of the queue filed inside.
‘We can’t keep you and Zed apart, can we?’ Saul said, coming to sit beside me on a bench in the waiting area as the car began its journey up the hil .
‘Seems that way.’ I scuffed at the snow. I had an odd feeling that Saul was suspicious of me.
‘We don’t want anything to happen to either of you.’ He stretched out his long legs, the gesture reminding me of his son.
‘I know. It’s been quiet, hasn’t it?’
‘Yes, it has. We don’t know what to think. I’d like to believe that the threat has gone away but my mind tel s me different.’
‘They’re lying low?’
‘That’s my guess. I’m sorry you got caught up in this. These people know that if they get one member of my family, they weaken al of us.’ His profile looked noble staring out at the mountains, expression resolute. I sensed Saul belonged to the landscape around us in a way few residents did; he was in tune with it, part of the melody. MountainMan
—standing as a barrier between his family and danger. ‘Victor doesn’t think they mind who they hurt,’ he continued, ‘just as long as the rest of us are so crippled emotional y that we can’t function as a team. I’ve got everyone on lockdown, not just Zed.
But we can’t keep on like this. Our job’s tough and our boys need to be free to let off steam, to forget.
They can’t if they’re not al owed to act natural.’
‘I know about the lockdown, Zed told me. But isn’t he a bit exposed out here snowboarding? And Xav’s up the mountain on his own.’
Saul brushed at the leg seam of his jeans, flicking away a speck of dirt. ‘Don’t worry about the boys.
We’ve got security in place. Now we know the savant’s using shielding, we know what we’re looking for. That time in the woods, wel , I suppose you could say we were caught with our pants down.
Not again. And you, you’re being careful?’
‘I am. I don’t go out on my own. Sal y and Simon know to be wary of people we don’t recognize.’
‘Good. Don’t let your guard down.’ We sat in silence for a few moments, unspoken words hanging between us.
‘Zed’s told you, hasn’t he?’
He reached out and squeezed my hand. ‘Karla and I know. And we couldn’t be more pleased. We couldn’t help but notice that something momentous had happened to our son. For your sake, for Zed, for the others, we think he’s right to keep it a secret until this is resolved.’
‘The others?’
‘Sky, I don’t think you understand just what you’re getting yourself into here. You are now Zed’s number one priority, just as Karla is mine. Seeing him find that wil be tough on the others. It wil seem unfair, him being the youngest, that his soulfinder just fel into his lap while the others stil have to look for theirs. They’l be delighted for him, but they wouldn’t be human if they weren’t jealous.’
‘I don’t want to create problems for your family.’
He patted the back of my hand. ‘I know. Just give us time to get through this and they wil look forward to welcoming you as one of us.’
‘But I don’t know about that yet. I’m only just getting used to Zed; I’ve not thought of anything beyond the next few weeks.’
Saul gave a knowing smile. ‘You mustn’t worry, Sky, al wil fal into place in its own time. You haven’t factored in that it’s God and nature working this; you’l feel what you need to feel when you’re ready.’
I hoped he was right. My feelings for Zed were deepening, but they weren’t yet enough to think in terms of a for ever commitment, which is what they were expecting. I knew myself wel enough to realize I’d back off big time if anyone forced the issue. So far, Zed seemed to understand that, but how long would his patience last?
I was real y disappointed that I didn’t see Zed that afternoon, despite hanging out at the end of the runs.
Tina came down first, feeling pretty steamed over a boarder who had almost col ided with her on the slopes.
‘Not Zed?’ I asked anxiously.
‘No, just an idiot with an inflated ego and no brains, otherwise known as Nelson. He was trying to impress me.’ She threw her gear in the back of her car. ‘Ready to go home?’
‘Yeah, thanks. So he’s not persuaded you yet?’
She paused at the driver’s side door. ‘Of what?