Page 30 of Head Over Skis

In one fluid motion I’m lifted from where my face was hovering one inch from the ground and spun around until I’m facing Rory, his hands gripping me underneath my shoulders.

‘Impress you, embarrass myself, something like that,’ I say with a shrug, his hands still gripping me as if he doesn’t trust I’ll stay on my feet if he lets go.

‘Well lucky for you you’re about to have your second ski lesson with a pretty great teacher.’ He finally releases me, leaving hand-shaped indents on my sleeves.

‘Really? Are we getting a new teacher then?’

‘Wow. Is that what I get for helping you to victory at last night’s quiz?’ he asks, and my pulse leaps.

‘I’m sure I don’t know what you mean,’ I say, revelling in the fact that I was right. He really had written that round with me in mind.

‘Come on, Lottie, we’re going to be late,’ Tilly says, skiing up to the side of me.

I don’t correct her by saying we can hardly be late when our instructor is right here.

‘I’m okay, thanks for asking,’ I say instead, brushing the remaining snow off where it’s sticking to my salopettes.

‘I figured you were in good hands,’ she replies, raising one of hers and wiggling her fingers at Rory. ‘Hi there, teacher.’

‘Don’t call him that,’ I mumble, and she laughs as she pushes off with her poles and heads to the slope that takes us to the ski school huts.

I watch her weave down it, a little wobbly at times but she makes it to the bottom without incident and moves towards the rest of our class.

‘We really should get going,’ I say, shuffling my skis in some odd backwards and forwards motion to get to the edge of the flat section of slope. I peer down it, remembering how chaotic my descent was the day before and dreading having to do it again, especially in front of Rory, who’s probably baffled by how unnatural someone can be on skis. Maybe I could take them off?

‘I’m not letting you take your skis off and walk down, so stop considering it,’ Rory says from behind me, and I frown.

How did he know?

‘You didn’t see her yesterday, like a baby deer on roller skates.’

The words come from a voice that I recognise as belonging to the other instructor. The one who fished me off the ground yesterday. I turn around to check and catch Rory muttering at him to be quiet.

‘Thanks for the vote of confidence…’ I trail off, realising he never gave me his name.

‘Kevin, and I’m only messing with you. It’s Lottie, right? Although I might nickname you Bambi.’

He says it with a smile, and I can’t lie, his nickname is accurate, so I don’t take it personally.

‘Show us what you’ve got,’ he says, sliding smoothly to my side. I don’t move.

In fact, I’m about to lean down and take off my skis instead, because screw Rory for saying I’m not allowed. He’s not the boss of me, although I guess as my instructor he kind of is. Before I can, two hands graze the bottoms of my arms, lifting them out to the side.

‘Arms out, body loose, remember all the times you made it down the training slope yesterday. You’ve got this, and I’ll be right here.’

He’s so close behind me I can feel his breath on the tiny line of exposed skin between my fleece and my helmet, and then the sudden absence of it when he moves.

‘Follow me down, and Kevin, you hang in the back. Ready?’

Then he’s moving and I don’t know if it’s because he’s told me to go or because I want to stay near him, but I tip my weight forward, shins connecting with the front of my boots, and I go. I keep my eyes on him, making long, slow turns that form a snaking ‘s’ shape down the slope until I don’t realise I’ve stopped because we’ve already reached the bottom. The whole thing takes no more than thirty seconds, but I feel like I’ve climbed Everest.

‘Woohoo!’ I hear Kevin cheer from behind me, speeding past us towards a group of other ski school students.

‘Catch you at La Belle Vie for a drink later, right, Ror? Good luck with your lesson, Bambi!’ he shouts back, lifting his pole to wave goodbye.

I stare after him, slightly dazed before I lift my own pole to wave back.

‘That wasn’t so bad, was it? We’ll have you skiing in parallel soon enough,’ Rory says, falling into line at my side as we head towards our group, who are not so subtly watching us.