Page 47 of Head Over Skis

OF THE HOUSE, not of you shagging!!!

Meghan says remember to use protection.

I say remember to do that trick I taught you, the one where you putboth hands on

Her message ends halfway, and there’s a short pause before anything else comes through.

This is Kevin saying he’s confiscated your friend’s phone until she’smade it to the bottom of the slope in one piece. P.S. tell Rory I said Itold you so.

I scroll back through the messages giving them a proper read, unsure what to think about Kevin’s parting words. My car door opens and Rory’s there, waiting for me to step out. I’m glad I put on my Moon Boots when my feet hit the ground and I sink into several inches of snow.

‘I’ve been told to let you know Kevin says I told you so,’ I say as he locks the car and starts to lead me through a gap in the trees. ‘Care to fill me in on that one?’

He lifts an arm to scratch the back of his neck whilst muttering something that contains the word ‘traitor’ and doesn’t meet my gaze, settling on the view of the trees ahead instead.

‘I may have mentioned that the reason I needed him to cover my shift today was so I could check up on someone. I said I’d probably be back within the hour, I just needed to make sure they were okay and that their injury wasn’t anything serious.’

‘And? What did he say?’

He frowns, walking a little faster as if he’s trying to get out of telling me the rest. ‘He told me that was bullshit. He guessed the person I was talking about was you, and he said that if I visited you, I’d end up being off slope all day.’

Well, I guess he was right about that, and I wonder how much Kevin knows about what happened between us.

‘And what did he think we’d be doing exactly? Buying biscuits to dethrone him as favourite instructor, then coming to your house?’

‘We’re here,’ he says, and I’m about to tell him off for avoiding the question when a house materialises in front of us. Or not house exactly, it’s a…

‘You live in a treehouse?’ I ask, staring at the two-storey construction nestled in a crescent of fir trees.

Calling it a treehouse is almost diminishing. It’s more like a fairy-tale castle version of one. Like Disney decided to build a house for Kristoff and Sven and this is what they came up with. Rugged, but cute.

‘For most of the year, yep I live in a treehouse.’

I wander forwards, taking in the outdoor staircase that spirals up to the first-floor balcony.

Above that is a second floor with another balcony, and massive windows covering the whole front of the building and facing out onto the open view.

‘You should see it when it’s dark,’ Rory says from somewhere behind me, but I’m too transfixed with trying to work out the intricacies of the structure to turn around. A finger hooks under my chin, turning my head to focus again on that storybook staircase. ‘You see the fairy lights wrapped around the banister?’

I nod, careful not to move my head too much so his finger stays touching me.

‘They’re strung all around the edges of the balconies, so when it gets dark the whole thing lights up like a Christmas tree. You playing all those songs in the car made me think you might like it.’

His finger disappears from my chin and my chest deflates, but then his whole hand starts gripping mine instead. ‘Come on, I’ll give you the tour.’

I let myself be led slowly, my heart beating hard against my ribcage for every second his hand holds mine. I realise quickly that he’s only taken my hand to keep me steady because of my ankle, a fact I keep reminding myself of as he leads me up the stairs.

‘Wow, this is insane,’ I say once he’s opened the door, moving to where a tree trunk breaks through both the floor and then the ceiling above it. I run my hand up and down the bark, convincing myself it’s in fact real.

‘Cool, isn’t it? It was Kevin’s dad who had the idea for it. He’s an architect back in London and when I told him I wanted to build something here he jumped at the chance to work on a project outside of the city. Something meant to blend into nature, not stand apart from it.’

‘You guys must go way back,’ I say, curious to learn more about his life as I admire the rest of the house.

The kitchen takes up half of the space, every surface made from carved wood. This whole building could’ve sprouted from the trees themselves. The décor is minimal, but with enough homely touches to make it cosy. Thick woollen throws are draped over a window seat that stretches all along the other half of the room, and I imagine curling up there with my sketchpad.

‘Yeah, Kevin and I went to primary school together, and before that our parents were friends when they were kids. His mum and mine met at art school.’

I freeze, and he notices how those last words caught my attention.