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“Oh yeah?” I asked with a heavy dose of sarcasm. “Are you that superficial? Or isn’t it much easier to find my body hot and then get upset about guys like me? Because they have it easy? Then can you tell me why I’m single as you are? If everything is easy for me?”

Mah! No, I couldn’t control myself. How many times had I heard that? I had it easy. Unless I wanted to be more than a quickie, apparently.

The hangover had apparently melted away my filter. Shit. Now Ruben had to pay the price.

With a startled expression, he pulled his hand away and took a step back. My arms dropped, and I turned away, shaking my head. With my addled brain, I shouldn’t even try to have these kinds of conversations.

Behind me, Ruben snorted loudly. “But the reality is you are turning heads left and right. I’m lucky if I’m overlooked and don’t have to listen to snide comments about how I should work on myself before I allow myself to write to Mr. Supersexy.”

I turned to him abruptly. With his shoulders hunched and his lips pressed together, he stared at me. How much I hated every guy who talked to Ruben this way and made him feel he wasn’t good enough.

I quickly took a step closer to him. “You’re right. That’s shitty and rude and belongs on a huge pile of shit with many other things. But what—in our relationship—prompts you to make that comment? It may be that I find one-night stands more easily than other people. But that’s not the point here. When did I ever give the impression that I have it easy in what we have between us? When we met, we both willingly fell into bed together right away. Since then, you’ve been running away from me. You don’t want to talk to me. But I could have persuaded you to have sex yesterday.”

Ruben’s eyes widened. “You remember last night?”

Now I snorted and pulled him toward me. “Of course, I remember. And I also remember saying that before anything happens between us, we need to talk. Because no matter what you think, it’s not easy to want you and constantly being afraid I’m doing something wrong.” I stroked his upper arm. “Now get dressed. I need something in my stomach, otherwise my head will kill me. And then we’ll go snowboarding. I don’t think it will hurt either of us!”

He furrowed his brow and swallowed hard. “You still want to go?”

“Yes. Since we’ve been here, you’ve taken care of me. Cooked for me. Today I’ll show you what’s good for me.”

Right as I was about to walk past him into the bathroom, he grabbed my upper arm. “Thanks, Shane. It’s not easy for me . . . ” He left the sentence unfinished. He furrows his eyebrows and wears a slightly perplexed expression on his face.

His scent still warm from the bed, the fresh smell of his brushed teeth, his sweet deodorant lulled me and drew me—as always—into Ruben’s spell.

I leaned toward him and kissed him on the corner of his mouth. My lips rubbed half over his beard, half over his velvety mouth. Heaven. I had to force myself to pull away from him.

“I have no idea what I’m talking about or what this is. Maybe it helps that I’m usually pretty quick-witted.” And that this thing with you is too important to me to pay attention to my feelings. Of course, I didn’t say that. I couldn’t completely expose myself, and I didn’t want to pressure him. Besides, I was slowly getting scared of what answer I might get from him.

Ruben held me tightly. He reached out to me with his whole body. I didn’t want to hold back any longer. I wanted to throw all my principles overboard and Ruben onto the bed and finally show him how much I wanted him.

Highly focused, Ruben shifted his weight to the edge of his board and came to a gentle stop. He grinned broadly at me.

“It works.”

I laughed. “Of course it works.” Proudly, he straightened up more and started sliding again. He immediately bent his knees and shifted his weight.

“You’re doing great!”

He glanced sideways at me. “Ha, ha. I know how I’m doing.”

“For a complete novice, you’re fantastic.”

A horde of children on skis whizzed past us. They were all no older than five.

From his crouched position, Ruben watched the group go by and then finally glanced at me. He raised an eyebrow and tilted his head. “Yes. I’m a prodigy.”

It took some effort not to laugh at his crestfallen expression. “Don’t pay attention to those kids. They couldn’t even walk properly yet when they were strapped onto skis. Your only benchmark is yourself. What can you do today? That’s what counts.”

Ruben grunted and straightened up. “You sound like a calendar page. Come on, let’s get going.”

“All right, then. I’ll go first. You can follow my turns.”

“Great.”

We drove on slowly. Every glance back at Ruben confirmed what I had already noticed. He approached the task with the same thoroughness he used when chopping vegetables. Maybe not quite as elegantly, but I certainly wasn’t going to tell him that.

Halfway up the baby hill, I stopped at the side and watched Ruben take his last turn and slowly approach me smiling. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a movement. I cautiously turned my head and froze, then I shouted to him, “Watch out!”