Читать книгу The President's Daughter - Annette Broadrick, Annette Broadrick - Страница 9

By the time Nick reached the end of the run, he was ready to wring Ashley’s neck. He was really tired of her attitude and her silly games. Did she think she was going to win some points by disappearing on him? He looked around, the thick flakes obscuring his vision, hoping to see Ashley’s red parka somewhere nearby. Once he found her, he intended to give her a lecture she wouldn’t forget.

Perhaps she wasn’t aware of it, but he—and Ron—had the authority to end this little vacation of hers if, in their opinion, they were unable to adequately protect her.

He spotted Derek removing his skis, but there was no sign of Ashley.

He made his way over to him. “Where’s Ashley?”

Derek stopped unfastening his skis and looked up at Nick in surprise. “I haven’t seen her. I thought she was with you.”

Nick scanned the area. There were several red parkas, but none of them belonged to Ashley. He began to feel uneasy. At the rate the snow was falling, it was hard to tell the color of anything.

He muttered an unprintable word and turned away.

“Where are you going?” Derek called.

“To find Ashley.”

“Don’t worry about her. She was born on a pair of skis. She probably got off course a little. It’s coming down like a son of a—”

“I don’t need a weather report,” Nick growled to himself, moving toward the lifts again.

What really alarmed him was how she had managed to get away from him. One minute she was there just ahead of him, the next minute there’d been no sign of her. Was it intentional? Was she in danger? He didn’t know why he bothered to question her disappearance. Of course it was intentional.

He turned and watched as more skiers came down the mountain. One of them looked familiar. He moved toward the snow-covered figure who was moving very slowly in his direction. As he drew closer, he recognized Craig.

“Have you seen Ashley?” Nick asked him.

Craig shook his head. “No. I took a spill up there. By the time I could get started again, I’d lost track of Everybody.” He looked around. “You mean she isn’t down here?”

“Derek hasn’t seen her. She was ahead of me, but I lost sight of her about halfway down.”

Craig shrugged. “Yeah, well, I was ahead of all of you, for what that’s worth. If I hadn’t been showing off, I would have been the first one down.” He rubbed his shoulder. “You don’t suppose she fell, do you?”

“I have no way of knowing. I’m going back to look for her.”

“You want me to come with you?”

Nick shook his head. “Thanks, but that won’t be necessary.”

Craig looked relieved. “I don’t envy you going up there in all of this. What a mess.”

Nicked waved as he shoved off for the lift. If she was hurt somewhere up there, he needed every minute he had to try to find her. All the while he rode up the mountainside he watched for her red parka. There were so many things that could happen, even to an experienced skier. He didn’t want to think about some of the possible problems she may have encountered.

By the time he reached the top, the wind and snow had caused the visibility to be measured in inches rather than feet. Nick was aware of the adrenaline pumping through his bloodstream.

His first full day in charge of her and he’d managed to misplace his charge. How could he have allowed this to happen?

He started down the same run they’d chosen earlier, watching for tracks leaving the marked area, but of course that was a waste of time with the amount of snow that had already fallen. There was no sign of her anywhere.

By the time he reached the bottom of the run, he was ready to call in reinforcements.

“Hey, Nick, she’s okay!”

Craig waved at him from one of the wind-protected areas. Nick skied over to him. “Have you seen her?”

“No. But I’ve been asking people coming down if they had spotted her. One of the guys I just talked with said a young woman matching her description had been at one of the restaurants having coffee. He said he’d chatted with her while they were in line. She told him she’d gotten separated from her party. He said she would probably be down soon.”

Nick hadn’t taken his eyes off the trails during their conversation, wondering which way she would be coming down. It was then that he saw a bright red dot swooping down in an almost vertical drop on one of the more difficult runs.

Craig pointed. “Look! I bet that’s her! Didn’t I tell you she’d be down soon? Just look at her go.”

Oh, he was looking, all right. Of all the dangerously foolhardy stunts he’d ever seen, she was definitely pulling one now. Did she have any idea how fast she was going? And if anyone got in her way… He didn’t want to think about it.

Luckily for Ashley there was no one else on that particular run. Nick stood and watched as she finally slowed her heart-stopping drop downward. She moved into a leisurely curving S down the side of the mountain, looking for all the world as though she was enjoying herself, instead of battling a heavy snowfall that could cause all kinds of damage if she hit something covered by the new snow.

The fact that she made it without a problem did not endear her to him at all. However, at the moment, he was just damned glad to see her safe.

He stood and waited, knowing that she would have to pass by his location on her way to the lodge. It was only when she got closer that he saw her white face. He knew exactly when she spotted him. She called out to him. “Oh, Nick, am I ever glad to see you!” she said, and skied over to one of the benches, where she dropped, exhausted. She removed her goggles with fumbling fingers and began to tug at the straps of her skis.

Nick sat down beside her and took off his skis, then he knelt in front of her and gently brushed her hands away from hers. With an economy of movement he removed hers, as well.

“I didn’t know what to do,” she said, sounding Breathless. “I missed one of the turns on the trail, then I couldn’t see anything, it was snowing so hard.” She brushed tendrils of hair away from her eyes. “After a while I came across one of the restaurants up there, so I stopped for a few minutes to get warm.” She was still out of breath and trying to cover the fact that she was shaking. “Then it seemed as though a break came because the snow lessened and the visibility cleared. I knew I had to go right then, fast as I could, before I lost my nerve and the visibility went back to zero.”

Nick stood, then pulled her up and handed her skis to her. He turned and gathered up his, then dropped his arm around her shoulders. Neither one of them spoke during the walk to the chalet. Once there, Nick placed their equipment in the storage area.

Only then did he speak to her. “I think we need to get you warm,” he said brusquely. “The lodge has a big fire going and plenty of hot drinks. I think that’s where everyone else is.”

She shivered, than laughed with more than a hint of shakiness.

“I don’t think it’s the cold as much as nerves.” She looked back toward the run she had recently come off, which was now veiled in a heavy white curtain of snow. “I can’t believe I got down that mountain in one piece.”

“Neither can I,” he said in a low voice. Once again he placed his arm around her shoulders and headed toward the lodge.

Only then did Ashley seem to realize that she was allowing him to touch her. She stiffened, and Nick figured she would pull away from him. Instead, she relaxed against him. She shook her head as though to clear it, then lifted her gaze to meet his.

“I bet you’re furious with me,” she said, sounding weary.

“Oh, yeah. Big-time furious.” He kept his voice low, almost gentle. “You scared the hell out of me, I don’t mind admitting to you. I went back up looking for you. I don’t know which is worse, really. I sure as hell didn’t want to find you lying somewhere hurt, but not spotting you anywhere didn’t mean you hadn’t been injured…or worse.”

She sighed. “I know. I certainly didn’t do this on purpose.”

“I’m glad to hear it.”

The double doors into the recreation area of the lodge swung open in front of them and several skiers came out chatting with each other and heading for their vehicles. Nick stepped back and motioned her through the doors, then followed her inside.

He nodded toward the conversation pit, which was built around one of the massive fireplaces radiating an enormous amount of heat.

“Wait over there while I get you some coffee. Or would you prefer hot chocolate?”

“Coffee’s fine,” she replied. He watched her sink wearily into the comfort of a padded chair. She held out her hands toward the boisterous fire.

Nick turned away, grateful that she would soon be able to shrug off this morning’s scare.

Ron met him at the bar. “I hear you misplaced our gal this morning.” He glanced over to where Ashley sat. “She looks okay now. How are you doing?”

Nick leaned his elbow on the bar and rubbed his forehead. “It was definitely not one of my finer moments. I’m just glad she wasn’t hurt.”

“What happened?”

“Damned if I know. She was skiing down the mountain in front of me, then I lost sight of her during a flurry of snow, and when I looked back to where she’d been, she was nowhere in sight.”

“Did you think someone had grabbed her?”

“That thought never entered my mind. Which I guess is a good thing. No, I figured she was enjoying one of her stupid games, playing hide-and-seek or something.”

“Was she?”

“If so, she had the fear of God instilled in her by the time she showed up. If she wasn’t so good on skis, this could have turned ugly.”

“So why don’t you let me take over for a while? I think you need a break.”

Nick rubbed his hand down over his face. “Good idea. Thanks.”

The bartender set a cup of coffee on the bar and Nick paid for it, then nodded to the cup, saying, “She’s all yours, Ron. I’d just as soon not have to deal with her for the next few hours.”

Ron nodded. “Fair enough. Looks as though I won’t have to convince her to stay off the slopes for the rest of the day.”

They both turned and saw the snow blowing almost horizontally past the wide windows overlooking the ski runs.

A babble of voices caused them to look back at the conversation pit, where Ashley now was surrounded by her friends, all trying to talk at once. Nick watched Craig pull her into his arms and hold her. Then he kissed her.

Nick idly noted she wasn’t pushing him away. He shook his head and walked away. He definitely could use a break.

Ashley glanced up when Nick returned with the coffee only to discover that it wasn’t Nick at all. “Hi, Ron. I thought you were Nick.” She took the cup and eagerly wrapped her fingers around its warm surface.

Craig continued to sit on the side of her chair, his arm around her. “Then we need to have your eyes checked, honey. Your guardians have their own distinctive appearance and are not easily confused for the other.”

The other four chuckled nervously. Erin spoke up. “That was really scary, Ashley. Everyone was very worried about you.”

Nothing like adding to her guilt, Ashley thought. She needed to apologize to Nick, but she couldn’t see him anywhere. She glanced over at Ron, who had found a seat nearby. “What happened to Nick?”

“He had somethings he needed to do. How are you feeling?”

She rolled her eyes. “Fine, now. But I sure don’t want that to happen again anytime soon.” She glanced around at her friends. “So. What are we going to do with the rest of the day? It’s almost time for lunch. Any ideas how we should spend the afternoon?”

There was an immediate discussion of all the possibilities. Ashley didn’t really care. She sat back and watched the others. Right now she didn’t have the energy to move out of the chair she was sitting in. But maybe after a good lunch, she would feel better.

She kept remembering how relieved she’d been when she recognized Nick waiting for her. He’d looked safe and solid, standing there waiting for her. She hadn’t cared what sort of lecture he delivered. Even though she hadn’t deliberately set out to get lost, she probably deserved anything he had to say.

She kept remembering how she’d felt when he’d held her close against his side for that walk between the chalet and the lodge. She’d felt his heart beating at a rapid pace, almost racing. He hadn’t immediately started lecturing her, although he had made his thoughts quite clear on the subject of her disappearance. However, he’d continued to hold her. And he hadn’t raised his voice.

Nick’s concern had been very real. Of course, it was his job to look after her. There was no reason to read anything into his behavior. What surprised her was how safe and protected she’d felt. All of her animosity toward him was gone.

“What about you, Ashley?” Joe asked. “What do you want to do?”

She grinned and jumped up from her chair. “That’s easy. I want to eat. I’m starved!”

They all laughed at her and made a general exodus into the dining area, where once again an appetizing array of food had been spread to tempt the guests and visitors at the lodge.

By the time lunch was over, Ron had volunteered to drive them to town, where the women intended to look at all the shops, and the men planned to find a movie theater.

They headed back to the chalet to change clothes. Ashley felt better once she’d gotten some food inside of her. She wondered if Nick had eaten, then couldn’t believe she was actually worrying about him.

Once they reached the chalet, everyone was in a hurry to get ready for an afternoon adventure in town. Ashley decided she might go to a movie, instead of shopping. She was fairly certain that Ron would appreciate her choice!

Nick headed for the chalet as soon as he left the lodge. Thank God Ron had decided to take over. He didn’t want to dwell on all that could have happened to Ashley. The fact was that she was safe and had received a good scare. Perhaps it had been inevitable, but he wished that he hadn’t lost track of her on the slopes.