Читать книгу The Right Mr. Wrong - Cindi Myers, Cindi Myers - Страница 8

The next week was college ski week at the resort. Hundreds of young men and women descended on the area to ski, snowboard and party. Patrol stayed busy treating injuries, giving directions to lost visitors and dealing with the occasional unruly drunk.

Maddie was no longer avoiding Hagan, but they were both too busy to do more than exchange greetings in passing. The Tuesday after their conversation at the restaurant, she and Andrea spent the afternoon marking hazards on slopes that had turned icy in the intense sunshine and above-normal temperatures. “So what’s the dumbest question you’ve been asked today?” Andrea asked.

“I’ll have to think about it a minute,” Maddie said. “What’s yours?”

Andrea grinned. “A woman asked me if a snow cat was anything like a mountain lion.”

Maddie laughed. “Actually, that’s kind of cute.” She pounded one end of a section of orange snow fence into the snow with a mallet while Andrea worked on the other end. “Yesterday I had a guy ask me why we didn’t make the moguls more even,” Maddie said after a moment. “I didn’t get it at first, then I realized he thought we had some special machine that made the moguls. I had to explain that ungroomed snow naturally forms those hummocks when a lot of people ski down it.” She shook her head. “I don’t think he believed me.”

They were packing up their tools, ready to move on to the next hazard on their list when two young men approached them. “Good afternoon, ladies,” the taller of the two said. He had sun-bleached brown hair and a smile that any orthodontist would have been proud of. “Y’all live around here, don’t you?” he asked.

“Yes,” Andrea said. She offered a smile in return. Maddie hung back a little, wondering if they were going to have another candidate for the tourist question hall of fame.

“Then maybe you can help us out,” Handsome Smile continued. “I’m Greg and this is my buddy, Evan.”

Evan nodded and Maddie returned the greeting, still wondering where this was leading.

“We want to know where the best place is to get a drink in town,” Greg said. “Where the locals hang out.”

“That would be the Eldo,” Andrea said. “It’s down on Elk Avenue in town.”

“Cool.” Greg looked at Andrea, then Maddie, then back again to Andrea, his smile never wavering. “So, you ladies go there and it’s good?”

“Pretty good.” Andrea shrugged. “Nothing special, just a nice place.”

Greg looked around them. A steady stream of skiers and boarders zipped past, and gathered in groups of two and three along the margins of the run to talk, rest or merely enjoy the sun. “This is our first time here,” he said. “It’s a great place.” He looked back at them. “How long have you worked here?”

“This is my second year,” Andrea said.